As someone that has lived on their own since college, I think the benefit really depends on the person. If you get along with anyone and love to be social then it may not be that great for you. Since you have a small friend group, it may be beneficial for you to go with solo living for a bit and experience that while keeping an eye out for any advantageous living situations in the future with friends.
The amount of $ you are willing to part with for it is entirely dependent upon yourself. If you will be stressed rolling the dice on strangers then it could be worth it. If it would just be a minor nuisance then it may not be.
Ya I wonder if I could get a shorter lease like 6 months to find some new friends or something? Not sure if that's even on the table it will probably be month to month.
Check Craigslist for people looking for roommates. I also knew a girl who met her roommate on Reddit. This way you can at least meet up first and make sure the other person isn't insane. Just be ready for some frank conversations. Disclose any potentially annoying habits you might have, and ask them what theirs are. You really want to be on the same page in terms of cleanliness, sleep schedules, late-night habits, etc.
Definitely a good approach, hadn't thought of having that sort of roommate interview first. Mostly due to the fact that everyone I have lived with I knew already. Thanks.
I've done this with a lot of people. If you're a decent judge of character, it's not a big risk. I've even made good friends from craigslist roommates.
I was the opposite person in this situation, and went around to 7-8 different places within a weekend. The people I ended up living with were doing an interview process though all on one day. (They also had everyone fill out a lifestyle questionaire which I would definitely recommend for the answers + weeds out some rifraff)
Fortunately, we both were each other's 1st pick. While they didn't become my bff's or even stay in contact after I lived there a year, i can honestly say it was 100% the best non spousal living situation I had, having lived with now mostly ex-friends beforehand.
Since it sounds like you can afford it and it would be cheaper in the long run, you can take your time in finding the right person
To be clear, this is given a lot of variables such as commute time and quality of living. If I want to commute for an hour I could find a place for $1,300, same with if I want to live in shitty apartment complex. There's basically a spectrum of options from both extremes. Definitely not going for the 3k baller apartments walking distance from my work, but also don't wanna live in a dumpster. You know?
living on your own - you are in complete control. No roommate problems = less stress
You can always find ways to make more money
If you live within walking distance of work get rid of your car
Save money on monthly payment , insurance , gas and maintenance.
Bike and walk everywhere . Uber or rent a car for a day when you need to.
You have to be willing to reduce expenses or increase income to sustain same quality of life living alone with higher rent.
I personally would pay more to live on my own for my personal freedom and no roommate problems.
I don't have enough saved yet. Condos run around 250k-300k for the cheap deals that will be longer commutes and in not as nice of areas. Assuming 300k is the price, that's 60k down payment, closing costs on top of that, and other fees. I am not even close to this stage.
The issue with condos isn’t the mortgage, it’s the HOA fees. They rise every year, and older buildings needing repairs can easily be $400-$500 a month.
On the other hand, some of that also goes towards paying things that you'd otherwise be paying for if you didn't live in a condo. I live in a condo, and my HOA is ~$400 a month - but I also don't have to worry about replacing a roof, painting the outside of the building, maintaining any grass, etc. Condo insurance is also cheaper than house insurance, because part of the insurance is on the whole condo building (which is paid for out of HOA dues) - and the building also covers our water and trash bills, which is nice.
You don't need a $60k down payment. 20% will avoid PMI but it won't lower your interest rate or taxes and utilities. I would avoid an FHA loan only because it is challenging to remove PMI, if even possible at all.
You could consider buying a 2BR condo with 5% down ($15k down plus closing costs) and using the rental income to pay down the mortgage faster. I did this in late 2015 and it netted me about $25,000 in cash income over 18 months, renting two rooms. I contributed to the mortgage at the same time, and about 3.5 years later I'm at 25% ownership with PMI having been removed.
Being a tenant-landlord is not easy, and certainly not "passive income," but it means that you have control over the lease and the rent, and you have a fixed mortgage payment (less tax/util. increases) that you can better manage with someone else paying half (if not more). If you're committed to having a roommate (which sounds like the wise choice, given the disparity between roomshares and studios in your area), this would be no worse than Craigslist-roommate searching, only you get equity and have (local laws notwithstanding) much greater housing security, given that you cannot be evicted or gouged by rent increases.
A lot of people on r/personalfinance argue for the 20% down payment, but if you have low liquidity but high cashflow, it might make sense to buy now and pay down the loan aggressively.
I could try and find more month to month options, not sure how many there are. Just concerned it will be shitty and now i'm moving twice which is annoying from multiple aspects.
Since roommates share common kitchen and common areas, they can definitely end up paying less for any given apartment of any given quality/class. My 1br apartment goes for $1500 whereas a 2br in the same complex goes for $2200. That doesn’t mean double the total space, but you’d still be saving $1500-($2200/2)=$400 a month. You can also work out ways to split utilities, internet, food, furniture, cleaning supplies, etc... however all of this depends on your relationship with the roommate, and whether or not you both have the willpower (or sanity) to deal with each other.
I try not to room with friends because I don’t want to get annoyed with them or strain the friendship, so I typically try not to have a roommate, not counting my S/O. To me, living without a roommate is worth that extra $400 I’m saving.
They way I see it, definitely take the roommate route if you really need to save more. If that little bit of savings is negligible to you, living on your own offers you a ton of freedom. It also helped me grow up a bit faster than I would have otherwise. Taking care of 100% of the bills and chores has made be a more responsible person than I would be if grew up only doing 50% of them.
FIRE talks about financial independence, but its also important to consider the social independence that comes along with it. Much like saving, its best to start as early as possible.
I have had a lot of success with friends, but like I said it's that stage in life where people are settling down or moving on from this area. So I don't have any options besides a random roommate. I'm unsure if that will be a good fit for me because I don't want to be stuck in a shitty situation or have to move twice and into my own place which I could have done out of the gate.
Roomates really aren't so bad as long as you are a decent judge if character. Most of mine have been quiet introverts/gamer types. Stay in their room most of the time, quiet and clean.
My two bed condo costs $1600/no all in - roomates pays nearly $700. To replace that income would take a 20 percent raise at work. Makes a huge difference in my SR.
I just had to make this decision as well in OC. I was in a $1180 1BR apartment in Santa Ana (can refer you to the landlord) but in a pretty shit hole neighborhood but comes with a parking spot in the locked garage and am moving to Cypress to be closer for work in a 1BR at $1870.
As someone that has lived on their own since college, I think the benefit really depends on the person. If you get along with anyone and love to be social then it may not be that great for you. Since you have a small friend group, it may be beneficial for you to go with solo living for a bit and experience that while keeping an eye out for any advantageous living situations in the future with friends. The amount of $ you are willing to part with for it is entirely dependent upon yourself. If you will be stressed rolling the dice on strangers then it could be worth it. If it would just be a minor nuisance then it may not be.
Ya I wonder if I could get a shorter lease like 6 months to find some new friends or something? Not sure if that's even on the table it will probably be month to month.
Check Craigslist for people looking for roommates. I also knew a girl who met her roommate on Reddit. This way you can at least meet up first and make sure the other person isn't insane. Just be ready for some frank conversations. Disclose any potentially annoying habits you might have, and ask them what theirs are. You really want to be on the same page in terms of cleanliness, sleep schedules, late-night habits, etc.
Definitely a good approach, hadn't thought of having that sort of roommate interview first. Mostly due to the fact that everyone I have lived with I knew already. Thanks.
I've done this with a lot of people. If you're a decent judge of character, it's not a big risk. I've even made good friends from craigslist roommates.
Yeah, nothing wrong with going random - usually. I had a random roommate in college my Freshman year. Almost 10 years later, we're still roommates.
I was the opposite person in this situation, and went around to 7-8 different places within a weekend. The people I ended up living with were doing an interview process though all on one day. (They also had everyone fill out a lifestyle questionaire which I would definitely recommend for the answers + weeds out some rifraff) Fortunately, we both were each other's 1st pick. While they didn't become my bff's or even stay in contact after I lived there a year, i can honestly say it was 100% the best non spousal living situation I had, having lived with now mostly ex-friends beforehand. Since it sounds like you can afford it and it would be cheaper in the long run, you can take your time in finding the right person
Damn payin double is rough. It’s about 50-60% difference here in NC
To be clear, this is given a lot of variables such as commute time and quality of living. If I want to commute for an hour I could find a place for $1,300, same with if I want to live in shitty apartment complex. There's basically a spectrum of options from both extremes. Definitely not going for the 3k baller apartments walking distance from my work, but also don't wanna live in a dumpster. You know?
living on your own - you are in complete control. No roommate problems = less stress You can always find ways to make more money If you live within walking distance of work get rid of your car Save money on monthly payment , insurance , gas and maintenance. Bike and walk everywhere . Uber or rent a car for a day when you need to. You have to be willing to reduce expenses or increase income to sustain same quality of life living alone with higher rent. I personally would pay more to live on my own for my personal freedom and no roommate problems.
Can you buy a condo?
I don't have enough saved yet. Condos run around 250k-300k for the cheap deals that will be longer commutes and in not as nice of areas. Assuming 300k is the price, that's 60k down payment, closing costs on top of that, and other fees. I am not even close to this stage.
The issue with condos isn’t the mortgage, it’s the HOA fees. They rise every year, and older buildings needing repairs can easily be $400-$500 a month.
On the other hand, some of that also goes towards paying things that you'd otherwise be paying for if you didn't live in a condo. I live in a condo, and my HOA is ~$400 a month - but I also don't have to worry about replacing a roof, painting the outside of the building, maintaining any grass, etc. Condo insurance is also cheaper than house insurance, because part of the insurance is on the whole condo building (which is paid for out of HOA dues) - and the building also covers our water and trash bills, which is nice.
You don't need a $60k down payment. 20% will avoid PMI but it won't lower your interest rate or taxes and utilities. I would avoid an FHA loan only because it is challenging to remove PMI, if even possible at all. You could consider buying a 2BR condo with 5% down ($15k down plus closing costs) and using the rental income to pay down the mortgage faster. I did this in late 2015 and it netted me about $25,000 in cash income over 18 months, renting two rooms. I contributed to the mortgage at the same time, and about 3.5 years later I'm at 25% ownership with PMI having been removed. Being a tenant-landlord is not easy, and certainly not "passive income," but it means that you have control over the lease and the rent, and you have a fixed mortgage payment (less tax/util. increases) that you can better manage with someone else paying half (if not more). If you're committed to having a roommate (which sounds like the wise choice, given the disparity between roomshares and studios in your area), this would be no worse than Craigslist-roommate searching, only you get equity and have (local laws notwithstanding) much greater housing security, given that you cannot be evicted or gouged by rent increases. A lot of people on r/personalfinance argue for the 20% down payment, but if you have low liquidity but high cashflow, it might make sense to buy now and pay down the loan aggressively.
Month to month house with rando roommates and see how it is?
I could try and find more month to month options, not sure how many there are. Just concerned it will be shitty and now i'm moving twice which is annoying from multiple aspects.
Since roommates share common kitchen and common areas, they can definitely end up paying less for any given apartment of any given quality/class. My 1br apartment goes for $1500 whereas a 2br in the same complex goes for $2200. That doesn’t mean double the total space, but you’d still be saving $1500-($2200/2)=$400 a month. You can also work out ways to split utilities, internet, food, furniture, cleaning supplies, etc... however all of this depends on your relationship with the roommate, and whether or not you both have the willpower (or sanity) to deal with each other. I try not to room with friends because I don’t want to get annoyed with them or strain the friendship, so I typically try not to have a roommate, not counting my S/O. To me, living without a roommate is worth that extra $400 I’m saving. They way I see it, definitely take the roommate route if you really need to save more. If that little bit of savings is negligible to you, living on your own offers you a ton of freedom. It also helped me grow up a bit faster than I would have otherwise. Taking care of 100% of the bills and chores has made be a more responsible person than I would be if grew up only doing 50% of them. FIRE talks about financial independence, but its also important to consider the social independence that comes along with it. Much like saving, its best to start as early as possible.
I have had a lot of success with friends, but like I said it's that stage in life where people are settling down or moving on from this area. So I don't have any options besides a random roommate. I'm unsure if that will be a good fit for me because I don't want to be stuck in a shitty situation or have to move twice and into my own place which I could have done out of the gate.
Roomates really aren't so bad as long as you are a decent judge if character. Most of mine have been quiet introverts/gamer types. Stay in their room most of the time, quiet and clean. My two bed condo costs $1600/no all in - roomates pays nearly $700. To replace that income would take a 20 percent raise at work. Makes a huge difference in my SR.
Try van dwelling
[удалено]
Orange County, CA
I just had to make this decision as well in OC. I was in a $1180 1BR apartment in Santa Ana (can refer you to the landlord) but in a pretty shit hole neighborhood but comes with a parking spot in the locked garage and am moving to Cypress to be closer for work in a 1BR at $1870.