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Now that you’ve decided if it’s worth it to move to a new apartment, you want to give some thought about how to choose your moving date.

Even if you have a non-flexible lease end date or move-out date with your current lease or rental situation, you still have some things to think about regarding starting a new lease or move-in date.  And if you’re a first-time renter, this will be all the more important, too.

Best Time of Year To Start A Lease

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If you have the choice, make your move when as fewer other people are moving as possible.  Late fall and winter months are the slowest for rental agencies and unit turnovers, so this could also be the best time to take more time looking for a place since fewer people decide to move when it’s cold.  Also, you might have a better choice of units and management might be more willing to negotiate in order to keep their vacancy rates to zero.

We all know that August 1 and September 1 are very busy times due to many students making the move into new apartments, so you’ll also ideally want to avoid those times if you can.  While the warmer months are more busy for everyone in general, August and September can be the worst, especially if you live in a college town.

How To Decide If It’s Time to Move To A New Apartment

Best Time of Month to Switch Apartments

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Depending on the size of your city, all the moving trucks and moving help might all be booked up if you decide to make your move on the same day everyone else is.  If you have any say in the matter, don’t wait until the 31st to move for a move-in date on the beginning of the month.

To say nothing of the fact that your building might be busy on the same day – the elevators might be reserved or booked up, the back door to the building might be full of other people’s stuff, and it could be harder to move your stuff up staircases if others are doing the same thing.

You should also consider starting your new lease a week or two before your current lease runs out.  Yes, it might mean you’ll be paying an extra two weeks’ worth of rent that you don’t absolutely have to, but it will give you ample time to make the transition.  So if moving trucks are booked, or if your delivery is late, you’ll have plenty of time to still move out, move in, clean your old apartment, etc. without any added stress.

Don’t forget that your current landlord or management is going to want to do an apartment inspection and show your apartment to prospective tenants, so you might appreciate the opportunity to get some of your stuff cleaned up and moved out before that has to happen.

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