What was your first rental like?

I met a guy many years ago who told me I should stop living in the burbs and go rent near the beach. Sounded good at the time so rented out my house and moved to a tiny little unit right on the water - 180 degree views all the way to Bondi and down to Little Bay. My bed head had salt marks on it from the spray of the ocean coming through the flyscreens, my outdoor setting had to be thrown as it had rusted, as did my golf clubs in the garage and I had to fumigate all my stuff as the unit had the biggest infestation of cockroaches I had ever seen in my life. I couldn't even keep food in the fridge as they had taken over the entire kitchen. At night the sound of the crashing waves was sometimes taken over by the sound of scurrying cockroaches tap tap tapping in the kitchen as I tried to sleep. My skin crawls just thinking back to that 6 months living with my many co-tenants.

Should have charged the roaches board! :p


pinkboy
 
My first "rental" was when I finished full time school (17 and a bit) my dad told me I had to pay 25% of my newly acquired job (all of about $30). I did not have to pay 25% of any overtime I did.

When I decided to move out of home dad told me to NEVER pay more than 20% of my base wage in rent/mortgage ..as the other 5% would be needed for furniture/rent/insurance.

I have (mostly)stuck to that advice and it has been good. As I have not ever been on a huge wage...my accommodations have always been fairly modest :)
(no McMansions here :rolleyes:)
 
Technically it was nurses quarters of a major public hospital, but because it was not a house or unit, I'd have to say the upper floor of a shop I lived in in Colliers Wood London for 5 months, aged 19/20yo.

It was a 3 bedroom place that cost us 125 pounds a week, which 6 of us shared.

The place was a little rundown and had basic furniture, but between the 6 of us was kept clean and livable, unlike some share houses I'd been into in London that had up to a dozen living in a 2 bedroom unit.

They were good times.

Interestingly one of the guys I shared with, who had a BIG personality but was great to live with, is a very successful and well know Adelaide REA - who always said he'd be a millionaire by 40 and got there well before (when a M was a lot of money).

Following that came back to Adelaide and bought my first IP aged about 21, while I continued to rent in the inner city area for less than the rent I recieved from the 3 bed IP in the suburbs.
 
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I have only ever rented once, when i was 17 and going to the Uni in Toowoomba. The house was owned by a very religious widow who had very different house rules to what I was familair with.

I got the room outside under the tank stand, which I convinced myself was haunted by their son who had killed himself in the V8 his father bought him for his 17th birthday. The house was immaculately clean but the culture shock was too much for me. After returning to Brisbane in the first break, I refused to ever go back.

I promptly found myself a job in Brisbane and started saving as much of my pay as humanly possible. I bought our first house two years later with a ten percent deposit.
 
Moved out of home at 19 to live (in sin :D) with boyfriend (now husband). We shared a reasonably new, modern, clean two bedroom townhouse in regional NSW with another couple we were friends with - we had one of the bedrooms and the other couple had the other bedroom. With us all working full-time/shift-work it was rare that we were home at the same time so it worked out well. It was while doing this that we purchased 3 investment properties and poured as much money as we could into them.
 
When I was 20, I shared with a house with two strangers I didn't particularly get along with. It was a horrible, cold, dank, rundown, huntsmen-infested house with windows that didn't close. The shower was a mould-ridden cubicle and the water pressure was quite literally a lukewarm trickle. Was only there for a few months.

When we were moving out, I had to be there for open for inspections to show prospective tenants about (no real estate agent or owner present). The prospective tenants would ask me about the place and I'd give perfectly honest answers, sending them running off into the distance. I'm sure the owner would've murdered me had he known, but I felt it my responsibility to caution others against the hellish abode.
 
Actually I take back what I said previously, there was another house.

Took over my sisters lease in my 3rd year of uni, 2007? Chippendale, Rose St, behind the pub in the corner across the road from the park leading to Sydney Uni. I think $450/week between 4 of us. Wanted to be closer to uni and work (worked at Broadway Shopping Centre).

Woke up on my first day and came down stairs to 3 (very) angry house-mates, I was unaware the house flooded during minor rain events and there was a procedure in place to save the furniture :p

It was nicknamed Rose-Inn, I found out why when every night I would come downstairs to a party. I lasted about 2 months before I realised I was living in a 1km radius which depressed me. Poor drainage, paint peeling and rust everywhere. Good memories.
 
Geez - this brings back memories....

1990 in Kalgoorlie. It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house on it's own block, directly across the road from the School of Mines.

Me and two other fellas moved in, so that we could stagger out of bed 2 minutes before the lecture started and still make it on time.

Rent was $ 170 per week.

We were all on tax free scholarships of $ 6,000 per annum each, and all worked on the rigs during the holidays, getting paid $ 900 per week in the hand. Rent wasn't a problem.

The Owner (Indian chap about 60 y.o.) was very reluctant to rent it to us, simply stating "no parties". Yeah right. We looked after the place though and nothing was ever wrecked and during the 2 years we never called either him or the PM. They must of thought we were top Tenants.

I left after 2 years to go to Sydney, but the boys stayed there and finished their Mining degrees. It was such a good location, they had wave after wave of students begging to move in as the years rolled by.

The worst times were when the plumbing backed up. The Owner had done some dodgy reno about 10 years prior to us moving in, and the breather pipe for the dunny (inside - pretty flash in Kal !!) wasn't done right.

One day our Geo mate was having a bath and innocently pulled the plug when he'd finished. This caused the hydrostatic pressure of the head of water to divert somehow and forced the raw p00 and sewerage back up through the breather pipe next to the toilet on the floor. He started screaming for us and we both rushed in to find a spout of p00 flying up about 3 foot high with no end in sight. Funny looking back, but the smell was overpowering. Poor ol' John was left there trapped, naked in the island bath, surrounded by a sea of p00.

The sludge did what all fluid does, naturally flow downhill, straight into the kitchen !! We quickly all put on handkerchiefs and got buckets to scoop the worst of it out of the kitchen and chucked it right down the back of the block. Bl00dy flies everywhere.

Didn't even think to take photos or complain to the Owner.

When it happened the second time, we quickly cleaned it up again and vowed never to have a bath again. Showers only. A pact was made.

After the second clean up, I went up to the PM's office on Hannan St and said it was pretty average....the dodgy plumbing was buggered and we were sick of having a torrent of raw p00 flowing into our kitchen. She simply shrugged her shoulders and said "we were poor students and were most probably causing the problem ourselves by using newspaper instead of toilet paper....that's typically what students do". WTF ??

Was in Kal a couple of months ago and the place is still there....no change. I wondered if the flying p00 spout was still operational.
 
University (rented room) accommodation. A small shared room, cupboard wall with in built desks dividing and giving some privacy. Our floor had a kitchenette to share, (I forget how many people on the floor), plus a tv room, laundry I think was ground floor.

I thought it was amazing, the nicest room I'd ever had. Great bunch of students too, most of whom I still keep occasional contact or even worked with during years after.

Cafeteria and the food and cooks like family, although one of the young trainee cooks-guy I kinda had a shy crush on him. The others would tease me.:eek:

Maybe $40 a week, but don't quote me. Might have been bit more.
 
Shared accomodation with 4 other members:

1> Medical student
2> Accountant
3> Russian Tourist
4> Myself

It was a 4 bedroom house in Brunswick, only lasted for 4 weeks then moved to St Kilda apartment with 3 other mates.
 
1996 in Ballarat for 2.5 years. It was a large 3 bedroom Victorian-era house that was converted into 2 dwellings. My area was a 1 bedroom unit essentially. One space heater in the small living room/kitchenette. The bedroom would have been the original houses living/sitting room. It was huge, but with so much glass, it was extremely cold during the winter months. I ended up sleeping in the room with the heater during those months.

Rent was $90 per week and I was earning approx $615 gross.
 
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