I’m typically the one dishing out advice and tips on this site, but today I’m gonna turn the tables. I am having a heck of a time deciding if I should renew the lease at my apartment or if I should end it and find somewhere else to live, and I need your advice! I only have about three days to decide, so I would truly appreciate your input.
Of all the times I’ve moved, this is the most complicated situation. I have great reasons to move, but also great reasons to stay. Let’s start with why I think I should move.
Let’s Get Out of Here!
My current lease is up on 6/24. If you follow my blog regularly, you probably know that I’m going to Costa Rica for over three weeks on 6/30. If I end my current lease, I can live with friends and/or family from 6/24 to 6/30 and then pay $100 or so to move my stuff into a storage unit for a month. This will allow me to essentially be “homeless” for a month where I don’t have to pay rent ($829) or utilities (about $150) while I’m out of the country. Right off the bat I have about 800 to 1,000 good reasons to move.
Another potential reason to move is that I could get a two bedroom apartment and have a dedicated video room. In my apartment today, I turned my bedroom into my video room and put my bed in the living room. Call me crazy, but it would be nice to actually have a bedroom again. Plus I should be able to write off the video room as a “home office” on my taxes since it would be 100% dedicated to my blog business. I can definitely find a two-bedroom place for about the same as I pay for this one-bedroom place now if I move to a slightly cheaper property, so increased rent won’t be an issue in getting an extra bedroom.
My initial impression what that I was definitely moving out. But then I started thinking about all the reasons I should stay.
Home Sweet Home
I hate moving. If you gave me a choice between moving or watching a Sex and the City marathon, I’d say bring on the annoying old women. If I’m going to be homeless for a month, I will have to move not once, but twice over about five weeks. Load up the apartment, then unload in the storage unit. Five weeks later: load up the storage unit, and unload at the new place. Just the thought of it has me seriously tempted to renew my lease today.
I could load and unload once if I rent a POD, where they deliver the storage unit to your place, pick it up and store it, and then deliver it to your new place when you’re ready. The only problem is it will probably cost me about $500. That’s a lot of cashola and seriously reduces the benefits of being homeless for a month.
And then there are other stupid logistics with being homeless for a month. Will I need a PO Box for my mail while I’m gone? The Post Office can hold your mail for 30 days, but I’ll be homeless for at least 31. What about my bank accounts and credit cards and employer? They all need an address for me, and I don’t think I can just tell them I’m temporarily living in Costa Rica. If you’re a mail expert and you’re reading this, please leave a comment and tell me what to do, and I’ll give you a free subscription to my blog.
So those are the rather complicated, unique reasons for and against moving. Here are the rest of the smaller things I’ll have to weigh:
Reasons to Move
- I hate Time Warner Cable, and it’s my only option in my current apartment. The internet goes out for no reason at least once every few weeks.
- They want to raise my rent $20 a month to $849. I could probably haggle with them and get it back down to $829, but maybe not.
- The walls in my apartment are very thin, and I always feel like my neighbors hate me when I’m belting out a personal finance song.
Reasons to Stay
- Whether I’m borrowing a truck from my girlfriend’s dad or hiring movers, it’s going to cost money.
- I will have to pay application fees and put down a deposit at a new place; I’ve already paid that stuff here.
- I’m generally pretty happy with the management company at my current apartment, which is important to me.
- I haven’t lived in the same place two years in a row since I was in high school. I would be nice to have a little continuity.
- I really don’t want to deal with patching up the wall where I mounted my flat screen, and then remounting the TV in my new place.
The only thing I know for sure about this decision, is that I have to make up my mind pretty quick. I would really like to hear some reader input, especially if you have some suggestions on how to make the move cheaper/easier/better if I do decide to take that route. Thanks dudes!
And of course, I can’t title a post “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” without a video of The Clash.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT atΒ Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer ofΒ Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When heβs not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Well, I don’t know where you found a decent apartment for $829/ month in D-town. When I looked with my boyfriend, pretty much everything was well over $1k a month. I know he was looking in a more expensive part of town but still…that’s a big difference!
I hate moving too. If I were you, I’d probably get a 2 bedroom and move in BEFORE going to Costa Rica. It saves you from moving twice and solves the mail problem. Maybe with a little luck, the apartment can hold your mail for you instead of the post office. This may be the most expensive option, but I see it as a time and energy savings. You’re obviously not on your way to the poor house and even though I know you’d rather save the money…you’re not going to go broke if you spend it. Plus, I would think having your own space to crash in when you get back from Cost Rica would be pretty sweet.
That said, I thought about this for about 45 seconds, so take it with a grain of salt.
Downtown Dallas is very different from Irving (where I live). I have a really nice place on a lake right now. If I move off the lake, it will be even cheaper. π
Moving in before I go to Costa Rica is an option. If I decide to move out, I guess I’ll just have to look into that stuff and see if I could find a place where the first month is free or something like that.
I think you have the decision points well laid out. It largely comes down to the weights you want to give the various parts. I would put the hate moving and other hassles at the top and decide it wasn’t worth it. If I wanted to move (balancing the reasons for a new place v. the current one) I would try to just get one or two more month at the current place and then move when I get back. It isn’t the cheapest option but the bother isn’t worth the 1 month savings to me.
Here’s the problem with staying here: One month here on a month-to-month lease is $1,215 a month. I probably should have mentioned that in the post. If I do want to have my stuff in an apartment during the Costa Rica trip, I would definitely get the new, cheaper place instead of staying in this one.
Thanks for the input!
Remember: the stress of moving will end and soon be forgotten, but the day-to-day experience of living in a space will last for years!! I hate moving too, but don’t avoid going where you want to go just because of a temporary annoyance.
This is great advice. I guess I really need to decide how badly I want to move or how badly I want to stay, and just let the move take care of itself if that’s the way I decide to go.
I would second John’s recommendation. Generally, if you don’t re-sign, you can still go month to month until you get back from Costa Rica and can focus on moving. The second bedroom as a home office for blogging might work… but if you already have a full time job outside of the home, you may want to verify whether you can still use it to get a break on your taxes (which is awesome if you can). Also, a friend told me she used a place in Dallas thats employs off-duty firefighters as manpower for her move – don’t know if that could be useful to you… As someone who probably hasn’t lived in the same place for more than a year over the last ten years, I wish you luck!
If I do have a spare bedroom, I will set up my video stuff in there and make it just a video room. I’ll put my computer (where I do some other work) elsewhere just to make sure it’s 100% devoted to the website. I’ll have to look into the firefighters. If I’m saving a month’s rent, maybe it’s worth it to use some of that to pay for movers.
All I took from this is God bless TAG for dating a boy with his bed in the living room. I think some kids I went to college with did that in their dorm room. Oh, and it sounds like you want to and should move.
Haha, she hates seeing my bed in my living room. I think she would be happy to see me move elsewhere (but she won’t be happy because I’ll make her help me move!)
That’s a tough one. Moving is a pain in the butt. I say move and get yourself a nice 2nd bedroom. You can write it off on tax and it’ll be better going forward. I think that is enough reason to move so might as well do it now. Do it quick like pulling off a band aid. π
Thanks, I appreciate the input! Luckily I don’t have a lot of stuff, so the move won’t actually be too bad. It’s more the fixing the holes in the wall that I’m worried about. π
ok. First you need to find a place. If you don’t have a place you love than there is no reason to have this discussion.
But the moving can be a lot less stress than you think. Don’t let that hold you back.
if you decide to move, start packing now! and do like 20-30 minutes a day. Pick up cheap boxes from home depot. And pack easy stuff first books, pictures, etc. If you are dreading patching up your wall, get the stuff for it now. Pick a day to take you TV down.
Another moving tip is to pick a drawer or a shelf everyday and start decluttering. Take everything out, and only put back the stuff you need. Stick stuff on amazon and ebay. Get rid of any excess crap in your place. It’s immensly easier to move.
Also get a truck that is big enough for all your stuff. None of this multiple trip madness.
Bonus, lots of storage units offer the 1st month free, or you may have a nice friend with a garage they don’t use.
Also you can have the post office forward your mail to say, you parents or friends place temporarily, and then forward it to a permanant address after 3 weeks. I was in this situation after I got married. I was honeymooning and wedding-ing for 3 weeks in between apartment. I wouldn’t worry about updating your address with your employer until you know what it will be. No big deal if you are temprary for a few weeks.
My DH helped unload a friend’s stuff from storage yesterday. It took an hour and a half. If you have nice friends, it actually goes pretty quick.
Ok that’s my 2 cents π
Thanks for all your advice. I really don’t have a lot of stuff, so I don’t have much to pack. I think everything I own fits in three big plastic totes. It’s one of the benefits of being a frugal dude. π
Thanks for the advice on the mail. It’s good to hear someone else went homeless for a few weeks and it was ok.
pu-shaw! with so little stuff – I say go for it frugal dude. Get that video room!
I think that you should go and enjoy yourself for a little while.
I’m going though a similar situation with debating on moving, different circumstances though. But if I were you I wouldn’t put so much weight on the actual moving portion part of things. Sure yeah you may have to move twice but no matter what you have to move at least once. Unless you plan to live in your current place forever then I don’t think that should weigh into things.
So I see 2 questions:
1) Should you move or stay? I say move. Sounds like you’ve already decided that.
2) Move before or after Costa Rica? I think this really depends on what you can find before you leave. If you find something perfect, don’t wait. If you find something that will do, but isn’t exactly what you wanted then I say pack up and head to the storage facilities.
As for how to make moving easier….
1. Cheap
2. Easy
Pick one. Or you can throw everything out and then you can pick both.
Well, i don’t know what the market is like where you are, but don’t forget to take into consideration how long it might actually take to find a decent apartment when you get back! Finding the right place would be my main concern when the clock is ticking.