Being homeless since 2014, I have made my way through various rental arrangements and currently find myself in a third floor apartment in a nice part of town that I rather enjoy. I love the low maintenance aspect of living here as I literally don’t have to fix anything. Maintenance will even replace my AC filters and light bulbs should I ask them to. I even have a valet garbage service, who comes by five nights a week and picks up any trash bag I leave at my front door. I also feel incredibly safe here, and didn’t realize until I lived here, that I never really felt safe anywhere else. My complex is gated–although it’s fairly easy to overcome by merely waiting for another car to enter and following them in–which is a likely deterrent for unseemly criminal elements, and the building itself has two gates which require a key fob to open. My front door is a solid metal device with deadbolt and I go to sleep each night worry free. I’d put all of the above solidly in the Pro column.
I am not the only resident of the sprawling complex and this can lead to issues that belong in the Cons column, and lately, have started to become a tad more annoying than they have in the past. When I moved here I failed to realize that the building actually has four floors and the tenants above me make enough stomping, dragging and hammering noises to start getting under my skin. One of them is a drummer, and believe it or not, practices his of her craft in the apartment. They occasionally have guests over, which increases the noise level and when they venture out onto the balcony for a chat, I get to be an unwilling participant in their conversations.
People are always moving in and out of the complex, and moving trucks frequently block large sections of the parking lot. This isn’t a particularly annoying aspect, until my next door neighbor, who was rarely home, moved out. Maintenance soon moved in and replaced carpet, painted, and did various activities at a volume I found perturbing. My new neighbors arrived last night, and as of 10:30 PM were still dragging furniture down the hall and into their apartment. Definitely a Con.
At this stage, I don’t feel compelled to seek alternative living arrangements, as on the scale of Pros and Cons, the tilt is definitely Pro. However, I can easily forsee a time when the scales even out, especially at lease renewal should the owners find it necessary to increase the rent. The thought of renting a small single family house to avoid the proximity of other people does not fill me with excitement, so the crossroads that approach will likely leave me with no particularly appealing turns.
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