Moving into apartment help

I think I'm moving into an apartment complex for the first time in my life. Anyone have any advice for when I'm looking at places? Is first floor better? Would living close to the laundry room be good or annoying? Things like that. Any help would be appreciated

These are questions that only you can really answer...they'll be different for everyone.

I prefer not to be on the ground floor, not so much because of the noise above me, but the idea of everyone else being outside my door on the way to their apt. I hate the idea of opening the door only to run into folks.

Laundry....I wouldn't want to be near it for the above mentioned reasons.

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If it is a tall building, the upper floors are better to avoid street noises. I live on the 5TH floor of a building on the side that faces the NYC Harbor. It is great! It is so quiet! The building is an old factory building so there is no noise from above. I would say stay clear of living next to the laundry room or any other amenities the building may have. The noise would be very annoying. If you can get in a doorman building. Doormen are great and they will receive packages and mail for you and also hold items for pick up so you don't have to hang around home all day when expecting something.

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That's not necessarily true. When I lived in Ann Arbor, my building had a doorman.

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Agreed with the above - think about how much you value quiet and privacy as opposed to convenience when you're thinking about things like how close you want to be to the laundry room.

I lived in a building with a concierge desk and a mail room for a while in Philadelphia, and yes, having someone to take your packages and call for repairs is a really great amenity if you happen to come across it. I can't say it's very common, though.

Think about noise levels and who your neighbors are, because you're going to be living in close proximity to these people for a while. Students (especially undergrads) are going to be noisy assholes; that's just a fact of life. Pet-friendly buildings are going to have dogs barking. Family-friendly buildings are going to have children running around. This is why buildings with thick walls are to be treasured.

Updated On: 6/30/13 at 02:38 AM

my only stipulation is I must be on the top floor of an elevated building.

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Yeah, my dentist lives on a 27th floor of a building in Midtown. Getting food and water was needlessly to say, an arduous trek.

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There is nothing UNTRUE about my statement. I didn't say there WEREN'T any, I said I didn't know of any.

No need to be defensive. But while there's nothing untrue about what you wrote as you phrased it, it's also not true.

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I lived in a ground floor of a "renovated" tenement building on 107th street.

Not only did the neighborhood crowd hang out on the front stoop, blasting their boom boxes at 7 a.m. every morning...

But every time there was a stopped-up toilet anywhere in the building, the sewage would explode out of our toilet and flow across the bathroom and into the kitchen! (And every time the owner and super would promise to clean it up and then disappear, leaving us to do the dirty work.)

Unsurprisingly, our next apartment was a top floor apartment and we dealt with the five floor walk up.

Thanks for the help. If you live on the top floor, it is really hot(since heat raises)? If so, that may save on heat!

Any more hints?

I lived in a top floor apartment on 89th street that was so hot, we took a wrench and turned the radiator off. Oddly, it was quite pleasant in the summer and got lots of breeze.

What kind of questions should I ask when I go look at places?
Thanks

Just be prepared for one thing I noticed. Most likely you'll be looking at apartments during the hours when most people are at work. Therefore, it'll seem very quiet. There could be noisy surprises when you actually live there 24/7.

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