After much time spent convincing him to ignore his father's opinions on the matter, Robin Hood and I are going to start looking into buying a manufactured home after the new year, when things are a little more financially stable for us. The idea of living in a trailer park just isn't good enough for his dad, but after fairly obviously trying to orchestrate a divorce between us, his opinion is no longer relevant.
We've been doing some research into the area, and you can get a three-bedroom house for less than it would cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment for two years. There are so many of them around here that have sat empty for months, and even years, because people are hilariously against the idea of paying property tax and land fees. Property tax which averages about $2 a month, and land fees which are around $300 a month. Considering monthly rent for apartments here starts at around $1000 a month, yes. This is something we want to do. We're saving up to have at least $12,000 (about 50% the average value in this area) saved up for a down payment and moving costs. Like furniture. If we really wanted to, we could wait a little longer and save up the just buy a place outright, but really, we want to get out of parents' houses as quickly as possible. We're having a hard time renting because a roommate kind of trashed our apartment and the management stuck all the charges and bills onto Rob's name. Which is actually exactly the reason my brother wound up buying his place.
But it'll be nice to not have to deal with renting, and being able to do what we want to the place, instead of being stuck with what the management wants it to look like.
