warriorofinternets

warriorofinternets t1_jct5hvb wrote

I used Craigslist for years and years to find shorter term housing in the Boston area.

Just be sure while you are searching to watch out for scams.

One common one is an ad for a place that looks very nice, is suspiciously cheap, and the owner is out of the country for whatever reasons but asks you for a deposit.

Don’t pay any deposit until you physically can inspect the place.

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warriorofinternets t1_j91a1a8 wrote

Reply to comment by SynbiosVyse in Projects under $10k by orthotraumamama

Easiest way to make it straight is to put a peg into the ground and to tie string around it, then run a straight line to where you want the fence to run and pull it straight. That will tell you where to dig the holes, and you can do it again when filling the holes with posts in it to make sure they are completely level.

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warriorofinternets t1_j8yakyy wrote

Are you going to be looking for schools to teach underprivileged communities or more high end boarding schools in elite communities? I think that will make a big difference where you should start.

Look up the mbta commuter rails and see if any of the schools you’re interested in fall on or near those. They are reliable and cheap and can save you the pain of car commuting.

Also the red line goes south from Boston to Quincy/Braintree, so f you want access to the city it’s nice also to live along the red line so you can take the T into downtown Boston whenever you want to go out drinking or do something.

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warriorofinternets t1_j5hhelo wrote

I’d love one in my town but honestly it’s a Dunkin’s and Walmart kinda crowd, not a cute trendy coffee shop.

Maybe Sharon? Canton? Randolph? Plymouth?

Look on Zillow and find the towns where the homes are avg 700k+, avoid towns where the avg is closer to 450k-. You want people with disposable incomes.

Good luck!

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warriorofinternets t1_j2e3plf wrote

We dropped our cable services a few years back just because they’ve added so much in additional costs. Instead we signed up for YouTube tv, which costs $65/mo, but you can have 5 accounts on a family plan. So we added 4 of my buddies to the account, and everyone pays about 1/5 of the cost. The only catch is that they have to sign in to watch YouTube tv in the home area code once every 90 days. To get around this I just had them all sign into the YouTube tv app on my phone, and when they get the message that they need to sign into the home area, they text me, I sign on as them, watch shows for a few seconds, and then they are good to go.

With YTV you can also record any movie or show, I now record all football games, and do yard work or whatever for the first hour, and then start the recording from the beginning and can fast forward through all commercials for the entire game. I haven’t watches a game with commercials in years.

I highly recommend it as an alternative, providing you have a few close friends who are also open to it. Takes a little extra work re:90 day sign ins, but it’s so worth it.

Also, you can buy a modem and router on eBay or whatever for pretty cheap and can also save on that monthly rental fee.

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warriorofinternets t1_j14qui1 wrote

If you have 150k available, and get a mortgage for 1,750,000, your monthly rate will be around 10k/mo with excellent credit and a good bank. Assuming you can steadily keep at least 5 of these units occupied, if you can rent them for more than 2k/mo you’ll cover your mortgage costs. Current 1br avg is 3,153 in Cambridge. That being said, you’ll also need to consider property taxes, which in Cambridge amount to ~11k per year or $926/mo (or $185/mo/5 units).

So pricing at 2,200/mo could cover mortgage and property taxes.

If you are only putting down 150k, you’ll also need mortgage insurance which can range from 0.5% to 5% of the total amount borrowed payed each year. Plus homeowners insurance. Plus closing costs.

If you can put down at least 390k you can forgo the mortgage insurance and then only need to pay homeowners insurance on it.

Also assume that the quality of these rentals will not be high enough to warrant 3,100/mo, and will possibly require repair and refurb.

Also you always want to be sure you are earning extra each month to cover repairs and unexpected costs.

So, depending on the property this could be a viable investment property, or a money pit.

I don’t know why I just crunched these numbers. I don’t have 150k or 390k to pay, but in case anyone was in these comments thinking about it, wanted to lay it out for ya.

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