I don't know what to do anymore...

[Birdman666]

...and God for sure has a plan for you!

Unfortunately, JOB is not exactly comforting at the moment...

I live in a private home, which is managed through a property management company.

The problem is I don't have first, last and a deposit at the moment. Which is why I can't just up and move. That is probably 2-3,000.

And the rent raise makes staying impossible, as my rent plus other costs of living will now exceed my salary.

Work is slow at the moment so raises are not forthcoming any time soon.

I am hoping my bonus is enough to cover it, but if it isn't I honestly don't know what options I have left...

Looking for a new job. Looking for a cheaper place. Looking for a second job. Looking for a safe place for my birds til I get this straightened out if it comes to that...

My daughter may end up staying with my sister for school purposes, though she won't take all of us in again. (She did that once. It ended badly... )

So, I don't know what the answer will be. Somehow, it always seems to work out. I just have to hope that it will this time as well.

 

[veimar]

Why are the moving costs $2-3K??? Is it THAT expensive in TX? I moved 9 times over 12 years in different states (I was a grad student for 9 years), and it was never over $300-400 in the city, usually around $200. The most expensive one we had with U-Haul towing a car was from Minneapolis to DeKalb, IL, and it was around $700 total. If you get a bigger U-Haul and load/unload everything yourself with your friends, it shouldn't be that much if it's within the city. I'd throw out all the junk that is cheaper to buy again than transport.
What is JOBE btw?

 

[thekarens]

Why are the moving costs $2-3K??? Is it THAT expensive in TX? I moved 9 times over 12 years in different states (I was a grad student for 9 years), and it was never over $300-400 in the city, usually around $200. The most expensive one we had with U-Haul towing a car was from Minneapolis to DeKalb, IL, and it was around $700 total. If you get a bigger U-Haul and load/unload everything yourself with your friends, it shouldn't be that much if it's within the city. I'd throw out all the junk that is cheaper to buy again than transport.
What is JOBE btw?

Most places require first and last month's rent and deposit. That alone will cost you 2/3 k without the actual moving costs. They do that because of dead beat renters.

 

[Birdman666]

exactly!

$1,000 first month
$1,000 last month
$500 deposit
$300 pet deposit
$50 Credit Check Fee

$2,850 Up front with your rental application. Can't be a personal check, has to be a cashier's check.

Don't have it? Get lost! You don't qualify.

THEN you have your moving costs, which are a couple of hundred bucks for the truck, plus a few pizzas...

 

[Birdman666]

Why are the moving costs $2-3K??? Is it THAT expensive in TX? I moved 9 times over 12 years in different states (I was a grad student for 9 years), and it was never over $300-400 in the city, usually around $200. The most expensive one we had with U-Haul towing a car was from Minneapolis to DeKalb, IL, and it was around $700 total. If you get a bigger U-Haul and load/unload everything yourself with your friends, it shouldn't be that much if it's within the city. I'd throw out all the junk that is cheaper to buy again than transport.
What is JOBE btw?

Ha! I was born in DeKalb! Northwestern, right?

You never had to put a deposit down on a place in all those moves?

When I was in college, even with roommate situation we still had to put first last and deposits down, it was just cheaper to split it.

Actually JOBE is a typo - it should be JOB - as in the biblical Job, not the "get a..." and that was meant as a joke. He was the biblical rightous man who God tested to the breaking point, just to prove a point to satan... (i.e. bad things sometimes happen to good people, don't question it, deal with it.) Nevermind! If you have to explain the jokes, they didn't work... I was playing with the comment directly above it. It's just my sick sense of humor.

 

[veimar]

Wow, the world is small! Yes, my hubby did his grad degree at NWU!! You'd better stay in Chicago area, LOL.
We had to put down the deposit, but we never rented for such prices (our most expensive place in Evanston was $700-730), but he didn't require a huge deposit. And we always had our deposit back after we moved so we had a little money saved.
I dunno if you have that, but my credit card companies often send me 0% for a year+ checks which are very useful for such expenses. I try not to go in debt, but sometimes there is no other option. You are not wasting the deposit money - you'll have it all back, right?

 

[veimar]

Sorry, I didn't include the new apt price as moving expense.

 

[RavensGryf]

Why are the moving costs $2-3K??? Is it THAT expensive in TX? I moved 9 times over 12 years in different states (I was a grad student for 9 years), and it was never over $300-400 in the city, usually around $200. The most expensive one we had with U-Haul towing a car was from Minneapolis to DeKalb, IL, and it was around $700 total. If you get a bigger U-Haul and load/unload everything yourself with your friends, it shouldn't be that much if it's within the city. I'd throw out all the junk that is cheaper to buy again than transport.
What is JOBE btw?

Then don't ever move to most places in Southern CA. It's one state with no rent control laws. I think in this day and age, you should be able to get a one bedroom apt in the 'ghetto', or at least not the best areas of town for about $1500 per month. That price is definitely not a higher end apartment! Houses are several thousand per month to rent. I've heard back east is really expensive too. It floors me to see how affordable it is to live in most other states.

 

[Christinenc2000]

WOW . Two bedroom two bath house down the road from me 1 acre land Small barn outback $400.00 per month. Of course you have a 30 minute drive to any grocery store and Hour to any large city . But I love the inner banks

 

[Dopey]

Wow - two bedroom around here...$1500 a month.

 

[Birdman666]

Then don't ever move to most places in Southern CA. It's one state with no rent control laws. I think in this day and age, you should be able to get a one bedroom apt in the 'ghetto', or at least not the best areas of town for about $1500 per month. That price is definitely not a higher end apartment! Houses are several thousand per month to rent. I've heard back east is really expensive too. It floors me to see how affordable it is to live in most other states.

Been there, done that! I used to live in H.B.

I went to Long Beach State and then UCLA...

At UCLA - WESTWOOD! Try $2800 a month - split between five roomates in a three bedroom apartment... AND THAT WAS THE 80'S.

Now, it might be just a tad more expensive!!!

And Norcal rents in the Bay Area on a normal little house in my neighborhood started at $2,200 per month, and I was considered "lucky" to get it!

That's one of the reasons I moved!

 

[AmazinglAvians]

I am a new parrot owner, but a born and raised Houstonian. I don't know what part of Texas you live in, but there are three or four accredited avian vets and two parrot rescue groups in houston alone. I know that Gulf Coast Vet Specialists (avian included) has a branch in Austin. Many of these places have birdy boarding programs, and if you teamed up with them and started a kickstarter, or some sort of other fundraiser to meet the costs of boarding, that might be a solution! boarding might even be stretched as a "vet cost" in which case you may be eligible for ASPCA financial aid, or Texas pet grants for medical expenses. i'm sure that most people of this forum would easily drop 10 or 15 bucks to make sure that your birds were safe for another day.

 

[Taw5106]

Hi Mark, I'm in the burbs south of Houston and can offer a place for your birds to stay. Also, HOA's suck, I sold my home because I hated my HOA, especially the nosy.... Ahem "lady" at the end of the street.

We found a house we rent through a company but they are local to Houston only. You may want to check these type of communities out if they have them in SA, it's like a small community of homes and town homes, we are in a house, nobody next to us. We weren't required to pay 1st, or last months rent, we paid the credit check, and a move in deposit well under $500.

Moving is a pain and I hope that things work out for you like the landlord not increasing the rent or increasing a smidge. I know you are going through some rough times but you have also had some good things happen like Tusk coming home, you helped two CAGs and their owners and you help so many here on this site. Don't forget that and all the other good things we don't know about.

 

[palmetto941]

GoFundMe: #1 for Crowdfunding & Fundraising Websites
A way to get help.....A place to organize it...

 

[veimar]

Oh see - you're getting some ideas already!! Do you still know HOW much is he increasing? From what you wrote it seems like you do. The bottomline is that if the place is too expensive you have to find another one. I've been through that a few times and it's not a fun experience, but amazingly the new places always ended up being better. I think to find a new place is easier than find a new job anyway, and if you just wait you get more and more frustrated and desperate. I don't think this situation is unresolvable. Like some people say if money can solve a problem, it's not a problem - it's an expense!
Just for comparison - we (my hubby and me) still live here on his work visa, and although we own a home, we have to survive on his tiny salary and cannot work anywhere else. I haven't been working for 2,5+ years already, and it is HORRIBLE, just really... My birds and my art/music are saving me, but if you're a creative person with a PhD used to be busy 10+h a day it sucks so bad. If something happens to my hubby's work or visa we loose everything and have to leave the country that became our home. My hubby is a Russian citizen which makes things very difficult in current political hysteria. We don't have anywhere to go in Russia... I left from there in 1989 as kid. I came to US in 2002, and it's the only country where I felt at home.
So this is just to help you feel better about your situation!

 

[RavensGryf]

So you know then Birdman, if you lived in HB!... I've been here all my life, and I can't get out yet. Older parents, and I have no siblings. I'd so leave here if I could. We DO have good weather though. Hot, but never gets as humid as the south, and never gets cold. Well, here anyway... There are of course mountains with snow in SoCal.

When Don and I were renting a one bedroom apartment (not a super great one either) and they wanted to raise the rent to somewhere near $2,000 a month my friend in Oregon said "wow, you can get a 4 bedroom house for that". . Yep. That's both Orange County and Los Angeles county. TOTALLY INSANE. Wages and salaries are no higher here either.

Then don't ever move to most places in Southern CA. It's one state with no rent control laws. I think in this day and age, you should be able to get a one bedroom apt in the 'ghetto', or at least not the best areas of town for about $1500 per month. That price is definitely not a higher end apartment! Houses are several thousand per month to rent. I've heard back east is really expensive too. It floors me to see how affordable it is to live in most other states.

Been there, done that! I used to live in H.B.

I went to Long Beach State and then UCLA...

At UCLA - WESTWOOD! Try $2800 a month - split between five roomates in a three bedroom apartment... AND THAT WAS THE 80'S.

Now, it might be just a tad more expensive!!!

And Norcal rents in the Bay Area on a normal little house in my neighborhood started at $2,200 per month, and I was considered "lucky" to get it!

That's one of the reasons I moved!

 

[Birdman666]

San Francisco is actually worse than SoCal now - except the Santa Barbara area, and places like PV Estates, where, lets face it, if you don't have at least an EIGHT FIGURE income, forget about it...

The median price of an average home in my neighborhood, when I left, and this was just a basic house, not anything fancy - was $850,000!!! Three bedroom, two bath houses were going for as high as 1.2 million!!!

Which, of course, is why so many people just walked away and left the banks holding the bust when the real estate speculation boom went bust... Because things were going up so fast, you buy it and flip it, then buy another one... And they were buying them with these predatory loans with huge balloon payments, with the intention of flipping it before the payment came due - and each time the house flipped the price went up - artificially...

The banks fueled that with their lending practices, and made a huge profit on it - until they took a huge loss, and took our economy down with it.

Now, since anyone could get a home loan in those days, NO ONE can get a home loan now... My rent payment would easily be a mortgage payment on a home around here, but I can't get a loan without a huge down...

So, ten years later I am STILL locked out of the housing market, and probably always will be. I am approaching the point where I will be considered "too old" to get a home loan. (You need to have 20 years of work life expectancy left, or an even larger down, to qualify.

 

[RavensGryf]

The median price of an average home in my neighborhood, when I left, and this was just a basic house, not anything fancy - was $850,000!!! Three bedroom, two bath houses were going for as high as 1.2 million!!!

Now, since anyone could get a home loan in those days, NO ONE can get a home loan now... My rent payment would easily be a mortgage payment on a home around here, but I can't get a loan without a huge down...

So, ten years later I am STILL locked out of the housing market, and probably always will be. I am approaching the point where I will be considered "too old" to get a home loan. (You need to have 20 years of work life expectancy left, or an even larger down, to qualify.

Yep. Agree with your whole post, and you're right :49:... Also, these "average, nothing special" houses that go for near 1 million have a tiny apartment sized backyard! You pretty much have to make 6 figures to get anywhere here anymore :52:.

...and it's SO crowded here... Why, just because the weather is more acceptable than most other places in the country? Also you run into people who think they're going to become famous LOL, more of those types in Los Angeles area though.

 

[Birdman666]

Exactly! In HB they were putting up 5,000 square foot houses on 5500 square foot lots, and charging $2 million dollars each for them AND THEY WERE GETTING IT!
They tore down all the little shops, and things that made the place special, to build the McMansions. Ran the people who made the place feel like home off... replaced them with a bunch of rich people fretting about their property values.

Then the boom went bust, and the McMansions were foreclosed on, and are mostly sitting empty...

There are entire SUBURBS of NorCal that are sitting empty. They can't even give those houses away.

Well, in NorCal the Silicon Valley people WERE making seven figures. That's what started the trend.

NorCal is pretty, and there are a million things to do. (I do miss it!) And that's the attraction in my mind. Where else can you go skiing all morning, and still be home from the mountains in time to catch the evening glass off?! (Surfing for those of you who don't know what that last part means.) And I had FIVE drop zones within a 50 mile radius of my house. World class surfing in my back yard. Tahoe a few hours away for skiing. The Redwoods, Big Sur, and Yosemite for nature. World class white water rafting, and about twenty different amusement parks...

 

[RavensGryf]

In HB they were putting up 5,000 square foot houses on 5500 square foot lots, and charging $2 million dollars each for them AND THEY WERE GETTING IT!

Yeah... It's stupid! :11: No one reading wants to move here now lol...
I can't wait til we could get out. It's too hard here. As much as Id like to, I can't leave my older parents.