Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Any advice on finding cheap apartments? I don't like living with other people, even though I know it will save money. And I'm not interested in living in an RV.
So far, I've been looking at Wichita, Kansas and finding cheap apartments. Anyplace else that's cheap to rent? I need advice. Also what are the best websites to search for apartments?

If you're going to be employed somewhere, I've had good results just drawing a radius around work, then going into Google Maps/craigslist and checking all the apartment buildings inside it. Or find bike routes/bus routes to work and check along them.

What about vandwelling? With enough research it can be quite comfortable and freeing. Just about any objections you may have can be rationalized away.

I’m my experience you can find cheap places to live almost anywhere.

I would suggest looking at every small and midsize city in the us as long as it’s not by a big city.I paid $350 per month in my college town (but I had roomates). Even in philly I’ve seen studios for as low as $400 per month.

If you can move anywhere, I would look at a country like Thailand.

I read your on Long Island? Go to any town in New York north and or west of Poughkeepsie and you’ll find very cheap rent.

I'm paying just under $100 in central Chiang Mai. It'll take some walking to find rates like that in central. I've got a studio.

Hmmm if I have to work normal business hours then I'll have to stay on east coast. If my hours don't matter then I can move to Thailand. I'll have to do research

If you're using Craigslist, be aware it's never the only source of rentals, or even the dominant source. It has maybe 20-40% of the available rentals, and is usually on the high end of the true market. Other things to try include local newspapers and Web sites, driving around and looking for "for rent" signs, showing up at property managers' offices and asking what they have. In smaller towns, check bulletin boards at places such as grocery stores and laundromats.

If you're flexible on starting date, rather than say needing to move in to a new place for February 1, a lot more options open up. Not just another month of rentals, but if you know something's been vacant for awhile, you can deal.

Learn the occupancy patterns and what the big move-in/move-out months are, and shoot for something a starting in the shadow of the peak dates. For example, in Chicago it's October 1 with a smaller peak on May 1. Rentals starting in Nov/Dec/Jan can usually be found for substantially less than October rentals, because the landlord is looking at the place going empty all winter, when nobody wants to be outside moving. Where I live it's November so people are in for ski season. In college towns it usually corresponds to the beginning of terms.

Always ask, "is that the best you can do?" and hem and haw a little about whether you want the rental. You can often get $25 or $50 knocked off.

Anyplace else that's cheap to rent?

I'm finding the going rate in small town/rural America is $400-500 for a 1BR. Some places are cheaper (Appalachia), some are more expensive (anywhere with tourist demand or an unusually strong job market), but it's remarkable how consistent I'm finding that price range to be. Not a whole lot more expensive than some other countries that are portrayed as ER havens when you factor in other costs, as it turns out.

Re Thailand and similar SE Asian countries. If you're sponsored for work or you're over 50 and on a retirement visa you're fine, but otherwise most people have to do a visa run every 90[?] days, where you go to Cambodia and come back so you can get a new passport stamp. Takes a whole day, has a cost and I've heard varying reports on the Kingdom making it harder/more expensive to do/have to spend more time outside the Kingdom/"cracking down". I mean people do it but something to consider; google "thailand visa run".

drake377 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:52 pm

Also what are the best websites to search for apartments?

If you are looking for cheap apartments, then online is the last place you should be looking. The extent of advertising for cheap apartments would be a "For Rent" sign. You will need to get out and walk around the area. It is labor intensive, but that is the nature of the beast.

I currently live in new York. So when the time comes I guess I should get a Airbnb in North Carolina or south Carolina and drive around looking for For Rent signs

If you had any kind of idea where you want to live other than "cheap" it would be easier for you to narrow it down.

Instructions here: http://earlyretirementextreme.com/day-1 ... -live.html (noting what 'unemployed' said about craigslist not being the entirety of the market---this varies by location. E.g. in SF, craigslist is good. In Chicago, it's merely adequate.)

These days I also look at crime heat maps, e.g. Trulia, and if it exists: a judgmental map: http://judgmentalmaps.com/

i'm looking at North carolina or South carolina.

If you are looking for someplace inexpensive but with work opportunities, I highly recommend the greater Raleigh-Durham area. If you are working 100% remotely, it doesn’t matter, you can find cheaper places outside Raleigh-Durham. The “more expensive” housing around RD is laughably cheap compared to Long Island.

I would also say that Raleigh-Durham (and probably Charlotte, too, I haven’t been) would be less of a culture shock, as there are many transplants from up north and the Midwest. Asheville is beautiful but only go if you’re 100% working remote. Raleigh-Durham has no shortage of IT and biotech jobs. Charlotte is more of a banking industry center. I spent one day in Wilmington and I have no idea what the local economy is besides tourism and the occasional TV production.

I know a lot less about SC. I know a woman who moved from Cary (affluent suburb of Raleigh-Durham) back to Clemson and was telling her husband “I’m not sure I can get used to the slower lifestyle.” Coming from an uptight northerner who considered Raleigh-Durham veeeeeery slow, I can only imagine how slow it would be waiting for the next Clemson football game. I hear Charleston is nice. Even the Yee-har folks I worked with in Raleigh-Durham referred to Myrtle Beach as the “Redneck Riviera.”

It is better to live by yourself rather than living with someone else, you don't need to limit your true self.