Moving Between Three Rentals in One Year
By the second move, Bev was sitting on a suitcase in a hallway, waiting for a landlord with a key.
Picture two friends, Penny and Bev, both 68, who retired in the same spring. They had talked for years about living in three different places abroad in one year: a mountain town, a coastal town and a city. They made a plan on a paper napkin and booked the first rental in March.
By the second move, Bev was sitting on a suitcase in a hallway, waiting for a landlord with a key. Penny was on the phone with the previous landlord about the key she had left behind. Neither of them was unhappy. They were tired in a way the napkin had not shown.
That evening they added up what one move costs, using ordinary figures for a one-bedroom at US$900 a month. A deposit of one to two months is common. As an illustration, say a cleaning fee on a short stay is US$50 to US$150. A deposit usually comes back after the landlord checks the apartment, which can take weeks, so for a while two deposits could be out at once.
| Item | One rental | Three rentals |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit (1 to 2 months) | US$900 to US$1,800 | US$2,700 to US$5,400 over the year |
| Cleaning fee (illustration) | US$50 to US$150 | US$150 to US$450 |
| Deposits out at the same time, if a refund is slow | One | Two: US$1,800 to US$3,600 |
A deposit is meant to come back. A cleaning fee does not. For Penny and Bev, the larger cost was the first two weeks in each new place. Penny listed what she had to find each time: a grocery store, a pharmacy, a bus, an internet connection and a doctor she could ask. That list came with the move every time.
"Three towns in a year is three first weeks," Bev said.
"Maybe we could see the other two for a few nights each," Penny said.
They kept the mountain town for the full year on a lease. Then they took a week in the coastal town and four nights in the city, at ordinary nightly rates, and stayed in each long enough to find the good bakery. They saw all three places and unpacked once.
You could…
- Pick one place to land for three to six months before you plan the second.
- Visit other towns for a week before you rent there.
- Ask each landlord when the deposit comes back, and get the answer in writing.
- List what you need to find in a new town, and see how long it took the first time.
If you moved more than once in a year, what did the second move teach you? Reply with your story in the comments. A reader with a plan for several short rentals could learn from your second move.
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data.
Sources: rental guides on deposits. The US$900 rent and the cleaning fee are illustrations.
Tell us in the comments