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Burger Crime posted:Should I go with UPS or FedEx for my books and computer though or is there a cheaper alternative I haven't thought of? Unless you need the books urgently, you can probably ship them in reasonably sized boxes using USPS Media Mail for much cheaper than you'll get from Fedex/UPS. You may want to check USPS rates for a lot of stuff, and save UPS/Fedex for more expensive items (I think that you'll get a better insurance rate from them, but I'm actually not sure). Flate Rate priority boxes are pretty great for smaller items you need in a shorter time frame, too. Generally, though, it's not worth moving cheap furniture across the country. My hunch is that if your stuff isn't good enough to warrant a real moving service and you're willing to trust it to the mercy of a courier, then it's probably not really worth the cost and hassle of shipping anyway. Do you really have anything that you can't replace on craigslist/thrift stores in a couple weeks?
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Mar 22, 2012 18:11
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Going to agree with this. Won't your roommates buy some of your furniture off you?
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Mar 22, 2012 21:17
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Burger Crime posted:Sorry I forgot to mention this originally.I did consider the moving van but I can't drive a van out there myself because of time constraints. I am doing contract work in my current area until August 4th and I have to be out to my school by the 7th. So I have to fly out myself to be there on time. You could go with PODS. Have them drop the POD off early, fill it up at your leisure, then have them move it and drop it at your new location, where you can unload at your leisure.
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Mar 22, 2012 23:54
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I have a tenant who claims she wants to rent out one of my rooms and claims she is totally going to send me the lease but STILL hasn't gotten me her lease despite several increasingly-annoyed emails from me. I'd just rent it out from under her, but her two roommates already gave me their signed leases and security deposits and I don't want to give up a potential lease renewal next year by putting some craigslist random in with them. Trying to get my other two tenants to force her to give me the lease hasn't helped. I'm doing three separate leases for the three girls because of deadbeat roommate situations like this. I'm feeling kind of stuck here. I'd like this particular girl's lease since I'd rather have three roommates who know and like each other living there, she says she's going to send it to me, but she hasn't. I'm mainly worried she's going to be like this with rent, in which case her rear end is getting evicted ASAP. She's already on thin ice. I'd call her co-signers, but since I don't have a signed lease I don't have their contact information. She's ignored all my emails except for the one where I told her flat-out that if I didn't get any sort of confirmation from her that I was in fact getting a lease I was finding someone else, to which she responded that she "found" the lease she "lost" and was "going to send it tomorrow!". That was February 22nd. I'm trying to come up with new things to threaten since "I'm going to re-advertise your room" clearly didn't work. I mean, if it comes down to it and it's a month or so before tenancy starts and I STILL don't have her lease, I'm definitely going to rent it out to someone else. I think I care too much about my tenants  . They're college kids moving into an apartment for the very first time so I'm being somewhat lenient, but I have to draw the line somewhere. If I was some heartless money-grabbing landlord I'd rent it to the first person I find on craigslist.I guess what I'm asking here is if I should keep nagging this girl or say "gently caress it, she's had enough chances" and find someone else that potentially won't get along with my other two tenants?
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Mar 23, 2012 04:38
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I guess what I'm asking here is if I should keep nagging this girl or say "gently caress it, she's had enough chances" and find someone else that potentially won't get along with my other two tenants? Do it. Or at least tell the other tenants that's what you're going to do if they don't find one themselves in the next two weeks. Disclaimer: I am not a landlord, just a jerk.
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Mar 23, 2012 14:12
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I guess what I'm asking here is if I should keep nagging this girl or say "gently caress it, she's had enough chances" and find someone else that potentially won't get along with my other two tenants? I would just send her an email that says 'You said you were sending your lease on the 22nd, I still don't have it. If I don't have a signed lease and deposit from you by April 1 (or whatever) then I will rent the apartment to someone else.' Copy the other two people on the email so they know what's going on (you mentioned that getting them to put pressure on her hasn't worked, but you can at least let them know that their friend is falling through on them). Don't let her draw it out with a sob story, either. You seem to have given this girl a shitload of time to get her act together, so as far as being a nice person I would say you've gone well beyond what was needed. Either she gets it done or she's out.
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Mar 23, 2012 14:52
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Yeah, I sent an email telling her that she has till April 1st to either mail the lease or bring it to me in person (since mailing it seems to be so very difficult). I did copy her roommates on it for added pressure. I'm totally baffled by the lack of responses to my emails, this is serious real-life stuff that will negatively affect her in a big way. I know she's been getting them since she did respond to the one a month ago. I also know there are a plethora of places to mail things on campus, as well as places to buy stamps. I've given her the mailing address in every email. I'd call her but I need to keep this in writing in case poo poo hits the fan later (totally anticipating renting it to someone else, then mommy and daddy calling me all upset because I refuse to lose money because of their precious snowflake not getting her poo poo together). If I don't get her lease on or before April 1st, a craigslist ad is going up and if some random person gets me a signed lease before she does, oh well. Too bad. Should've gotten her poo poo together. I did add a caveat that if she was waiting on scholarship or grant money (highly unlikely this late in the semester) that we could work something out for when she gets her money, but if that's the case she should've told me months ago.
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Mar 23, 2012 20:18
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Put a note on her door too just in case she is the type who only checks email once a month (but as a college kid facebook every minute) If you're feeling really generous can you contact her parents somehow? Maybe they can talk some sense into her. But yeah you've been nice guy for too long, kick that bum to the curb.
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Mar 24, 2012 03:53
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Manslaughter posted:Put a note on her door too just in case she is the type who only checks email once a month (but as a college kid facebook every minute) I would, but I'll only have her current address and parents' contact info after I get the lease. If I had her parents' contact info now I'd definitely give them a call and that'd likely light a fire under her rear end. As of now I only have her email address and phone number. I'm keeping everything in writing for now, but she's gonna get a phone call on the 1st if I don't have her lease by then. Even if she doesn't check her email I know both her roommates do and since I CC'd them on the email they can ask her why the hell she hasn't sent her lease yet. The email I have for her is a Yahoo account, I'm about to go look up her university email address and send it to that one. She HAS to check that one for important school things. I emailed her on Thursday, she still hasn't responded. Who the hell doesn't respond to an email telling them that if they don't get their poo poo together they're going to be homeless?
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Mar 24, 2012 16:50
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My wife and I have been living in a 1 bedroom apartment for two years, coming up on a renewal for a 3rd year. The past two renewals the increase from year to year has been reasonable (about $75 each time) but for the newest renewal they just slipped under my door, they're looking to increase our monthly rent by almost $300. We are in a desirable unit in a desirable area (though we haven't had a neighbor on one side for almost 6 months), the building just achieved LEED Certification, but there are many (small) negatives and management hasn't provided any additional benefit that would justify such a large jump in rent. How much wiggle room would management potentially have on that big monthly increase? Can I stand my ground and ask for a smaller increase, or will they just tell us to walk? We are willing to pay a small amount more, but the additional $300 would be pretty backbreaking. Any advice would be much appreciated!
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Mar 24, 2012 18:41
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:As of now I only have her email address and phone number. I'm keeping everything in writing for now, but she's gonna get a phone call on the 1st if I don't have her lease by then. I get that you are trying to stick to email to create a document trail, but there isn't any harm in following up on that with a phone call. So you can send her an email and then the next day call her and basically tell her the exact same thing - it doesn't matter if there isn't documentation of the call, because you already have that covered in the email. Having said that, you should be thinking about whether this is the sort of person you want for a tenant. She's what, more than a month late getting you a lease and a deposit? What is she going to be like with actually paying rent? With letting you know about stuff? Something else that just struck me is that for most apartments, I have had to provide my current address and landlord info on the application - did you take applications, or was it much more casual? If casual, you might want to consider using applications - the kind of people that are going to be flakes will just never get the application to you and you can move on with whoever does. TracerBullet posted:How much wiggle room would management potentially have on that big monthly increase? Can I stand my ground and ask for a smaller increase, or will they just tell us to walk? We are willing to pay a small amount more, but the additional $300 would be pretty backbreaking.
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Mar 25, 2012 01:02
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It was pretty casual, I didn't do applications since I've never needed to before. This is my first run in with a flaky tenant, all my previous ones have been pretty great. Also this is the first time where my tenants aren't also my roommates so this is new territory for me. I'm definitely going to do applications in the future after this though. Live and learn, I guess.
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Mar 25, 2012 02:10
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TracerBullet posted:How much wiggle room would management potentially have on that big monthly increase? Can I stand my ground and ask for a smaller increase, or will they just tell us to walk? We are willing to pay a small amount more, but the additional $300 would be pretty backbreaking. This really depends on what kind of landlord/company you have running the place. The huge corporations usually have computer algorithms to set the prices and at best the property manager can get you some military discount or some other discount if you are on good terms with them. Other wise if your location is desirable and its a huge company you probably don't matter all that much to their bottom line (sadly) so they probably won't care if you leave. I'd shop around regardless because if you don't have another place in line you have 0 negotiation power 
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Mar 25, 2012 16:25
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I'm looking for a place to rent over the summer in College Station/Bryan,TX ~(May 1st - September 1st), which comes out to 4 months. Is there a chance someone will be willing to lease to me for only 4 months, or will I possibly be stuck paying all 6?
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Mar 27, 2012 17:40
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dereekb posted:I'm looking for a place to rent over the summer in College Station/Bryan,TX ~(May 1st - September 1st), which comes out to 4 months.
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Mar 27, 2012 17:56
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dereekb posted:I'm looking for a place to rent over the summer in College Station/Bryan,TX ~(May 1st - September 1st), which comes out to 4 months. If it's anywhere near a college (judging by "College Station" I assume it is...) summer subleases are real easy to find from kids who are going home for the summer and don't want to pay rent for the time they're gone.
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Mar 27, 2012 18:20
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:If it's anywhere near a college (judging by "College Station" I assume it is...) summer subleases are real easy to find from kids who are going home for the summer and don't want to pay rent for the time they're gone. Yea, that's what I was also thinking of. I'm going to check into that next, since apartments are looking relatively expensive and don't have furnishings. I'm guessing the best place to look is Craig's list? I know a few friends that are looking to sublease, but since I don't want to live with their roommates, I passed.  Also in the event that I do go for an apartment; is it better in your opinions to find a place that has furnishings, or not?
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Mar 27, 2012 18:50
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dereekb posted:Also in the event that I do go for an apartment; is it better in your opinions to find a place that has furnishings, or not? For only four months, I'd try to find a furnished place. Students going home for the summer will likely leave their college furniture in their apartment. As for my situation: I emailed the two other tenants basically telling them that I was sick of their third roommate's poo poo and could they please find a new third roommate and I get a response back from one of them going "oh but she's such a sweet and nice girl please give her another chance!" I don't care that she's nice. She hasn't given me my money. She could be a completely evil person but if she got me her poo poo on time and didn't wreck the place I wouldn't care. Still no response from the girl in question.
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Mar 27, 2012 20:07
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It's a business relationship, not a friendship. She can't even get you her paperwork, you think getting rent is going to be any easier?
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Mar 27, 2012 21:40
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She finally realized that holy crap I was serious about dropping her as a tenant and has sent the lease. I know this because she emailed me in a panic with a picture of the lease and security deposit and then the receipt from the post office. Happy ending I guess?
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Mar 27, 2012 21:43
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:She finally realized that holy crap I was serious about dropping her as a tenant and has sent the lease. I know this because she emailed me in a panic with a picture of the lease and security deposit and then the receipt from the post office. Except now you get to have the same drama every month for the rent.
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Mar 27, 2012 23:18
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Nuntius posted:Except now you get to have the same drama every month for the rent.
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Mar 27, 2012 23:36
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If she doesn't pay her rent on time, she's getting evicted right away. She knows she's on thin ice and her roommates know she's on thin ice. That's a bridge I'll cross if/when I get there.
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Mar 28, 2012 00:15
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dereekb posted:I'm looking for a place to rent over the summer in College Station/Bryan,TX ~(May 1st - September 1st), which comes out to 4 months. You need to find out the last and first days of classes at A&M and Blinn between those semesters, because no complex nor sublease is going to let you stay the first 1-2 weeks of their most sought after time of year. There won't be much up for grabs on May 1st either because no one has taken their finals and cannot leave yet. Renting in BCS is extremely predictable but also a huge pain in the rear end if you're not a full time student starting August 15th and leaving May 15th. DON'T GRADUATE IN DECEMBER because no one takes your lease when you leave 
Damn Bananas fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 00:21
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drat Bananas posted:You need to find out the last and first days of classes at A&M and Blinn between those semesters, because no complex nor sublease is going to let you stay the first 1-2 weeks of their most sought after time of year. There won't be much up for grabs on May 1st either because no one has taken their finals and cannot leave yet. Renting in BCS is extremely predictable but also a huge pain in the rear end if you're not a full time student starting August 15th and leaving May 15th. DON'T GRADUATE IN DECEMBER because no one takes your lease when you leave Yea, going through craigslist it looks like a lot of people who are at apartment complexes have their leases end in July, which sucks since I need to stay there until August 20th. Some great finds though; much better than directly renting/leasing from an apartment complex. It isn't that big of a deal though. I'd be willing to head home for the last 2 weeks and keep some stuff at a friend's apartment (if they were fine with it, that is.) so worst case, that'll happen.
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Mar 28, 2012 19:27
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Not too many furnishing questions so far, and that's the main thing I wanted to get some ideas on. I'm just moving into a place in Columbia Heights in DC: cool 1930s building, neat archways and moldings, decently high ceiling, white walls with older dark parquet floors, good natural lighting. It's about 800ft square with one bedroom and decent-sized kitchen, so not huge but quite decent for one person. Given the look of the place, and just general personal tastes and an interest in minimalism, I want to go for something along the lines of a Westernised take on Japanese interiors. In particular the "minka" (farmhouse) look. I'm not all otaku-neckbeardy or big into Japan stuff, but that's just the best example for minimalism and low-to-the-ground furniture that I can find. You get vaguely similar things in traditional Central Asian houses, but it's hard to find high-concept photos of those online. When I live at my house in Texas I had a coffee table as the main living-room table, some tall shelving in the corners to add a stretching feeling, and some lower shelving along parts of the walls. I got a bit lazy after that, but it worked okay overall. I'd like to do something like that again, but a bit more deliberate/adult/stylish. Here are a few pics of looks that I like, so if anyone has suggestions on how to get a similar feel, but using not overly expensive stuff that I can acquire in the DC area, and not looking like an otaku or My First Apartment (which it is not), that'd be great.    
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Mar 31, 2012 23:17
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Pictures of your actual space would probably be more helpful than pictures of stuff that you like. 800ft is a decent amount of space, but without a good idea of the layout and space it's kind of hard for people to give you any real direction.
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Apr 1, 2012 01:07
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BiF Furniture in Fairfax has a lot of modern, minimalist furniture. You might want to go check them out.
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Apr 1, 2012 19:51
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Ashcans posted:Pictures of your actual space would probably be more helpful than pictures of stuff that you like. 800ft is a decent amount of space, but without a good idea of the layout and space it's kind of hard for people to give you any real direction.  It was hard to both find a spot to stand that gave a scope of the unit, and then deal with balancing the light between internal lighting and the windows, but this gives a rough idea. This is shot standing from the front hallway. To the left you can see the start of the arch that forms a full-width nook at the end of the living room, and on the right the hallway which leads to the bedroom, with the bathroom also opening on the hallway. Each unit (kitchen, living room, bedroom) has windows all along the north face; they're just not as evident in most pics because I had my back to them to avoid washing out the lighting. Kind of dumb, since I should've just closed the shades, but I'd just popped in for a second. Tough lighting, but here's the nook at the north end of the living room, same width as the rest of the room. I'm vaguely tempted to put down a rug crosswise there, with a low table and some floorpillows and make it a sit-down dining room, but not sure about having the pillows and rug that close to a radiator.  Here's the kitchen. The glass door to the left opens up to the livingroom just short of the nook, the door at the far end leads to the front door where I took the first photo from. The kitchen is nothing fancy, and unfortunately the original 1930s cabinetry fell apart some years back and has been replaced by boring modern stuff. Though the nice thing is that, especially compared to where I've been subletting, it has a large amount of counter-space. I'm not planning anything fancy or exotic with the kitchen. Just a relatively conventional small table and chairs in the dining era by the windows at the end of the kitchen. For either times I don't feel like sitting on the floor-furniture in the living room, and/or want to use the table to repair musical instruments or whatnot.  Here's the bedroom. Nothing fancy, but has a huge walk-in closet in the back. There's another huge walk-in by the front door, and a good-sized closet in the hallway in the middle of the unit. Really a surprising amount of closet-space for an older building. The floor is the original parquet, and a bit in rough shape. They had been showing me a different unit they'd partially carpeted, and I can't stand carpet, so they showed me this one, saying "we were planning to carpet this one, but haven't finalised it yet." I told them I'd take it so long as we can work out a plan that didn't involve carpeting it. Either new parquet (heard good things about bamboo parquet) or refinish the old. Looks like now they're going to refinish this parquet in a month or so. I hate carpet, and most of the cheap laminate "wood" flooring is kind of lovely, so I'm glad they're able to refurbish this stuff. 
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Apr 1, 2012 21:38
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Anyone have any experience dealing with OneProp(Used to be Prime Properties or something like that). I've only ever rented from complexes or individual property owners, never a giant management company. I don't get a good feeling about it, but they have a few houses in the area I'm looking for.
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Apr 5, 2012 02:51
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Question for you guys that have done interstate (but not terribly long distance) moves: I'm moving from the Portland area up to Tacoma, WA which I think counts as 'long distance' though it's only roughly two and a half hours away. Will most moving companies do same-day delivery if the distance is that short?
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Apr 6, 2012 19:32
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xeria posted:Question for you guys that have done interstate (but not terribly long distance) moves: You'd have to call and ask.
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Apr 7, 2012 04:25
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You can also just rent a Uhaul and drive it down yourself. I'm fairly certain they'll let you pick up in one area and drop off in another, but yeah call around and ask people about it. There has to be someone who offers that kind of thing (though you may pay quite a bit extra if its short notice)
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Apr 7, 2012 04:41
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You can do a one way move with a Uhaul from one state to another. I know this from first hand experience.
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Apr 7, 2012 15:51
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I just completed an in-town move with UHaul, I got a largeish truck that was a piece of poo poo, but holy hell, the MILEAGE charges. They dinged me for 89 cents a mile. I cannot fathom moving interstate with UHaul. If I had driven most of the day I would've paid 10x the daily rental rate just in mileage charges.
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Apr 9, 2012 14:10
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Stew Man Chew posted:I just completed an in-town move with UHaul, I got a largeish truck that was a piece of poo poo, but holy hell, the MILEAGE charges. They dinged me for 89 cents a mile. I cannot fathom moving interstate with UHaul. If I had driven most of the day I would've paid 10x the daily rental rate just in mileage charges. Interstate moves aren't too bad because they're not based on mileage. I think mine came to about $150 total including the insurance. e: Well, actually, they might be based on mileage, but it's at a much better rate. psydude fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Apr 9, 2012 |
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Apr 9, 2012 15:48
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I called around and the worst estimate (mind, still only a 2-hour drive, even if it's interstate!) was $2500, sight unseen, for what basically amounts to one bedroom worth of furniture. I kind of think that estimate was based purely on the fact that I live in a 2-bedroom apartment -- the actuality is that I share it with a roommate and she owns all of the furniture not in my own room (bed, cheap Ikea chest/nightstands, computer desk, tv) and it's basically the equivalent of moving a studio rather than a true 2-bedroom. I also found out that moving in or into Washington state requires that the moving company do an in-home estimate rather than just a quickie estimate over the phone/e-mail, so I have an appointment scheduled for this week for a different company to take inventory of what all I have to move and give me a real estimate. Unfortunately my hands are kind of tied into using a moving company since I don't really know anyone in either are who'd be available to help me load/unload the few things I can't just carry myself (mostly just my bed, really). That and I've never actually driven a U-haul myself and I don't really want my first experience with one to be the terrible, terrible cramped parking lot of my current apartment complex.
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Apr 9, 2012 16:24
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If you're going to hire a moving company, then make sure you don't go with the lowest bidder. Remember that the amount they're paid is directly proportional to the amount of fucks they give about your stuff.
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Apr 9, 2012 16:36
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psydude posted:If you're going to hire a moving company, then make sure you don't go with the lowest bidder. Remember that the amount they're paid is directly proportional to the amount of fucks they give about your stuff. Yeah, the low-end sight unseen estimate I've gotten was $800 and when I looked up the company it had about 20 terrible Google reviews.
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Apr 9, 2012 16:50
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I've finally gotten moved into my new place, but now I need to paint. (The last person painted 3 walls pale blue and 1 wall and the ceiling tomato red.  ) I've never painted walls before, so any tips?
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Apr 10, 2012 04:12
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