He’s out of his gourd

Since I’ll be leaving in June, I need to get rid of the stuff in my apartment. I had heard that there was a newish student here that planned on being here on a long term basis. He expressed some interest in buying some of my stuff, so he came over. I thought he’d be interested in the apartment, but it turns out he has big plans. He is going to rent a 4 bedroom place and furnish it. He then plans to sublet the place over the next 7-8 years. I think he’s nuts. He’s been here all of one month, doesn’t really know Arabic, and he’s planning on staying here for 7-8 years. Not only that, he’s planning on sinking money into an apartment with the idea of making money on it, in Yemen mind you…

Never mind the lunacy of wanting to be here that long, how about the idea that he’s going to make money on real estate here. There’s every indication that this place will melt down over the next 8 years, but we’ll ignore that. If it was a pretty straightforward business of renting the house out at a profit, why isn’t the landlord doing it? My guess is that once this American gets the place spiffed up, the rent will magically go up…

Another thing to keep in mind is that once you are renting, the landlords usually assume that any problems you have (water, plumbing, electricity, etc.) are your problem. They do not help or try to fix things. It is very common for the landlord to ask for money to make the place ready to move into. I have had many friends look at places and tell the landlord that they would live there IF the bathroom were fixed, the kitchen repaired, etc. The landlord says, great! Give me $400 and I’ll do it… It’s a very strange arrangement.

Anyway, this guy I was talking to tonight was all of 22 or 23 and he figured that he had his whole 8 year stay here all planned out. I think his best case scenario is that he does what he wants and everything works out until the revolution comes. Then he’s SOL…