Same thoughts over here, friend. The thing keeping me sane is that I started volunteering. Look for the helpers, an all that (Mr Rogers). Shit is fucked and food scarcity is a thing for a lot of people in our immediate vicinity. I found a weekly breakfast through a local political org, but find something that speaks to you. Mutual aid groups, or do a shoe drive with your parish, or hell - one lady just collects bags of clothes donations from offerup and shows up when we’re serving bfast with a folding table and people can grab what they need.
I carry a lot of rage at “the system” and helping my neighbors goes a very long way in keeping it focused where it might make some change for the better.
Ooooh, there’s a short story you should check out, by Vonnegut- “Any reasonable offer”
Let’s get you into a beautiful house. Options:
As a student, overseas relative is helping you buy, has set the budget and you’re going around and looking at places to get a feel for what’s available in the price range
Or maybe you’ve just taken a new job position nearby and want to stay in the area and the exterior has the charm you’re after,and curious to see what you get inside for the price
Pull up a few other places being sold for same price range and note a couple of small things that one of them has, that this might not. Act like those are a bigish deal because “the one over in sint-gilles has xyz, and that was one of the things on my partner’s list of deal breakers”
Look wealthy, mention offhand that financing is handled by the trust, and the board is open to investing, and you just wanted to put eyes on the place before you advise them to commit,then ask a few questions about the neighborhood after dark, so they focus on convincing you without paying too much attention to the rest
They’ll likely poke a bit about your story, and wonder about your financing, but its also super normal for people to be at the end of a long day and focused on paying attention to remembering details of the house or taking pictures and not really bothering to talk, so deflect or ignore.
Check a few faucets, ask when the electricity was brought up to code, and ask if they’ve already gotten estimates for any repairs that would need to be made before you were to move in
Do report back!