I agree with Ronda. I'd only use #3 option of calling the authorities as a last resort after the property management has truely neglected repairs. Ask nicely first and give them a reasonable chance to fix it before you go threating to bring in the government.
I always think of serial killers using them to stash heads and things. They creep me out.
We rented one for a month when we had to stay with my parents for a month until our house was ready, and at one, the owner admitted they had a rat problem. Ugh.
I've lived in apartments since college and have a couple of more tips to share that could save you some dough:
1. Take digital photos of your apartment before you move in, particularly of any damage or wear-and-tear in the apartment. You don't want to be charged for anything that you did not do. Have these photos handy when you move so that you can prove the damage wasn't yours. And ALWAYS fill out the "inventory" sheet that allows you to describe the condition of the apartment when you move in and turn it in within the specified guidelines.
2. In one apartment I was in, I would turn off the circuit breaker to my water heater every Sunday and leave it off through Thursday. Since I worked out every morning and would just shower at the gym, I didn't need hot water to come out of the faucet. When I got home from work on Friday I would turn it back on to take hot showers over the weekend. My utility bill was cut by more than 1/2. You might not be able to do this where you live but look into it.
3. Along those same lines, if you live in a cooler area be sure to insulate your windows during winter. Kits can be purchased at any local hardware or discount store and are fairly easy to install. A recent Consumer Reports article stated that poor insulation is a huge contributer to high utility bills.
4. Get renter's insurance. This is an expense but the coverage you get compared to what you pay for it annually is well worth the investment.
5. Familiarize yourself with local laws and ordinances surrounding apartments/residential units. To save time, find out if there is a local office in your area that provides information to the public regarding such laws. For example, in one municipality where I lived if you moved and - after 30 days - did not receive your security deposit or a notice from your former landlord that explained why you weren't getting your deposit back, you were entitled to a full refund.
6. Beware of "pay by credit card" deals that some apartments advertise...they often come with an exorbitant fee ($10.00+) for every transaction.
Right on! I used to do pickups for a local non profit. A storage center called to donate what was in a trailer out back. That was where they put someones stuff before they got rid of it. The stuff was surprisingly OK for having been in the trailer for three plus years. No diamonds, but adequate for a resale store.
Don't store, it costs you more.
We flip the switch on our ceiling fans. In the winter they should turn clockwise (looking up at them). We run them on low to redistribute the warm air that rises.
When I was just entering high school, my mother moved me and my siblings to another state, and for some reason, she put all of our belongings in storage. We didn't have money to pay for rent, let alone a storage facility (yes, we were that poor), so it came as no surprise to me a couple of months later to find out my mom stopped paying the bill and all of our stuff had been auctioned off. She never told us our things were at risk, probably because she knew what our reaction would be. My entire childhood was lost in a single stroke. All of the belongings I'd treasured for years, gone. Things my father had bought for us for birthdays and holidays for over a decade, sold to the highest bidder. I was crushed. It was tragic. The memory of it is still bitter today, twenty years later. I wish I'd thought to go in person and appeal to the storage facility owners/managers, but I was too young to drive, and it was really long walk.
I keep the thermostat no higher that 65 during the day or when at home and turn it down to below 60 at night time. If we are chilly we put sweaters on or get up and do something which usually warms you up quick. Thank you for the giveaway.
Living in NYC can be expensive, but a silver lining is that often heat and hot water are included in rent. I've fallen in love with the old steam radiators since moving here because they're super warm and the hiss of the steam provides nice white noise to sleep to.
When I paid for my own heat, I would seal up the apartment as much as possible an pile on the layers and blankets. A really good pair of slippers and thermal tops and long undies can make all the difference.
I had to not hire an agent who then thought I was using her to get market advice (only). My husband and I had found ourselves in an odd situation, having to sell a house within 6 months of buying it and after negotiating a good price because the house had been on the market for about a year and was near a foreclosed home. She panicked and decided the market was falling b/c we had gotten a decent deal (our home was included in market comps) and was discouraging. We decided we needed someone who was more positive so we went to another agent, who happened to be incredibly professional and of course very upbeat. The house sold in 30 days.
There are great agents out there but they can be difficult to find (perhaps they are busy!); a good one will not be intimidated by buyers or sellers who have some knowledge and have done market research but still value the agent's expertise.
I've noticed that most of my co-workers identify with management and the big corporation even if it's not in their best interest. (This affects the healthcare debate, by the way.) I'm not sure why but time and time again, I hear regular middle-income Americans take the side of the big CEOs, as if they think that they will fall into that camp one of these days via hard work and loyalty.
The truth is: most will not climb that high on the ladder and more will benefit from pro-worker legislation such as paid maternity and paid vacation days. If the average Joe really banded together and demand change, then we Americans would enjoy a healthier work environment that promotes the mythic work-life balance.
I've found it helpful to plan the layout of your rooms beforehand with the apartment's brochures. I was about to get the 2 bedroom because I thought we might need the extra space, but after laying it out, we found that the 1 bedroom would work for us, as the extra bedroom would've been empty storage. Ended up saving $200 a month!
Agree it's all about location and depending on your preference could help you out. If you want to be walking distance to everything, you will pay a little more. If you want to pay less, you can live outside, but won't be as easy to get to places. Determine what location fits for you.
This is not a good idea, venting your dryer into the house. In MN you have to have it vented directly out of your house. I also would worry, as Stew mentioned about the mold problems.
Anyone using space heaters, especially in your kid's rooms, I do hope you are not leaving these on all night. Every year there seems to be more and more house fires in the winter here, caused from space heaters. Also how healthy is it to be closed in a room with a heater, and then soon as you step outside into other rooms in your house you are going to feel cold all over again.
Again it is all based on how warm you need your home for you to be comfortable and how many layers I am willing to have on when at home. I love my sweats and fuzzy socks, but when I have to dress in more layers inside then I need to have on to go outside, that means the house is waaaaaay, too cold. Also, depending on which state you live in if the house gets too cold, you can end up with frozen pipes. When the plumber comes out to fix the problems created by this, that cost alone will eat up any money you might have saved keeping your house freezing cold.
Something that frustrates me personally, and that I think is a problem in many American workplaces is the idea that working more hours equals more work completed. Not true. There's that old saying that the time it takes to complete a job will expand to fill the amount of time allotted to do the job. It only takes me about 4 hours a day to do what I have 8 hours a day to do . . . If only I could work full-bore for one month, then take the next off!
When I was helping my sister move her things into a storage unit for one of her college summer breaks (several kids shared one small unit for the couple of months between semesters), we saw a rock band rehearsing in an otherwise empty unit nearby. We got a kick out of seeing how you could have a garage band without having a garage.
With all due respect econobiker...
Comment 59:
Venting your dryer into your home is a terrible idea.
The increased humidity with almost certainly cause mold.
It will raise the relative humidity too much.
If you rent you may not care but be warned!
I tend to look at it exactly the opposite way around: Maybe you can earn more money and maybe you can't, but anybody can spend less than they've been spending.
Looking at the bigger picture, my logic is that frugality leads to freedom. If you spend a lot, you've got no choice but to find a job that pays a lot. And the more you spend, the fewer choices you have for how you earn your living, because only a few jobs pay that much. On the other hand, the more frugally you live, the more options you have for earning a living, because you can earn a modest amount of money lots of different ways.
I find that much the same logic extends to savings. So many people seem to have some sort of binary filter for their savings--it's either enough to live on for the rest of their life or else its nothing. Personally, I find that there are lots of advantages to having a modest amount of savings. A small amount of savings is essential as an emergency fund. Having a bit of capital saves you money. Even a small amount of retirement savings is a good step toward retirement.
I recently bought a home and had a decent experience with my Realtor. However I experienced problems from the seller's agent. She acted unethically to get the most out of the house like lying about other offers to put pressure on me. My Realtor was from the same large agency and didn't push back hard enough. So I felt like I was ganged up on from both sides. I'm not sure firing my agent would have helped much in that situation.
There may be good real estate agents out there, but I haven't met them. In the past few years, we have purchased twice, and sold once. We worked with about ten agents over that time. However well intentioned an agent might be, there are simply not the financial incentives in place for an agent to do other than what you have described. Now, there are plenty of resources available for a buyer or seller to do market analysis for themselves. This clued us in to just how poorly our agents were doing, from our perspective. What was particularly frustrating was that when we suggested alternate compensation schemes that would reward our agent for the behavior we wanted, there was always a great deal of resistance.
If you have an electric dryer you can vent the heat into a dryer vent box which you fill with water to supposedly keep the lint down. When I was single, I did this in an apartment and was able to open the exterior door and have steam come out! Downside is some lint gets by the vent box. This lint issue didn't matter in the apartment because I mounted the box right next to the heater intake filter so I could run the HVAC system on fan only and easily distribute the heat around the apartment.
Now married and living in a rental house I am planning to use the same type of vent box but surround it with a larger box with air filters built into it to keep the lint fuzz down. Probably put a diverter inline so the wife can pick to exhaust the heat outside or keep it inside.
Years ago there was also some sort of heat transfer unit for gas dryers which you mounted in line with the gas vent that allowed the exhausted combustion air to tranfer heat to the room air. As I remember this only worked if you had a dryer vent in the wall above the dryer (like in a basement or high up on the wall) as you needed the pipe run to put the transfer unit into...
We lower the thermostat and wear polar fleece in the house. I even have polar fleece jackets for the short-haired dogs.
Thanks.
I found that many of don't use foods we already have and keep on buying something new. here is my experiment on using what I have http://www.mewithoutdebt.com/2009/09/using-what-you-got.html
I agree with Ronda. I'd only use #3 option of calling the authorities as a last resort after the property management has truely neglected repairs. Ask nicely first and give them a reasonable chance to fix it before you go threating to bring in the government.
They are loosing their houses. They are also keeping the mortgage payments until they get kicked out.
I always think of serial killers using them to stash heads and things. They creep me out.
We rented one for a month when we had to stay with my parents for a month until our house was ready, and at one, the owner admitted they had a rat problem. Ugh.
I've lived in apartments since college and have a couple of more tips to share that could save you some dough:
1. Take digital photos of your apartment before you move in, particularly of any damage or wear-and-tear in the apartment. You don't want to be charged for anything that you did not do. Have these photos handy when you move so that you can prove the damage wasn't yours. And ALWAYS fill out the "inventory" sheet that allows you to describe the condition of the apartment when you move in and turn it in within the specified guidelines.
2. In one apartment I was in, I would turn off the circuit breaker to my water heater every Sunday and leave it off through Thursday. Since I worked out every morning and would just shower at the gym, I didn't need hot water to come out of the faucet. When I got home from work on Friday I would turn it back on to take hot showers over the weekend. My utility bill was cut by more than 1/2. You might not be able to do this where you live but look into it.
3. Along those same lines, if you live in a cooler area be sure to insulate your windows during winter. Kits can be purchased at any local hardware or discount store and are fairly easy to install. A recent Consumer Reports article stated that poor insulation is a huge contributer to high utility bills.
4. Get renter's insurance. This is an expense but the coverage you get compared to what you pay for it annually is well worth the investment.
5. Familiarize yourself with local laws and ordinances surrounding apartments/residential units. To save time, find out if there is a local office in your area that provides information to the public regarding such laws. For example, in one municipality where I lived if you moved and - after 30 days - did not receive your security deposit or a notice from your former landlord that explained why you weren't getting your deposit back, you were entitled to a full refund.
6. Beware of "pay by credit card" deals that some apartments advertise...they often come with an exorbitant fee ($10.00+) for every transaction.
Wow, these comments read right out of an Obama speech.
Right on! I used to do pickups for a local non profit. A storage center called to donate what was in a trailer out back. That was where they put someones stuff before they got rid of it. The stuff was surprisingly OK for having been in the trailer for three plus years. No diamonds, but adequate for a resale store.
Don't store, it costs you more.
We flip the switch on our ceiling fans. In the winter they should turn clockwise (looking up at them). We run them on low to redistribute the warm air that rises.
When I was just entering high school, my mother moved me and my siblings to another state, and for some reason, she put all of our belongings in storage. We didn't have money to pay for rent, let alone a storage facility (yes, we were that poor), so it came as no surprise to me a couple of months later to find out my mom stopped paying the bill and all of our stuff had been auctioned off. She never told us our things were at risk, probably because she knew what our reaction would be. My entire childhood was lost in a single stroke. All of the belongings I'd treasured for years, gone. Things my father had bought for us for birthdays and holidays for over a decade, sold to the highest bidder. I was crushed. It was tragic. The memory of it is still bitter today, twenty years later. I wish I'd thought to go in person and appeal to the storage facility owners/managers, but I was too young to drive, and it was really long walk.
I keep the thermostat no higher that 65 during the day or when at home and turn it down to below 60 at night time. If we are chilly we put sweaters on or get up and do something which usually warms you up quick. Thank you for the giveaway.
koinonia572001@yahoo.com
Living in NYC can be expensive, but a silver lining is that often heat and hot water are included in rent. I've fallen in love with the old steam radiators since moving here because they're super warm and the hiss of the steam provides nice white noise to sleep to.
When I paid for my own heat, I would seal up the apartment as much as possible an pile on the layers and blankets. A really good pair of slippers and thermal tops and long undies can make all the difference.
I had to not hire an agent who then thought I was using her to get market advice (only). My husband and I had found ourselves in an odd situation, having to sell a house within 6 months of buying it and after negotiating a good price because the house had been on the market for about a year and was near a foreclosed home. She panicked and decided the market was falling b/c we had gotten a decent deal (our home was included in market comps) and was discouraging. We decided we needed someone who was more positive so we went to another agent, who happened to be incredibly professional and of course very upbeat. The house sold in 30 days.
There are great agents out there but they can be difficult to find (perhaps they are busy!); a good one will not be intimidated by buyers or sellers who have some knowledge and have done market research but still value the agent's expertise.
I've noticed that most of my co-workers identify with management and the big corporation even if it's not in their best interest. (This affects the healthcare debate, by the way.) I'm not sure why but time and time again, I hear regular middle-income Americans take the side of the big CEOs, as if they think that they will fall into that camp one of these days via hard work and loyalty.
The truth is: most will not climb that high on the ladder and more will benefit from pro-worker legislation such as paid maternity and paid vacation days. If the average Joe really banded together and demand change, then we Americans would enjoy a healthier work environment that promotes the mythic work-life balance.
I've found it helpful to plan the layout of your rooms beforehand with the apartment's brochures. I was about to get the 2 bedroom because I thought we might need the extra space, but after laying it out, we found that the 1 bedroom would work for us, as the extra bedroom would've been empty storage. Ended up saving $200 a month!
Agree it's all about location and depending on your preference could help you out. If you want to be walking distance to everything, you will pay a little more. If you want to pay less, you can live outside, but won't be as easy to get to places. Determine what location fits for you.
This is not a good idea, venting your dryer into the house. In MN you have to have it vented directly out of your house. I also would worry, as Stew mentioned about the mold problems.
Anyone using space heaters, especially in your kid's rooms, I do hope you are not leaving these on all night. Every year there seems to be more and more house fires in the winter here, caused from space heaters. Also how healthy is it to be closed in a room with a heater, and then soon as you step outside into other rooms in your house you are going to feel cold all over again.
Again it is all based on how warm you need your home for you to be comfortable and how many layers I am willing to have on when at home. I love my sweats and fuzzy socks, but when I have to dress in more layers inside then I need to have on to go outside, that means the house is waaaaaay, too cold. Also, depending on which state you live in if the house gets too cold, you can end up with frozen pipes. When the plumber comes out to fix the problems created by this, that cost alone will eat up any money you might have saved keeping your house freezing cold.
Something that frustrates me personally, and that I think is a problem in many American workplaces is the idea that working more hours equals more work completed. Not true. There's that old saying that the time it takes to complete a job will expand to fill the amount of time allotted to do the job. It only takes me about 4 hours a day to do what I have 8 hours a day to do . . . If only I could work full-bore for one month, then take the next off!
When I was helping my sister move her things into a storage unit for one of her college summer breaks (several kids shared one small unit for the couple of months between semesters), we saw a rock band rehearsing in an otherwise empty unit nearby. We got a kick out of seeing how you could have a garage band without having a garage.
Hi. I like your blog. well done!
With all due respect econobiker...
Comment 59:
Venting your dryer into your home is a terrible idea.
The increased humidity with almost certainly cause mold.
It will raise the relative humidity too much.
If you rent you may not care but be warned!
@ Tyson:
I tend to look at it exactly the opposite way around: Maybe you can earn more money and maybe you can't, but anybody can spend less than they've been spending.
Looking at the bigger picture, my logic is that frugality leads to freedom. If you spend a lot, you've got no choice but to find a job that pays a lot. And the more you spend, the fewer choices you have for how you earn your living, because only a few jobs pay that much. On the other hand, the more frugally you live, the more options you have for earning a living, because you can earn a modest amount of money lots of different ways.
I find that much the same logic extends to savings. So many people seem to have some sort of binary filter for their savings--it's either enough to live on for the rest of their life or else its nothing. Personally, I find that there are lots of advantages to having a modest amount of savings. A small amount of savings is essential as an emergency fund. Having a bit of capital saves you money. Even a small amount of retirement savings is a good step toward retirement.
I recently bought a home and had a decent experience with my Realtor. However I experienced problems from the seller's agent. She acted unethically to get the most out of the house like lying about other offers to put pressure on me. My Realtor was from the same large agency and didn't push back hard enough. So I felt like I was ganged up on from both sides. I'm not sure firing my agent would have helped much in that situation.
There may be good real estate agents out there, but I haven't met them. In the past few years, we have purchased twice, and sold once. We worked with about ten agents over that time. However well intentioned an agent might be, there are simply not the financial incentives in place for an agent to do other than what you have described. Now, there are plenty of resources available for a buyer or seller to do market analysis for themselves. This clued us in to just how poorly our agents were doing, from our perspective. What was particularly frustrating was that when we suggested alternate compensation schemes that would reward our agent for the behavior we wanted, there was always a great deal of resistance.
If you have an electric dryer you can vent the heat into a dryer vent box which you fill with water to supposedly keep the lint down. When I was single, I did this in an apartment and was able to open the exterior door and have steam come out! Downside is some lint gets by the vent box. This lint issue didn't matter in the apartment because I mounted the box right next to the heater intake filter so I could run the HVAC system on fan only and easily distribute the heat around the apartment.
Now married and living in a rental house I am planning to use the same type of vent box but surround it with a larger box with air filters built into it to keep the lint fuzz down. Probably put a diverter inline so the wife can pick to exhaust the heat outside or keep it inside.
Years ago there was also some sort of heat transfer unit for gas dryers which you mounted in line with the gas vent that allowed the exhausted combustion air to tranfer heat to the room air. As I remember this only worked if you had a dryer vent in the wall above the dryer (like in a basement or high up on the wall) as you needed the pipe run to put the transfer unit into...