The Joy Of Aparment Hunting

My youngest child is moving away from home. I cannot believe that my daughter has completed her associate degree and has found an office manager position in a city sixty miles away from us. She has been commuting for the summer months, but with winter on the way she in going to move into the city. She knows that I am stressing about this so she asked me to go apartment hunting with her. She thought it would help me to know that she was in a safe place.

We started out early on a Saturday morning. She had made appointments with apartment building managers as well as two apartments that were in residential areas. The first apartment building that we went to was within walking distance of her job. This was close to the down town area that has several bars and night clubs. I think she was also thinking that she could walk home after drinking with friends. The apartment was located on the third floor of the building. On the first floor were shops and an attorney’s office. The building is quite old. The apartment was good size. There was a large living room and a kitchen and dining room area. The bedroom was very large. There was a walk in closet and built in dresser drawers along the window ledge. The bathroom was next to the bedroom. It had been updated to include a shower/tub combination, toilet and large vanity. For the size of the apartment the rent was quite reasonable and the location to her work was great, however they had no garages available and there was no security system in the apartment building. Neither of us liked the idea of strangers being able to access the hallways of the building.

The next appointment we had was two blocks away in a residential area. The apartment was in a house that had been remodeled to form two apartments. The apartment that was available was the upper level of the home. There was a nice living room and kitchen with a separate dining area and a big bed room and bathroom. The only shared area with the other renter was the laundry room area and the two stall garage. The rent was reasonable, but my daughter would be responsible for half of the utilities and heating costs. My daughter did not think she would like having to split up bills with someone she did not know. She decided that she would be more comfortable in an apartment building, so she called and cancelled the other appointment in the residential area.

The next apartment building we went to had a security system. The apartment was on the second floor and there was a garage for the car. The rooms were good size and the drive to work was only five minutes. She decided to rent this apartment and will move in next month.

Affordable New Houses

The single most important purchase that you will ever make is your house.
While making a solid investment is ideal there are many affordable new homes
on the market today. You can consider different housing options that can
offer surprisingly low monthly home mortgage payments that are quite
manageable.

Many people believe that affordable new homes don’t really exist. However,
you may be surprised to discover that you may be better off buying new
rather than renovating an existing structure. With a little planning and
forethought you may find that you can even build your house from the
foundation up for relatively little money.

While the dream of building a house is prominent for some others find that
they just want to find affordable new homes that are in move-in condition.
There are many things that can go wrong during a new house construction
project and there is also a matter of time as well. Many are unable to
afford to pay for construction and monthly rent payments while waiting for
the project to be finished.

There are brand new houses on the market that are made of quality material
and are ready for the occupants to move right in. You may be surprised to
discover the many options available to potential homeowners who are in the
market for affordable new houses. Don’t think that you have to buy an older
house to be able to meet your monthly mortgage payment obligations.

In some cases an older house can cost you a fortune in updates and repairs.
You may find that your mortgage is affordable but you may also find that you
have to come up with a lot of money for renovations and updates especially
in the kitchen and bath. The repairs can add up very quickly and you could
wind up spending a lot more than you anticipated.

My husband and I thought that the only affordable houses on the market were
older handyman specials and we limited our search to those types of
structures. We were surprised to discover that renovating most of these
houses would cost more than buying a newer house. We decided to extend our
search into affordable new houses and were thrilled with the results.

After figuring how much it would cost to update the old houses we opted to
buy new. In no time at all we found ourselves in a lovely house that cost a
bit more than older homes we browsed. The affordable new homes were in
perfectly updated condition and they offered so much more for the money.