Cheap Rent

Is the land of cheap rent filled with turmoil and unexpected surprises? I found this room in a townhouse about 10 minutes closer to NYC than where I live now (although about 7 minutes farther away from work). When I agreed to rent the room from the owner of the townhouse, she seemed like she had everything together, etc. However, when I moved my large items over to my new room this weekend, a lot of interesting things surfaced.

(1) The landlord doesn't have a job -- no full time employment at all! She is worried she may have to move out of her own townhouse! YIKES! Does this mean that she may jump ship even before I'm ready to leave?

(2) She has a guy hanging around (really weird guy... might I add) who she said "helps her out once in a while", but also has keys to the townhouse.

(3) Her baby is a brat. He's loud and screamed "NO ROOM" at me when I brought some things over. Everyone knows how I feel about babies.

(4) There is no lock on my door. I'm a little bit scared with this weird guy hanging around for there to be no lock on my door. My dad is telling me to just go to home depot and install one myself. But do I need to get the landlord's permission to do that? Should I just place a large bookcase in front of my door every evening and tote my laptop and dvd player around with me wherever I go?

Is this what happens when you need a place for just 3 months, don’t want to pay more than $500 a month, and don’t want to sign a lease? Maybe I should have searched around a little harder. I'll be trying my best to never be at home.