I spent a full day last week apartment shopping with Princess. Holy Cow! It’s absolutely crazy the cost of rentals. From heart of the city in Atlanta to suburbs 20-30 miles out of the city, there were little to no options under $1,500 per month. It’s absolutely insane.
We looked at refurbished motels, ie completely unsafe, dumps to high rise tiny little studios. And everything in between. It was painful and an excruciatingly long day. And I think every single one of them called themselves “luxury living” on their signage or website. Like no reality in their descriptions or advertising.
Adulting is Hard
It was a hard day for Princess, as well. She learned a lot of hard lessons. We had lots of deep discussions. Lessons learned. We talked about the cost of time, ie commute time. We talked about the psychology of aesthetics. Are you really going to use the amenities they are “selling?” Are your guests even going to see the beautiful leasing office since they would come to visit you through the parking garage? (And it’s closed and locked up, outside your working hours.) Lots of psychology of selling lessons when you apartment shop.
We talked about the rule of real estate – it’s all about “location, location, location.” Although that didn’t seem to translate well since pricing was relatively similar in the variety of areas we looked at. We had a few standoffs…with her declaring “just let me do this.”
Back off, Mom
Finally, we went to dinner. Ran the numbers. And then I had to back off and let her process. It wasn’t my decision.
I had to sit there and just wait and watch. Ultimately, that is a parents job, isn’t it? It was hard.
So Proud
In the end, she made a solid, financially sound decision. It was not the one she wanted to make. And I couldn’t be more proud and excited for her.
Financial Implications
There are financial implications in this for me. More to come on that. But in the end, one more year and then all of my kiddos will be completely independent of me. One more year…
And better then that…not one of them will have college debt to deal with. I am proud of myself (and them) for that. Getting them started better than I did for myself.
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