Renting--grr

Just saw a perfect house in size, price, and location listed for rent. But it turns out, it's only a month to month thing. The owner explained that he hopes to sell it, and so he'd need to give the tenants 30 day notice in such an eventuality. I hate to break the news, but a quick look on Zillow shows plenty of houses that have been on the market for 150+ days. (I actually couldn't find any record of houses that had sold recently.) This seems to be something I'm running up against a lot. Can you imagine? You move your five kids 1300 MILES, and two months after you get settled, have signed kids up for school and they're starting to fit in, and psych! You can't stay there because the owner has sold the house. And now you have to find somewhere else to live. And it's snowing. And it's a college town with NOTHING else going on, so nearly all the possible rental contracts are fixed to the semester schedule.

No. No no no no no. I dig my heels in. People with houses--I will not rent from you unless you give me some kind of lease! There has GOT to be someplace out there for us. Please?