housing
We found an apartment!
Since my roommate is kicking me out getting married in January, J and I have been looking for an apartment that I will live in at the end of December and he will join me after we get married in April. (We’re traditional like that.) We put together a mock newlywed budget to see what we could afford, researched different areas in between our two jobs, and made a list of the best complexes. After a lengthy and detailed spreadsheet, we narrowed it down to one apartment complex and two different layouts that varied just a bit in price.
Last Saturday we went to view the layouts and both completely fell in love with our apartment. It’s fabulous. In fact, the since I called two weeks ago, the price for our unit decreased by $80 a month, so it was even more of a confirmation that this would be our new home.
It is has everything we want:
- a balcony
- two bedrooms
- two bathrooms
- air conditioning
- third floor
- office nook
- garbage disposal
- fitness center
- community pool
- community jacuzzi
- vaulted ceilings
- lots of windows
- washer/dryer
- dishwasher
- eat-in kitchen
- free parking
- fantastic area
It almost seems too good to be true. Especially at $830 per month. That price in DC would buy me just a tiny little studio… it’s so nice to be back in the South. :)
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Moving Twice in One Year? Aye aye aye!
I mentioned last week that my roommate got engaged the day after I did. It has been absolutely fantastic planning a wedding together and I’m so excited for them and honored to be apart of the wedding party. There is just one tiny little glitch: they are getting married this January and I will have to move out.
We are planning our wedding in April, so there are really three options:
1. Find a roommate who needs a temporary roommate and sublease before the wedding.
2. Stay with J’s family who have graciously let me live with them before the wedding.
3. Get my own place and pay a little extra until J moves in after the wedding.
None of these options are ideal because moving is always a pain. However, I am leaning towards Option 3 to just get a place a few months before the wedding. It would be the least financially responsible plan, but I think it may be the most sane one since I don’t want to move out of my current apartment in January to a temporary home, continue planning a wedding, then move another time in April after the wedding. J also agrees that would be the best plan since he is living at home and can help with the rent until he moves in. Since J and I will be paying for the majority of our wedding ourselves, the next few months will be very tight in trying to save for the wedding before paying for an apartment and all those little moving expenses. (Also, in case you are wondering, it is not an option for J and I to live together before the wedding. Call us old fashion but we really want the first time we live together to be when we’re married.)
I’ll make sure to update you on our budgets very soon!
*Photo: Right after I got engaged, I grabbed my keys and scribbled “I’m Engaged!” on the chalkboard in our kitchen before heading to my hometown to celebrate with my family. After finding out my roommate got engaged, I promptly scratched out and wrote “we’re” as soon as I got home. :)
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Location, Location, Location
One amazing part about moving back to the South is the cheap cost of living. According to a cost of living calculator, I could take a 27% pay decrease and still maintain my standard of living I have now. Also, the average home in the DC metro area costs $640,000 whereas the average home in the Raleigh-Durham area costs $270,000. That is a huge difference!
*Here’s how my bills will differ:
Other perks of the new apartment include:
- Dishwasher
- Washer
- Dryer
- Disposal
- Central AC
- Safer
I will finally have a washer/dryer and be able to clean my dishes like a normal person! Moving to NC will save me $342.50 per month on bills. However, I am taking a pay decrease for my new job, so my budget will most likely stay the same. Hooray for inexpensive housing!
*Note: All of the bills are estimates and divided in half. My new roommate “Courtney” and I decided not to have cable, which is fine by me. And I probably won’t join a gym until the winter.
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My journey & reasons for moving to NC in a month.
Like I alluded to in yesterday’s post, I have decided to quit my job and move to North Carolina. Here are all of the details that led me up to that decision. I’ll try to be brief, but make no promises because there’s a lot I haven’t been sharing!
The Quest to end Long Distance
Unless this is the first post you are reading or you’re one to gloss over the personal details of this blog, you probably know that I am in a long distance relationship with a boy named J. LDR’s always need an expiration date. You either have to break up or move, but you can’t continue long distance unless there’s a good reason. The end for us was always J’s graduation this past December. We started 2010 with the goal to live in the same town by summer. Ideally he would find a job up near me since I already have one, but for about three months that proved dead end after dead end. No one seemed to be hiring in the DC area and if they were, the competition was fierce with overqualified candidates in the mix. In the middle of February, I told him to look for jobs in NC, where both of us are from and there are more contacts available. I love the state and have so many friends there anyway, so I would move towards him if he found something there first. About a month ago he got a job and that’s when I started to look.
My Job Search
I have been looking for jobs fairly aggressively since March. At first the search was pretty depressing because I was going after listed jobs that no doubt had hundreds of other applicants. Then I took a different approach: I figured out the companies I wanted to work for, sent them my resume (whether they were hiring or not), and ending up with six phone interviews with three different companies and two networking calls.
Last week, during my four day weekend, I managed to land three in-person interviews and one networking lunch. Of the three official interviews: one I hated, another I could tolerate, and one I absolutely fell in love with. The third one is my dream job at a dream company. I literally have to tell myself to stop day dreaming about it.
To Stay or Leave?
I came back to town Tuesday overwhelmed. I needed to make a decision by this past Saturday whether I was going to move or not because my landlord needs one month’s notice. If I moved out by June 1, then I would live with one of my best friends in NC who needs a roommate at the end of May (so could be perfect). The choice was either to move out in hopes that one of the interviews will turn into a job, or be stuck until at least July 1st and risk giving up a great job that would need me to relocate soon and also getting stuck having to pay a month’s rent and missing out on NC housing I would have June 1st. My decision affected my currnet roommate, who told me she was flexible, but that one of her friends has a vacant room at the end of May (also, potentially perfect). I needed to let my landlord and both of the “roommates” know by this past Saturday.
I was hopping to hear from one of the jobs before this past weekend, but Friday came and went and I didn’t get an answer. My Dream Job emailed me that they were checking my references on Friday, which is a good sign according to some Twitter peeps.
Decision Time
I couldn’t sleep last week and kept going back and forth about my decision. Do I move and hope that I get one of these jobs? Should I stay at my current job and just be patient that something will eventually come along? Do I risk everything I have now–my $41,000 salaried job–for something that is not guaranteed? Do I stay and risk giving up a cheap NC apartment and potentially a good job if I can’t move in time? Am I choosing unemployment in this challenging economic market?
Believe me–it was a really tough decision.
My Rat-Inspired Epiphany
Friday evening my roommate was out and none of my friends were available, so I was stuck alone with my torturous thoughts. I couldn’t stand it so I walked downtown where there was distraction. However, when I got there I never felt more lonely. Usually I like shopping alone, but I was surrounded with people who had someone. Be it a spouse, a child, a friend, a sibling… everyone I saw was with someone and it only made me more depressed.
Still confused, I walked back home with plans to watch a dependably happy romantic comedy and sip a large glass of wine. As I was about to sit down for a nice meal of Mexican leftovers, I saw the most horrifying black creature scurry across the hardwood floors from my couch to a chair in the corner. I shrieked and jumped on my coffee table, trying to figure out what to do. I took a large gulp of the wine in my left hand and speed dialed my sister with my right hand. I told her about the rat slash mouse slash diablo-incarnate, and she recommend I call someone to help. Is there anyone to come over? No, I answered. Your neighbors? Don’t really know them. Your guy friends? They’re out of town or busy and 30 minutes away. Your coworkers? None live near me. I told her I’d figure something out and she wished she wasn’t six hours away so she could help. I ended up calling my landlord then hibernating in my room for the rest of the night.
But I realized how pathetic I was—I had no one I felt comfortable calling. Not that a mouse was a huge crisis, but if I were living near J, I would have a handful of kindred spirits who would come to my rescue in a heartbealt. And that’s when I realized it: If I am surrounded by the people who love me unconditionally, then I can survive anything, including unemployment. It may not come to that (and I really really hope in the next month I get a job)… but if it did it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Home is Where the Heart Is
It will be such a blessing to be close to my family. This time last year my mom was first starting her chemotherapy and just thinking about last year’s summer months make me shudder. It was so hard being far away during that time. Thankfully she is doing better now, but I realized so much last year that my family means the world to me and I’m so ready to be within an hour’s drive.
I’m also so ready to be a real girlfriend in the same town as my boyfriend. A few months ago one of my coworkers said she had a friend she wanted to set me up with at a party. I couldn’t believe it. “I’m not single!” I told her. I’m done being independent and I’m ready to have my support system close by. I feel like an anti-feminist quitting my job and moving essentially for a boy… but just thinking about being near him makes me happy.
Next…?
So this is where I am today: I have one month to find a job, pack up my DC life and move back to the familiar to brave the unknown. I know, that sounds dramatic, but to me giving up such financial and emotional security is dramatic. I also give you permission to call me a PF-blogging failure. I am fully aware that all of my financial goals and possibly savings may go out the window, but I’ve already planned an unemployment budget if that’s what ends up happening. I plan to give my notice in a week or so at my current job.
I’m really optimistic about last week’s interviews. Of course my optimism scares me because I don’t like the alternative, but I am really hopeful that something will work out in the next few weeks or months. I am equally nervous/scared/excited about the possibilities but I can’t wait to share with you what ends up happening. :) Thanks for reading this looong post and joining me along on this journey back to the SOUTH!!!
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**By the way, thank goodness I have not seen any traces of the diablo rat since Friday night. Me thinks God placed it there to give me some direction, then took it away. Perhaps? ;)
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Debt Free Thoughts on Mortgages
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The other day a reader emailed me this:
i would love for you to do a post on what you think about real estate – your blog seems to announce that you do not ever want to be in debt, and i was wondering what your future plans for renting/buying are!
That is an excellent question. Honestly I haven’t put too much thought into it because I probably won’t buy a house for years. My financial priorities go like this:
- Save $10,000 in an Emergency Fund (circa Dec 2010)
- Max out Retirement Accounts (2011 and on)
- Save for a Wedding (2011)
- Save for a New car (2011/2012)
- Save for a House Deposit (2012-??)
Man! That seems like a loooong time! :( Perhaps I can knock out the first goals faster than expected? Hmm. But back to the question at hand: While I am very much against debt, I do plan to take out a mortgage when I buy a house. I’d love to buy a home with cash only (can you imagine?!) but realistically that probably won’t happen unless I win the lottery or marry rich.
I’ve got a little time before I will be saving for the deposit, but here are my debt-free thoughts on mortgages for when that time comes.
1. Rent Cheap
A lot of people have the mentality that renting is wasting money because you are throwing away cash that could be put towards equity. Well, that is technically true, but it can be a dangerous mentality if it rushes you into buying a house you can’t afford. It is, however, a good motivator to save faster and the easiest way to save faster is to rent cheap. I think that monthly housing costs should be no more than 35% of your paycheck. My rent right now is 26% of my paycheck (33% if you count bills) and I hope to stay around that no matter where I live. You don’t have to live in the ghetto to rent cheap, but some ways to save on rent include splitting rent with a roommate, renting away from city life (make sure to factor transportation costs), and sacrificing amenities like washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc. That topic really could be a whole post in itself.
2. Save 20% Down Payment
Mortgage lenders vary on the amount of cash they require for down payments, but I plan to save for a 20% deposit when I buy.
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(Town)Home Ownership?
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J and I agree on all major life issues, but we try not to plan our lives away and simply take each day as it comes (a much easier task for him than me). A few weeks ago, however, we indulged in a little future dreaming. He asked me what my ideal financial time line would look like. We’re pretty open about our finances and discussed emergency funds and saving for retirement and getting his debt paid off and saving for a home and when kids would fit into the picture. (I know—serious talk, right?)
We stayed on the house topic for a while. I confess I’m slightly terrified of buying a house; one because I’m so ignorant of the house-buying process, and two because I’ve heard so many horror stories about young couples who get trapped in a home that they cannot afford. We both agreed that we don’t want to rush into anything and want to be financially prepared for home ownership.
Then he asked me whether I would want to purchase a townhome or a house. Honestly, I had never considered a townhome, but I’ve been thinking more about it. It would be a low-maintenance frugal first home. However, both of us would like to have kids one day and I’m not sure if I’d like to raise kids in a townhouse, so is it wise to buy a place that has an expiration date on it? But then again, perhaps it would be a good transitional home while we save for a real house. Hmm.
Townhome Perks:
- cheaper
- low maintenance
- community amenities
- could rent it out to others
Townhome Drawbacks:
- limited space
- noise/neighbors
- community fees
- could be difficult to sell
- little yard/garden area
What are your thoughts on owning a townhome vs. a single family home? Is owning a townhome a good investment? I’m not seriously considering it, but am interested in hearing others’ opinions on the topic.
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