amandac777 | (no subject)

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moving

(no subject)

Does anyone know how much weight you should give online apartment ratings? I've been searching through apartments in the area where I'll be teaching next fall, and I'm seeing lots of places that look nice or reasonable. And then I check the reviews (mainly at apartmentratings.com), and find that apparently every apartment in the region is pest-infested, crime-ridden, falling apart, missing most advertised amenities, and staffed by assholes.

I need to live somewhere. The "nicer" areas in the region are generally way the hell out of my price range (which isn't that low!), and I'd strongly prefer to live within a 15-minute drive, at most. I'm an utter wuss about safety, in particular. Any tips on how to look more effectively? Random comfort, perhaps? Offers of a spare room?

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The apartment complex that I live in has absolutely terrible online reviews, but is the nicest place I have ever lived. I wouldn't depend too much on the opinions of random angry people on the internet. <3

I have no real advice, except that I'd maybe not pay so much attention to the crime-ridden stuff. People are weird about what they consider "bad" when it comes to neighbourhoods. They have prejudices, or behave in weird "ROB ME PLEASE!" sorts of ways, and I just don't trust people when they say some area is bad because too often I've then gone to said area and found it to be just fine.

Where are you moving to, if I may ask? Really the best thing to do is to find someone you know with the experience of the area.

I agree. Reviews, while something to keep in your mind, aren't everything. An angry person is probably far more likely to take the initiative to tell everyone how crap it is while someone who is perfectly content may not.

Also, I think if you don't know anyone from the area, if you visit then you'll be able to gauge how safe you do or don't feel.

You are talking about a highly subjective area being judged by strangers. So who knows what any of what they say really means. After all, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of areas that I feel are perfectly safe that you'd see as crime-ridden cesspools. See if you can find some sort of more objective data to make your decision. After all, even my broke-ass and crappy city is able to put crime reporting online. I get a nice map with different colored dots all over for various crimes reported in the city at least once a month through my neighborhood association. Actual crime stats might be a better choice for decision making.

If you're worried about crime, there are better ways to figure out if there's a lot of it in that area: CrimeMapping.

Otherwise, I wouldn't give too much weight to online reviews. Mostly, people write a review when they want to bitch about something, so for every one negative review, there are probably at least a dozen people who had nothing bad to say about that same place.

Sleep in your car and shower in the gym like Ms. Tharp.

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