 Hi everybody, I hope that you're all doing well. Welcome back to my channel and welcome to this Q&A video. Today I kind of wanted to wrap up our little moving series with a pretty little bow and just answer some questions that I have been getting over the last few months. I've gotten questions about, you know, just details about my buying process, why I made the decisions that I did, etc. etc. So I thought that I would just answer them all in one video. So I do have all of your questions here that I will try to go through. I did see a lot of them are repeats, so hopefully I will answer your question regardless. But before I actually get into the actual questions, I thought that I would just kind of sum up the most frequently asked questions if you're curious. So the first one and probably the question that I've gotten asked the most is, why did you buy an apartment? I didn't even know that you could buy an apartment. Yes, you can buy an apartment. I'm not sure what it is like where you are, but where I am you can buy an apartment. You can buy a co-op or you can buy a condo. I bought a co-op. Now, I am no expert on any of this. Mind you, this is my first time ever buying a property. So this is just kind of the information that I have gathered so far. So when you buy a condo, it is strictly your responsibility. You are responsible for everything in and within that property that you buy. Whereas a co-op, you are in an apartment that you own, but rather than owning it specifically, you own a certain number of shares of the building. So in a co-op building, there is a board. That's why you've probably heard me say, you know, I had an interview with the board in order to live here. So just to kind of sum it up, I guess a condo is a little bit more responsibility, but from the outside it looks the same. You own it, your name is on it, and that's kind of how it works. I chose to buy an apartment rather than a house. Simply just because I don't feel in my life I'm ready for a house yet. A house has a lot more responsibility. You have to do the landscaping. You have to do everything, every little part of the house. And I don't feel like I need that responsibility at 26 years old yet. That's just my preference. I also, it's just me, right? So I don't feel like I need a whole house with a bunch of rooms and, you know, maybe two floors. I just don't feel like I need that. I wanted my own little space, my own little apartment. I have a 750 square foot apartment. It's not big, but it's perfect for me and I'm absolutely loving it so far. I also saw a lot of questions, you know, is buying an apartment cheaper than buying a house? In most instances, yes it is. However, there are some apartments that are a lot of money that are probably more than some houses are worth. So it really depends on where you're looking and the sizes of the apartment and the houses that you're looking as well as the area. Okay, so now getting into the questions. This one says, well, I answered most of her questions. The last one says, you already seem to be very independent, like even when you were living at home, because of your early late work schedule, et cetera. But is it weird to finally be completely on your own and will you get any pets down the road? That's a very good point. I did feel very independent already. I was doing my own thing, cooking my own meals, buying my own groceries even when I was living at home. So that hasn't changed too much. So that was kind of a nice way to kind of put the training wheels on what it would be like to be completely, completely on my own. So I think that definitely helped get me ready. So I wouldn't say it was weird at all. It was actually very helpful. And as far as will I get any pets down the road, I do have a fish right now. I have a little bait of fish. He's red and his name is Cheeto and he's very cute. For now, that's all the responsibility that I want. But I would love to have a dog or two down the road. Just not yet. Okay, next, what is something your apartment has that was a must for you? And what is something your apartment is missing that you wish it had? That's a good question and it actually got a lot of thumbs up. So that was a popular question. Something that was a must for me for my apartment was a parking situation. I wanted to know that when I got home, I would have a spot waiting for me. A lot of apartments, especially in my area, don't come with a parking space. I get home from work 10, 45, 11 o'clock sometimes later and I will not spend a half an hour roaming the streets looking for parking. So that was an absolute must for me. There were so many apartments that I loved that I walked away from because they didn't have parking. So that was a non-negotiable for me. Something that the apartment is missing that I wish it had. Two things. One, I wish I was allowed to have dogs in this building. You can only have cats and like little pets. You can't have dogs, even if it's a small dog. So I will have to wait until I eventually move on from here to get a dog. So that kind of stinks. But again, I don't really want one right now. And the second thing is I would have loved to have my washer dryer in my actual unit, but it's only two floors down and it's not a big deal. But it would have been kind of cool. Okay, the next question says, Hi Sam, I recently moved out and now live with my boyfriend. My question is how do you make time to still see your family? I've always been really close to my family, but I found it hard at the beginning to balance work, cleaning, cooking, and now have to make time to see my family. There's two questions. So I'll answer that first. Girl, you're preaching to the choir here. I feel that so hard, especially with my work schedule. I work 1.30 to 10.30 p.m. Everyone else in my life does not work those hours. They do not work those hours. They're out by five and I can't see them in the evenings because I'm at work. So that really only leaves the weekends and it's very hard to see everyone in your life in just those two days. So my advice for myself is to try to plan things as far in advance as you can. Tell your family member or, Hey, keep this day open. Let's get lunch. Let's get dinner. Let's do something. And it depends on how far the person is from you. Luckily, my dad lives really close. So if I have a spare hour or so and I know that they're home, I can go and say hello. My mom is a little different. She lives about 45 minutes from me. So that's not as easy and that's hard. So with her, it really comes down to planning pretty much. But yeah, I would say just kind of, one, don't put too much pressure on yourself because you're only one person and it's hard to kind of cater to everybody. And two, just kind of plan far in advance. The second part of her question is now that you have a whole apartment to yourself, what's your cleaning schedule like? Well, again, it's small. It's 750 square feet. It's not a lot of space to clean, but I do try to clean up a little bit once a week. So like Fridays, take the garbages out and do a little dust and clean the windows and clean like mirrors with a little bit of Windex. Nothing too crazy. The big stuff like the shower, the kitchen, maybe every two weeks, things like that. Again, it's just me. So I like to keep my stuff kind of tidy as I go anyway so that when time passes, this place isn't a pigsty. Okay, next, I am a sophomore in high school and one of my dreams has been to live in my own apartment one day. What advice would you give that you think would make the process a lot smoother? Well, whether you're renting or buying, the biggest thing I'm going to tell you is save, save, save. Especially this is a perfect time when you're home and you don't have a lot of expenses, right? I'm assuming. Assuming you don't have a lot of expenses. This is the perfect time to save as much as you can. There's no such thing as saving too much. And don't rush it. Don't rush it at all. I stayed home until I was 25 years old and I wanted to move out for a very long time. But I stayed home until I was actually almost 26. Saving money and, you know, any debts that I had from college or buying a car or whatever, I took care of all of that first. So don't rush it. It'll happen in due time. I'd also say make a list, an actual list, physical list of things that are non-negotiables free. That'll also make the process a lot smoother so that when you go searching, you can put in all those things and filter your search in that way so that it'll narrow it down to things that'll actually work for you. Okay, I'm skipping a few just because a lot of them are like, why did you decide to buy an apartment? So I covered all that already. This one says, are you happy to have your own space now? It seems like you got along well with your family, but does it still feel liberating? Of course. I love my family. We got along great. No complaints. That's not why I wanted to move. I just felt like I got to the point where I was ready to be more independent. Also with my work schedule, it's a little bit different. So for example, I would come home late at night, you know, 11, 1130 at night, and I didn't want to wash my dishes or do anything in the kitchen because I didn't want to make noise because everybody was already sleeping. So things like that, whereas now I can come home and if I want a meal prep at 10.45 at night, I can do that because I'm not disrupting anybody. So it just got to the point where I felt like I needed my own space and kind of needed to form my own routine and you're right. It is liberating. This is a good one. What room so far has been your favorite to decorate? Probably my bedroom. More so because my living room, I knew how this was going to look for a long time. Everything on the entertainment center, everything I knew, I knew what I wanted it to look like. Whereas my bedroom, I kind of waited until I got here, moved my furniture in and then the decor kind of came afterwards and I did it little by little and I found things that like matched perfectly. This matches with this and this matches with this and it was really fun. So probably my bedroom. Tips on saving money while you're trying to move out. Like I said, take advantage of being home, you know, not having so many expenses, cut out unnecessary expenses. If you're going to school or you're working, bring food. Don't order food. It's such a good way to save money. You can spend one certain amount for groceries for an entire week that can amount to ordering two meals two days of the week. Especially with, you know, like Uber Eats and stuff, the delivery fee and the taxes and whatever, one meal can be like 30 bucks, you know? Whereas you can spend like 60, 75, depending on what you're buying for like basic, basic groceries for the week. So food is very expensive and it's very easy to kind of lose track of how expensive it is because you're just like, oh well, I need to eat, so let me buy it. But it adds up, I'm telling you. So that's a great, great way to save money, saving on food. Online shopping, I suffer from that too. But try to refrain the two months leading up to buying my place. I didn't really buy anything online. Everything from Amazon, clothing, shoes, nothing. And it really makes a difference. So kind of just put a leash on yourself and refrain and I promise it's worth it. Okay, this next question says, are you paying rent or will you have a mortgage? So when you buy, you do have a mortgage. So the first of every month I have my mortgage payment due. I do it online, super easy. And yeah, the next one says it was stressful going and knowing that you're going to have to pay rent monthly. In my case, a mortgage plus food, bills, et cetera, especially alone. I wouldn't say it's stressful for me just because that's something that you have to think of before you even think about moving out is can I do this? And if so, what can I afford? So I knew the monthly breakdown of everything that I was going to be spending, including, you know, bills, roughly food is not the same every week, but roughly, I knew what my expenses were going to be every month. So that's very important. So I wouldn't say it's stressful. I just kind of knew what was going to be doable for me and I do it. And so when you're doing it, don't bite off more than you can chew when you're looking for your own place. Make sure that yes, you can pay your rent, but you also need more money to be comfortable and be able to live your life as well. So just make sure that it's not a surprise to you. Definitely think about it before you start thinking about moving out. There's a lot of questions about like how much I paid and what was my down payment and what are my monthly payments. I'm not going to go into that. I just feel like that's super personal for me personally. So I'm not going to go into that. I will tell you, I put 20% down. That's what they, that's kind of usually the minimum of what they asked for, at least from what I saw. So I put 20% down. This person asked if I like saved cash for it, the down payment. Yes, you have to save for that. And then the rest, the mortgage takes over. So if I wanted to put a little more, I could, but that was the minimum percentage that I could put down. Someone asked, did I ever consider getting a roommate? No. That was just my preference. I know a lot of people that have roommates, I wanted my own space. I'm very particular in how I like my things, how I like things clean. You know, for example, no dishes in the sink, like things like that. And when you have a roommate, it's a lot harder to be like that. So I just wanted my own space. I have no problems being alone when I am alone, but it was just never something that was really on my radar. Okay. This person has a few questions. Most of them I answered, but they're asking, how did you search and what were you looking for? So I used Zillow.com and you put in your location, you put in what price you feel comfortable for or with and your little thing. So like again, I would check parking. I would check laundry room, you know, things like that. Check one bedroom or if you wanted to, you check two and it filters it for you and it shows you options that could work for you. I also worked with an agent who is a family friend as well. So she was able to help me. So she, she actually found this apartment. I didn't, but most of the apartments that I looked at, I did find on Zillow. Did you ever wish that you moved out sooner than you did? Yeah. I started thinking about moving out at the beginning of 2021, I think. And it took me a couple months to actually start. I think I started talking about it in like February, March and I didn't start looking at apartments until August. And it took me a long time just to one, I had to get pre-approved by the bank, which is your first step always when you're looking to buy. They will not show you apartments or houses or anything unless you're pre-approved by the bank. Basically, that's the bank promising this person can afford this much. So that kind of took me a little while and also kind of just mustering up the confidence. And then I had a bumpy road. You know, I thought I was moving into another apartment before this one and I lost that one. So I lost about eight months focusing on that apartment. So it was a long journey. But you know what? Looking back, everything happened exactly when it was supposed to and I am so happy with the way it all worked out. Is this your first time living alone? Yes. My first time ever in my life, even in college, I didn't dorm. I lived at home and I commuted. So first time ever, ever in my life. What is the coolest thing in your apartment? My apartment's very simple. I would say the coolest thing may not be cool to you guys, but it's kind of cool to me. I can control my own heat in the winter, which in apartment buildings that is usually not the case. The building puts on heat and what you get is what you get. But I do have a thermostat where I can adjust my heat in the winter and that's going to be very, very nice because I don't like it sweltering hot in the winter when the heat is blasting. So I'm excited to try that out in the winter, but I think that that's pretty cool. How do you like where you're located now? Does it feel different since you're a lot closer to everyone and to work? It feels so nice. I actually didn't realize how anxious it was making me driving two hours a day to work, losing those two hours of my day to get things done, having to travel so far to see my friends and my boyfriend and my family that lives over here, having to live out of a bag every single weekend. I did that for two years and it really gets stressful. It doesn't sound like it would be and I didn't even realize it while I was doing it, but once I stopped doing it and stopped having to drive two hours a day and getting home in 12 minutes after work, I realized how more at peace I feel and how much more calm I feel and it's been so, so nice and so good for me mentally, so I love where I'm located and it feels really good. What was it about your apartment that made you say this is the one and I think this is a good one to end on and as much as I hate to say it, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. I walked in and I just got this feeling of peace and comfort and I remember just kind of looking at my agent I walked in I did a one walk through and I looked at her and I said I said her name and I said yeah and I think it was partly due to the location, partly due to the fact that this is a garden style apartment so it's, you know, garden style apartments are usually two, three floors they're not like super high-rise which I like again, the location where my friends are where my boyfriend is where my dad is where my job is because my job I don't see myself leaving anytime soon really I love my job and I love it there and I love my coworkers and I don't know it was more of just a feeling and I'm so glad that I trusted it and I'm really really happy where I am in case you couldn't tell because I've said that like ten times in this video but anyway guys those were just kind of the major questions that I have been getting I hope that cleared up some of the confusion I know sometimes I suck at explaining things so hopefully I did okay but that's just a little insight into my moving experience everything that I went through the buying process etc etc so I hope that you guys enjoyed this video thank you so much for watching for your support throughout the whole experience of me searching for my home and then finally moving and thank you for your questions as well I really appreciate it so I will see you guys in my next video