Moving right along

Yesterday I was speaking to one of the other tenants I've known since the day I moved in; he had nothing but good to say about the place when we first met.  When I told him that I was going to be moving out in July (putting him up to exactly the second person I've told) due mostly to the increase in rent, he said "yeah, this place has a bad habit of doing that kind of thing, but they usually only do it every two years or so."  He also mentioned that he doubted he'd be staying another year (although I got the impression that  he'd probably signed a lease at least somewhat recently); he thought his rent was a bit high for the apartment he was in.

I seem to recall him telling me that he's lived here for about eight years.  I was REALLY surprised when he told me that he's actually paying $50 a month more than I am for the identical apartment.  I guess that information can lay to rest the entire notion that what they did to me was even remotely personal.  When I moved in, my rent was indeed the market value ...if I go to the apartment hunting websites, I see the increase on rent from what it was a year ago.  The neighbors length of stay confirms that they raise rent according to market value, but they certainly don't decrease it when values are down.

Yeah ...moving if definitely the correct decision if that's the standard here, and apparently it is.  This makes the fourth place I've rented in the last (wow!) 25 years, and all of them were really consistent in lease renewals.  I seem to recall that in Denton, the apartments were going for nearly $200 a month more than I was paying after almost 10 years there.  I guess it's like I said before ...such a shame to find such a nice neighborhood and a place I really like only to have it messed up by what is probably just overly greedy management who cares more about squeezing the most they can out of tenants rather than maintaining a high occupancy rate and retaining quality people.  The neighbor I spoke of above admitted that another guy I know who used to live here and visits a fair bit moved over an extremely high rent increase himself.  He said once that moving from here was probably one of the worst mistakes he's made, but I think he moved to a pretty scary place.

I guess you can overlook a fair bit when you aren't on a fixed income and are in a decent neighborhood.  That doesn't make it right, but I guess it makes sense in a weird kind of way.

Onward...

I've been spending a fair bit of time looking at Mom's house and trying to figure out what needs to be done to get me in.  Poor Mom ...she admitted to me last night that the house hasn't had a thorough clean up done since the mid-nineties.  When Dad was healthier, the place stayed a lot cleaner (when MOM was healthier, it stayed a lot cleaner); but it's really just too much for her now.  I'm going to have my work cut out for me in the coming month(s).

The carpeting probably needs to be replaced, but it's never been cleaned beyond vacuuming (and I suspect Mom hasn't been able to comfortably vacuum in at least a year).  I bought a carpet cleaner when I moved out of the last place and I suspect it'll be getting a lot of use soon.  As of last week, my plan was to do one room at a time over the next month, but I'm adjusting that idea to doing two rooms at a time.

The good news is that I think everything will move in fine, provided I get rid of my couch, coffee table, bed, desk and chest of drawers (maybe ...probably).  I really don't foresee any issues with getting everything to FIT, it's just the logistics that really suck.  That, and the fact that I'll more than likely be sick for quite a while afterward.  I'm moving from here after only a year, and the initial move in knocked me out of much of anything for two or three months.

Sometimes I really just don't like admitting that my health issues are broader than I really want them to be.