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10:16pm: I’ve got a decision to make. Regardless of which avenue I take, we’re signing an apartment lease by next Monday. Our original plan was to accept our previous complex’s offer to stay at a bigger apartment in a different building (the J building caught fire, and we would be moving to the W building). However, the rent would increase $130 per month from what we were paying before the fire, which is slightly more than we’d like to be paying to live there. That being said, even despite this it was still a steal considering the market value of all the other properties in the area. We took a look at the apartment today, and were SLIGHTLY disappointed with it because we didn’t see where we were getting our $130 worth even though they claimed the new apartment had more “living space” than the one that burned down a month ago.
Fortunately, we acquired a back up plan on Saturday night during my live 2-5 session at Harrah’s New Orleans. One of my good poker buddies said that he had a spare house that he was about to put up for rent, and was just waiting for the right people to make him an offer. Not even thinking we’d like it, we passed by today and were very pleasantly surprised with the property. We now have a very tough decision to make. Making it even tougher was the fact that for just slightly more per month than my original plan to move into my 2 bedroom apartment, we would be able to move into his 3 bedroom house with utilities INCLUDED.
Some people would say this is a complete and utter steal. However, I’m not one to rush into big decisions without having weighed all the facts beforehand. Being as such, I have decided to make a side by side comparison list of the benefits and costs of each avenue, and will then make a decision from there.
What’s a good poker player without his logic anyways?
Well Jason,
I have lived in apartments. I hated it. Couldn’t stand having to deal with other peoples noise.
On the other hand, my family and I have now lived in houses since about 1990 and I can tell you that everyoneout there can have apartments, condos, townhouses and duplexes. No matter what the increase would be for the rent on the house, without even seeing either property. I can say unequivically that the house is the way to go. You’ll enjoy more privacy, a quiet neighborhood and yes, neighbors that do more than say “Do you want fries with that?” at their jobs. Plus, when you do decide to have a party and entertain friends, you invite the neighbors and the damn thing could go on all night and the cops will not be stopping by.
GO WITH THE HOUSE DUDE!
Mojo
Thanks for the advice man, I’m keeping all of this in mind.
I have to agree with Mojo. ALWAYS choose house over apartment when you can.
However, ultimately you’re going to want to own property right? You’re not going to want to throw money away on rent forever, you’re going to want to own assets and you’ll definitely want to scoop up a place within the years of this recession before the next housing boom. Then you can make a killing on your property.
That said, maybe the cheaper the better - if that’s the apartment okay - so that you could put money away for a down payment on a mortgage?
Well, it wouldn’t be a “rent to own” situation, but who knows what could happen down the line. The main thing is to just let my friend know he can rely on us to come up with the rent, no matter what.