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photomikey posted:Also, may I suggest you look for someone with a room to rent, and suck it up and live there for a while. Save a ton of cash. That's what I keep telling this dingus, but he's so drat insistent on getting a 2br apartment (which we have miraculously found a couple in our tiny price range) with no roommates because "where am I going to put/do all of my music stuff!"  My foremost concern with the cost of living in Chapelboro though is mostly because at least one of us would be unemployed by the time we got there. I have a sizable nest-egg now that's only going to increase between now and then, plus I could always hop in my car now and apply for work whenever, but it won't be so easy for him. I also have the sneaking suspicion that my nest-egg will get run through extremely quickly in the initial moving stages. This is a huge fear of mine. The more I explain this situation, the stupider it sounds.
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Aug 3, 2014 18:22
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Moving to a new place to start your live is daunting, but not a bad idea. Moving there and into a 2br apartment straightaway, so that you can set up his music stuff, is a bad idea. Rent a storage unit and a bedroom in a house until you have enough income to cover a 2br apartment.
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Aug 3, 2014 20:58
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If you're a student and he's a musician without a day job, getting a 1 bedroom and dealing with a bit of crowding is the better idea. Live cheaply until you're out of school, especially if it's your nest egg in jeopardy, not his. He doesn't get an extra bedroom for his music stuff if he's not paying for it. I say this as someone who also moved to a very expensive location with a nest egg and had her ex spend all her money within two years. I live in Los Angeles so I imagine your savings will last longer, but still. Protect yourself and live cheaply until you both work full-time.
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Aug 3, 2014 21:10
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photomikey posted:"PAR20" is the size of that bulb, and if you google "LED PAR20" you will find same-size replacements. LED is not a mature technology yet, and these will be half the price next year as they are today. In short, it's not worth it in an apartment for most people. I've seen some pretty crazy deals at Costco on LED bulbs so that's something to think about.
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Aug 3, 2014 23:30
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Zaftig posted:If you're a student and he's a musician without a day job, getting a 1 bedroom and dealing with a bit of crowding is the better idea. Live cheaply until you're out of school, especially if it's your nest egg in jeopardy, not his. He doesn't get an extra bedroom for his music stuff if he's not paying for it. One bedrooms generally cost the same as a two bedroom.. Where I live a one bedroom will run you 350 a week, while so two bedroom will be around the same. Three bedrooms avg around 400 to 450 too..
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Aug 4, 2014 01:04
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Babygravy posted:One bedrooms generally cost the same as a two bedroom.. Where I live a one bedroom will run you 350 a week, while so two bedroom will be around the same. Three bedrooms avg around 400 to 450 too.. Uh I guess it might vary regionally, but this is blatantly not true in most places.
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Aug 5, 2014 19:45
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Drunk Tomato posted:Uh I guess it might vary regionally, but this is blatantly not true in most places. It isn't in my neck of the woods, but one thing does does sort of bug me that puts me on my boyfriend's side is finding 2br places without very much of an increase in price compared to a 1br. Glancing at Chapel Hill, you could get a 1br place for between $650-799 or a 2br between $750-800 on average for our budget. Or, extremely suspiciously, a couple of 2br/1bas for $650 (not to mention one place with a gas range and decent reviews for $620  ) but I've always been very wary of places with rent that cheap.Zaftig posted:If you're a student and he's a musician without a day job, getting a 1 bedroom and dealing with a bit of crowding is the better idea. Live cheaply until you're out of school, especially if it's your nest egg in jeopardy, not his. He doesn't get an extra bedroom for his music stuff if he's not paying for it. We've come to an understanding that we're both staying put until we each at least have a higher end of three months' rent plus estimated utilities. If I had my way, we wouldn't rent an apartment until we had what was enough to be considered a down payment on a house. We're a couple of broke kids, but I really want to go into this thing as cautiously (and cheaply) as possible. I keep on telling him that I don't mind him having his music stuff in the bedroom or living room, especially since we're moving into a brand new city and won't immediately know people to have company over but  The war continues.
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Aug 5, 2014 20:58
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MNSNTZR posted:It isn't in my neck of the woods, but one thing does does sort of bug me that puts me on my boyfriend's side is finding 2br places without very much of an increase in price compared to a 1br. Glancing at Chapel Hill, you could get a 1br place for between $650-799 or a 2br between $750-800 on average for our budget. Or, extremely suspiciously, a couple of 2br/1bas for $650 (not to mention one place with a gas range and decent reviews for $620 quote:If I had my way, we wouldn't rent an apartment until we had what was enough to be considered a down payment on a house. We're a couple of broke kids, but I really want to go into this thing as cautiously (and cheaply) as possible. e: Also, not to be a debbie downer, but what happens if you break up mid-lease? Or if your SO can't find work in 3-6 months? Can you afford everything with only your income & savings? ladyweapon fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Aug 5, 2014 |
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Aug 5, 2014 21:18
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ladyweapon posted:My apartment is cheap for my area, some reasons i was aware of and some I wasnt. The appliances are old, like avocado green oven old, & the maintenance requests are slow to be resolved. Fortunately I'm pretty handy with most stuff. The place is also not well insulated (I guess?) because my apartment does not keep heat very well at all. My winter electric bills are ~100-120/mo (compared to my current bill of $35) to keep my apartment at a burning hot 67F. I'm gone ~15 hours a day M-F and shut off/unplug unnecessary items when I'm not home so it's not like I'm racking that bill up elsewhere. I can also hear pretty much everything my neighbors do with clarity. IMO, $100-150/mo is a pretty big jump in rent to be making if the other person doesn't have job prospects lined up and is the one wanting 2 bedrooms. Thats half a months groceries (or more) for 2 people, or an extra ~$1500 in your savings account at the end of the year. My rent is 31% of my take home pay and that more than I honestly want it to be (but I dont want to give up the luxury of living alone). I don't think I've ever checked a review for an apartment complex that didn't have people complaining about hearing their neighbors. I used to live in a bottom-floor apartment beneath a family of wild mammoths and I learned to tune it out, so it won't be that terrible hopefully. I probably feel a certain sense of guilt since he's the one doing the big move and I'm not. And I would definitely prefer being in a cozy little place with just the two of us, but I just can't make myself pay $700someodd for a 1br in a safe area when there are places with two for maybe fifty bucks more. There's lots of student housing complexes for between $450-600, which is the most comfortable place in our budget, but I don't want to deal with trashy undergrads who invite mutant vermin in an already woodsy area. The breaking up thing isn't that much of a downer. We're subject to naggy couple things like everyone else, but naivete tells me that we'd both have the patience to deal with each other while separating mid-lease. As far as footing the bills myself, it's well within my means as long as I have a job for supplemental income and if we have a 1br place. It's definitely something that needs discussing. Moving out is such a huge pain in the rear end. 
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Aug 6, 2014 01:19
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MNSNTZR posted:you could get a 1br place for between $650-799 or a 2br between $750-800 on average for our budget. It may be true that you can find a 1BR apartment for $750, and you can find a 2BR apartment for $750, but they are not the same apartment. One is nicer, and one is scummier. I'm not trying to talk you out of living in a scummy place, as long as I don't have to live there, I don't care. But this is the free market, and people don't charge the same price for the same quality and a larger space. They charge more. Do whatever you want, just know that 1BR apartments and 2BR apartments don't cost the same.
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Aug 6, 2014 09:31
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Drunk Tomato posted:Uh I guess it might vary regionally, but this is blatantly not true in most places. I should clarify: I live in a close proximity to a university. That inflates it a bit
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Aug 6, 2014 15:48
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I lived in a $350 1br for a couple of years. You got what you paid for, poor insulating, noises, drugs. Storage cars taking up the lot. I will say it was a community though, people hung out and played cards or chatted. I have a $650 now, with almost no noise, ants, or did. I never see my neighbors and they don't want to talk when I do.
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Aug 6, 2014 22:09
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So, my roommate had an exterminator come by with a bedbug-detecting dog. They cleared our upstairs entirely, cleared most of the downstairs; they got a possible hit on my bedroom. However, I have seen no bugsign for the past month, and while I haven't gone whole hog with the DE like my roommate has, I did use some to seal off the closet and doorway, steamclean anything that looked vaguely bedbugesque on my bed (which was just a couple of spots near staples, symmetrically placed; i.e. I think they were just dirt). They advice a month of steaming and DEing everything if we go that route; I'm inclined to do it, especially given that I have a sealed cover for my bed. Alternatively, for $1000, they'll heat treat both of our rooms, which my roommate is voting for; that seems like a lot of money for something we've already got the supplies to fix for ourselves, and is likely already entirely contained. Am I missing anything here? Anyone with experience have any advice?
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Aug 6, 2014 22:46
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Partycat posted:I lived in a $350 1br for a couple of years. You got what you paid for, poor insulating, noises, drugs. Storage cars taking up the lot. I will say it was a community though, people hung out and played cards or chatted. $650 per week?
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Aug 7, 2014 06:01
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Partycat posted:I lived in a $350 1br for a couple of years. You got what you paid for, poor insulating, noises, drugs. Storage cars taking up the lot. I will say it was a community though, people hung out and played cards or chatted. This is kinda hard to put into context without a region. $650 is way cheap for a 1BR around Boston, like, "definitely a scam" cheap.
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Aug 7, 2014 06:04
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Partycat posted:I never see my neighbors and they don't want to talk when I do. Sounds like a dream. An inescapable part of being in the South is constantly having to have conversations with people you don't care to know. I'd live in a little hut on an island if I could. Or a cute baby house in the woods, like I've seen in my apartment searches lately.  But I figure renting a house is a way more complicated process and is definitely out of the question for first-time renters.RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:This is kinda hard to put into context without a region. $650 is way cheap for a 1BR around Boston, like, "definitely a scam" cheap. Yeah, $650/mo without roommates for a tolerably decent place seems out of the question, even for the podunk area I'm in right now.
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Aug 7, 2014 15:35
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I'm in the Buffalo, NY area. The $350 apartments are in the sort of place where the people who are on disability or social security live. The same (but obviously updated) floor plan 350 sq ft apartments are $550+ in this neighborhood, with two bedroom 600+ square foot apartments up in the $650-700 range, rapidly blasting through $1200 to $1400 near the University and yuppie fringe markets. There's some place where the people who can't afford the $700 apartments live, but it's probably not near where you want to be if you don't want to deal with time and transport. I was ~18+ miles out from my job with a 30 minute commute, maybe less if I speed, and often more if it's congested or someone piled it up on one of the roads. I have saved money by simply living closer, now, and giving myself the opportunity to ride my bicycle, or walk to places saving gas. Obviously the more populated or condensed the area is you're trying to get into, the further out you have to be on a lower rent or income level. I'm not really sure how best to supply the context here but, again, I lived with people on social security/unemployment/disability, and now live with a limo driver, a handyman, and an administrative person of some sort.
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Aug 8, 2014 02:18
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Partycat posted:I'm in the Buffalo, NY area. The $350 apartments are in the sort of place where the people who are on disability or social security live. The same (but obviously updated) floor plan 350 sq ft apartments are $550+ in this neighborhood, with two bedroom 600+ square foot apartments up in the $650-700 range, rapidly blasting through $1200 to $1400 near the University and yuppie fringe markets. There's some place where the people who can't afford the $700 apartments live, but it's probably not near where you want to be if you don't want to deal with time and transport. I was ~18+ miles out from my job with a 30 minute commute, maybe less if I speed, and often more if it's congested or someone piled it up on one of the roads. I have saved money by simply living closer, now, and giving myself the opportunity to ride my bicycle, or walk to places saving gas. Oh, well, in this region an old apartment is a bad area is probably still like $1000 at least. Probably more if you want to be in the city instead of the suburbs.
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Aug 9, 2014 12:37
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A quick question, I've recently gotten a job offer for a place in a small Texan town. This place is kind of special, because it's where my aunts and uncles grew up, and there's still a bit of family property located there. I've been considering accepting the job, and am wondering what would be the best option for moving there. Should I: A) Find a reasonably-priced apartment or B) buy and/or rent an RV or trailer house, and stick it on the family property. There was a house on the land decades ago, but it's little more than busted concrete and rotten wood at this point. The area can be connected to city utilities, electricity/water/sewage/etc. It'd be a hella big investment, but I'm wondering if monthly payments on my own place, situated on property my family owns (And would probably be willing to sign over to me as well) would be a better plan than renting.
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Aug 15, 2014 02:43
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I would recommend a reasonably-priced apartment for a long list of reasons. If a year or two goes by and the family land thing still seems like a good idea, I would look more into buying the land (or having the land gifted to you), then having a small stick-built house put there. Even if you can only afford a small ~1,000 SF or so place, at least it would be worth what you had in it. That RV that cost $100k today will be worth $40k once you leave the lot with it and $2k once you've lived in it a year. A vehicle that was built to be lived in 3-4 weekends a year does not hold up well when lived in 365 days/year.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:07
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I'm searching for somewhere to move in September when I go to uni (didn't get on it earlier because e/n poo poo) and I've sound somewhere I really like. I'm just not sure what to say when I contact them. I don't really want to write out just a long list about how I'm tidy and quiet and all that, but all I've got so far is just telling them I'm and English guy doing geography at the university down the road. What should I be including in my first message?
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Aug 15, 2014 10:38
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Pretty much all I want when I'm house mate hunting is.. -stable reliable job with enough work -believable reason why they let their last place -bond up front -compatible personality -non inside smokers -not dodgy feels... Aka won't steal my poo poo. But yeah advert that you are x age paying for rent in x way, something about your iinterests, and what you want in your housemates
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Aug 15, 2014 13:23
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All I've ever said is "I saw your ad [on craigslist] for the place on [address]. Is it still available? When can you show it?" Then again, I smaller city in the US. Maybe there is more ritual involved in other places.
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Aug 15, 2014 13:25
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I live in a uni town, lots of competition for spots so people can afford to be picky about even replying to potential housemates
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Aug 15, 2014 14:26
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When I was renting out rooms in a college town I'd trash without response emails with egregious spelling/grammar errors (a few typos here and there were fine but if you don't have enough respect to hit the goddamn shift key and not use chat speak you're not worth my time) and emails asking questions that were clearly answered in the ad. Not asking for clarification, stupid poo poo like "how much is rent??" when monthly rent was in the heading of the ad and in the ad itself. I do not want to enter a legal contract with someone who's borderline illiterate. Something simple like "Hi I'm looking for a place to move in September, is this place still available?" would be perfectly fine. You don't need to send a full length autobiography on your first contact. For anyone apartment searching with private landlords/roommates: I'd recommend googling yourself to make sure your online presence seems neat and clean without any potential red flags. I'd do a cursory Facebook search for people who were interested in renting my place and if their profile picture was of them wasted at a party (more common than you'd think) they went to the bottom of my list because I don't need drunk people spilling beer all over my carpets and breaking things.
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Aug 15, 2014 15:47
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Alternatively change your Facebook name to something not obviously you. My first name was changed to my nickname and last name, or nickname and last initial. That in combination with a good culling of non friends(businesses you may of added etc) really helps minimise the Facebook face. Oh but make sure your settings are all still private as can be and only viewable to your friends.
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Aug 16, 2014 06:52
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How are IKEA sofas? Are there any that work really well in a small apartment? I really don't want to be that "everything in my apartment is IKEA" guy but the other options seems insanely expensive.
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Aug 18, 2014 20:59
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Elderbean posted:How are IKEA sofas? Are there any that work really well in a small apartment? IKEA sofas are really nice-not just for the price, better than plenty of $900+ sofas-and some of the sturdiest pieces of furniture they sell. You can easily replace the legs if you aren't digging the unfinished square pine blocks. I don't feel like digging up a link, but there are independent sellers specifically for sofa leg replacements.
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Aug 18, 2014 22:22
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I'm looking for some small end tables/night stands -- something like 12"x20"; very low profile. I haven't see anything that piques my interest at Ikea, C&B, etc. Any other recommendations come to mind?
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Aug 18, 2014 23:31
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Kobayashi posted:I'm looking for some small end tables/night stands -- something like 12"x20"; very low profile. I haven't see anything that piques my interest at Ikea, C&B, etc. Any other recommendations come to mind? Etsy, Overstock.com?
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Aug 19, 2014 00:43
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Elderbean posted:How are IKEA sofas? Are there any that work really well in a small apartment? I've got a Karlstad sofa and I love it. It's extremely comfortable and the fact that covers are available separately is a huge selling point for a cat owner like myself. When it gets scratched up too much I can just drop another 100 bucks on a cover. That's why I went for the classic Karlstad, they'll probably be selling it (and therefore covers for it) for an eternity.
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Aug 19, 2014 02:43
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Helped a friend move yesterday.. He hadn't packed anything. At least I got two cases of beer from it. Pro tip everyone, pack everything before your movers get there.
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Aug 19, 2014 03:00
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deadwing posted:I've got a Karlstad sofa and I love it. It's extremely comfortable and the fact that covers are available separately is a huge selling point for a cat owner like myself. When it gets scratched up too much I can just drop another 100 bucks on a cover. That's why I went for the classic Karlstad, they'll probably be selling it (and therefore covers for it) for an eternity. Yeah we just went to Ikea, picked out the sofa we wanted, then bought that model on craigslist for less than half the price of new. It's great knowing that I can literally just replace any part of it at any time for a relatively small amount of money. Wrong color for a room? Bam, $100 and it can be any color. Super nice.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:16
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Drunk Tomato posted:Yeah we just went to Ikea, picked out the sofa we wanted, then bought that model on craigslist for less than half the price of new. It's great knowing that I can literally just replace any part of it at any time for a relatively small amount of money. Wrong color for a room? Bam, $100 and it can be any color. Super nice. Did you check it for bedbugs?
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Aug 19, 2014 06:07
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Elderbean posted:I really don't want to be that "everything in my apartment is IKEA" guy but the other options seems insanely expensive.
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Aug 19, 2014 08:04
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My parents have an EKTORP from IKEA and the cushions got really lumpy after a year or two. I doth know if this is true for their other sofas though.
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Aug 19, 2014 14:46
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Well, I'll probably go with one of the loveseats and toss some new legs on it.
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Aug 19, 2014 22:42
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Kobayashi posted:I'm looking for some small end tables/night stands -- something like 12"x20"; very low profile. I haven't see anything that piques my interest at Ikea, C&B, etc. Any other recommendations come to mind? Get it made for you? It isn't outrageously expensive to do. Look on etsy or uhh http://www.custommade.com/ for things you like and contact them. Fair warning etsy has the worst search ever. http://www.iannonedesign.com/a_table.html but mine has a drawer. I also have a table from http://sarabistudio.com/collections/cubic  .
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Aug 22, 2014 00:01
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I've recently moved into a new apartment on a very low budget and was hoping to snap some furniture on the cheap at Craigslist. So I got a used dresser delivered for $30. It turned up all scratched up and with liquid stains on it. There were cobwebs in the drawers. The missing top drawer was replaced by a thin, flat piece of cardboard and marketed as a shelf. The drawers have no stoppers so they basically fall out halfway through. There was also a massive moth in there. All in all a real downer and has made me much more wary of listings with strategically shot photos. This is just for future reference, but say the guy has brought the item to my doorstep and I only then realize how bad it was. How douchey would it be to turn him away then? Do I pay him off for gas? It's pretty much my first apartment and I just feel really bummed out. I'm thinking about selling the dresser but have no idea if I want to list all the flaws as explicitly as I see them. Anybody got some advice?
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Aug 24, 2014 21:44
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Vegetable posted:I've recently moved into a new apartment on a very low budget and was hoping to snap some furniture on the cheap at Craigslist. So I got a used dresser delivered for $30. It turned up all scratched up and with liquid stains on it. There were cobwebs in the drawers. The missing top drawer was replaced by a thin, flat piece of cardboard and marketed as a shelf. The drawers have no stoppers so they basically fall out halfway through. There was also a massive moth in there. All in all a real downer and has made me much more wary of listings with strategically shot photos. Morally, if they aren't honest and upfront about an item's flaws in the listing, that's their problem. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't ask someone to deliver something without good photos (and measurements) because of this possibility. If I were you I would let them know I'm unhappy and ask for a refund (and offer to deliver it back if you can), but if they don't agree just try to let it go. I know you said you're on a budget, but $30 could be a relatively cheap life lesson.
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Aug 25, 2014 00:15
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