The “Uh-oh” Feeling

Have you ever had that “uh-oh” feeling after moving into an apartment?

It has happened to everyone.  The moment where you think “Uh-oh.  Will I regret living here?  Did I make the right decision?”.  Wondering if you made the right decision is never a good idea, because you’ve started to focus on negative aspects of your apartment.  You weighed the benefits of moving in and made the best decision possible with the information available.  The problem is that people don’t have all of the information they need to make an informed decision.  If all of the information is on the table, there will be a lot less “uh-oh” moments as people move into their apartments.

This has happened to me personally on multiple occasions.  In the end, the apartments have been fine, but I probably could have put more effort into the process of finding apartments (I’m sure my old roommates would agree).  I lived in an apartment that was fine on many fronts, but I wish I had looked harder.  There were a couple of issues:

• My bedroom didn’t have a closet.
• There was construction outside of my bedroom window for the entire year.  I was usually woken up by jackhammering outside of my window each morning.  I could have handed coffee to the workers as if my window was a drive-through.
• The heating pipes in the apartment BANGED really loudly.  Imagine hitting a pipe with a wrench ten or fifteen times in the middle of the night.
• People smoked outside of the apartment constantly.

Would this information have helped me in my decision to sign the lease or look for another apartment?  Absolutely.  While I could have walked over to the apartment and hounded the current tenants, I didn’t.  It really would have been helpful before I saw it with a broker.  Being able to filter out apartments before visiting them in person will help save the most time and filter out apartments with problems.  Ultimately, there will be far fewer “uh-oh” moments.

What things do you wish you had known before you moved into an apartment?