Lease coming up for renewal, thinking of moving... (long)

[Antares]

Hey all,
I know I don't post much so you don't know me well, and this will probably be pretty long as I explain, but if you make it through, I'd be interested in your thoughts.


The apartment:
The apartment is between 1000 and 1100 sq. feet. Two bedrooms, two baths separated by the living area. I have the bigger of the two bedrooms with a huge walk-in closet and attached bathroom. About the only time I leave it is to use the kitchen. So, I live in about 250 sq. feet for the the most part.

The apartment is really pretty nice and is one of the nicest complexes in our town. It has some great amenities that you don't normally find in an apartment complex. There are 3 pools, between our complex and the adjoining one which we have access to. The pool in my complex is the nicest pool I've ever seen in an apartment complex, although last year it was closed about half the time I wanted to use it because they were having problems. One of the pools is an indoor/outdoor pool that is open all year 'round. I've never that one.

There is a dog run, tennis courts, a racquet ball court, workout room and it is nicely landscaped. My apartment overlooks a pond. It is conveniently located with easy access to almost everything. Both major highways are about 1 mile away. Shopping (Mejier, Sam's Club), the movie theater are about the same distance. Most everything else is about 5-10 minutes away.

Mind you, we pay for it. Our rent is slated to go up $64/month to almost $1000/month if we renew. That doesn't include the pet rent, or rental of the carport or garages. All told, the check we wrote for last month was over $1100.


My roommate:
I share the apartment with a roommate. I lived in this complex for 5 years in a place by myself until last year. My roommate is a friend who has been out of work for nearly 4 years. We'd looked at moving in together a couple of times since he's been laid off, but never did.

Last year, they were going to raise his rent to even more than we are paying now and he decided he needed to move out. I thought about buying a house, and looked at them and other apartments. After looking at a number of places, I decided that I'd move to a larger apartment in my complex. (This saved me from breaking my lease, but I had to pay a new deposit, new pet deposit as well as moving expenses. It turned out to be a pretty expensive move.)

He pays half of all the bills. When he got laid off, he told me he could live for 3-5 years on what he had saved without a big change in his standard of living. He'd been saving for a house and had saved a large sum of money which he has been living off of for the past 4 years.

He also does a lot of cooking. He is a very good cook.

But other than that, I don't think he's looking very hard for a job. I know he is, but I don't know how hard. I think most of the time he reads, watches tv and plays games on the computer. Which really isn't any of my business, but for some reason it bugs me.


To renew or not:
For the past several years I've been looking at houses off and on, including recently. Ever since they announced our rent increase, I've been looking a little more intensely. I'd hoped to stay in this apartment after we went our separate ways, but with the rent increase they're socking us with, that won't be possible.

I've come across a couple of very nice manufactured homes in a park in the area. I'm hoping to look at in a few days. If it checks out, the place I am most interested in is a bit over 1800 sq. feet and would give us about a 60% increase in space. It would also cost about $800/month. That would cover both the lot rent and house payment. Lot rent would be locked in for 2 years. The home would be paid off in 10 years or less. (Shoot, one of the places I'm going to look at looks like it would cost about $400-$450/month for the next 2 years. That includes lot rent and house payment. After that, lot rent would go up. It is $200/month for the first 2 years then goes up to the normal rate.)

There is no swimming pool, racquet ball court or workout room. There is a carport, but no garage. So we'd probably still need a small storage unit.

On one hand, I moved just a year ago and I hate moving. We're in the apartment and it suits our needs pretty well, though not as well as I'd hoped. We have all the amenities that I mentioned earlier and it is conveniently located.

It would also be very expensive to move as I would have to put the 15% down, pay a couple of months of lot rent and buy appliances for the home. I'd also have to get a lawn mower and shovel the driveway when it snowed. I'd also be responsible for any maintenance issues. Despite all of that, I'd probably still do it without question if it weren't for my roommate.

He has agreed to go look at the place with me, but he doesn't want to move. And I can't say that I blame it him, I hate moving. I suspect that if I push it, he'd make the move, but I don't want to force him into it. If I did that there's a good chance he wouldn't be happy about it. I don't want to live with an unhappy roommate.

Now, I told him how much money we'd save, but I wasn't real clear on some of the specifics. I'd probably offer him something along the lines of renting half the place for $300 and half the utilities/cable or just tell him that if he paid all the utilities/cable I'd let him live there rent free. Dunno, I haven't brought this part of it up yet. I figured I'd wait to see how the places I'm looking at check out before bringing it up. I mean, if it doesn't look like they're going to be acceptable, why bother him with it if I don't need to. Does that make sense?

We have to let our apartment complex know by the middle of the month whether or not we're going to renew, so one way or the other, the decision has to made quickly.

Anyways, I hope that to those of you who made it through this, I hope this makes sense.

[Aethian]

Honestly...I wouldn't move.

[Andara Bledin]

I have no idea where you are, but a tiny 600 sq ft place we had last, with one assigned parking spot and a pool that was turned into a yard without removing the concrete cost us that much a month. Oh, yeah, and don't forget the nearly annual fatal shootings. >_<

Question: When you moved and paid the new deposit, did you get your old deposit back, or was it just an additional deposit?

Also: Check into your local renter protection laws. It's possible that there are regulations regarding how much they can raise your rent, and the notice they have to give about it. Our last place tried to raise our rent with 30 days notice, but the amount they were raising it required 60 days notice, which they never gave, so we never ended up getting our rent raised at all for the last 8 months we were there. Sometimes property owners are clueless about the laws, and sometimes they're just banking on the renters being clueless.

Finally: I would avoid any location that has a lot tied to it. I've done the lot + property thing before, and it's amazing how quickly rates can go up when you've got two separate parts that can be raised independently. Also, who would be taking care of the yard and outside? If you do it, you'll just end up resenting having to work and do work when you get home. But if you have him do all of it, then it's not really a balanced living arrangement unless the chores are specifically in lieu of rent and have an assigned monetary value attached to them.

^-.-^

[sms001]

Although normally I'd REALLY recommend buying instead of renting, in this case I'm a little hesitant.

The biggest advantages to buying are property ownership and equity. In the situation you describe, I assume you'd benefit from the latter, but you wouldn't have the former. You'd be stuck unless you could sell off the home, which is an experience right up there with moving.

If you were talking about buying in the usual sense, I'd say go for it; the apartment complex where you currently reside sounds like the kind of place that will keep going up (that "$64.00" sounds like they know exactly what percentage is a legal hike) and you sound like you don't really make full use of all the amenities. (Although the location seems great.)

Regardless of which way you go, I'd look very seriously into having a lawyer draw up a contract for the roommate's financial responsibilities. Dual ownership of big ticket items can get very tricky, and roomie is coming near the end of the safety margin he gave you.

[Antares]

Honestly...I wouldn't move.

Can you elaborate as to why?

I have no idea where you are, but a tiny 600 sq ft place we had last, with one assigned parking spot and a pool that was turned into a yard without removing the concrete cost us that much a month. Oh, yeah, and don't forget the nearly annual fatal shootings. >_<

Question: When you moved and paid the new deposit, did you get your old deposit back, or was it just an additional deposit?

Also: Check into your local renter protection laws. It's possible that there are regulations regarding how much they can raise your rent, and the notice they have to give about it. Our last place tried to raise our rent with 30 days notice, but the amount they were raising it required 60 days notice, which they never gave, so we never ended up getting our rent raised at all for the last 8 months we were there. Sometimes property owners are clueless about the laws, and sometimes they're just banking on the renters being clueless.

Finally: I would avoid any location that has a lot tied to it. I've done the lot + property thing before, and it's amazing how quickly rates can go up when you've got two separate parts that can be raised independently. Also, who would be taking care of the yard and outside? If you do it, you'll just end up resenting having to work and do work when you get home. But if you have him do all of it, then it's not really a balanced living arrangement unless the chores are specifically in lieu of rent and have an assigned monetary value attached to them.

^-.-^

Yes, I got my security deposit back. The non-refundable pet deposit was another thing, plus for some stupid reason I had to reapply to the complex so got to pay the application fee as well. There was something else I think, but I can't remember it right now.

I guess technically they're only raising the rent $49, but they're also eliminating the $15 rent credit that we've been receiving. All in all, it is about a 7% increase in what I'm paying. Mind you, I've received one raise since 2008. That was 2%, which was more than taken up with the increase in our health care costs. But I digress...

The lot rent looks to be pretty stable. In the past 2 years it looks like it has only gone up $10-$20/month. When you first move in they have a two year lease, so your lot rent is locked in for that period of time. After that, they offer 5 year leases. So rates would be stable for a pretty good length of time.

He keeps the kitchen main area of the apartment clean. He uses it the most. But he also does a fair bit of cooking. And as I mentioned, he is a pretty good cook.

If you're interested in where I live and where I'm looking at, feel free to pm me.

Although normally I'd REALLY recommend buying instead of renting, in this case I'm a little hesitant.

The biggest advantages to buying are property ownership and equity. In the situation you describe, I assume you'd benefit from the latter, but you wouldn't have the former. You'd be stuck unless you could sell off the home, which is an experience right up there with moving.

If you were talking about buying in the usual sense, I'd say go for it; the apartment complex where you currently reside sounds like the kind of place that will keep going up (that "$64.00" sounds like they know exactly what percentage is a legal hike) and you sound like you don't really make full use of all the amenities. (Although the location seems great.)

Regardless of which way you go, I'd look very seriously into having a lawyer draw up a contract for the roommate's financial responsibilities. Dual ownership of big ticket items can get very tricky, and roomie is coming near the end of the safety margin he gave you.

Famous last words, but I'm not terribly worried about dual ownership. I'd own everything. And although he's been pretty lazy, he isn't the type of person that would try take stuff that wasn't his. It just isn't his nature.

You're right in the fact that I wouldn't own the lot, and that is something I have to ask about. If I decide to move at some point, I imagine I have to keep paying lot rent until it sells. If I did move though, I'd have some equity in the place and would get some money back from that.

I use the pool in the summer a lot. I used to use the racquet ball court, but screwed up my ankle a couple of years ago playing and it has never healed properly. It doesn't bother me 99% of the time, but I'm afraid to aggravate it.

Simple numbers, and assuming no increases, but if I were to move into an apartment for $850/month, in 10 years I'd have paid $102,000 in rent. If I move into the place I'm looking at, I'd still pay approximately the same $102,000 in rent, but if I moved, and sold it for even half of what they're asking, my net out of pocket would be $84,500. Of course, that doesn't take into account the repairs/maintenance that I would be responsible for.

After 10 years, the place would be paid for and I'd simply be responsible for lot rent whereas I'd still be paying the higher rent amount. (I know. Who knows where I'll be in 10 years) I'm sure lot rent would go up, but as they publish it, unless I got into one of the places with the reduced lot rent for 2 years, I don't think it would go up anything like what my rent has been increasing.