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Renters, how do you do it?

Two main factors:
-Wife left the work force (we just had a kid). We are living as cheaply as possible and it still doesn't cut it.

Bills. Roughly: 18k in student loans, 6k in hospital bills (1st kid), and 5k in a new AC/Heat system. Just tired of bills. Having


Nice. How long ago was it/what did it run a month?

Gotcha, have you looked at the rent prices for the type/size of home you want to rent? In my experience it has always been much cheaper to buy than rent. Ex. my wife and I rented a 1 bedroom apartment in Oakwood while we were in nursing school and working at Wal-mart. Even with a 20% discount for being on the 3rd floor (no elevator) and it being a new complex that they needed to fill, our rent was $750/month in 2010-2011. We graduated and got nursing jobs right about the time our lease was up, stayed with my parents for a few months while we found a house, and bought our first house in mid 2012. The 30 year fixed mortgage was only $500/month (plus electricity, trash, etc) for a 3 bed/2 bath home.

A friend at work has been looking for a room to rent while she's in school and folks are asking $500-1000 monthly rent for a bedroom and a bathroom. Her current place is a 3/2 house shared with 2 friends for $1500 monthly. Renting/leasing may not save you anything is my point. On a side note is your wife planning on staying home permanently?
 
What, your landlord won't let you move a gun safe or two into the new house?
Does your landlord refuse to let you get an alarm system?
What's the problem with just taking your guns and ammo with you?
If you have to go down into the basement or crawlspace and put up a new support beam under where the safe is going to be, do it. Three 2" x 6" boards nailed and scrwed together, under the floor joist most directly supporting the safe, should do it. How much to three 2x6's cost? Six bux each or so?
 
When we were in that same position I rented a climate controlled storage space and moved safe etc there. Behind a fence, in a locked building, behind a locked door, in a locked and bolted down safe, LOL never felt better about it. Did not move this room of goodies until the house was ready. If someone wants to steal they will steal at least make it hard, assholes are lazy.


did this. works fine. got one big ass safe and added 600 lbs. of shot to it. would literally take a forklift to steal the whole thing. rent is auto-deduct. still have it all insured.
 
cost of living too high... Yes sure you can buy a house vs renting... but then you have to pay property taxes, home owners insurance, HOA Fees, utilities, and pay for appliances, repairs, and upkeep. If you can't do a lot of it yourself and have to pay people to do it then your in for some even more surprising costs. I own but I'm tired of the bills and upkeep, feels like a boat anchor, and the older I get the more it's just stuff I don't need. If I wasn't married I dump it all and move to south carolina pay cash for a mobile home on a small lot can call it a day... but the wife ain't having it...

Oh and not to mention if you have equity and end up in some financial trouble the vultures will swoop in to foreclose on you in a skinny minute. And then there is trying to sell it and how much you lose with realtor sharks/fees, lawyers, closing, buyers trying to get as much as they can for as little as possible... a real feeding frenzy on your wallet and a pain in the @#$...

Owning your own home is nice and feels like a peace of mind but I question if it's cheaper or any easier.

One last thing?? Do you really "own" it or does the bank and your just once again renting? And even if your lucky enough to get it paid for you still have property tax/insurance/hoa/upkeep/utility costs and the bigger the house the more expensive things are and the more work involved.
 
Gotcha, have you looked at the rent prices for the type/size of home you want to rent? In my experience it has always been much cheaper to buy than rent. Ex. my wife and I rented a 1 bedroom apartment in Oakwood while we were in nursing school and working at Wal-mart. Even with a 20% discount for being on the 3rd floor (no elevator) and it being a new complex that they needed to fill, our rent was $750/month in 2010-2011. We graduated and got nursing jobs right about the time our lease was up, stayed with my parents for a few months while we found a house, and bought our first house in mid 2012. The 30 year fixed mortgage was only $500/month (plus electricity, trash, etc) for a 3 bed/2 bath home.

A friend at work has been looking for a room to rent while she's in school and folks are asking $500-1000 monthly rent for a bedroom and a bathroom. Her current place is a 3/2 house shared with 2 friends for $1500 monthly. Renting/leasing may not save you anything is my point. On a side note is your wife planning on staying home permanently?

-Currently working on what the rental price is but we live in West Midtown (think Ikea/Neuvo Leaurado Cantina) and work in Midtown.
-TBD but yes. It's 2017, you can't have 1 working person supporting a family.

What, your landlord won't let you move a gun safe or two into the new house?
Does your landlord refuse to let you get an alarm system?
What's the problem with just taking your guns and ammo with you?
If you have to go down into the basement or crawlspace and put up a new support beam under where the safe is going to be, do it. Three 2" x 6" boards nailed and scrwed together, under the floor joist most directly supporting the safe, should do it. How much to three 2x6's cost? Six bux each or so?

I am in Metro Atlanta. My rental will definitely be a shoe box apartment (think the mega housing apps all around Atlanta). Getting a house ITP is definitely out of the question.

cost of living too high... Yes sure you can buy a house vs renting... but then you have to pay property taxes, home owners insurance, HOA Fees, utilities, and pay for appliances, repairs, and upkeep. If you can't do a lot of it yourself and have to pay people to do it then your in for some even more surprising costs. I own but I'm tired of the bills and upkeep, feels like a boat anchor, and the older I get the more it's just stuff I don't need. If I wasn't married I dump it all and move to south carolina pay cash for a mobile home on a small lot can call it a day... but the wife ain't having it...

Oh and not to mention if you have equity and end up in some financial trouble the vultures will swoop in to foreclose on you in a skinny minute. And then there is trying to sell it and how much you lose with realtor sharks/fees, lawyers, closing, buyers trying to get as much as they can for as little as possible... a real feeding frenzy on your wallet and a pain in the @#$...

Owning your own home is nice and feels like a peace of mind but I question if it's cheaper or any easier.

One last thing?? Do you really "own" it or does the bank and your just once again renting? And even if your lucky enough to get it paid for you still have property tax/hoa/upkeep/utility costs and the bigger the house the more expensive things are and the more work involved.

Yeah, exactly. Being a home owner is rolling the dice and expensive (and I do all home repairs thanks to Youtube). Its evens out in the end but at least with owning a house you get a chunk of change back vs your cleaning deposit. Again, that is if the market allows it.

We're really just looking to either:
-keep trucking along, staying a float each month on 1 salary (literally evening out) and waiting until Mom joins the work force (but about half of her income will go toward child care)
-sell the house, pay off 25k of debt (see previous post for the break down), save the rest, move to a cheaper area OTP +commute or relocate completely
 
The big problem seems to be that there is very little new construction going on in GA these days. Pre-2008 there was a steady supply of houses to move into if you sold your old house. Nowadays you'll have bidding wars going on for the house you are selling, and it can take months to find another available to buy. depending on what you are looking for.

I think the storage locker is a good idea though. It's going to be hard to hide moving a big gun safe into the rental. In fact if you are renting an apartment it's probably the only real option depending on how many guns you have.
 
GTFO of the perimeter imo, but I live in Lula and work in Gainesville so that might be easier said than done.

However this could be a good time to move further out (if your wife is looking for a new job).

As far as owning a home vs renting, we got a great deal on our first home and were in a great position when we sold it. Got a great deal on our new home because of the market in our area at the time also, but we looked for a year with some disappointment along the way. Owning a home has always been a positive thing for us. I don't think it's an impossible thing to pay off a house and associated costs, like some folks in here feel it seems.
 
GTFO of the perimeter imo, but I live in Lula and work in Gainesville so that might be easier said than done.

However this could be a good time to move further out (if your wife is looking for a new job).

As far as owning a home vs renting, we got a great deal on our first home and were in a great position when we sold it. Got a great deal on our new home because of the market in our area at the time also, but we looked for a year with some disappointment along the way. Owning a home has always been a positive thing for us. I don't think it's an impossible thing to pay off a house and associated costs, like some folks in here feel it seems.
Yeah, its possible that moving OTP would help, however I would definitely join the ranks of the commuters who spend hours in traffic, depending on where we go. Again, commuting time definitely gets reflected in the renting cost
Got any friends/family that will let you leave a safe in their house?
Negative.
 
Yeah, its possible that moving OTP would help, however I would definitely join the ranks of the commuters who spend hours in traffic, depending on where we go. Again, commuting time definitely gets reflected in the renting cost

Negative.
No possible jobs outside ATL for you? Just something to think about if the traffic bothers you enough.
 
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