We would just send our realtors listings we wanted to see and they would screen through them for whether they're overpriced, if they had any red flags for location, and then set up all the visits for us. They scheduled them outside of the open house times so we had the visits all to ourselves. They would also add in ones they knew about once they got the sense of what we were looking for. The one we ended up buying was one they picked because we thought it would be too expensive (ended up getting it for close-ish to asking).

Go local. We used HUECU credit union and their service was great! We ended up getting an offer accepted on Easter night because we could get in contact with our loan officer to talk to the seller's realtor.

Also, side note, get your own realtor on your side. A good one will know their shit and be immensely helpful along the way and be the one negotiating with the sellers.

It's out West in Lee/Lenox, but we got married at the Devonfield Inn in the Berkshires. It's a B&B and had an elopement package for a very reasonable price. The owner is an ordained minister who will do the ceremony, and have a large property and you can choose where to get married (they have a large field, wooded area, lawn, or inside if it's raining). Our guests just got rooms there (we paid for some), and they had lots of deals with vendors in the area. The photographer they recommended was awesome and we had 3 sessions with him taking us around Lenox and we got all our photos for ~$850. They don't do dinner, but Old Inn on the Green had an amazing 3-4 course menu, or you can cater dinner on their property.

Blue Nile has a showroom in NH which might save on some tax. They can also be ordered online.

Huh. I guess it depends on what office you go to and what doctor you see. I've been a patient for 5 years and have never had any issues with anyone I've seen there for standard care. Specialists have gotten dicey after covid though, and they lost all their dermatologists.

Is mass health accepted at Atrius health/Harvard Vanguard? If have great interactions with everyone there and if they are in network, usually their whole group will be in network.

$2.98 at Dedham Costco this weekend!

Were there any work notices in your spot? I've had a car towed before because they put up emergency work tow zones the night before or so. They're supposed to put it up 3 days in advance but obviously not a priority for them and sometimes they're nice enough not to tow. I just count that as part of my yearly parking costs, though it's only happened once in the 4 years I've lived in Cambridge.

Vim was great and had company discounts for many larger companies in the area. Super easy to cancel as well when I moved. I completed an online form, didn't even need to talk to anyone.

You should probably look at your budget and at the price of apartments available for rent right now in the areas you are looking at. Some may be too stressful, unless they are adjusting salary and funds for COL.

Agreed. All our relatives were constantly spouting that idea at us, but when I did out the math for them, we'd have to work over 5 years with zero spending over bare necessities to save the 20%. We didn't want our life to look like that for 5 years just to save. We put 5% down and our PMI is 115/mo.

I think your salary is pretty much going to dictate what regions you will be able to afford. MA in general is not a very low cost of living area, but it DEFINITELY will be higher once you are closer to Boston.

But then that will be oppositely correlated by the amount of nightlife you are looking for. Do you mean bars and breweries or do you mean clubs and proper nightlife? Boston can be surprisingly quiet and things will shut down around 10-12 some times (too old to know about current club scenes). Public transportation shuts down between midnight and 1ish, or even earlier depending on the area.

We all hate it. I luckily only needed 3 months upfront, and happened to have enough saved, but moving costs plus that were a little shocking to my budget. You should be able to find that range though! Especially north of Harvard, maybe even in central/cambridgeport. You may have more options around Kendall, but the neighborhood is a little more biotechy/corporate.

Yes, that salary should be enough for a 1br if you're looking to live alone, but the newish buildings will be more like luxury apartments and could charge 3-4k/mo. That might be a little tight if you need other savings. Also, you could need 3-4 months of rent in upfront costs during signing (security, first and last months rent, realtor fees).

Saaame. Husband wasn't super on board with spending the money, but I'm sure he's happy about it now!

That's awesome to hear about BI. We're attending an online Q&A session next week with them! They also seem to have lots of education classes available too.

Good! I've heard amazing things about L&D at both Beth Israel and Newton-Wellsley. I think I'm personally going to choose BIDMC.

Are these options limited by your insurance?

Yes. Each company can offer separate rates for different sources. You can sign up for a supply that has different amounts of energy from different sources. There may be documentation about what renewables they use (wind, solar, hydro, etc.)

Thank you Dedham for locking in a whopping $.108 per kWh until the end of 2023.

Not a solution for your immediate issue, but would it be worth it to have space heaters in each room and only turn them on when you're in there? I guess this would only work if you only really used one room at a time.