u/randomwords123abc

I make about $60-$100k more than all of my friends. My family does not make very much money at all (and their financial habits are TERRIBLE). I don’t have anyone in my life I can talk to about money other than coworkers, but that would be awkward because I’m also making significantly more than many of them. I’m single, so all financial decisions are my own. I have just over $100k in savings, but no debt (bought my car cash even). I feel like there’s next steps I need to take that I just don’t know about. I don’t own a home because I’m in an area it’s not feasible. My rent is quite high but not astronomical like it can be in this area. Not sure if there’s a better ub for this type of question. Not even sure what my questions is because I don’t know what I don’t know!

For anyone that reads this and feels like I’m bragging, there’s so much more to everyone’s story. I’ve come out of digging myself out of a massive pile of debt- refinancing credit cards into huge loans. I’ve worked up to 4 jobs at once. Until last year I still had a second job. I also am very good at my job and still at the low range because asking for more money is hard for me. It’s a long story to how I got here, and that adds even more complexity to my fear and insecurities around money. I will always have the huge part in me that thinks it could all disappear at any second.

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All of my referrals have gotten access immediately with my link. Make sure you have your Instagram set to a business account and your Facebook attached to it! Let me know if you have questions on how to do this.

Let me start with- I have only ever had great experiences with landlords and property management companies. My references are all amazing from past landlords. I can afford to buy a house (barely) but choose to rent for flexibility and freedom. If I was a homeowner I would fire PURE as a property management company immediately.

As a renter- I despise them.

Elevated Mold from severe water intrusion. Rat poop all over my things. Power outage from a roof replacement I was never told about. Was out of the house and found out from a contractor that my fridge had been without power for hours and would continue to be for 24+ hours. Water coming up the walls from standing water under the house. Oh but WAIT- another contractor told me to GTFO Because there was STANDING SEWAGE UNDER THE HOUSE FROM A PIPE THAT BURST YEARS AGO. WHAT THE ?! I was out of the house and paying rent for months because my things were still in the house but it was so unsafe to be inside. All that and they were completely unresponsive. Until I started CCing an attorney. Then suddenly they wanted to talk about the “misunderstanding”. Every single person I talked to there was not only a snake, but so incredibly dumb. Did not understand what construction was happening, didn’t understand the actual construction process, didn’t understand California law (told me I couldn’t have a dime of my deposit back because I transferred PGE to my new place and there was nothing about utilities being transferred or canceled in my lease). Then when I pointed that out (with lawyer on email) they said “fine” and said they’d send the money after a walk through. I sent them pictures of their contractors demoing the home (my stuff was out by this time) and asked how on earth they planned on doing a walk through with that. They said “oh I didn’t know that was happening”. I was out for two month and my stuff was out fully for a whole month of rent I paid (in order to ensure they couldn’t come after ME for anything.) I asked for only the rent back that I did not occupy (they started demo that same month) and they declined. I was sleeping on a friends couch or in hotels the entire time. Had to pay a fortune for a last minute moving company and to clean the rat feces off my things.

Not to mention the amount of times the landlord, property management, contractors, etc were given keys to enter my home without warning. One time I screamed bloody murder because I was in the shower and thought someone was breaking in. They just laughed it off.

I just wanted to warn everyone about my experience. I went through hell but all I can do about it is warn others and hopefully save someone else. I know this rental market is so so hard and I sympathize with people who feel they have no options. But if it’s between them and a landlord who won’t screw you, don’t choose them. I beg you. I’m a fighter and it took a lot of fight (and money) to fight them. Not everyone has those resources. And I didn’t even win anything other than my deposit!

Having an anxious dog I try to AVOID fireworks as much as possible. Obviously they’re illegal but in reality it’s crazy loud in Live Oak, Seabright, etc. Are there any pockets of neighborhood that are actually quiet? Soquel, Aptos, by UCSC?