As June comes to a close, we’re ending our 4th month of living apart. Things have been crazy, but not too horrible. Regardless, hubby and I miss each other and want to be under the same roof again soon. I’ve been at my new job for a month now, and I love it. The money is good and the job is awesome. With new income comes the thoughts of a new place to live.

So we’ve been doing our research, mostly online for now. We’ve only lived in two places on our own. The first place was literally the first place we looked at. Looking back, we should’ve done more research, but it worked for us. It was nice, it was clean, it was safe, and it was only 5 minutes from hubby’s job. My commute was horrible but it was a trade off since hubby often switched between swing shift and graveyard. Our 2nd place was more about price (almost $300 cheaper than our apartment) and proximity to hubby’s job (7 minutes away). Now we’re in a different place and looking for different things.

Since we’re doing more research, here are things we’re taking into consideration while deciding where to live:

Rent

The biggest and main concern will be rent. We want to stay under $1,000 per month, but preferably something no more than $900/month. This will give us room to be able to comfortably afford where we’re living as well as being able to pay our bills and have money left over to put in a savings account.

Size

It’s only two of us, so we don’t really need much space. We went from a 1 bedroom, 700 square feet apartment to a 3 bedroom, 1,400 square feet townhouse. More than enough space. We could really do a studio, and I think 550 square feet is enough room.

Location

I did the commute thing. It’s not fun. There were times where I would leave my apartment at 7:15am and not get to work until 9:15am. My average commute was between an hour and an hour and a half one way. Right now, my commute from my grandparents’ house / in-laws’ house to my job is 18 minutes. I’ll be willing to go up to 30 minutes. We’d also like to be relatively close to his parents just in case they need us.

Leasing Terms

We signed a 13 month lease for our apartment that we ended up breaking to move into our townhouse, then we had a one year lease there. If possible, we’d like to find a place that has month-to-month leasing. From what I’ve heard from my coworker, that’s not hard to find. I’ve found a lot of places that prefer for you to have a year lease. I don’t want to be trapped in case we want to move again (but I hate moving!).

Some additional things that would be nice to have, but aren’t necessary:

  • Pet friendly
  • Parking (street parking sucks)
  • Laundry on site
  • A/C (especially if we move back to the OC. Summer was brutal)

So we’re not being super picky, but we are being a bit more selective when it comes to finding places we’re interested in. A nice neighborhood, a nice size, a nice price. That’s really all we’re asking for. If we could move before August, that’d be pretty freaking awesome, but we definitely don’t want to rush it.

What are the things you look for when deciding where to live?