[GH85Carrera]

My first and only apartment was a dumpy garage apartment that was 13 steps up a wooden stairway that was not real solid. The equivalent of $350 per month today, I had to pay all the utilities and put down the deposits for phone, gas and electric. There was no such thing as internet or cable TV in the olden days. I was there just over a year and always mailed my check on time. As I moved out the place was a lot cleaner, and several little things were fixed by me. The landlord said I was one of his few tenants to ever get a deposit back, and that I always paid on time. He even said to list him as a reference if I need to.

I moved in with a buddy to a duplex with a dishwasher and washer and dryer. The rent was just a little higher and the neighborhood was a lot better. It was my only time to ever have a roommate, and we had zero problems until the roof started leaking like crazy. The landlord has lost his money in the oil bust and he could not afford to fix the roof.

I moved out and bought a house a little before I really truly could afford it in the Jimmy Carter era of 18% home mortgages. I got a super bargain rate of just 12.5%.

When I got married I moved into my wife's house and rented my place. I did not like anything at all about being a landlord. After two years I evicted the tenant and put it up for sale. We rolled that money and the sale of my wife's house into our current dream house that we have been in for over 20 years.