Meghan Daum Q&A: How to Satisfy Your Real Estate Obsession

Some families spend their weekends playing board games and eating popcorn--but not Meghan Daum's.

The Daum family's game of choice when she was growing up was real estate; their weekend excursions were filled with trips to distant open houses. It would mark the beginning of a lifelong obsession with real estate that would lead Daum to live in more than 30 homes on both coasts and everywhere in between. In Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in That House, the accomplished writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Times describes her passion for houses as a metaphor for what lies beyond--the bigger and better that every new address promises.

HousingWatch recently had a chance to chat with the roaming writer about her family, her brokers, and the sometimes-odorous subculture of pet-owner subletting.