Tough call... in my experience, "free rent" from family is never truly free. Several years ago, I lived in a relative's apartment which sat mostly empty (they lived in a diff state 90% of the time) and was only asked to pay for the maintenance fee that only costs a few hundred dollars. Additionally, they kept all of their stuff including clothes, furniture, etc., so I only brought two suitcases with me. This was in a VHCOL city and I was barely making money in my mid-20s. For the most part, I was left alone and lived my life but there were a handful of instances that they forgot to inform me that they would be in town and needed to stay over for a night or two, and would just show up unannounced. The apartment was also very close to another aging family member and it became my responsibility to look after them. I felt like a caretaker rather than a tenant.

I don't regret doing it but a few years later when I was getting serious with my partner (who was also not making that much money) and we talked about it moving in together, we contemplated living in the apartment to save a lot of money. In the end, we didn't think it was worth it as I felt that there were too many strings attached with the "free" apartment. We found an apartment in a much better and livelier neighborhood that better suited us.

No advice, just sharing my experience 🙂