Adulting/ Housing Advice

[lil]

I really need to move out lmao. Idk if it would be a smart idea for me to buy a house and then just pay the mortgage month to month? That way I have more privacy/space than an apartment. Looking at real estate sites It seems like I could save up and pay a down payment on a trailer and month to month payments might be pretty cheap compared to apartments around where I live. But idk if I would stick with it and renting it out or something might be too much of a hassle?

It'll be a while before I do anything though because I still need to find a new job OTL

Also can someone explain to me about checking your credit? Is there a legit place to check it for free/cheap?? Doesn't checking your credit make it go down ? Why does that happen omg. I haven't really have had a credit card only one for a clothing store so I wouldn't have much credit idk

I could probably use google for this shit but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[kuunaan]

Could you specify which country you're talking about? Because the credit thing sounds weird, here you just sort everything out with your bank?

[lil]

Sorry! I live in the US. Plus I'm not really sure what I'm talking about tbh

[Anandrine]

you can get one free credit report per year through annualcreditreport.com. this is FTC approved. checking your OWN credit will not make it go down (that's called a soft inquiry), but it can be impacted any time a company runs your credit report (that's a hard inquiry).

if it's your first time living alone, i would recommend starting with an apartment (or house with roommates). the pro of this is that you have a landlord who will handle almost everything. sink or toilet breaks? landlord calls and pays the plumber. depending on where you live, some utilities may be included in the price of rent too. if it's a place you own, any and all costs (including repairs) are on you.

[lil]

Ahh thanks you for the info + advice! Every time I look at just craigslist for apartments or people looking for roommates I feel like the prices keep going up argh!