To move or not to move?

TaylorK89 · January 2016

My husband and I recently moved across the country for his job. Since finding housing when you're unfamiliar with an area and located a 30+ hour car ride away is hard, we opted to just sign a lease for a 2br apartment in a complex we had heard many good things about. Our apartment isn't terrible... but our upstairs neighbors are noisy (who does laundry at 2:30AM????), the hallways smell like smoke (even though the apartments themselves are non smoking) and because of an odd layout we were forced to put our cat's litterbox in the 2nd bedroom, effectively ruling it out as a nursery or guest room. Now that we know the area a little better we are definitely set on renting a single family house.

Problem is.... our lease isn't up until the end of July! And I am due the beginning of June. I am stuck on what to do.... do we break our lease and move early (before the baby comes)? We would be shelling out A LOT of money for breaking our lease, plus security deposit on a new place, plus a moving truck, but on the plus side we would have some time to get settled and be sure we have enough room for visiting family from out of town. Or do we wait out our lease and move after? It would save us some money, but then we'd be moving with an almost 2 month old... which sounds awful! Ughhhhhh.

Does anyone have experience w/ a similar situation? What did you do?

catherinekate · January 2016

Does your landlord allow you to sublet? Alternatively, you could talk to your landlord and explain your situation. In general, the bottom line is what matters most to them--if you give them enough notice that they can rent your apartment without it sitting vacant, they may not even care that you break the lease. If you gave notice now for, let's say May, that's several months for them to advertise. There are potential fees involved in advertising the place that they may bill you for (or hold back one month's rent, for instance), but you might be surprised at how reasonable they are. It's worth asking, in any case.

m8881 · January 2016

I don't know what a lot of money is but I'd probably suck it up and break the lease and move soon. We are thinking of doing the same thing.

june2016baby · January 2016

If it were me, I'd figure out the fee to break the lease. Then I'd figure out how much it would cost to have professionals take care of the move for you (you wouldn't be moving too far, and if you're currently in a 2 bedroom, then I'm thinking you don't have all that much furniture or stuff to move, and probably would not be paying outrages fees.) If you can break lease without too much of a fee, go for it. If it would be less to pay for someone to move your stuff after the lease is up (and make moving not much of a nightmare,) go for that.

PressLove · January 2016

If breaking the lease its too expensive, could you go month-to-month for a while? Possibly move in the fall. You would still have an infant, but the baby would be a little older.

Huskerfanz · January 2016

Your moving costs are the same regardless of when you move so that's not a factor. The only difference is breaking the lease. How does rent compare between new and old place? Can you try and negotiate deposits or rent on the new place to make up for breaking the lease?

crdo · January 2016

^^what @Huskerfanz said.

The only thing I'd add from PPs is that the bonus to moving sooner is that you can potentially find a cheaper rent rate in late spring versus a higher rent in the summer. In my experience, rent for a given apt/house tends to rise in late spring, reach a peak in the summer, and be cheapest in winter.

Rawa1416 · January 2016

We're in the same boat and really considering breaking our lease and paying the fees to avoid the stress of moving with a newborn and a toddler. Moving with one of those is tough enough.

TaylorK89 · January 2016

@huskerfanz you're right the moving costs are going to be the same either way, something I hadn't considered.

I have not talked to the leasing office yet... I guess that should be my first move. @catherinekate maybe they will let us off "easy" if we still give them 3 or 4 full months of notice

Thanks ya'll for your replies. I was definitely leaning toward breaking the lease to move earlier before I posted but for some reason my mind was all "this is the worst possible financial decision you could ever make and this sucks and you're screwedddddd" when really that's not the case at all and I just needed some perspective from reasonable people. Thank you

MrsAlliKat · January 2016

We're in the same boat too. Our lease is up almost a month exactly after I'm due, but we're looking to buy soon. We are going to see if our landlord will let us out of the lease early, other wise we plan to try to go sublet. I believe if we break the lease we have to pay the remaining months' rent. Personally, even having to pay extra rent will be worth it to me (although it will suck) so that we can be settled before the baby comes.

dennyandlee · January 2016

june2016baby said:
If it were me, I'd figure out the fee to break the lease. Then I'd figure out how much it would cost to have professionals take care of the move for you (you wouldn't be moving too far, and if you're currently in a 2 bedroom, then I'm thinking you don't have all that much furniture or stuff to move, and probably would not be paying outrages fees.) If you can break lease without too much of a fee, go for it. If it would be less to pay for someone to move your stuff after the lease is up (and make moving not much of a nightmare,) go for that.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

MissSaritaF · January 2016

I'm in a similar situation, except I need to move because I will no longer be a single free woman who can spend as much as she wants on top dollar apartments. Now I will be a single mom on a strict budget putting baby first. So I am deciding to break my lease so I can start saving on rent sooner rather than later. I do have to pay the fee for breaking the lease, but my comfort-ability and peace of mind is worth more than the money. I also need peace of mind and would rather move while pregnant, than as a single woman (no male friends or family to help) with a newborn. Plus, you are right, you can settle in, adjust and enjoy your environment, rather than stress about noise, smoke smell (yuck!) or how to accommodate visitors in the future. Good luck!

tjenkins528 · January 2016

We ended up moving when DS was about 6 weeks. He was actually 4 days old when we put the offer on our house. It was nice in the aspect of I had off work and he slept a lot of the time so I could pack and get things done at the new house before we moved in. As far as moving the heavy furniture, I was a bit useless so you may want to enlist friends/movers for that.

If you tell the leasing office soon enough, maybe they can make a deal where if they find another person to rent to, they'll let you out of your lease early without the fee.

m8881 · January 2016

Our lease is up on my due date lmao.

LizM61409 · January 2016

We're in a townhouse right now and are debating when to move into a single family home. It's looking like after the baby is here at this point. The townhouse does not have space for visitors to stay with us.... which I consider to be a huge plus

Of course the bigger issue is that the longer we stay in the townhouse, the faster I can pay off my student loans

amandam925 · January 2016

@m8881 Ours, too!

jerseygirl9090 · January 2016

We are going to have to move too. My husband is getting out of the military in June two days after my due date. So we are going to be moving with a newborn. If you have the money & are able to move before June that's what I would do. We are not able to do that he needs to remain here until his EAS date in June.

RMLandy · January 2016

With my first, I totally would've broken the lease. Nowadays, unless I could find a way out of it, I'd probably not be likely to eat the money it would cost to break the lease. While not ideal, moving with a new born wouldn't be the worst situation in the world.

m8881 · January 2016

We just aren't sure what we are going to do though and sheer laziness (renewing lease) may win out. Problem is we are in a 2-bdrm and this is 3rd baby lol. Our boys share and like @LizM61409 no space for visitors is good

But it means rooming with baby for a while.
Otherwise we like it though. So with the OP other issues I'd move.

Huskerfanz · January 2016

TaylorK89 said:

@huskerfanz you're right the moving costs are going to be the same either way, something I hadn't considered. I have not talked to the leasing office yet... I guess that should be my first move. @catherinekate maybe they will let us off "easy" if we still give them 3 or 4 full months of notice Thanks ya'll for your replies. I was definitely leaning toward breaking the lease to move earlier before I posted but for some reason my mind was all "this is the worst possible financial decision you could ever make and this sucks and you're screwedddddd" when really that's not the case at all and I just needed some perspective from reasonable people. Thank you

Definitely start by figuring out the cost to break your lease (it should be in your contract) but they might be willing to negotiate. Also figure out the costs of where you will be moving. Rent/utilities/deposits/etc. Then you can decide if it's worth the expense to move early.

chesterdoodle · January 2016

Definitely move. I would start documenting the smoke smell in writing and complain that it's dangerous for you and baby. I don't think they will be able to fix it and you will have a legitimate reason to break your lease. May save you some money.

aloha5736 · January 2016

See if they will list the rental...I did that before and had to move. They rented it within two months and I was able to break my lease

Chocolate111 · January 2016

I would just suck it up and move after the lease is up. From experience I know it's so expensive to break a lease! We moved across country with a ten week old. Wasn't bad

huskypuppy14 · January 2016

Check the tenant laws in your state. Massachusetts has very friendly tenant laws where the landlord has to make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant if the old tenant gives notice before their lease is up.

TaylorK89 · January 2016

Update: Hubby and I spoke with the leasing office earlier today. While they said they "legally couldnt" amend the lease to change our move out date, as soon as we give them a signed statement of our intent to vacate and the date they can start looking for someone to fill it. We are thinking May 1st, as that should give them plenty of time to find an interested party, while still getting us out 5 weeks before my due date. Hopefully all goes well! Thank you everyone for your input

@chesterdoodle I tell them every month when I hand in my rent check about the smell!!! They are definitely aware. They had the hallway repainted a few weeks ago which did help, but I still get a strong whiff of it every now and then, meaning there is most likely a neighbor somewhere tracking the smell in with him/her

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