My WAG is that some markets will tank but others will stay stable or even go up a bit. Own a condo in a high rise building in a major downtown? Good luck to you. Reasonably spacious house on a quiet cul de sac with a yard, room for a garden and reliable internet a couple miles outside of the city? You can expect a bidding war from all the folks like Cuse who suddenly see no need to pay a premium just to be within walking distance of the cool bars.
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I have a couple friends with warehouse jobs and they all say its booming like crazy too. They also said none of them have gotten their regular yearly raises much less essential pay bump. Which is super tilting. But I guess since they don’t have skill specific positions they can be replaced pretty easily at 12% or w/e unemployment. Especially when this cares money runs out.
Couple questions. Is there a specific reason for living in Philly? That price seems… insane for not being LA/SF/SD/Manhattan. There are a lot better and cheaper places to play live and online poker than PA.
I’d ask for a drastic drop in rent or move. I was paying stupid rent for a 3BR house I didn’t need in my favorite neighborhood here. Now I’m paying 1/6th the amount for half the mortgage on my gf’s place. I feel pretty stupid about lighting near six figures on fire for rent over the last 5 years with no equity to show for it.
Well originally I was paying 1705 and my roommate/stakee was paying 1100. Deal fell through and he moved out, so I took over the rest. It’s a nice apartment in an optimal location for a single 34 year old trying to date and all that, which means mid-pandemic it’s lost a lot of value to me.
Also I’m centrally located to get to three casinos and until March I was only playing live poker. If I move to the suburbs, I’d be an hour from all three casinos with no traffic. Here I’m 40 minutes max to all three with traffic.
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Do you think that the quality of your apartment makes you more attractive to women in the same way that some people think a sports car might? (As someone who is also single, does it work?)
It does feel like you should downsize to a one bedroom. That second bedroom is costing you like 10k a year and I doubt you’re getting much out of it.
I think having a nice place helps to project maturity and financial stability, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily need a big, expensive place to do that. Just take care of your place, decorate well, etc IMO. Being in a prime location definitely makes things easier in terms of bringing someone you’re dating back to your place. I’m near a lot of bars and restaurants, so I’ll make sure the second, third, fourth (whenever I think the time is right) date is near there, and it makes it more natural to invite a date back.
In this case, theoretically had the pandemic not happened, the pool and hot tub would have been ideal for that.
It’s currently my office for online poker with a two-monitor setup, and my home gym with a half rack, barbell, bench and pads to do deadlifts on without hitting the floor. So it’s definitely got value right now, it’s just a matter of what it’s worth.
It looks like my options would be:
Move to Suburbs, Rent a 2br House: $1600/mo + cost of moving ($1,000 I’m guessing) + Two Weeks Reduced Work getting the new place set up (let’s call it $5,000) + Inconvenience/Fear of Moving in a Pandemic (hard to quantify)
Total: $25,200 or $2,100/mo
vs.
Stay Here: ?
So then the question is what is not having to move in a pandemic worth, and what is the gamble on a vaccine early next year making my prime location value again worth? I’m hoping for $2,400, I’d probably take $2,600 and I’d have a tough call if they just kept the price flat for me at $2805.
A house in the suburbs would be a far better life experience in the pandemic, but would suck really hard once the pandemic is over (far from casinos, very suboptimal for social life). My city apartment is suboptimal during the pandemic, but not awful. It’s way better once it’s over.
Also, wild card, my friend in the burbs I’d be moving near to golf with might move his wife and daughter to Canada this year.
Three chapters into Never Split the Difference and loving it! I wish I read this book years ago.
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Was on vacation when it got posted here and also picked it up, about 4/5th through. Most stuff seems really helpful, some of it is a bit cheesy and/or too manipulative. Generally like it, but it would be a lot better read if he’d cut down a notch on the self praise and bragging, that gets a bit excessive for my taste.
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Fair criticism and I observed that as well when I read it. Eventually, I chalked it up to cost of doing business and a reasonable price to pay given the benefits conferred when the techniques are applied.
What the book doesn’t do that well is provide an overview of how to plan a negotiation, imo. Let me know if there is interest and I can pull together some of my field notes on how I accomplished this for various deals. The one issue is that my planning was biased towards very large supplier negotiations with large numbers of internal stakeholders. For example, I began planning my IBM renewal deal 18 month prior to the existing 5 year deal expiration. And even with that, I was under the gun. It pays to scale your effort to the size of the negotiation.
This book propelled from a two bit hustler in the back waters of my company to the Lord of Software procurement. Ok, I’m kidding, but using these techniques, I was able to negotiate a 90% license fee reduction with a notoriously difficult supplier who had the leverage in this particular situation. So, I may be overly-enthusiastic, but I’ve gotten more out of this book than “Getting to Yes” or any of the other books in the sales canon.
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I think staying put anywhere close to your current rent is pretty insane. If you can save 5 figures over the course of the year moving somewhere else, I don’t really see the logic in staying. You are clearly willing to spend, so moving doesn’t really have to be difficult on you at all. You can pay movers to pack, move and unpack everything in your apartment without lifting a finger.
You have money to spend, and you’re paying your rent on time every month. This makes you in the minority in the current rental climate (or at least you will be soon). You have all the leverage. Use it.
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The issue with moving itself is that other human beings taking way fewer precautions than I am, who are going in and out of numerous people’s homes and apartment buildings and elevators will touch all my stuff.
Agree regarding the leverage. From there it comes down to whether I think we’re getting back to normal within the front half of 2021. Comparing my place to the suburbs, I’m willing to pay the five figures for a high quality social life and dating scene. I’ll turn 35 next year, meeting the right woman is a top priority and so is enjoying what I hope are my last couple of years being single.
Given that I need a 2br or a place with a big living room to accommodate a desk for online poker, within the city it may be tough to find that at some huge amount of savings. The suburban vs city comparison is the big driver of a huge gap in price for the same amount of space.
Sometimes I think I’m crazy not to move to the burbs and invest the difference, but if we get back to normal and you start doing the math on stuff like time lost commuting to casinos, it adds up fast. And a big chunk of that time is on the weekend when it’s most valuable.
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Fair enough. I went from spending $1650 on a renovated 3BR in my favorite OKC neighborhood to $250
For half of my gf’s mortgage. We’ve been together 7 years and only lived together since I moved in here last year.
I think the right play is to shop around in your favorite philly areas for a comparable unit, counter offer the absurd price your current landlord quoted you, and act accordingly. I think you could minimize your interaction with the movers. You could probably even find a company that is taking this very seriously and taking all precautions possible.
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I just moved across the country. We screened movers based on guaranteed mask wearing and social distancing. Literally never got within 10 feet of them.
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If you truly meet the right woman, you can do all the shit you can do as a single person.
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Can you spontaneously jerk off on the couch whenever you want?
I’ve always assumed that’s a deal-breaker.
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My wife would probably think that was a bit weird, but probably?
But I wasn’t doing that when I was single so YMMV.
You dated a porn star and couldn’t do this?
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We never lived together.
Porn stars can be pretty insecure.