It’s great to imagine living in a big city, right? Like, there’s the fantasy of enjoying the night life, making new friends, reinventing yourself, new opportunities, basically, just new everything, especially if this is your first time in a major city, because there’s stuff to do, people to meet, and that whole city gets to be your playground. But of course, there comes the finding housing. Yeah, maybe in a small town that was a cake walk, but no, not here.
So, picture this, yeah, you’re scrolling listings on a random Tuesday night, totally exhausted, and then one pops up that looks adorable. Like, fairy lights, tiny couch, one plant in the corner, like, it’s Instagrammable, you want this, you can see yourself there, but there’s no description (or barely one for that matter). Well, this is pretty common, unfortunately, actually. When it comes to finding housing, there’s a whole giant can of worms that people moving into the city for the first time just don't know much about.
Only Looking at the Apartment, Not the Building
Well, technically, one common mistake was mentioned, well, a red flag, but it’s totally understandable to fall in love with a listing before doing anything else; it’s not like your heart was set on it to begin with. But this one, well, it’s surprisingly common, but it’s not like the average person thinks about this either, though. So, taking the actual room or apartment out of account, a lot of first-timers tend not to pay much attention to the building itself.
So, just think about it for a second; the hallway smells weird, the lobby lights flicker, the elevator sounds like it’s doing its best to retire, but the unit itself has cute cabinets, so people try to convince themselves it is fine. Just think of it like this, though: the building is the part that decides how daily life actually feels. Are the common areas clean? Do neighbors slam doors at 2 am? Is the laundry room sketchy?
Like it or not, but you can’t live with these minor inconveniences; they actually do matter in day-to-day life. Actually, in some cities, there are rent stabilized buildings or stronger renter protections that make staying long-term a lot less stressful, so it’s worth paying attention to how the building is run, not just how the photos look on a screen.
Keep the Noise in Mind
Now, with that part said, major cities are not known for silence. Yeah, obviously enough. So, there’s the street noise, neighbors, trash trucks, delivery scooters, lots of honking, sirens, you name it. A lot of first-time renters only see places during the quiet part of the day. Which makes total sense, well, that and the average first timers tend to think about mid morning, middle of the week, basically when everything feels calm and peaceful.
Then move-in day hits, and night one sounds like a live recording of the entire city. Do you really want to deal with the noise? Sure, maybe living on a main street is great in terms of convince, but you don’t want to wear earplugs to bed every night, right?
Signing too Fast Due to FOMO
Landlords do that, they create FOMO, but try and not to fall into it, please. So, the problem with FOMO is that people sign without reading the lease properly, skip questions about repairs, and ignore their gut because the fear of missing out is screaming louder. Just slow down, please, you absolutely need to.
