The Inauguration Rental Chronicles follows the epic story of four roommates as they seek to rent out their Northwest townhouse for a glorious sum while battling the tides of waning consumer interest, pie-in-the-sky expectations, and an untested and entirely unknown market.

With less than 500,000 seconds to go before Barack Obama’s inauguration, it seems the girls’ journey has come to an end. And what a long and trying journey it has been. And the worst has still yet to be revealed.

In mid-November, the ladies began posting advertisments on Craiglist. They started by offering 11,000, for any six nights during the week of Jan. 20. They planned to play hotel concierge a bit, buying new linens, towels, and dishes, offering to make restaurant reservations and advising on touristy options. They even were willing to slap on some yellow plastic gloves and clean up after their guests.

Unfortunately, they will never be able to test out their service industry prowess. Despite a few price drops, some Craigslist trickery, and plenty of enthusiasm, they are currently contract-less and now—sigh—plan to remain at home on Jan. 20.

In fact, any hope of a last minute rental was officially abandoned weeks ago. Previous infighting—inauguration and non-inauguration related—amongst the roommates was exacerbated by a “terrible” flood in the basement. A drain clogged, leaving the roommates without, well, a functioning drainage system for five days.

“I would go to the bathroom at Giant, and I took showers at Grandma’s house,” says one roommate. Another less cleanly resident didn’t shower for five days, and also vomited in the toilet.

Everyone stayed very dehydrated trying to remain pee-free. And then after one dust-up—an unapproved shower, which worsened flooding in the basement—a roommate announced she was leaving. With that kind of upheaval, the house decided it needed to concentrate on finding a longterm renter, not an over-paying short-term one. So the dream died. Now the only new person coming this weekend will be a slightly-disliked old friend of one roommate crashing for free on the couch.

“God, all that work that we did!” remarked on roommate. “All I got was a flooded basement, a bad parking situation, a new roommate, and an unwanted house guest!”

Image by Lost Albatross, Flickr Creative Commons

Hey guy—You like Obama. You know you want to stay at our house!

The Inauguration Rental Chronicles follows the epic story of four roommates as they seek to rent out their Northwest townhouse for a glorious sum while battling the tides of waning consumer interest, pie-in-the-sky expectations, and an untested and entirely unknown market.

For a while it seemed like the girls were giving up. After originally posting their inauguration advertisement a week after the election, receiving one legitimate response in weeks, and reposting their offer time and time again, they were becoming disillusioned.

What was wrong with the world? Didn’t it like Obama?

Why didn’t anyone want to pay thousands of dollars to (perhaps) glimpse him for a few fleeting moments while standing in the freezing cold?

The girls needed to rally, or you know, just give up. They chose to rally. So earlier this week, they re-posted their advertisement on several different sites, including Chicago’s Craigslist in the Vacation Rentals section, Washington D.C.’s Craiglist in the Vacations Rentals and Sublets/Temporary, and on City Paper’s website and in its print edition. They got a ton of responses, though not necessarily the type that they wanted:

First, there were the enterprising people touting their inauguration internet ventures (for more on these types of people, see my blog comments—my favorite of which publicizes a “Where to PEE in DC guide” ):

Hey,

just saw your inauguration listing and wanted to give you a heads up
on a site created for renting out your place by the night called
AirBed & Breakfast.
Your guests pay you online, and you can view their profile before they
stay with you.

http://www.airbnb.com/inauguration?af=3161&c=cdc
-Chris

Then there was shady guy, who was likely attempting a money order scam:

Hello,
I am Engr Owen Hughes of SIEMENS COMMUNICATION LTD SCOTLAND.I
need to make reservation for Two (2) of our technicians
coming from London for installation of fibre optic cable in one of our sites in your area.
Arrival Date : 30th JANUARY,2009
Departure Date :13th February,2009
Number Of Rooms:2(each for single occupancy)
Length of Stay:14 Nights.
Get back to me with the TOTAL COST (INCLUDING
APPLICABLE TAXES)if the dates mentioned
above are free,so that we can confirm reservations
immediately.Your prompt response
will be appreciated.

Thanks and have a nice day.

Engr Owen Hughes
+447035901195
Logistics manager
Siemens communication ltd.

Then there was the nonsensical guy:

Hello,

I want to rent your place for 15 days this is in respect of your rental ad you placed for my God-Daughter and her husband honeymoon it’s my gift to them for my inabilty to attend their wedding as am currently on an Active Duty as a Medical Doctor with United States Navy let me know if there is any availability with the rates, the schedule date is February 1st through February 15th 2009.

Have a nice day.

Then there was one genuine response from a guy who worked for a production company. He asked for more pictures of the house, which were sent promptly. The roommates are awaiting his next response.

Image by Steve Rhodes, Flickr Creative Commons.

Grab hold of your chunk of change.

The Inauguration Rental Chronicles follows the epic story of four roommates as they seek to rent out their Northwest townhouse for a glorious sum while battling the tides of waning consumer interest, pie-in-the-sky expectations, and an untested and entirely unknown market.

My last Inauguration Rental Chronicles update was posted a week ago. At that point, our four roommates had devised a new strategy to get their listing noticed: “Instead of posting the entire sum for six days, the group wrote a headline that mentioned the price of each bedroom per night—So essentially their old headline including a price of several thousand dollars, and their new headline included a price of several hundred dollars.”

The strategy has not worked. The group has received no responses. I, on the other hand, have gotten requests from people asking about the whole inauguration rental market. Just today, I received this note:

What do you think of renter rentals? I notice your group house folks aren’t telling their landlord. Think it’s wise to rent a rented space in clear violation of a lease?

And last week, some dude called me around 5:45 p.m. at the office to inquire about marketing and pricing tactics. He wanted to know what was selling and what wasn’t. I referred back to these inauguration rental stories I reported on last week.

Okay people: In the District alone, there were more than 500 listings for inauguration sublets posted yesterday. And it’s not as if everyone re-posts everyday. Competition’s steep. Don’t bet the farm on this one, folks.

Photo by sfslim on Flickr, licensed through Creative Commons.

The Inauguration Rental Chronicles follows the epic story of four roommates as they seek to rent out their Northwest townhouse for a glorious sum while battling the tides of waning consumer interest, pie-in-the-sky expectations, and an untested and entirely unknown market.

Well it’s been a busy week of disappointment for our opportunistic friends. In the last Inauguration Rental Chronicles update, the grouphouse had received a response from the leader of a bunch of college students. One member of the house rapidly responded with a letter noting nearly every positive thing that existed between Columbia Heights and the National Mall.

Then she waited for her excited and gracious respondent to write back. She got nothing.

Time to go back to the drawing board. Soon after, the group reposted with a lowered price: $9,000, down from $10,000, for six days. Again, no response.

Time to go back to the drawing board once more. What was one tactic that hadn’t been tried yet? Numbers manipulation.

Instead of posting the entire sum for six days, the group wrote a headline that mentioned the price of each bedroom per night—So essentially their old headline including a sum of several thousand dollars, and their new headline included a sum of several hundred dollars. Which do you think would be more enticing?

Photo by Jimtimages.

The Inauguration Rental Chronicles follows the epic story of four roommates as they seek to rent out their Northwest townhouse for a glorious sum while battling the tides of waning consumer interest, pie-in-the-sky expectations, and an untested and entirely unknown market.

The last chapter of our story ended on a positive note. After three days on Craigslist, the group’s advertisement got a hit from a woman that wanted to bring 15 college students and two chaperons from St. Johns College in Patchogue New York to stay in the group’s four-bedroom home. (Yes, this number was somewhat worrisome. But perhaps it could be negotiated down.) After an initial e-mail, the respondent made several requests: “Can you send me photos? Another question, how far are you from the metro, restaurants and sites?”

This letter prompted one roommate, with gleaming dollar signs in her eyes, to draft an exuberant e-mail about nearly every business within a two mile radius. Here’s a snippet:

On Kenyon and 14th Street there is The Heights (a more upscale restaurant) and then you have Julia’s Empanadas, El Pollo Campero (peruvian chicken is AMAZING there), and Rita’s Italian Ice. Giant grocery store is a block up on 14th and Lamont, its across from Sticky Fingerz Bakery one of the best vegan bakeries on the East coast. A block down on 14th and Irving is the metro (green and yellow lines, Columbia Heights station), Pete’s Apizza (best pizza in DC!), Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Panda Express, and Commonwealth Gastropub. There is also a Target, Marshall’s, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, a gym, Kinkos and Starbucks.

There were similar paragraphs covering the U Street area (home to “music venues such as the 9:30 club, Black Cat, Bohemian Caverns, DC9 and Velvet Lounge”), and what to do by Dupont Circle (”Sit in the park by the fountain or hit up even more dining options”) and Eastern Market (”Definitely check it out on Sunday the local produce and chotchkies for sale there at awesome and unique”).

In total the letter took roughly fifteen minutes to draft. And in response, the inquirer sent…nothing. The St. Johns College woman never wrote back. She simply dropped off the face of the earth. At least one relationship was not terminated in this exchange: the connection existing between craigslist and the home’s somewhat deflated residents.

Image by Tsevis

As of my last update, the group had not gotten a single nibble on their $11,000 rental. But, on the upside, their landlord had not discovered their plot and evicted the entire clan, hoping to cash in on his/her own.  

After 24 hours of waiting and hearing nothing, the group decided to lower their price to $10,000 (for six nights), and re-post their craigslist page. Lo and behold, they got a hit soon after:

Hello,

I am interested in bringing a group of students from our College to the Inauguration. We would be coming in on Sat. Jan. 17th and leaving Wed., Jan. 21st at about 6am. Would that make the fee lower being that we are staying shorter then a week? How many people could we have in the rental and is this rental still available?If so, how far is this location from the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave.?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
St. Joseph’s College
155 West Roe Boulevard
Patchogue, NY 11772

All good right? What could go wrong? Well, apparently the college group leader wants to bring 17 students to live in the four-bedroom home. Also, the grouphouse mates have begun to question each others’ commitments, and participation in the rental project. Out of the four residents, only two have ever checked the craigslist account, and worked on drafting and redrafting the advertisement. Now that a renter has come forward, one of these two people has volunteered to take photos of the property. But, she’s starting to feel like with all her efforts, her cut of the $10,000 should be bigger.

Today, we follow up on the first entry in the Inauguration Rental Chronicles. Oh, and believe me folks, as long as my anonymous participants continue to feed me info, we’re going until the day of the inauguration. Maybe afterward. If there’s some trashing of the house, a lawsuit, a friendship implosion of Heidi/Lauren-like proportions, I might be writing a book.

Last time we checked in with our renters, they had just posted their advertisement on Craigslist. They were hoping to rent their four-bedroom “Central Northwest” rowhouse for six days, at the grand cost of $11,000.

The original advertisement went up on Monday. By Wednesday morning, the group had received no responses. So, the clan started going back and forth about lowering the price. “I got in touch with them—I was like we need to repost and bump it up to the top. Most people start posting this stuff between nine in the morning and three in the afternoon,” says my friend, who we shall call Cynthia. The group already decided that their bare minimum is $8,000. Below that, it’s too much of a hassle and too expensive.

The cost was lowered to $10,000. They put up a new advertisement in the late afternoon, so it would be close to the top of the page for people checking Craiglist after work. And what do you know? They actually got a serious response. But, that will be a different installment for a different day (like tomorrow).

So, a friend of mine is attempting to rent out her four-bedroom home for the inauguration week. After doing some early reporting on this craigslist phenomenon, I’ve decided to follow her story. Easy cash, or enormous hassle?

She and her three roommates are not informing their landlord of the plan, so I’m going to keep my posts short on some details. The home is a classic, let’s call it “central northwest” (U Street/Shaw/Columbia Heights/Adams Morgan/Logan Circle) townhouse. It’s clean. It has four bedrooms, one-and-a-half- bathrooms, wireless internet and Comcast cable, three televisions. It’s blocks away from a Metro station, a supermarket, restaurants, liquor stores, etc.

The group is flexible. The rental is for any six nights during the week of Jan. 20, the advertisement states. Linens, towels, dishes will be provided. The roommates have also offered to serve as concierges of sorts: they’ll help make restaurant reservations and sightseeing recommendations beforehand. They plan to come in and clean while the group is there.

What’s their listing price? you ask.

$11,000.

They figure that the house could fit 12 people in it. They’re planning on spending some money just readying the place (new sheets, cleaning costs, possibly some “bells and whistles,” like wine and food in the house for arriving guests.)

They posted the advertisement on Craigslist on Monday evening. I’ll keep you updated about whether they get any offers, need to lower their price…or just give up.

For more on the inauguration, including the latest news, housing and rentals, parties, and events, check out City Paper’s DC Inauguration Guide.