Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
I have 50 days to move 9 rooms and something like 2,000 square feet.
Mom's house is 1,286 square feet, her garage is around 400, her shed is 112, her locker is 100, my locker is 50, and there are bats in her attic.
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1. Wait - now we are back to the whole family moving with you to school? I'll be very blunt - you have very little chance of succeeding in grad school if you take the home drama that you have been describing to school with you. Grad school is a bachelor's program on steroids. You can expect 60 hour weeks, with even less follow-up and direction than in undergrad. It is 100% on you to avoid procrastination and keep up in class. Cramming the night before the exam that is 50% of your grad isn't going to cut it. Also most of these programs have no second chances - if you drop or fail a class you are out of the program and school.
2. Why are you looking at buying a house in Mesa? Is this going to be your forever home or is this just for the next 2 years? Rent a little place, finish school, then see where your job takes you. You will also be in a stronger position to buy when you have a steady full time job with more options to buy.
I'll also highly recommend against buying in a place you haven't lived recently. I did that in Alabama and within 3 months regretted it because we didn't understand the traffic patterns and that seemingly short 7 mile commute was really a 50 - 60 minute drive. There was a reason that houses in Helena were significantly cheaper.
3. The housing market makes
MUCH more sense when you actually are shopping for houses and going to see them in person. That is why plenty of people on ecomodder told you to get a realtor and start visiting houses back when you were looking at buying a house in Show low. The ad on Zillow has about 25% of what you need to know as it is easy to hide things with pictures. You don't know what a house is worth until you go and look at it. It isn't just square footage and the number of rooms. This is especially true on the lower end of the market where a lot of the housing stock is old and has lots of issues. For example, a house I looked at in Alabama as a potential rental still had a 40 amp electrical panel with screw-in fuses. Rewiring an entire house is EXPENSIVE so it makes sense that the asking price was low. However, nothing in the Zillow ad mentioned that it needed a whole new electrical system.
4. The stealth camper van doesn't make sense at a commuter school without dorms. People will notice if your van never leaves the parking lot. The guy in the video did a good job picking a spot even if he did kinda spoil it by walking around outside. That looks like a pretty good spot - close to an apartment where people move in and out all the time and nobody can keep track of everybody's cars.
However, walking around when camping is a no 0 no. When stealth camping you park, climb in the back, sleep, and move in the early morning. He should have done his prep at the Walmart.