Notre Petite Maison - Finding a House

In late May, Ryan and I decided that St. George's would be where we pursued medical school. And once that decision was made life became a whirlwind.

Whirl. Wind. 

To sell or not to sell? Private school or Public school? Where do we live? When do we fly out? When do we end our jobs? Do we store our stuff? The list went on and on, but we found a way to organize some of our thoughts via a free website called Trello that allows you to keep lists and tag people in comments. It helped us (me?) keep our "To Do" list in order, especially when came time to finding a place to live.

Grenada has various parishes (i.e., provinces) around the island with St. George's being the one in which most students live. After that, each parish is broken into smaller neighborhoods. After hearing about Grenada for over three years, we knew that the most ideal place to live was the Lance Aux Epines (LAE) (French for a solider armed with a lance) neighborhood.

Luckily because of the number of students (6,000+) that come and go from St. George's University (medical program, veterinary program, and MBA program, among others), someone at some point formed Central Lease, a real estate organization and site that focuses specifically on rental properties (from $300 studios to $6,000 six bedrooms). This is great for a variety of reasons, one being a legitimate source for good housing options when you can't afford to spend thousands on a quick trip down to find a place to live.

I first started perusing Central Lease in late May and quickly found a few great places. The only problems were the total signing costs... first, last, deposit... $3,000. Ouch. And a year lease (friends had advised us to avoid this if possible)? No thank you, we'll keep looking. We kept asking questions and kept looking. We knew something would work out.

Fast forward six weeks. After exhausting all  of the 2-bedroom options (through well over 50 emails with a woman named Sonja about seven different units), we started looking at studios and one bedrooms. We figured that because Ryan was flying out a month an a half before Adi and I, that those options would also be good bets.

Finally we found a darling, well-priced ($750) one-bedroom that would work for us! We asked the right questions... only one minor issue... okay, we'll take it!

Wait?

It's gone? How can that be?

Square one.

There was one more 2-bedroom left in LAE, I decided to ask... gone.

But the most amazing thing happened.

Sonja said, that although that one was gone, another one in the building had just opened up, a 2-bedroom. It wasn't on Central Lease yet, but we could send someone to take a look if we were interested.

She named the price: $375.

Did I misread the screen?

$375? 

Too good to be true?

Sure enough, Sonja posted it on Central Lease the next morning. A two-bedroom in LAE for $375. The cheapest 2-bedroom listed. It said "Not Available" so I panicked and called from Google Voice. She was saving it for us if we wanted it. We felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for Sonja's help and to our Heavenly Father for always providing a way.

We don't know for sure if it is too good to be true, but the pictures look decent with a healthy dose of Caribbean flair.

We're very excited and hoping and praying for a good cross breeze because it would be amazing to save $500+ monthly on rent for the entire two years.

We'll make it work. (:

So, without further adieu, here is "Cameron II Economy".

 

Notre petite maison