Moving On

Well, I knew a rent hike was coming. I expected it was coming. We have swithed management once again. A coupel of bucks have been spent on shrubs and a new coat of paint. The pandemic kicked everyone’s butt. It might bve looked a little bit heartless and greedy to raise the rent last year, but now the coast is clear. Business is back in business and it’s time to start making more money.

So, the last time I signed a lease, my rent had been raised by $225/month to $675/month, $645 for rent and $30 more for water, sewer, and trash. The new lease jacks that up to $770/month plus the same $30. Or maybe the $770 includes the water, trash, and sewer fees. Either way…

I don’t appreciate it.

I was supposed to move the last time they raised my rent, in 2019, but I didn’t for a variety of reasons, mainly the fact that almost everyone else was charging roughly the same rent. I wasn’t getting a better deal, just a new location. In a few cases, I was getting an upgrade in amenities: a dishwasher here, a walk-in closet there, a patio, a fireplace.

But, I chose to stay put, pay the extra rent, and then 2020 happened and I was just happy I had a roof over my head, and a job, and toilet tissue. I put moving out of my head and concentrated on social distancing and trying not to get the coronavirus. But, I knew, in the back of my head, that there was going to be a rent hike.

I have had three raises in the last ten years. Maybe four. One raise about thirty cents. Another raise was 1.5%. You read that right: one and a half percent. I have had a rent hike every year or every other year during that time. $75. $105. $225 in 2019. And I didn’t move! What was I thinking?

I need to move.

So, I am now, once again, drafting a letter to the main office of my apartment complex, giving them notice that I am looking for a new place, and moving out by December 1. I am once again on Zillow and Apartments.com looking a floor plans and virtual tours of one-bedroom apartments near bus lines that will ultimately take me to work and back home.

I am once again building a master plan to pack my apartment in two weeks or less…as soon as I get started on it.

I don’t know if I need to move, or if I just don’t want to pay the higher rent. But I WANT to move. And I want/need some new energy in my life. New places, new spaces, new job…

Some days, it feels like I am using the rent hike as an excuse to move…