House for Rent …

We have our Bozeman home up for rent, and asked some local Democrats for advice. Here’s the newspaper ad they came up with:

House for rent outside Bozeman. It could be a whole lot nicer, but it’s the best we could afford. We’d like $1,695 rent. We don’t really want $1,695! We’ll take $1,000! We’ll take less than that even if you’re really insistent. Please don’t be mean.

There are other houses for rent in Bozeman, so the Democrats suggested that we ask the other owners to be in charge of renting our place. “It’s a collaborative process”, they said. They also said that we weren’t very clever about asking for $1,695, since we wouldn’t get it and that we should leave it to them to get us the best deal possible.

Last night the owners of other rental units had a party on our front lawn, and scattered beer bottles and kept us up till 4 AM. But we’re nice neighbors, and didn’t complain. I peeked out the window at one point, and there were other owners and Republicans and Democrats too – a lot of Democrats, and they all seemed like really good friends. That really surprised me. But I guess that’s how the rental business works.

So far, we’ve had one offer – we pay our renters $500 a month, and we also pay utilities. The Democrats thought it was worth consideration. After all, they said, it’s not a pretty process, and that we should not expect to get everything we want.

“80% is better than nothing”, said one.

I said that I thought (but wasn’t sure) that 80% of $1,695 was $1,356.

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”, I was told.

And anyway, it could be worse. “Imagine what it would be like if you had a Republican property manager!”, said one. He spoke with kind of a stutter.