Becoming Not-Homeless

Let's start at the beginning: finding a place to call home in Panama City Beach. We "owned" (as in, paid a bank every month instead of a landlord) our house for the past 6 years back in the Pacific Northwest. Before that, we rented from a friend. So I had nearly forgotten how to go about looking for a place to lease. Or how "fun" it could be, especially from a few thousand miles away. Time to head to the interwebs, as we call them around here!

An interwebs search always starts with google on my laptop, and google led me to http://www.panamacitymls.com/. I ran across a few other sites that seemed helpful, but in the end this one was by far the most useful -- as in, comprehensive, easy to use, and allowed me to search very specifically by location. Craigslist came closest to giving it a run for the money, and I do recommend checking out the listings there, but BEWARE that scams are particularly rampant in the housing section of craigslist. If anything seems off at all, or the response has poor grammar (yay, English class saves the day once more!), flag the post please and click away.

So I had a "short list" compiled of houses we were interested in seeing. Newly-made Dr. Husband arrived in town a week before I flew down with our toddler and infant, and I e-mailed leasing agents ahead of his arrival to set up viewing appointments. The good news is that, at least compared to several other cities we had considered, Panama City Beach has very affordable housing. If you take your time, you can find a newer house in a good neighborhood with over 1500 square feet for about $1200/month. That price wouldn't even net us a decent 2-bedroom apartment in Seattle. Panama City is even cheaper, across Hathaway Bridge, but be sure you check out the neighborhood.

That's all for now! We love our house; our daughter plays constantly in the back yard and on the screened porch, my husband's commute is just a few minutes and I'm close to everything I need but I don't feel like I'm in the middle of everything. The beaches are literally three minutes away. Plus, I got that walk-in closet and jetted tub I was dreaming of, and we ladies know how important that is!