Did you expect your apartment would be quiet? (apt complex, lease, tenant)
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After selling our house (which was on a half acre lot next to a big wooded area in a suburban area), we moved to an apartment thinking that would be a logical move while we regrouped in a new community.
While we only signed a six month lease we still wanted to live in a nice quiet spot because six months could be a lifetime if we can't sleep.
As we toured various apartments, we kept asking the rental agents to show us the quietest units but they usually ignored our request and showed us apartments facing busy intersections or bottom floors with sounds of walking above us, or facing a busy parking lot. We kept asking for quiet but they kept showing us noisy. When challenged, they said the 6 lane highway in front of the apartment would not be busy at night. (yes, maybe from 3 to 4 AM)
Maybe the typical apartment dweller just expects the place to be noisy, and quiet is just an impossible demand. Renters: Do you expect the place you live to be quiet? Is it important to you?
They can't show you a quiet apartment if they don't have a quiet apartment available. They aren't going to move a tenant out of a back unit because that is what you prefer.
Apartment buildings are not quiet, and a building next to the freeway is going to have traffic noise in every unit.
If you require quiet, you are going to be disappointed with any apartment that you rent. People are noisy and your neighbors are going to be crowding in close to you and most likely with very thin walls.
My place WAS quiet when I moved in. The problem is that you can't control when your neighbors will move, relapse with a drug problem, start having parties every other night, or invite their significant other (and their kids) to move in, etc. Some LL's will enforce only having legal tenants living there, others will not. Turnover is unpredictable, although some LL's obviously care who they have living there, while others could care less. I think self managing LL's are generally a better bet, although I had a MUCH easier time with professionals.
In my area I could have found a free standing unit for the same money, but the apartments I had lived in when I was younger were better insulated, and I never heard anyone. I didn't even consider an apartment but chose a triplex, and a quiet rural location.
Generally, I think many of my issues are class related. I also think many former good tenants have purchased in the past few years. The neighbors I love are home owners themselves and the husband has a job contract for 18 months.
I'm moving asap, and buying sooner than I was comfortable. In many places it is less expensive to buy then rent. It looks like I'll be doubling my space and paying half of what I spent on rent for my mortgage, property taxes, and insurance.
Well if you want quiet 1st Dont look at apts near highway Railroads or other traffic noises. Cant stand people walking over head take the top floor apt. For other noises run a Fan or radio softly. Dont like barking dogs Dont rent in Pet Friendly apt complexes! I really think you need a Single Family rental...house/town house.
I cannot sleep for shyt so I cannot have anyone above me at all. Right now I live with my brother and all day you hear the idiot above us. You need to ask what the apartments are made of-wood? Concrete?? Then you'll know what to expect.
Yes quiet is important to me, I may be a "young gun" but I'm a homebody and love my peace and quiet. I also like things that are routine, same thing everyday. The place I occupy now I was told was my "ideal home." A week after moving in...not so much. Even after they left and my current neighbor occupy the place again..... still the same.
The area is nice, and somewhat private, and actually is quiet. However the clientele being attracted there is not. Then again most people in this area are questionable at best. Can the two weeks go by any faster, LOL. Can't wait to remove the ear plugs and train CD.
I expected the worst as far as noise goes and I have been really surprised at how quiet it is usually. Every now and then someone will have a party with loud music but it's usually limited to weekends. I'm happy my apartment is on a corner with an electrical room on the other side so I don't share walls next door with anyone. I sometimes hear my upstairs neighbors walking around, but it doesn't bug me, it's just normal day to day sounds.
I've lived in some apartments that had great sound proofing that I would never hear a peep from my neighbors but my current apartment's walls are thin with little to no sound proofing that I can hear my neighbors conversations. Is it bothersome? Sure but I can always drown it out with my tv.
But no matter how quiet or noisy your apartment is, you can't help inconsiderate neighbors, like my downstair neighbor who insists on playing his loud music at all hours of the day and night with the bass up so high my floor and wall rattles or this neighbor who lives adjacent to me, who lets her 4 month old baby cry it out at random hours of the night or let's her 3 other kids run amok until 2 am.
Apartment living does come with everyday sounds, water running, people talking, walking but it's nothing too terrible unless you have horrible neighbors.
i expect people to be reasonable with their noise. we are all going to make it from one point or another and it should be respected that anything YOU would find obtrusive or annoying, others will too.
this said, people rarely think this way and will find ways to validate why they are so damn loud and distributive to go about their days not having to care about those around them. its human nature to want to keep doing what we know we can get away with.
my current apartment is actually pretty good in regards to noise. we only really have issues with the neighbors next to us on the shared wall who stay up until 4am every night (they don't appear to have jobs, which probably explains this). any noise made at that hour when every noise around is tempered suddenly sounds 10 times worse then it is so leeway has been given to them...unfortunately they recently took this as a sign nobody cares about how much of a disturbance they make regarding the noise output and have started slamming walls, doors, feet....you name it.
its not too bad for us in all honesty, we cant hear it in our bedroom and that's all i care about...but the tenant below them must be fuming on a nightly basis at how much noise and vibration they cause. i don't think anyone could sleep through it.
our place in the states is a newer building and pretty rock solid. we have never heard a peep while there and we know there are radio blasters in immediate proximity because its the first thing you hear when going out side lol. awesome management and great property.
it really is just a crap shoot
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