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The 2-Year Apartment Rule

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Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#91

Post by throwawayffffas »

It's a maintenance issue you are not putting as much as is required, I have noticed the same effect my self, my cycle is around 4 years.

The thing is when you move into a place, the apartment has gone through thorough maintenance and cleaning, and of-course you don't pick the apartment with the obvious water stains and mold, or the sketchy neighbors and rundown hallway. But as the time passes, fixtures fail, damage accumulates neighbors rotate.

You apartment is the best when you move in because it's made to look its best and you pick the best looking one.

When you own a place you can do the extensive maintenance yourself.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#93

Post by bilekas »

I used to rent religiously for only 1 year terms, but my current appartment is different, the landlord and maintenance company are always on top of any potential issues before time and they allow me to go ahead and get stuff done if needed faster, like some air conditioning maintenance and then the landlord reimburse me, I've been 4+ years now and haven't looked back, so while I think the majority of people who rent are big companies who pinch pennies or landlords who just see it as a passive income and nothing else.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#94

Post by throwawayffffas »

adhoc_slime wrote: post #78
tasuki wrote: post #9

> Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. When I started reading the article, I thought the whole point was gonna be that the author doesn't take care of the apartment. The recurring leak might not be the author's fault, but the mold in the bathroom and roaches in the kitchen definitely ar…

Roaches are notoriously hard to get rid for a reason. If you don't call an exterminator with the proper poison almost any effort you make will be moot. I can tell you from firsthand experience that roaches will move with you. My partner's old apartment had roaches and even though we took great care to clean and separate everything, keep all of her kitchen stuff in tubs and slowly sort through it they still managed to…

I lived in an old but thoroughly maintained building, every 6 months and at the beginning of summer, there was a thorough extermination routine applied through out the whole building, you could see a ring of dead roaches around the building the next day, 2 to 4 weeks later you would start spotting them in the apartment again. They leave and die and new ones move in. In old buildings they are just a fact of life, keep your home clean and crumb free and they will prefer your neighbors.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#97

Post by d--b »

2 things:

1. Like everything, apts degrade over time, maintenance usually happens in spikes, so the state of the place goes down until someone pays for the new paint job

2. It depends on the market, in highly attractive places, owners don't care about keeping tenants, so they'll let the place fall apart, until they can't get anyone anymore. Then they'll put in the price to put the place back in order and start again.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#98

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tasuki wrote: post #9

> Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. When I started reading the article, I thought the whole point was gonna be that the author doesn't take care of the apartment. The recurring leak might not be the author's fault, but the mold in the bathroom and roaches in the kitchen definitely ar…

> roaches in the kitchen definitely are

I used to live in a nice apartment in downtown Baltimore. It was a first-story rowhouse in Charles Village (a nice area, back in the 1980s).

It had roaches. Every building, for miles around, had them.

I used to put out lines of borax, and the little bastards took out straws, and snorted them.

I guess maybe new buildings, get a grace period, but roaches are impressive little beasties.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#99

Post by intrasight »

lrsaturnino wrote: post #96

so as everything in life. your relationships, your car, your job. Everything requires maintenance, and from the brand-new version, it is ONLY and ALWAYS downhill unless YOU keep things up.

Maintenance is minimal on a 100 year old house or any well-built new dwelling. What the author seems to be describing is what I've seen referred to a "instant old" - construction where maintenance won't help much.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#100

Post by Hendrikto »

> I've noticed this myself with every apartment I've ever lived in. Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. Once the lease is up for renewal, I'm dying to leave. I then move into a sparkly, new apartment where I repeat the process all over again.

Sounds like it takes her about 2 years to trash any apartment she moves into.

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