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I need your opinion

Keego

Keego

Diamond Member
I'm graduating college and moving to a new town to start my engineering job. I've got a cat, and I like cars, so I wanted to get a garage, and a townhouse/apt/house with a garage. This seems to be an insane requirement in the town I am moving to because it is so small (20k). I've got it down to two options, listed below:

Townhouse - $700/month
  • Nice neighborhood, tract "townhouses," all about 5-7 years old.
    Away from the city (13 min to drive to work, all fast moving roads).
    The middle of a 4-plex (OXXO where the X's are the open townhouses)
    Property Management, their office is a couple of blocks away.
    Next to an empty lot - basically good for my cat to run around unmolested

House - $550/month
  • I don't know the neighborhood because I didn't find out about this one until after I drove over there to look for places to live.
    About 6 minutes from work
    Has a new garage (built last year) and a fenced (thigh/hip high) yard.
    Old guy and his wife are renting it out, and they've never let cats in there before but they are not against the idea
    Again, I don't know the neighborhood, but I do know that the house is 3 blocks from the train line, and it is used regularly.



The main issue I have is that I've been in college for 4 years always scraping by and never having money. Then this job comes along and I'll be swimming in cash, but I stop to think about how much a difference $150 a month would make. With $150 a month I could buy an ipod, a video card, a freaking car payment, invest it, or even donate it.

Is $150 a month worth dealing with a train and questionable neighborhood? I talked to the guy at the house online and he says he never locks his doors and that his neighbors are nice.

The town has a crime problem because it's based on agricultural stuff, so I'm really freaking out about wanting a secure garage and neighborhood for my car, cat, and belongings.
 
Find friends to share house with to save money.

If you want some security, you might need to find a better place with low crime and commute to your job daily.
 
I will know noone in the town when I move in there, which will be a problem because I plan on travelling about a week every month. And, I just finished spending 4 years with various roommates, I want to live alone. Money isn't going to be a problem, but $200 isn't anything to sneeze about.
 
You may also want to consider purchasing a house rather then renting. If you plan on staying with the company and living in that town for more than a year or two. From the looks of things, one could obtain a house with a garage for under 100,000 out there. Even if you make 0 down payment, as long as you have good credit, and qualify for between 5 and 5.5 percent ... add tax, PMI, insurance, and you're payments would come out at under $700 per month. if the real estate market in your area is completely stagnant, you will still win out a little bit due to equity created by paying the bills. If the value of the home goes up ... when it comes time to sell, you'll have a nice big chunk of equity ready for the upgrade ......

EDIT:

Also,
Do you have any major unpaid debts? car loan, school loan, etc?
Generally it's best to spend no more than 25% to 33% of your gross income on rent/morgage ... that way you would still have a decent amount left over to live off of, and hopefully save/invest. Now if you have 100K of student loans to pay off, and a $400 a month car payment ..... then it's advisable to pinch pennies whereever you can.


Also, if I were choosing between the 2 options you mentioned, I'd go with the house. Generally, houses > Townhouses .... and townhouses > condo's .....

though not always the case ....
 
I plan on buying a house later - not in this town and not right after getting out of college. I don't have any loans to pay off, but I do want to be smart with my money.
 
Well, I looked at the chatlog again, it's $550 vs $700, which makes me feel better about wanting the townhouse (because I originally just wanted to save money) The townhouse is double the commute time though 🙁

Here's a picture of each of them:
House | House2 | House3 | House4
Townhouse

I think I'm going to get a townhouse due to the iffy neighborhood and the proximity of the railroad to the house.
 
go for the house. you can always research the neighborhood on the internet or something like that, but if the guy doesn't lock his doors, then i think you have nothing to worry about.

jewno: he's renting the house, not buying it.
 
Originally posted by: tami
go for the house. you can always research the neighborhood on the internet or something like that, but if the guy doesn't lock his doors, then i think you have nothing to worry about.

jewno: he's renting the house, not buying it.
Click to expand...

Damn it, he should have bought it and sell it for more profit.
 
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