An Open Letter to My Apartment Complex

This is my 5th year in a row moving. Yes, that sounds excessive, but all were for justifiable reasons.

2016, I moved out of my mom's house to Guilderland, close to Albany, for a job. 2017, I moved from my apartment complex in Guilderland to one in Schenectady. My rent from one to the other decreased drastically and I was moving into a nicer apartment, 2018, I accepted my current job with Lite 98.7 and found a cute little apartment in Vernon. Why Vernon? My mom liked the fact it was halfway between visiting home, and going to work (meaning more times with my family.) 2019, my boyfriend and I decided we wanted to move in together, but it made more sense for it to be closer to work for both of us. He worked in Utica, I work in Marcy. So we found a complex that was seemingly perfect for both of us.

If I'm being honest here, I never thought I would be the person to consider buying a home. But here we are, fall of 2020, and I am moving all of my belongings yet again. This time, into my very first home.

As I sit here reminiscing on my experiences with my past apartment complexes, I can genuinely say that I enjoyed my time at all of them. I had high hopes for our last one, but I actually was disappointed.

I felt like a prisoner in my own home. I couldn't have friends over after 9 pm without the fear of my neighbor calling the cops for being "too loud." I'm serious when I say I'm pretty sure my own clothing got stolen out of my own dryer. I couldn't depend on my property manager for anything. If I had a problem, his solution was basically ideas for how I could temporarily pause the issue.

To my most recent former apartment complex, do better. Or just get rid of the awful woman who lived upstairs (then relocated across the hall.) That might solve 99 percent of the tenant problems.

Sincerely,

A new homeowner