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2nd Trimester
Suparstarz714
member
MAYBE moving from an apartment to a house...
Suparstarz714
member
So DH and I have lived the apartment life for 2 1/2 years now and we passed the cutest house for rent today and decided to call and get the info.
We are going to see it tomorrow. I am a little concerned about the increase in expense. ESSPECIALLY the inital move in fees. The house is $550 a month plus ALL utilities and it's only 2 bedrooms, which will be fine as long as there is a basement we can store stuff in. We pay $375 a month and only pay electric and cable/internet at our apartment.
We have to come up with first and last month's rent AND a security deposit. So that is $550 x3 =$1650 just to move in... Rent is DH's bill, but he has no money so I don't know how we would come up with that. I have enough saved to cover the full move in expense, but that would leave me with hardly any money left, and that is the money I have been saving for baby's stuff and to pay my bills while I am off work.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: MAYBE moving from an apartment to a house...
Its worth crunching numbers and checking the place out.?
But I can't get past how low your rent is and would be at that house.. what area/state are you in? Wow. I have rent/mortgage envy!!!!?
The O'Baby Blog
~Kimberly & Eric~ April 21, 2008 ~Tensing Pen ~ Negril, Jamaica ~ My Blog: One Sunset at a Time
I would try and make it work...
BTW, I am SOOO jealous with how cheap your rent is!
Me too, holy crap!!!
wow your rent is cheap! I'm really jealous.
We pay $750 for a tiny one-bedroom.
Can you ask if they can forego the security deposit? that's a big up-front cost considering you're probably decent renters and with a baby on the way won't be partying or destroying the place.
Youngstown, OH area (northeast ohio)... but its not in Youngstown, it is about 5 miles outside of youngstown ON A GOLF COURSE... with a huge yard... It is literally 5 min from both of our parents. I really wish there was a 3rd bedroom. and we could buy it...
Me three!
1. WOW at that rent! My rent wasn't even that cheap in my crappy college studio apartment that only had a window unit!!
2. I would say that you and DH should sit down and work a budget together to see if this is feesible for you BOTH to do. We don't have separate bills that we are assigned to cover with our checks, as all items (house, tv, internet, etc) are shared items. It will be more than worth it for you to discuss and decide together if it is the right time for you financially to do such a thing. If not, you can always start working your budget so that in the near future, you are able to afford the added expense of moving into something that will be easier/better/whatever for your growing family.
3. Good Luck! I know the feeling, as we are closing on our house in 2 weeks (YAY!) and all the little extra expenses are adding up quickly!
The cheap rent in our apartment is what has kept us from moving... We live in brookfield OH now, the apartment is small, but it is nice.
WITH utilities? WOW!
i hope you are able to swing it - that is a great deal. would your families be able to help??
This is what I was thinking!
The other thing is that the rent of the house is pretty much the same as our mortgage payment would have been on the house we were SUPPOSED to buy last year.
Although DH and I have EXCELLENT credit, he hasn't been at his job very long and only works part time, so I doubt we could approved for a home loan. Which is fustrating if we are going to be paying the same amount, except when you move out of a house you can sell it and when you move out of a rented house you get nothing.
No we have to pay all utilities (i might have worded that weird)
I would do it if you can afford it. It sounds like the increase in monthly rent is worth it.
The problem, as you mentioned, are the up front expenses... if you don't have the $1,650 handy, I don't know how you could do it w/o putting a financial strain on your budget... which isn't usually the best thing to do before baby.
But... When you move out of your apt, will you be getting a security deposit returned to you? Maybe that would help. Also, if you've already paid last month's rent (on your current apt) up front, and you coordinate moving so there isn't much overlap, you should have a "rent free" month in your apartment, so you could apply that month's rent toward the $1,650 up front on the house.
Around here it is like you MIGHT get your security deposit back. I would expect we would, nothing is damaged or anything, but our landlord is a ***. And we did not pay last month's rent. But there is time enough left in the month that we may be able to get out of here and in the house by the end of the month and get the old apartment ready. Maybe our new landlords would work with us, letting us in ASAP so that we could get the old apartment cleaned out.
You don't need job history for long if you do an FHA loan. You have to put 3.5% of the sales price of the house down, but that might be better than coming up with that 2 months' rent plus security deposit. Plus, you get back a big chunk of the interest/taxes you pay on a mortgage at the end of the year on taxes. I'm a huge proponent of owning versus renting. I might be tempted to hang on where you are until you can BUY....especially because rates are so, so low.
Other than the fact that it's a house, what is drawing you to moving?
Is it worth nearly doubling how much you have to pay? Even with a new baby on the way?
Are you still going to be comfortable each month?
We could definitly cut corners with not eating out the cable, not so much... But there are other ways of cutting corners... like not buying $50 alfits for baby and no more maternity clothes...
The area is closer to family, yet still close enough to DH's work. Our apartment is small, the walls need repainted and the landlord won't do it. We have been looking into moving into bigger apartments, but I just don't know if we would be able to afford the expenses of a house. Right now we live very comfortably, and I don't know if I want to change that.
are you serious? you didn't pay last month and aren't sure how you could afford it, but you are still thinking about it.God forbid there is an emergency and you need money..... Stay in your apartment
we're sort've in that boat now - with much higher rent and having to pay for all utilities (that's why i got excited when i scanned your post - wow, what i would give to have all utilities as part of the payment!). of course, we didn't really have a choice - we had to move because of DH's school. i love our new city and state, but it is a lot more pricey.?
it's a tough decision all around. a house is a lot more maintenance in the long run. we can only dream of that option right now. good luck - i hope you get the best option for you and your family!
Honestly, I think you should stay where you are. We are in the Dayton OH area, so rent is comparable to where you are. Our first place was a hole in the wall in a not very good area. We lived there for two years so we could save every dime we could for a down payment on a house. Even then, we bought WAY below our means ($82K) and fixed the place up as we saved cash to fix it. We then sold two years later, banked the cash, and moved up. We're again, just about done with fixing our house up and thinking about moving on in a year or two. We'll have about $100K in equity in 5 yrs.
Bur one thing that threw our whole world for a loop......a new baby! Sure, I may splurge a little more than I need to and sometimes shop at Baby Gap when something is on sale instead of Walmart, but still, babies are expensive.
So my suggestion, stay in the apartment. But mentally, start another checking account together, and make the extra payment, plus the extra utilities......so at least $400 a month. Set it up so it's automatically withdrawn each month so you aren't tempted. In a year, if you can buy, there will still be great deals available, you'll have some money saved up for down payment/repairs, and you'll know what you can and can't afford with a baby.
Sorry, but this is a MUCH better option that going with renting the new house only to find out it was a bit of a stretch and you're now struggling living paycheck to paycheck. Having a baby is stressful enough on even the best marriage.....why make money another worry?
When you are talking to the landlord of the new place, make sure you ask about yard upkeep. Are you responsible for mowing the lawn and keeping it green? Will you need to buy a lawn mower? Watering a lawn all summer can greatly add to your water bill.
There are lots of things to consider when making the jump from an apartment to a house.
They're putting it in the stimulus plan that you can get an $8,000 tax rebate if you buy a house by September 1st. Not only do we need a bigger place and a house for regular tax rebates, but this is a huge incentive for us.
umm.....why didn't you pay last month's rent? I don't see how you could even contemplate getting a place with higher rent/expenses when you aren't even paying your rent now. And you said in another post that you couldn't cut out cable?? I think you have your priorities a little screwed up here.
You're looking at a house that would drain your savings when you have a BABY on the way and no paid maternity? Wha?
I wouldn't want to live there, for that reason alone. A lease protects not just the landlord, but the tenant. I used to live in Massachusetts (a lot of tenant-at-will options there)... being a TAW is nice if you're in a situation, where, say, you could be transferred at a moment's notice for work, or not planning on staying somewhere for long for whatever reason.
But you hit the nail on the head - TAW is not the best arrangement to get into, who knows - at six months after you move in (or less!) the landlord could evict you. They don't even need a plausible reason, they only need to give you 30 days' notice.
Another dangerous prospect of not having a lease is mystery rent changes. Depending on what the rental agreement says, they could raise the rent, without notice or cause, for no particular reason... and only have to give you 30 days' notice.
I don't think I'd want to live somewhere without a standard 1 year lease unless there were some kind of extenuating circumstances (great deal, etc). I'd be too afraid of what could happen. Six years ago I worked for a company that moved me around a lot, and I loved these tenant-at-will / month-to-month opportunities when I could find them. They usually worked to my benefit then... I have to say that I never got burned as far as being evicted a couple months after I moved in, but I did once have rent go up $40, then 2 months later, go up another $55 - no reason - no upgrades, or anything... just because the landlord wanted it to.
Maybe they won't do a lease because the house is going into foreclosure and they know they will end up breaking the contract with you. You just might want to check into that.
I agree with simplein06 that you cannot afford it. You haven't paid rent for this month and you are considering moving into a more expensive place that would wipe out your savings before having a baby....please don't do this. Stay comfortable financially in your apartment.
Moving and almost doubling your expenses is not something that you should do on a whim. Especially since you are pregnant. There will be other deals like this, so don't tell yourself that this is your only chance.
What you need to do is sit down and make a budget (be realistic, not idealistic). Track all of your spending, add in estimated costs for the baby, and see how much extra you'll have each month. Start putting money into savings every month, as soon as you get paid (before you have a chance to spend it).
PP had the right idea -- try putting the extra $400 or so that this house would cost you a month into savings and see if you can still live comfortably, especially after the baby is here. If you do that for a year you'll have $4800 in savings. That will be enough to cover the initial costs of moving and leave you with extra in savings in case something happens. A year isn't really that long, but you really don't need to be moving now since your savings is so low. If you haven't managed to put away much savings, maybe you can't really afford to double your housing costs just yet.
Where do you live!?!?! That's an amazing price to rent a house!