I hate renting...

I literally have NEVER had a good experience renting for the complete term of a rental agreement and I've been renting since I was 18 (now 24).

The only experience that was OK was the $1000/month I paid while in school for a brand new single bedroom, single bathroom, en suite laundry condo which was a two minute walk from the tech college. Expensive? Yes, but I had been paying $750 a month to live downtown the year before, $250 extra a month was justifiable by the amount of gas and parking ($5/day parking 20 days a month, plus a couple bucks a day in fuel).

So I guess my hatred is of landlords and roommates. My current "drama" stems from my current place. I was thinking it was going pretty good. About 3 months ago my landlord (and roommate in the condo) took a job up north. He rented out the master bedroom to a friend of his (nice chick, a little anal about being clean, whatever). There is a 3rd bedroom, and I agreed it would be fine for him to come down every once in a while and stay on weekends, but was fairly explicit in the fact that:

1)I'm not sharing my bathroom, there is a reason I pay $700/month for rent in a relatively new (but barebones and a little dirty for how new it is) condo

2)That as we discussed before I signed the rental agreement, the only reason I am renting here is BECAUSE only two people will live here. I made it quite clear that I would not live with another person.

So, long story short, he quits his job up north after securing a job down here, and springs it on me (via text, of course, because that's the courteous way to do business nowadays right? ^insert eye rolling here^) that he's moving back in.

I called him last night, and explained we needed to have a "chat" first thing in the morning. I don't think he'll like the fact that I'm not paying my rent in full, this month, and should be moved out by the end of November as he is breaking the contract as far as I am concerned. It's month to month, but I view this as the opportunity to get out of the contract whenever I feel like with virtually no notice.

The only good news to come out of this is I might finally buy my own place. I can get the $7500 minimum required for a downpayment, maybe a bit more, but my hands are a little tied with my racing commitments for 2013, otherwise, I could funnel double to triple that into the property. I hate people in general, and this reaffirms my promise that if I ever have kids, I'll try to make sure they never have to go through this bullE36 M3. It doesn't build character, it doesn't help you grow or socialize better, it just puts you in contact with people that suck on a daily basis.

I would've totally agreed with you until I got to my current place. it's hella pricey (near Boston) but everybody here gets a private 1 car garage, and there's plenty of outside parking. The managers are awesome as well. Many of the other residents are rude, and some can't park to save their lives, but this is Boston. Expecting people here to be nice and to show any driving competance is like asking someone to design and run the first manned mission to Mars. Sure, somebody can do it, but for every person who can, there are literally hundreds of thousands who just can't.

Would I rather have my own house? Hell yes, but that won't happen until I'm actually going to be in one place for more than 2 or 3 years. Oh yeah, I need money, too.

I hate the place I'm renting now. It's too expensive and due to the pickiness of my wife and us having three dogs, we can't find anyplace cheaper.

hmm suppose thats one issue I never had to deal with... first time living out of home was with my wife :)... that has its own issues but thats beside the point haha

but yes i've had my share of crappy landlords and neighbors... so I sorta kinda feel most other renters pain

couple things:

1) you haven't been renting that long 2) it sounds like you've been renting from individuals mostly, and renting a room from the owner without a written lease basically means neither of you have any recourse.

the only places that i've had issues with landlords has been when i rent condos or townhomes from individuals. one was a guy that owned a property management company/leasing agency, and the property was one of his places. the a/c barely worked, everything in the place was half-assed, and repair requests had to be submitted several times.

the other was a town house owned by an old man that owned a commercial property company, and his son was a personal injury attorney in town who thought since he was a lawyer he had a pass to be a dick and blame anything that needed to be fixed on me.

HiTempguy wrote: The only good news to come out of this is I might finally buy my own place. I can get the $7500 minimum required for a downpayment, maybe a bit more, but my hands are a little tied with my racing commitments for 2013, otherwise, I could funnel double to triple that into the property. I hate people in general, and this reaffirms my promise that if I ever have kids, I'll try to make sure they never have to go through this bullE36 M3. It doesn't build character, it doesn't help you grow or socialize better, it just puts you in contact with people that suck on a daily basis.

You need at least another couple of grand for inspections, other closing costs etc on top of the downpayment. We just went through the process earlier this year, got an estimate of the total closing costs from our CU (ie, downpayment and other money we had to give them) and their estimate still ended up something like 500-700 short. Keep that in mind.

Also make sure you have the money to cover the mortgage and the rent for a month so you can use both places. Makes the move a lot less stressful.

Rent, utilities, and cable all told are less than 400 for me. Yeah, I live with two other guys that can be slobs, but cheap living expenses sure free up a lot of cash

Mitchell wrote: Rent, utilities, and cable all told are less than 400 for me. Yeah, I live with two other guys that can be slobs, but cheap living expenses sure free up a lot of cash

I am going to be moving in with a friend to free up a few hundred dollars a month and have a closer commute in a few months. I haven't had a roommate since I was living in barracks about 10 years ago but that was literally sleeping in the same room with someone.

I am looking forward to it.

I've been in real estate longer than most of you have been alive. I've rented & I've owned and I too hate renting and I've never had a roommate to add that dynamic into the mix, BUT sometimes renting is best even tho it's not ideal.

My last kid just bought her a house and we encouraged all of them to rent until they were stable enough in job & location to be able to find a house that fit their work & pleasure location requirements.

You don't just live out the lease and move when you've got a house, you have to take the time to sell it.

You'll never make money renting, but you'll never lose money renting either.

In spite of all the negative publicity most of America hasn't been hit with horrendous falling prices, but the places that have were hit hard and have made the news because bad news sells better than good news. Like buying stock you've only lost money if you sold when prices were down. Prices change during the time you live there, but who cares. You didn't really make any money when the prices rose because, other than tax bennies, you haven't actually put any money into your pocket until you sell. If prices fell $500,000 and you didn't sell until prices had recovered then you didn't lose a dime.

By the same token you haven't lost a dime if values fall. All that matters is what is the value when you sell.

While you are unstable in either work, friends, or travel you don't need to own the house.

I don't remember the exact figures but HUD recently released some net worth figures on homeowners vs. renters and homeowners were several hundred thousands of dollars richer than renters.

In reply to carguy123:

we've actually benefitted a bit in the short term, as property tax values have gone down, so has the payment to escrow, now values are headed back north, and i'll be trying to keep the tax value down until we sell next year or the following. hopefully the HOA doesn't berk us too bad in that time.

carguy123 wrote: I don't remember the exact figures but HUD recently released some net worth figures on homeowners vs. renters and homeowners were several hundred thousands of dollars richer than renters.

I remembered seeing this, and thought that it was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Are homeowners wealthier simply because they are homeowners, or are they capable of owning homes because they are wealthier?

I am capable of owning a home, but have been living in a rental house for the past year. I find it nice to be debt free. When we moved here it was for a new job in a new industry in a state we had never lived in and knew nobody. I didn't want to buy because it was all a bit of an experiment. The people we are renting from live in AZ, but they want to come back to their house when they can. He started a new business there. They are good people to deal with. I've been happy with the situation, but do spend some time looking at real estate in the area now. When I find the right place at the right price I will buy again and be back to being beholden to the bank.

I never really had roomates (not counting wife and kids) other that a couple summers in high school where I has a summer job 1000 miles from home. Can't imagine that at this point in my life.

I pay more in rent than I would be paying for a mortgage, but I also am not hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and don't have to worry about being upside down if the prices fall.

BoxheadTim wrote: You need at least another couple of grand for inspections, other closing costs etc on top of the downpayment. We just went through the process earlier this year, got an estimate of the total closing costs from our CU (ie, downpayment and other money we had to give them) and their estimate still ended up something like 500-700 short. Keep that in mind. Also make sure you have the money to cover the mortgage and the rent for a month so you can use both places. Makes the move a lot less stressful.

My family is in the home building business Thank you for the suggestions though.

I literally have one truck and trailer load of stuff at my current place, so no big deal. I'd be buying a condo, which in Edmonton anyways, lots of financing/rates/downpayment options are directly done by the condo builder themselves, not through a 3rd party realtor. Cuts out the BS nicely. My point about scraping the $7500 downpayment together was exactly that, if I wanted to comfortably afford said $7500 and all the other costs to have a proper contingency/costs covering, it would take some work. Always doable (I have lots of assets at the moment and not much liquid cash), but either way...

It just sucks. I don't wanna move, I want to focus on racing for the 2013 season. If I can stay where I currently am for another 6 months, I might be able to improve my budget by then (just found out some contingency dollars for racing that slahes my required budget by $12k, which is over half, plus some sponsorship deals I am working on). A brand new condo with in suite laundry is only $130k right now for single bed single bath... it's prime time to buy with interest rates up here, as the oil patch is booming and it's not anywhere near the 2007 peak. Being a university city/capitol of Alberta (and where I would be buying is directly near the future LRT expansion in 5-10 years) would guarantee me renters...

We'll see. The last thing I want to do is get in over my head. At the same time, it appears I've finally decided to stay put at my job for another year or two (I've been there two years) to see how things go, so it's about time to buy I reckon.

Mitchell wrote: I remembered seeing this, and thought that it was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Are homeowners wealthier simply because they are homeowners, or are they capable of owning homes because they are wealthier?

The equity was the difference.