What Are Moving Costs For An Apartment?

Discover your moving costs when you’re ready to live in an apartment rental neighborhood with a new private space to call your own?

So… 

How Much Does It Cost to Move into an Apartment?

Life is full of taking some big, first steps in order to grow. And few things are quite as big as “leaving the nest” and getting your very own place to live. This step is going to be a major reordering of your life if you’ve never done it before, and one of the first things you’ll have to start keeping serious track of is your budget. Unless you’re incredibly fortunate, and your parents are willing to pay for everything including your food, rent, and other living costs, with no ceiling and no strings attached, you have to live within your means.

The first way this will affect you is when you’re looking at possible rental properties. Again, you may be very lucky, and your family has already bought a property outright for you to live in, which you later get to sell and keep the profits. But if this isn’t you and your parents, here are some of the costs you need to look into.

Your Rental Budget

The first thing you’ll need to do is take a good look at your spending power. We’ll assume for now that your job, allowance, or other means of monthly income is steady and won’t change. You can take the number for your monthly, take-home pay, and divide it by three, or you can look at your total gross income for the year and divide it by 40.

Quicken built a really cool free budget calculator here.

Whatever this figure is, that is the safest maximum number recommended for you to divert to rent. If you can keep this number lower, even better.

Down Payment or Deposit Costs

While you don’t have to worry about a massive mortgage loan or paying interest on monthly payments for years, you do still have to account for the initial cost of moving into rental properties. In addition to paying your first and last months’ rent, it’s pretty normal also to be asked for a security deposit, which is usually equal to a month of rent. Of course, you get this deposit back if the apartment remains in good condition, and you lose it if you damage the apartment significantly.

On top of this, you may also be asked to have a credit check or even a background check run, depending on the policies of the rental properties you’re looking at. You can check your credit for free with sites such as Credit Sesame or Credit Karma. These additional costs could run you another $100, so factor in the damage deposit plus $100 in addition to those upfront months of rent.

Moving Costs

The final thing you’ll be looking at is the move itself. That is going to have a lot of variance from one person to another. For example, if you own or can borrow a van from friends, don’t have a lot of furniture, and have people willing to help you, your move may actually cost you an order of pizza and beverages as thanks. On the other hand, your move could cost you between $300-600 for a professional mover, depending on how much furniture you have and what distances are involved.

There’s no question, moving costs depend on where you’re moving, your total rent, and how much space you need.