Affordable places to live...?

[MistressSpankME]

May be looking for a place soon. I'm wondering what areas are decent and affordable to live in? Possibly/prefferably on my own, with enough room for me and sewing and website "business(es)" I will be starting.

I'm in surrey and I'd love to live either here near my family and (2) friends haha, but basement suites can be like 500-700 a month. And downtown is where I'd love to be but I know I wont find anything affordable AND safe there.

Burnaby is looking good, but then again I dont know what I'm talking about so any advice would help.

[zarlon]

go for burnaby. you can find decent places for decent rent. will this be just by yourself? it's easier if you're splitting with someone..

hey.. downtown is safe! :(

[-ff-]

Vancouver - lower east side -> north of venebles, east of clark. Its a huge area, rent is cheap, theres tons of good shit on commercial and on hastings, lots of young people and artists moving in to the neighborhood.

[Bitchin]

theres tones of afordable bachlors and 1 bdrms in van.

If erin and I dont find a place soon, I'll probably get a place on my own until we find a place ot something.

also... 604.299.8844 <--call them... its a renters guide.. I'm gonna start goin thru them as of monday...

huge selection and turn over rate...or so I'm told.

but it cost 75 buck to register.

I'm gonna give it a shot...

[Sykonee]

Marpole! ;)

[Erin]

Surrey is the cheapest place to live.

[Mad]

Hit up our local craigslist rentals too.

Alot of people throw a new ad up there before they put it in the papers.

[Haze]

New West is not that bad and has some easy axs to skytrain being that there is 5 stops

- ë

[LLaaUUrrYYn]

Fleetwood. You can get a new/nice basement suite for $450 including everything. ;D

http://www.surreyleader.com

[Haze]

Fleetwood is a nice area, but kinda out of the way lest you have a car... I would suggest trying to stay on this side of the bridge cuz the traffic to and from surrey around rush hour is INSANE.

- ë

[gnosis]

Renter's Guide is a joke!
The two times I've paid those sods, the only places they had to offer were shyte, and nowhere _near_ the confines of the specs we'd given!

Your best bet to finding a "good" place to live, is to literally walk around the neighbourhood that you'd like to live.
Most places worth living in don't even advertise vacancies in the media.

They simply put li'l signs up, out front of the houses/buildings that are available.

It's sort of a word-of-mouth thing.

They'd rather have local walk-ins, than sordid ad answerers.

Frosty
(happy hunting!)

[frogprincess]

Originally Posted by gnosis

Renter's Guide is a joke!
The two times I've paid those sods, the only places they had to offer were shyte, and nowhere _near_ the confines of the specs we'd given!

Your best bet to finding a "good" place to live, is to literally walk around the neighbourhood that you'd like to live.
Most places worth living in don't even advertise vacancies in the media.

They simply put li'l signs up, out front of the houses/buildings that are available.

It's sort of a word-of-mouth thing.

They'd rather have local walk-ins, than sordid ad answerers.

Frosty
(happy hunting!)

listen to this man, he knows what's up

[Bitchin]

Originally Posted by gnosis

Renter's Guide is a joke!
The two times I've paid those sods, the only places they had to offer were shyte, and nowhere _near_ the confines of the specs we'd given!

Your best bet to finding a "good" place to live, is to literally walk around the neighbourhood that you'd like to live.
Most places worth living in don't even advertise vacancies in the media.

They simply put li'l signs up, out front of the houses/buildings that are available.

It's sort of a word-of-mouth thing.

They'd rather have local walk-ins, than sordid ad answerers.

Frosty
(happy hunting!)

I've been looking for a place for a month now......

I've walked around the area[every weekend], I've looked in news papers, I've looked in that stupid home paper....

i've come across jsut barely anything.. except that cute house, which erin and I didnt get.

so now I'm giving that renters guide a chance.

Also.... I belive Mikey found the DA house thru the renters guide thingger........

[gnosis]

^The fact that this town has run on something like less than 5% vacancy also has something to do with your situation...

It's not you.

Keep hunting!

It's mostly about luck.

Frosty
(Right place, right time)

[(val)Liam]

my brother and quite a few people I know are living in new west apartments...

[beezee]

http://vancouver.craigslist.org/

& http://classifieds.canada.com/vancouver/

These are both excellent home rental seaching websites...

Good Luck,

Brenzen

[Bitchin]

Originally Posted by gnosis

^The fact that this town has run on something like less than 5% vacancy also has something to do with your situation...

It's not you.

Keep hunting!

It's mostly about luck.

Frosty
(Right place, right time)

we're gonna need more then luck it seems.....

[MistressSpankME]

I'm actually already in fleetwood. I've never actually checked out any suites, but I do know that the renting a suite for 450 on my block means your landlords dont speak english (usually, not a huge problem but I'm sure an inconenience) and you'll be sharing a basement with at least 2 other people. Some places on my street have 5 illegal suites in the basement! I don't want to be packed in like a sardine, but if I could find something that wasn't like that that would be pretty good. And fleetwood is right on fraser hwy, its actually pretty easy just to catch one bus and take it to the skytrain.

thanks for all the advice, and maybe I'm just scared of living in van considering some of the places and areas I've seen my friends in. I"d just feel alot better if I wasn't alone or had a big dog. Or a pocket knife, either or :P

another question... how much do you need to make a month to support yourself? thats something else I have to work on.

[zarlon]

^ i'd say 1300-1400 a month is a good guideline to support yourself on. you just have to buy groceries in bulk loads and go cheap on some things, OR make sure you dont goout a lot

[MistressSpankME]

Going out alot won't be a problem... plus I'm a cheap drunk, that helps too!

[r_21]

Originally Posted by MistressSpankME

another question... how much do you need to make a month to support yourself? thats something else I have to work on.

I think that totally depends on your lifestyle and whether you need to pay for cable, phone line, laundry, internet, etc.. I think something around the range of 1500/month is good to live on if you're careful. In Van I'm about 2500/month min..