witzend
Well-Known Member
As I wrote last week, M is doing well at his part time office job, and is working a second part time job at Game Crazy. He is several bus lines away from both jobs, so there is a lot of travel time and he wants to move.
Yesterday he called husband at work about an apartment or room in a house. husband didn't talk to him much, but somehow M was supposed to call me. He didn't. husband called asking if M had, and when I said no, he told me I should call M, it was something about renting a room or a house. Let me just say that real estate is not cheap in our city, especially the closer you get to downtown. We're in Forbes' top ten hottest housing markets, if that gives you an idea.
So, I called M, and he told me that he has a line on a 3,000 sf house for rent in the city, four bedrooms 2.5 baths, and he and three roommates could share it and would I go look at it and give him my opinion? I told him I would. But you know me, I had to figure out what was going on first. So I found the listing.
It is as he describes, a very well maintained craftsman house with all of the built-ins. It's a 1 year lease, $1,900 security deposit, $35 per renter credit check (M has no credit, and had his phone turned off for lack of payment) with no listing as to what the monthly rent is. There is a "mother-in-law apartment" in the basement with separate entry that is already being rented out. The renter pays all utilities. They are looking for a "stable family or a group of mature adult renters who will lovingly treat the house as their home". The owner is about 250 miles away, so that's a euphemism for "you do all of the maintenance and repairs yourself or I will keep your deposit and then some." My gut feeling is that my recommendation is "no", and I'm not happy that husband has left me to be the bad guy (again) in this. Although in all honesty I don't think the owner would lease to M or his friends. He always has such grandiose ideas!
So, tomorrow I will go with him to look at it, but husband is calling him today to get the specifics. I can't imagine that this place rents for anything less than $2200 a month. Plus utilities you have to figure it's close to $700 a month at base. Then if someone bails out on you in the year, you have to figure their rent/utilities due into yours. I looked at apartments and rooms to let in the area, they are small and month to month. He could get anything from $350 a month to $600 a month depending upon what he was looking for. I know for a fact that husband and I aren't co-signing anything or giving him any money towards this house. If he found an appropriate apartment I would be glad to help him furnish it with things from around here and from the goodwill. It was good enough for us, it can be good enough for him.
I guess that I will leave it at talking to him about the costs, and is he aware of them, letting him know we won't go out on a limb for him on this, and seeing if the owner really is interested in renting to him and his buddies. But there is no way he is prepared for a 12 month lease on a nice house that he has to maintain. Maybe I will take my computer and look at his free credit report and we can go from there. I also have a couple of apartments in mind that I can show him. But, I know if he has made up his mind, that's his choice, and I can't change that. But he's on his own, there.
Yesterday he called husband at work about an apartment or room in a house. husband didn't talk to him much, but somehow M was supposed to call me. He didn't. husband called asking if M had, and when I said no, he told me I should call M, it was something about renting a room or a house. Let me just say that real estate is not cheap in our city, especially the closer you get to downtown. We're in Forbes' top ten hottest housing markets, if that gives you an idea.
So, I called M, and he told me that he has a line on a 3,000 sf house for rent in the city, four bedrooms 2.5 baths, and he and three roommates could share it and would I go look at it and give him my opinion? I told him I would. But you know me, I had to figure out what was going on first. So I found the listing.
It is as he describes, a very well maintained craftsman house with all of the built-ins. It's a 1 year lease, $1,900 security deposit, $35 per renter credit check (M has no credit, and had his phone turned off for lack of payment) with no listing as to what the monthly rent is. There is a "mother-in-law apartment" in the basement with separate entry that is already being rented out. The renter pays all utilities. They are looking for a "stable family or a group of mature adult renters who will lovingly treat the house as their home". The owner is about 250 miles away, so that's a euphemism for "you do all of the maintenance and repairs yourself or I will keep your deposit and then some." My gut feeling is that my recommendation is "no", and I'm not happy that husband has left me to be the bad guy (again) in this. Although in all honesty I don't think the owner would lease to M or his friends. He always has such grandiose ideas!
So, tomorrow I will go with him to look at it, but husband is calling him today to get the specifics. I can't imagine that this place rents for anything less than $2200 a month. Plus utilities you have to figure it's close to $700 a month at base. Then if someone bails out on you in the year, you have to figure their rent/utilities due into yours. I looked at apartments and rooms to let in the area, they are small and month to month. He could get anything from $350 a month to $600 a month depending upon what he was looking for. I know for a fact that husband and I aren't co-signing anything or giving him any money towards this house. If he found an appropriate apartment I would be glad to help him furnish it with things from around here and from the goodwill. It was good enough for us, it can be good enough for him.
I guess that I will leave it at talking to him about the costs, and is he aware of them, letting him know we won't go out on a limb for him on this, and seeing if the owner really is interested in renting to him and his buddies. But there is no way he is prepared for a 12 month lease on a nice house that he has to maintain. Maybe I will take my computer and look at his free credit report and we can go from there. I also have a couple of apartments in mind that I can show him. But, I know if he has made up his mind, that's his choice, and I can't change that. But he's on his own, there.
husband did call him today and ask for more details. Apparently M had talked with two guys who wanted to join him in the apartment last night one was a "for sure" and one was a "really interested". They both called to back out today. husband asked him some questions about utilities and such, he was pretty naive about how that works. But, M had already decided that it was unrealistic to think that the owner of the house would rent to them, and was beginning to realize that keeping track of three roommates for a year was going to be more than he wants to deal with. M also happened to mention the apartment for $350 that I had looked up. He is thinking about that, but also thinking that maybe he should just stay where he is at until he can save up for an apartment that he really would like to be in. He is in the same place that we helped him get into last February, so that is really very steady. M says that he wants to try to save up 3 months salary as a buffer in case something goes wrong.
