Bear with me here...

23 years old, living in house with family. My place is outside of London so I have to travel to go meet girls there (there are more local places but small towns with hardly any good looking women or low class women. I've got almost enough money for a deposit on a house but a house seems too permanent, and I wouldn't be able to afford one in a busy area with chicks.

My other option is rent in Clapham (busy area, like a mini London) that I already love going out in. I'm convinced my sex life will be much improved if I have somewhere to takes girls back to at the end of the date (so far its been their place). Anyway, the drawback is it costs so much to rent that you aren't saving much. I would have my money saved for a house deposit before I rent, so that should be safe, but does it seem wise to rent rather than buy (a big issue in the UK where house prices are so damn expensive, maybe not so much the US) to live in a prime spot for meeting women?

I saw someone post on here about getting a place near where you go to bars... that's basically what I'm after

Cheers

I'd say take a spread sheet and run the numbers over the next x years. That difference in expenses, your monthly budget and savings is what you'll pay to live closer to the bars. Then decide if it's worth it.

Good idea. My opinion might change once I've put some actual numbers to it


I'll just say it, it would be renting with other people so I'd have roommates. I think I like this idea as it would encourage me to keep social (rather than be tempted to play video games more than I'd like as I do now)

You're 23. This is a massive decision that is probably going to effect the rest of your life.

You have to think about your long term goals. Where do you see yourself when you're in your 30's?

I'm in a very similar position, apart from the fact that I've only just turned 22. I'm moving into my City Centre to rent just after the New Year.

But you're in London. Living expenses are higher. I live in Manchester where you can walk from one side of the center to the other in about 20-30 minutes and the living costs are a lot lower, plus, I've found the perfect place for myself that has amazing logistics (for my entire life, not just with girls). With London being so big, there will be many different things that would effect your quality of life, logistics and social exposure is your number one priority in my opinion.

There is absolutely no reason to be buying a house unless you want to get into real estate and make further profits from it. You might get a job offer in another city a few years from now and be unable to take it because you're chained to your house. A lot of people don't realize this, freedom is central to your happiness as a man, people who take out mortgages ect are putting themselves in debt and are near enough chained to that until they finally pay it off 25 years later. If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it, I don't know why people seem to think that a house or a car ect is any different than anything else. Houses are fucking boring and too much work too.

Just try find a cheap place in a decent location and you'll still be able to save money... you don't need a nice place to get laid. Like I said, logistics are the most important thing... at this age anyway. It's only when you're 40+ that you're finances really start to play a determining factor in whether you get the hottest girls and you might want to purchase yourself a nice apartment or two. For now, you can get a place that you rarely have to clean/maintain and move about freely at your own will.

I would rent. But maybe that's a bit biased to my current situation and this is only my view. Do what you think is best.

Rent.

Mortgages and Car Finance basically means you're paying extra for stuff you can't even afford.

Maybe I am speaking for myself too much though, I plan to travel the world and not be tied down to mortgages unless you're renting it out and earning profit.

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Good points above. I'd just add that if dating is a factor for location, think it out. I could only see a city apartment being beneficial if you plan to take girls home directly from the bar. If you're going on dates, then you can live a bit further from the city and meet at the nearby bar for the dates. For eg, I moved from the city to a nearby suburb, I can meet girls for a date at the local bar and its easier to get them to mine as opposed to if I lived in the city, cause you have a tougher time finding parking and getting back to your car. In most cases I think city places aren't worth the extra money.

You can earn profits while renting with roommates. Factor that in.

You can rent a bigger apartment and then make a profit by renting it to room mates, just make sure that your rent contract allows subletting. You can also rent out fridges with door locks or sell beer and food stuff to your room mates.

The small profit that you make can offset some of your expenses.

As for buying a house, you can always refinance the home mortgage and then make a nice profit from the refinance and probably use the extra cash (if the value of your house appreciates during, say, five years) to fund a start up business.

If the location of your house is good, you can rent out some of the rooms and have something extra after paying out the monthly amortization. For example, if your monthly amortization is 2,500 and your rent income is 2,200, and then monthly beer and foodstuff sales from your fridge is 400, then you're technically earning 100 and living free.

As Neo advised, run the numbers and verify the figures so you have an idea whether you'll make a profit or not.

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City centres are amazing..If you don't need a car or can afford the extra overt expense

More and more jobs these days allow you work from home. I traded my car for a bicycle, I got too many parking fines ducking and diving around private car parks with counterfeit parking permits

I would only consider buying/mortgage if I found the love of my life and wanted to make a family with her, so I'm not sure city centre is the ideal place to raise children if you're thinking about the future like that, which won't happen for me I don't think

I would only buy out right as a business investment or flip it. I made some serious cash subletting too to make the benjamins.

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Solid advice all, I read all of it

Thanks - definitely thinking rent

Definitely rent imo.

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