To those who rent, I'm curious how often you switch apartments. I'm thinking it mostly varies with how happy you are at your current home. Moving can be expensive! Having to gather various security deposit amounts and pay for a moving truck can really add up. We stayed at our last place for 3 years and will be at this place for 2. I would stay, but honestly there have been way too many management issues to let another year go by. Otherwise, we tend to stay somewhere a few years.
When we used to rent we moved rarely and lived in the same apartment for 3 to 4 years. How it went. When we first moved in me made a contract for half a year with the purpose of learning about the place, the neighbors and eventual problems, and if we liked the space we made a longer contract for a few years. With a longer contract we managed to save money on rent since it was cheaper per month. As for why we switched apartments, most times the reason was cheaper rent.
I've never moved house, and hopefully wont do too many times. Although eventually I do want to this this are, not too far, just to get away from the bad districts. Hopefully I'll be properly settled for life soon. I may considering renting for a bit though.
Moving is definitely expensive. I'm getting ready to do it myself and I forgot how expensive it is to switch over all the utlities, etc, especially when you have to switch companies. I'm just moving across the state line, but it's really upping my costs. And oh geez, security deposits are ridiculous, all on their own!
I have to say before I got my home I switch apartments only when my lease was up which was ever 2 years depending on if I found something cheaper or bigger worth my money. If I thought that I could get by on what I had I would stay in my current apartment.
There was a period of my life where we would move a lot within the city but I do not wish to move if I'm staying in the same state. I hate my city but I love my complex. I'm really glad I decided to have us move here. I don't think I'd find anything better. The only issue I have is one person in the office but I think even the people who work there don't really like him. It'd be too much of a hassle to move no matter how you slice it.
The last apartment I had I loved, and would have stayed there indefinitely if the company I was working for hadn't closed down. In the 6 or so years I lived there I had no problems at all with noisy neighbors, the apartment itself was floor to ceiling newly remodeled, so everything was brand new. They were fantastic about keeping everything shoveled, and would be out there at 5:30-6am with snowblowers clearing all the walkways. The main office was also really good about accepting packages for me, and they would stay there late in the evenings so I could get my packages the day they arrived. The apartments themselves were in a great location, nestled among a really nice community of houses. All the other apartments I had, I was out of them within a year or two due to multiple problems. One place had a bad bug problem, while another had a very noisy neighbor that they wouldn't evict. Another place lied to me about the heating and cooling, and I found out the so called "central air" was run off of a boiler system and they only turned on the "cooling" part of it for a couple months out of a year.
Wow, that is so great that you were able to find an apartment that kept you so happy for so long. I think a lot of people are out within a year or two because of problems. That's how we feel about our current place. It's a great place, but there are many problems that outweigh the good things!!
That's interesting because we moved from the last apartment due to bugs too. It was basically the straw that broke the camel's back though. I find it funny because you always see a sign about them looking for tenants.
