My buddies and I are renting out a house for next year, should be signing the lease soon and moving in july 1st. Just looking for advice as to what to expect to pay as far as gas, electric, water, etc. any tips on how to save cash? Any general advice about renting?
I have made rough estimates and rent + utilities will be about $450/month. I plan on selling my cars and picking up something cheap to own.
The house is near canisius college. Ive known the kids im going to be living for 4+ yrs as we went to high school together.
No matter how good your habits are, your roommates will destroy your electric bill. My old house was fucking ridiculous for electricity with 6 guys.
It really comes down to the house when trying to save money on heating. Just make sure everything seals up tight in the winter and there are no drafts coming in. You’re obviously not going to pump money into a place that isn’t yours.
General advice:
A good part about renting in college is that everything is split. So getting good cable/internet etc is attainable when divided by 4+ people.
Keep separate cupboards for food and don’t steal anyone else’s shit.
Have fun and realize that you won’t live with these people for the rest of your life.
Maintain thick skin and keep your own room the way you want it to be for an escape if your roommates are total slobs. (having your own pots/pans is great too)
At some point there WILL be a prank phase. And it WILL be taken too far. Fair warning.
Wear flip flops in the shower.
Develop household rituals that will be remembered for a lifetime.
Don’t be a douchebag.
Get on Budget Billing if you can. Isn’t always the cheapest, but it makes it easier to plan so you don’t have $100 for gas/electric one month, and then $300 the next month.
Even though your friends, come up with some written agreement on how you are paying bills (Split x ways, etc), and when you (or whoever is in charge of actually paying them) needs to have the money by. Not necessary, but helps to have people on the same page.
Find out if you can pay the landlord individually or if it has to be one check.
Call the Utility Company and ask for the last years utility cost for the place you are looking to rent. They should be able to give you something so you can estimate what it will cost.
Keep the living areas clean. Decide on how common areas are going to get cleaned (Task per person, per week or 1 day everyone works on it, etc)
Don’t get all the packages for cable unless you need them. Don’t get home phone.
Get plastic wrap for the windows in the winter. It does help especially if the windows are old.
Figure out how food is handled. Do you all pitch in weekly for staples like bread/milk/etc or does everyone buy what they need.
Budget billing, I will look into that. I will be handling the bills and getting shit paid. We’re splitting everything evenly (that’s the plan at least lol).
Hopefully my roommates won’t be complete shitheads. I’m pretty neat myself, and from what I’ve seen of their houses/dorm rooms they are okay. Lol, wear flip flops in the shower.
Just make sure you don’t get taken advantage of. Don’t wait until the last possible minute to get stuff done, and don’t be afraid to be a prick when it comes down to it.
I did this with my housemates as well. DO NOT let up on them paying you. There is NO GRACE PERIOD. Get it? The minute you let them slack on payments, they’ll start doing it all the time. Keep on them, and keep very close track of the bills. I set up an excel spreadsheet and posted it in the living room every time I got a bill so that everyone knew exactly what they owed me. And I got on their asses on the same day every month. (Makes it easier to have them all pay you once a month instead of for every bill)
You do not truly know someone until you have to live with them, thats all I’m going to say about that. I’m suprised everyday that I have someone who can put up with me and hasn’t stabbed me in my sleep with a butchers knife
lol. hopefully I don’t run into too many surprises. Anyone have some numbers for gas, elec, etc. bills so I can make a better estimate as to what my utilities will cost?
I have a 3 bedroom, living room. Dining room, bath and small comp room and my electric is about 35 a month. And gas in the winter is about 150 kept at 68 which is comfy for me. And gas in summer runs me 50ish. And summer electric goes up to 65/70 with the air on.
dry erase board or excel file for bill division and payment logging
check furnace age & maintenance
make sure none of them have a desire to sell drugs
do their girlfriends live at home?
are fraternities involved?
you may experience that some of your friends you just can’t live with. that’s ok, not everyone is meant for eachother. you can still be homies at separate residences.
Canisius houses are a great time but they’re shitholes. If your landlord is Mark, Ron, or Ruth, you’re probably not getting your security deposit back.
When we did ours I had everyone deposit $1000 in a joint bank account to start the year so they all had money from summer jobs. Then I set up all the bills on autopay out of it. It lasted until like April, then we only had to worry about the last month.
Everyone will probably need their own window unit A/C. the first and last couple months will be high on the electric. If anyone runs a space heater in the winter make sure you know about it cause they use a billion dollars of electricity.
don’t take criticism as a personal attack. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Don’t turn something simple into a brewing anger. If something is on your mind say it right away don’t let it fester for weeks because then you will blow up about it and the other dude will be like WTF I didn’t realize putting the toilet paper on that it pulls from the bottom was a big deal to you.
As stated before, call the utility company with the address and ask them if they can give you the heating and electric costs for the last year. Houses are just too different to really get an accurate cost. Windows, doors, basements, age of appliances, number of appliances running, etc all play into the costs. If you feel air coming in through a window or door, it’s wise to spend $10-20 on cheap weatherstripping as you’ll probably save that in heating costs the first month or two.