Rent and Housing
1/26/24 New Options
- *leers* Hey there fella, ya wanna buy some yurts?! I'll take my salesperson of the year award now, thanks.
- Tiny Home Kits article on ManMadeDIY
Cheaper Mortgages and Homes
TIPS FROM EXPERIENCE
- Good landlords are worth their weight in gold and know that good tenants like you (we live in hope) are worth their weight in gold also. A good professional relationship between you is the number one most important thing. If your needs aren't being met, you tell them, they hear you and act on it fast, you probably have a landlord worth their weight in gold. Get them Christmas presents and thank your lucky stars.
- Finding good landlords and/or roommates is very often a matter of luck. Within a large housing management agency, in a small house, in a small building, wherever; seek many different places, try many different places, see what suits your personal needs best and shop around a great deal. When you find what you're looking for seal the deal fast. Sometimes small is good, i.e. renting directly from a homeowner in the building out back. Sometimes large is better, i.e. renting from the large apartment complex that maintains its units with skill. It really just depends on luck. Inspect carefully, read reviews, ask around, do your research, and use online apartment hunting (or whatever) checklists to help you know what to look for. If trying to find a house, it requires much more knowledge of home inspection, so I suggest studying such books for a year or two first.
- Do not scorn getting roommates if you know them well, and have known them for longer than two or three years hopefully.
- Finding rooms on Craigslist for homes to live in sometimes works better than apartment hunting. And sometimes it is the opposite. Different cities have different housing conditions. Talk to as many people in person and online as you can to get a feel for how things work in your area.
- The more you know about DIY house repair and reversible rental upgrades (i.e. Command hooks, tension-mounted curtains that mount within the window frame, etc.) the better
- Roommates in a crappy apartment can eventually pool funds with other people and each other to buy a house and/or land together. It's best to get a lawyer to draw up a contract for legal terms for this first that everyone is clear on, and have everyone sign it with a notary present.
- In theory, mortgages are the only kind of debt worth taking on. Logically, if you're going to be paying a set amount per month anyway, it's better to have a sizeable asset when you're done instead of nothing but money drain. Not to mention any repairs that need doing can be done instead of waiting for slumlord over there to maybe please sir give you some more gruel (and no you can't do it yourself or no deposit back for you haha). In practice, it depends on how heavy into usury your bank or credit union is. Be careful. Read the fine print, with a magnifying glass if you have to. It is also worth it to pay a lawyer to take a look at it.
- Don't move into a big, expensive, and dangerous home that's a hazard to your health. Live somewhere else until your fixer-upper is livable. That could take years. Thanks, housing market crash.
- It doesn't have to be perfect. Find a halfway decent apartment and apartment company? Or some other landlord that is honorable? Snap up that apartment or living space immediately. Stick with them as long as you can. Safe and adequate is better than lavish and fucked.
- Every bad experience with a landlord or other people in the apartment complex is an experience you can put to use managing your own apartment complex or rental situation someday if you ever want to. Think you can do things better? Honestly, (laughs) you probably can. It's not that damn hard, treat people like human beings.
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