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Who to Notify When You Move (and How)

September 29, 2010 By TheGuestBlogger Leave a Comment

It has happened in every apartment for rent I have ever moved in to. You skip down the steps to greet the post man on your first day, all excited to see what sort of letters and post cards you’ve been sent. Low and behold your mailbox is full – heaping even!

The problem: none of it’s for you. It’s all the past tenants’ mail, going back for years upon years upon years. Some are kind of fun (free National Geographic!), some are horrendous (Life Insurance-R-Us!), all of it is a waste. The worst part: chances are you’re part of the cycle.

In the process of moving, we always forget to notify someone of our departure – traditionally that’s just the way it is. This checklist is designed to help everyone succeed with a No Mail Left Behind move.

A Mover’s Notification Checklist

Thing to Cancel then Renew at Your New Place

There are things you need to cancel when you move out. Chances are a land lord will have a role in some of these processes, but make sure you double check for yourself. The last thing you want is your name on someone else’s bill.

Utilities

Electricity
Gas
Water
Internet
Trash
Cable

Personal Accounts

Lawn service
Local club memberships
Local newspaper subscription

Things to Transfer

Other things you will want (or need) to keep around: prescriptions, your subscription to The New Yorker, your tax return. Each item will probably have its own process for updating your contact information and mailing address, but hopefully most of it can be done online.

Pharmacy prescriptions
Magazines subscriptions
National newspaper subscriptions
Netflix
Alumni/ae literature
Bank statements
Credit card statements
Tax stuff
Social Security information
Immigration status
DMV
Voter registration

Useful Resources

Official Change of Address Form: let the USPS know you’re new address over the internet

IRS Change of Address Form: that way your tax returns know where to go. You can print out this PDF and mail it in. Directions are on page two of the form.

Social Security Change of Address Form: This one is especially important if you are receiving disability, retirement or survivors benefits.

U.S. Customs and Immigration Change of Address Form: Most non-U.S. citizens need to report their change in address within 10 days of moving. You can do it either online or by mail.

Drivers License Change of Address Form: Each state has different rules and processes. Here they are.

Voter Registration: Again, each state is different. Learn about them here.

The Top 3 Neighborhoods for Sports Fans

September 27, 2010 By TheGuestBlogger Leave a Comment

One of the keys to finding great apartments for rent is searching for a neighborhood that’s conducive to your particular interests and lifestyle. For example, if your idea of a good time is going out to a few happening nightclubs and maybe seeing a live concert, then living in a neighborhood that’s home to the city’s largest retirement community might be a bad idea. If sports are near and dear to your heart, then it would be a great move to put yourself in a thriving sports atmosphere near a major ballpark. Here are three neighborhoods that could be a veritable shangri la for sports afficianados.

Wrigleyville- Chicago, IL

Home to Wrigley Park and those lovable losers the Chicago Cubs, Wrigleyville is one of the best neighborhoods in America for baseball fans. Wrigleyville features a generally younger demographic, and is filled with some of the nation’s best sports bars like The Cubby Bear and Slugger’s. Getting in and out of Wrigleyville is a piece of cake, as it is serviced by Chicago’s highly efficient El-Train. Sports isn’t the only thing to do in Wrigleyville- the neighborhood’s Irish heritage causes it to be one of the best places in town to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Despite being so close to a landmark as historic as Wrigley Field, Wrigleyville apartments won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Wrigleyville tends to be one of the best places in Chicago to look for reasonably cheap apartments. If you’re a high roller, though, spring for the apartments that overlook the field- the Holy Grail of apartments if you’re a Cubs fan.

Orchard Park- Buffalo, NY

Anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting Buffalo, NY knows one thing about its friendly inhabitants: the Buffalo Bills are about as close to the town’s official religion as a sports team could possibly get. While many NFL stadiums nowadays are located in the downtown areas of their respective cities, Ralph Wilson Stadium is actually located in the pleasant suburban neighborhood of Orchard Park. Indeed, a drive through the streets of Orchard Park initially seems like a drive through Anytown, USA, but when all of the sudden an NFL stadium crops up on a random street corner, you know you’re someplace special. The Buffalo Bills fans are known for having one of the best tailgate scenes in the NFL, but the best pre-game party could be thrown from the comfort of many of the cheap homes for rent in Orchard Park. The Bills aren’t the only outlet for fun in Buffalo; the town’s proximity to the beautiful Niagara Falls makes it all the more appealing.

Foxborough, MA

If a team is going to have the gusto to claim they represent a multi-state geographical region, then they had best be successful. In recent years, the New England Patriots have done exactly that. But despite their lofty achievements, their home stadium is located in the quaint Boston suburb of Foxborough. At first glance, it might seem absurd to have an NFL stadium in such a quiet down, but upon closer examination Foxborough really is the perfect place for Gillette stadium. On non-gamedays, Foxborough is indistinguishable from any other small quintessentially New England town. It only makes sense, then, that the Patriots aren’t named after a city but the entire region. Being only a 30 minute drive from Boston allows Foxborough to have all of the amenities of a big city without the hustle and bustle headache. Indeed, Foxborough might just be the quiet sports fan’s pigskin paradise

While many other professional sports stadiums are located in great neighborhoods, these three areas provide the best overall experience. Don’t take our word for it, though. With internet apartment finders like Padmapper, it’s easier than ever to view apartment listings in any great sports neighborhood.

Holy Crap that’s a lot of markers… and they’re different…

September 20, 2010 By Eric 1 Comment

Normal marker vs. Washed out marker: PadMapper has more confidence about the location of the one on the left.

You may notice that a lot of duller-looking markers have appeared on the map. What’s going on? I’m trying something new out.

Since the Beginning…

Since the beginning, PadMapper’s policy has been to show only the listings where it’s confident in the location of the listing. This means that listings with an address like “W 24th St., New York, NY” were never shown, since they could be anywhere on the West half of Manhattan at the 24th St. level. If you care about the exact location of your place, that was no good. So, PadMapper showed just the high quality stuff.

This created a problem, though – some people decided they couldn’t rely on PadMapper alone, since it wasn’t showing everything available. This went doubly for the alerts. Something had to be done.

Now, when PadMapper’s not sure about the location of a place, it will still be shown, but instead of bright red, the marker will be a washed-out shade of red, indicating that it’s a second-class citizen in the map world, and that that rental isn’t necessarily right at that spot. The street view and walk score tabs aren’t necessarily going to be very representative… use them at your own risk.

So that takes care of the ones with crummy addresses. What about listings without addresses, you ask?

I’ve got something for you there, too – now PadMapper now tries to infer the location of an address-less place based on its neighborhood and city. It’ll appear somewhere in the neighborhood, and it’ll come up in alerts, but don’t expect the street it’s on on the map to be the one it’s on in reality.

To make sure you don’t mistake these for the more precise ones, not only is the marker color different, but the listing bubble has a big red and bolded “Location is Approximate” on the ones it’s not sure about.

I’ll probably add a filter to let you select whether the imprecise ones get shown, so that you can be picky at first, and then you can get less picky if you run out of high quality ones to browse through.

Please let me know if you love or hate the change by dropping me some mail at padmapper@gmail.com.

Happy hunting, and tell your friends!
Eric

Cheapest Method to Move

September 15, 2010 By TheGuestBlogger Leave a Comment

When it’s time to move your stuff across the country, what’s the cheapest way to do it? Do you pay a moving company or rent a moving truck? What about moving pods? There are tons of options to get you and your things from point A to point B, and PadMapper is here to help.

Using a hypothetical moving situation, I set out to find how much it would cost to move one person’s studio apartment (1,000 lbs. of stuff) from Seattle to New York City. The imaginary apartment for rent is on the third floor and the total trip is rounded off at 3,300 miles.

Before you move into your new apartment, check out our list of the cheapest and easiest ways to move across the country.

The Moving Company

There are a million moving companies on the internet, and you’ll get a dirty vibe from just about all of them. First of all, finding a quote is impossible without divulging your phone number and email address. Thinking nothing of it, I submitted my information to a moving company resource provider and within five minutes my email was bombarded with six different solicitors asking about my moving situation. They’re ruthlessly invasive and they’re notorious for moving scams, but when they do their job, they’re a necessary evil.

The average moving company charges roughly 74 cents per pound and a per-mile fee that varies from company to company. A sneaky additional moving fee of roughly $100 per flight of stairs to move anything above the first two flights can sometimes catch you by surprise.

Total estimate: $2500.

Rental Truck

If you plan to move it yourself, using a rental truck service is the best way to travel with your stuff every step of the way. One problem: you have to travel with all of your stuff throughout the entire trip in someone else’s truck.

Most companies designate the 10’ truck as the “apartment mover.” The average truck this size has roughly the following dimensions:

Volume: 400 cu. ft.
Max load: 2,800 lbs.
Gross weight: 8,600 lbs.
Empty weight: 5,700 lbs.
8 – 11 MPG on Unleaded fuel

Including up to a 10 day rental and use for 3,300 miles, a rental truck will roughly cost $1,100, plus the $750 cost for fuel.

Total estimate: $1850.

Moving Pods

Moving POD companies will bring a large moving container ranging in size from 8’x7’x7’ (size of a large walk-in closet) to 8’x8’x12’ (size of three to four bedrooms) and generally charge a flat moving fee without the hidden costs of gas and extra mileage. However, since pods are typically moved using 18-wheelers, you may have to pay an extra fee to get your pod onto a smaller truck and into the city.

One other benefit of moving pods is that you can stagger the delivery of the moving pods to allow you more time to load or unload your belongings, which might also result in a storage fee.

Total estimate: Brand name POD services will cost roughly $4,000 and non-branded POD services run $3,000.

Other Moving Options

One option many movers are overlooking is the ability to ship via Amtrak. Shipping your boxes through this national train service will cost roughly $67.00 for the first 100 lbs. and an additional $.57 for each additional pound. The only downside of shipping through Amtrak is that they’re unable to ship furniture or electronics. While this is a limited option, shipping by Amtrak is a great solution for many who are driving to their destination and plan on purchasing apartment furnishings when they get there.

Total estimate: $580.

Introducing the PadMapper Bar

September 14, 2010 By Eric Leave a Comment

If you use PadMapper today to search for an apartment, you’ll probably notice that when you click a link to see a listing, there’s a bar with stats next to the original listing. This bar has a variety of goodies, and I’d like to add more going forward.

Some examples – buttons for saving a listing as a favorite, hiding from the map, comparative pricing in the area, and little mini maps of the location. This should help you keep track of things without having to flip back to PadMapper. Also, it should help people report when listings are no longer available by putting a report link right there next to the listing (please, please, please report these and help clean up PadMapper to help your fellow renters out).

I’m very curious to see how many people like this vs. think it’s the worst thing since the diggbar. I’m very open to building the option to turn this off permanently for a given user, but I didn’t want to wait until that was built to release it, partly to see if there was any demand for that option. As always, you can drop feedback at padmapper@gmail.com. Happy hunting!

7 Tips for Moving to a New City Sight Unseen

September 13, 2010 By TheGuestBlogger Leave a Comment

Finding an apartment for rent in a new city sounds like my worst nightmare. You don’t know the neighborhoods, you don’t know what commuting is like, you just know there is a better place that is cheaper and bigger and full of stainless steel!

This is an anxiety I cannot bear.

That is until I discovered an even worse mover’s fate: finding an apartment for rent in a new city… without actually being there. This, I have decided, is virtually impossible. The one time I had to try it I failed miserably and resorted to living in the vacant room of a friend of a friend’s brother’s friend’s house – “signing the dotted line” without being there in person was a hurdle the landlord and I could not overcome.

In this summer alone I have had two friends move from Seattle to NYC and Austin sight unseen. They too failed in finding a residence over the phone, and either stayed in the basement of an uncle until they found a place (in Brooklyn), or ended up being saved by the grace of a friend whose German boyfriend’s VISA was denied and therefore had a vacant room (in Austin).

For those of us who are not employed by high-powered companies that do all the leg work in a cross-country move and know no one on the other side: some tips so you can find the perfect pad.

Use PadMapper

That’s a shameless plug. But it is also true. Sure, Craigslist is one of the best sources to finding apartments for rent, but if you don’t know MCB from WYN, or that those are even areas around Detroit, you’re out of luck. By putting those places on a map, you can figure out which neighborhoods or suburbs work for you and your life.

Do some research

Get to know the city you’re moving to before you move there. Does that city have a blog that is updated? What about a specific neighborhood? Read up on Wikipedia or do a little Google-ing. If you’re moving for grad school or a new job, ask alumni or future coworkers their opinions on the best places to live.

Likewise, check out the reviews of apartment complexes and landlords if they are available. There are always going to be both pros and cons based on user experiences, but you can feel out the vibe of a place from what the people who have lived there have to say.

Skype it up!

When you inquire about rooms for rent, don’t limit yourself to just phone calls. Offer to meet over Skype or a video chat so you can a) show off your good looks and great personality and b) get a mini tour of the place to see if it’s to your liking.

Get a second opinion

Have a relative who lives nearby? Friend? Mere acquaintance? If at all possible, try to get someone over there to check out the property and meet any roommates and landlords. In pictures all may look dandy, but an impartial third party will be able to sniff out low water pressure and roach problems.

Don’t send money

They want first month’s rent to hold the place? Forget about it. Just don’t. Can you spell scam?

Try subletting first

Don’t lock yourself into a one-year lease if you don’t have to. Check out rooms for rent, or look under sublets for one or two month commitments that will let you get a feel for a new city and all it quirks. You can live out of your boxes and sleep on the floor for a little while before your set up your new life in a long term locale.

Bring a tent

If all else fails, and the weather is nice, you can camp.

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