this might be a bit long winded but here goes:
first you need to find a house, you dont want a apt, you want a house. having 5 people sharing a 1 bedroom apt is a disaster and in no way are you or anyone else living there going to have the energy to do anything creative at all. theres not enough space for people to have any to themselves and also no room for art shows/potlucks/shows like you said you wanted to do.
most punk houses (in the states at least i dont know where you are since you didnt say) are in pretty run down/industrial parts of town, this has ups and down sides. the upside being the rent should be quite alot cheaper then a uppity gentrified neighborhood. the downside is moving into a ghetto can be intimidating (you and yer white friends moving into a neighborhood thats been mostly black for years can make some people uncomfortable, and with good reason, generally when whitey moves in rent goes up. gentrification is a real thing.) talk to yer neighbors, get to know them, let them know that you arnt some rich asshole trying to ruin their neighborhood. invite them to yer events, even if they dont seem interested its always nice to know where you stand with people, especially yer neighbors. ive found that food not bombs seriously makes yer neighbors feel that you are actually trying to do something positive and not just be loud as fuck every friday and saturday night while yer drive way is full of old beat up cars, bikes and 40oz bottles. be nice to yer neighbors and they wont call the cops on you. its common sense, but people over look it alot.
so you found yer house now you need housemates that you can actually trust. this is important as fuck because if people stop paying rent/bills on time, you could lose yer house. (not to mention all of the awesome adult things that go along with that. credit score, having a eviction on yer record thus making it harder to sign a lease in the future, etc etc) so you really need to trust people that are going to be a permanent/semi permanent person in yer house. so thats another thing, depending on where you are you have certain rights as a renter, most people dont ever have to deal with this hassle from landlords but a ex of mine did, she had her home "inspected" every month by the landlord, basically monthly everyone scrambled to hide all their illegal shit/the dude living in the basement/i hid in the attic with the cats, etc etc just all kinds of ridiculous shit because the lease she had signed was so riddled with bullshit that it ended up screwing her over in the end. so READ THE LEASE BEFORE YOU SIGN IT. some landlords require everyone living there to be on the lease, some may just want you, just remember if its all on yer shoulders its yer responsibility to make sure nobody steals the toilet while they are on acid and throws it out of the 2nd story window. thats difficult to explain. again depending on what state you are in yer landlord may be responsible for fixing things around the house, this obviously doesnt include the toilet from earlier, but little things within reason shouldnt effect yer rent and are legally (again depending what state you are in it might be different for you) that persons job to take care of. so back to people you can trust to financially, if you have 5 or 6 people in a 3 bedroom house with a attic/basement/some little cubby space someone can flop a bed in then rent/bills should be divided fairly. thats yer call how you want to handle that, in my experience more space = more rent. so hey you want the room that has a bathroom with a bathtub in it, ok that should obviously cost more then the room that was meant as some kind of storage space/tiny office that has no windows, no closet and basically is the size of a port a potty. pretty basic shit.
from there its up to you and yer housemates to make shit happen. it could be a rad place that has shows and art and does fnb and all kinds of shit that makes the neighborhood better, or it could be a place where people piss in their 40s and leave them in yer living room. its all up to you. know yer rights as a renter and dont be bullied by renters, do yer research and look around, deffinetly dont just jump in and sign onto the first place you see, its worth it to look at options. goodluck.
