5 ms·

Yeah... I'm renting a two bedroom apartment in the middle of a nice area for $1200 a month (with rent costs split with my partner). All utilities (water, trash,

Yeah... I'm renting a two bedroom apartment in the middle of a nice area for $1200 a month (with rent costs split with my partner). All utilities (water, trash, electricity) are included in that cost, and they have a full time staff that maintains the grounds. This means I'm living in a nice area for only $600 a month. If I wanted to live in a home in the same area, that $600 wouldn't even cover the interest on the mortgage, much less all the other costs that come with living in a home. In the mean time, I have been saving thousands of dollars every month and investing it. Over the past couple of years, I managed to completely pay off over $50,000 worth of debt and also saved up around $140,000 (most of which is invested in stock market index funds). If I want to move to another state to pursue other job opportunities, I can do that whenever I want at the drop of the hat. All it would cost me to terminate my lease early is two month's worth of rent. So yeah... pros and cons. I'm still not convinced that buying a house is worth it over renting.

Wohlf 5y ago
Strange, I have never seen an apartment that includes electricity.
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  In my city (maybe state?), the landlord must pay the electric bill in a multi-tenant building if the electricity isn’t split into submeters and separate panels. I’ve seen duplexes where the owner didn’t bother to split the electrical service and they had to pay the electric bill (aka include it in the rent)
- t0mbstone 5y ago
  It's fairly common in Arizona. A number of the apartment complexes use centralized water heating/cooling that is piped through all the apartments and is used for the HVAC system. They usually flip the HVAC to heating mode during the winter, and cooling mode during the summer. It's a lot more cost-effective than having a different HVAC system in every single unit. This is especially true in Arizona, where it's not uncommon to hit temperatures of 110-120f in the summer. The downside is that if you have a hot day in the winter time (which isn't uncommon in AZ), you are out of luck because your HVAC is stuck in heating mode until March rolls around. Another downside is that the air conditioner will often struggle to cool things down to lower than 80 degrees during the summer time. I make do by supplementing the main A/C with a 10,000 BTU portable window-vented A/C, though... Which is free to use because electricity is included. So it all works out.

Wohlf 5y ago

Strange, I have never seen an apartment that includes electricity.

quickthrowman 5y ago
In my city (maybe state?), the landlord must pay the electric bill in a multi-tenant building if the electricity isn’t split into submeters and separate panels. I’ve seen duplexes where the owner didn’t bother to split the electrical service and they had to pay the electric bill (aka include it in the rent)
t0mbstone 5y ago
It's fairly common in Arizona. A number of the apartment complexes use centralized water heating/cooling that is piped through all the apartments and is used for the HVAC system. They usually flip the HVAC to heating mode during the winter, and cooling mode during the summer. It's a lot more cost-effective than having a different HVAC system in every single unit. This is especially true in Arizona, where it's not uncommon to hit temperatures of 110-120f in the summer. The downside is that if you have a hot day in the winter time (which isn't uncommon in AZ), you are out of luck because your HVAC is stuck in heating mode until March rolls around. Another downside is that the air conditioner will often struggle to cool things down to lower than 80 degrees during the summer time. I make do by supplementing the main A/C with a 10,000 BTU portable window-vented A/C, though... Which is free to use because electricity is included. So it all works out.