UPDATE: Found a New Place to Live

This is an update to a post a made about a month ago. It can be found here: https://imgur.com/gallery/OaGgcp

TLDR: I'm getting renovicted at the end of October cause new management took over complex and is renovating all the apartments, not renewing leases, and jacking up the rents $400-$500.

I found a new place to live, but overall it's smaller and about $125 more a month for rent, plus additional expenses.

Seriously, fuck these greedy ass companies. I swear this is actually how they figure out what to raise rents to.

So I had started my search looking for something that was cheaper than what I was paying to try and save some money. Unfortunately that didn't happen. With every place I called asking about availability, the price of places I was looking at kept rising as no had anything.

Pretty much every place I called told me they wouldn't have any availability until Spring, probably March/April and they do already have a long wait list, but I can be added to it if I fill out/submit an application and pay all the fees. Which every place seemed to charge a $50 application fee and a $150-$300 administration fee that was not refundable.

I don't have that kind of money to just throw away on getting on a wait list that might have something 5+ months after my current lease ends. Especially if I were to apply to multiple apartments on the off chance something opens up.

Anyway, after a lengthy search I was able to finally find a new apartment to move to that actually had availability. I submitted an application and paid the $350 in fees just to apply. (None of goes toward my rent or is kept as a security deposit.)

4 days later I get a call telling me my app was accepted and to come in and fill out a lease agreement and take a tour, which I did.

I pay $896 now before utilities, which includes a $25 pet rent fee (fucking fees), for a 2 bed, 2 bath, 997 sq ft apt. The new management is raising that to $1,435 a month, plus the pet fee. That's not a price increase I can afford.

What I found is going to be $1,010 before utilities, which includes a $30 pet rent fee (why? My cat doesn't do shit. I don't see no kid rent fees at apartments. They are more destructive.), for a 1 bed, 1 bath, 726 sq ft apt.

So its smaller in size and more expensive, plus I now also have a gas bill as it's not an all electric apt like my current one. Not sure what this bill is going to run me, but I'm guessing all together I'm probably going to average an additional cost of $150-$200 month now, between the increase in rent and utilities. Maybe it will be slightly lower since it will be a smaller space to keep cool or warm.

As my new place is smaller now, has less storage area, and i don't want to spend an extra $50-$150 a month on a storage unit, I've been going through all my stuff and deciding whether or not it's going to come with me.

So far I've gotten rid of my tables, stools, night stands, cabinets, my smaller media storage shelves, a lot of clothes, random crap I haven't touched in years, and random shit that I never unpacked after a moved into my current place a decade ago.

Goodwill saw me 3 times in 1 day as i couldn't fit all of it in my car to take over in 1 trip. And I didn't feel like renting a van/truck.

I still have 2 months till my current lease is up but I felt I should just get rid of this stuff now to free up space to put boxes as I pack up.

Some stuff also went straight into the dumpster as it wasn't in good condition anymore.

Probably going to take some other things to a pawn shop or try to sell them online in the next few weeks as well.

I was stressing out about potentionally being homeless and where I was going to live. And got really happy that I found something to move to before my lease was up and I was kicked out.

That happiness was brief as I soon realized that I won't be saving nearly as much money each month, inching closer to living paycheck to paycheck again, or having 1 major issue happen that fucks me over putting me in debt.

And that come this time next year when my new lease comes up for renewal the possibility that the rent also gets jacked up like all these other complexes and I have to do this all over again. Cause "we're adjusting to the market" is always what I hear for why rents increase like this. But if the market tanks, the rents don't drop, so that's complete bullshit.

I don't think I'll even unpack the majority of my stuff, just the essentials, to make moving out easier next time.

Hopefully the housing markets crash and I can find a permanent home cheap instead.

So my current lease ends on Oct 31st. And the management isn't renewing it because they want to renovate the unit.

My new apt I can move into on Sept 23rd. A full 5 weeks before my lease ends. I had asked if I could take possession and move in later, but was told no, as there were other interested applicants who wanted to move in now.

I understand this because the sooner a tenant moves in, the sooner the complex is no longer responsible for the utilities and they get rental income.

My current complex however won't let me end my lease a single month early for these exact reasons. Even though they want me out to renovate. Guess postponing renovation to not lose a single month of rental income is precious to them. Probably because they've been renovating units for 5 months now and I haven't seen anyone moving in yet. My complex looks like a ghost town now with all the empty parking spaces, when it used to if you didn't got home by a certain time there was nowhere to park.

So for 1 month I get to pay 2 rents, 1 of them being for an empty apt I won't be living in.

Just more money flushed down the drain cause of greedy landlords. Going to cash in some PTO time to help cover that extra months rent.

Cat tax of my 14 year old boy Shadow loving some head scratches.

And here he is reaching for my arm as I stopped for a a brief second and he wanted more.

Thanks for reading my rant about all of this. Anyone else going through this as well?