I've lived in apartments my whole adult life.
Last week, I moved into my first house 🏠
As of now, I'm paying rent for my current apartment through June and I started this new lease in March.
It was hard to justify to myself paying double rent for three months, until I did some rough math.
My apartment is $1,134/month all-inclusive.
Rent is technically $950, utilities and parking are $184.
The house?
$649/month before electric & water.
I can't use $500 worth of utilities in a month to get me even with the old rent.
There's no way.
So.. let's call it +$150/mo, making my new all-in rent about $800.
I'm paying ~$2,400 extra by starting the lease in March and I'm saving ~$350/month by moving, so it'll take about 7 months to make up for the double rent.
After that, my housing costs drop significantly compared to what they are right now (for a bigger space).
My apartment was about 550 square feet and the house is just under 1,000.
And that's just the math.. I personally couldn't live in my current situation for much longer.
The new house is right by a community garden, several golf courses, and a dog park.
Coming from an apartment in the middle of the city with no yard and no porch, I'm ecstatic. I've spent so much time outside already and the warmest it's been is like 55º.
The simple fact of being able to do something—anything—outside is worth almost any cost to me at the moment:
Paying double rent and guaranteeing I got this space felt like a good option, but doing the math confirmed to me that it was.
My thought is that If I'm working from home and spend a majority of my time here, I want to have a good space.
And this was perfect.
I found the listing on a Sunday morning, texted my dad to see if he noticed anything wrong, submitted the application that afternoon, heard back Monday, viewed it on a Wednesday, signed on a Friday.
Decisions can be made quick when you know what you're going after.
Surprisingly, I'd like to buy the house I'm renting.
It was built in 1925 and with a few improvements, I think I could make it really nice and be something that I own forever.
Maybe I'd turn into an "office" for my businesses and anyone visiting could use it like a free hotel.
I've already made several small improvements that have made it more inviting and I plan to build a breakfast bar / window seating area.
I love thinking about things I could do, and then actually doing them. It's fun. I now know why my parents watched HGTV every night.
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It was time for a change.
I moved into my current apartment in May 2020, the fourth night of the George Floyd protests.
I had wanted to move into the city for years and viewed the apartment several months prior, which turned out to be the day before lockdowns started.
They stopped showing the units for several months afterwards so for a period of time, there were just a handful of people living in a 10-story historic hotel-turned-apartment complex. It was odd.
But I've spent almost every moment of COVID in that apartment, watched every unprecedented news story play out – I've developed a weird feeling about the place.
It's almost nostalgic in present time.
Because at the same time I started my business in the corner of my bedroom, recorded 200+ videos, wrote 500+ articles, cried countless times, worked myself into a ball of anxiety, made my first dollar, had my first $10k month — everything happened there.
It's sad to move on.
BUT.. my car was also stolen out of the parking lot twice, I stopped counting the break-ins at nine, and I had to walk down four flights of stairs (or take a stupid elevator) to take my dog out.
It's kinda like a toxic relationship – ya miss it, but not really.
There are several things I've owned since college that've moved with me everywhere - like my couches, a coffee table, mattress, TV - so these costs don't consider "everything" that can go into the process.
I thought it'd be interesting to see the full breakdown myself, so I just wanted to share a few highlights here:
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So far, the total costs have been about $1,600.
Does anything stand out to you? Are you planning for an upcoming move?
