January 7, 2009

• House hunting

  Shopping for a place to live is a pain in the neck when you live nowhere near the place that you are moving to.  I mean, online searching is great, but you really can’t walk into a place sight unseen.  It’s one thing to have teh floor plan, and another to realize that you have no idea what 22 feet looks like.

  Furthermore, pictures don’t always do justice.  For example, I was looking at a place where the apartment looked nice, and the picture of the front of the building seemed good, too.  Then my mom mentioned that the area wasn’t that great.  Thank goodness for Google Maps street view.  It took me about 5 seconds to realize that it wouldn’t be that great.  Saved me a train ride.

  Apparently, it’s a buyers market, which seems great.  However, I’ll be moving back to NYC, which means that even a low price means getting bent over the table.  When I mention a 2-bedroom co-op apartment for $220,000+ to people in New York, they say it’s a good deal.  Mention that price for a place in a normal state and you’d be out of your mind.  Heck, that’s not even Manhattan, where an apartment will run over $500K.

  Basically, when this started, I was looking at places to rent.  When I saw that rent would run from $1,800 to $2,800 a month, I figured that if I were going to pump money into a place, I might as well be able to get something back at the end of it all, should I have to move.  That’s where buying comes in.

  Now, I just have to find somewhere where I am willing to live, as well as figuring out how that will affect my commute.  No reason to be stuck in traffic for an hour each way.

  ~Black 6, out.

  • 12:44 am
  • 1 Comment