Real World Lesson #3 – Life as a Renter

The goal when I moved to the DC area was to get a job as quick as possible and find a cheap place to live. Soon the goal changed to “find a cheap place to live where no one gets shot.” Living in Worcester, MA for 4 years doesn’t even begin to compare about some of the crazy stuff you see on the local news around here. Other than that, I really do love the ‘DMV’ (‘district, maryland, virginia’ as the lingo goes around here?). Anyways, rather than finding a realtor, I hunted Craigslist which is possibly the sketchiest place to look for apartments, while still being the best place to look. Contradiction?–yes, but completely true. The first place I hunted down was owned by ‘African Missionaries’ who wanted the money wired to them immediately. PASS. After touring several others, a basement apartment in a quaint family neighborhood won the apartment war. The basement and neighborhood brings forth a bunch of pros and cons for the present & future–

PRO -This neighborhood is fabulous. A sure go-to neighborhood for families with a giant park and school within and cute houses everywhere. At Christmas there was a giant tree lighting where Santa came, Frank Sinatra blasted through speakers, and free cookies were given out.

CON – I soon realized, this neighborhood is, in fact, too cute. I have fallen completely in love with it and in turn started searching for real estate within it. Despite the economic turn down, the street I live on is completely unaffordable for our young 20-something selves.

PRO – The basement is big and cheap

CON – It’s a basement…and I have no desire to live in a basement once I’m married.

PRO – There’s chickens, quaint right?

CON – Sometimes I think they’re out to get me–

I figured out how to imbed a link…definite win of the day!

(In other news, this week I quit 2 jobs and will start working another in 1.5 weeks. More on this later.)

Advertisement