The Decision To Live In An Apartment: Our Story And Experiences

okay Dean so we've been asked a lot by people why did we sell uh 2 000 square foot Bungalow in a rural subdivision and move into a rental apartment sounds Dreadful and we're gonna chat about it today it's another one of those essential pieces of information for you to consider if you're coming up to retirement or whether you're in retirement so we're going to go through a few facts and we hope that you'll enjoy it so what do we have first team well I think one of the things Norm that was important to us was the space that we were going to get um yes we were moving from over 2 000 square feet so we were looking for something um that was a little spacious so what we found actually has about 1350 square feet so living in a a rural subdivision it was wonderful it had two acres had a ride on tractor which was great fun um to cut the grass but we couldn't get any Services there we got we got mail we had to go to the mailbox but there was none other convenient that we couldn't get pizza delivered fast food we were too far so part of it was we wanted to be able to walk more and then our rural subdivision we were just basically on a very busy road um when we say busy it wasn't hugely busy but it had a speed limit of 80 kilometers an hour and cars used to drive at about 110 on it so we didn't feel as safe so we decided when the time came for Tina to finally retire after I'd been retired for five years yeah you kept on at me didn't you we decided to move to a cheaper Town yes we were living in an expensive area and so we had a family member living in this town so we came down and we started house hunting so we found an apartment building right away and it had a few key features that we feel is important for you to look for if you were ever going to consider having an apartment so let's let's name a few of them one the first one was underground parking oh that was really a must to us wasn't it we really wanted to get away from the brutal um winter weather didn't we we wanted to be parked underground so we didn't have problems and we felt the car was safer underground absolutely it's uh access controlled by a clicker to get in the garage door so we we felt safe we didn't have to Lug all our shopping um through rain weather or outside through a front door because we can access the building from underground in the parking spot I think another thing too Norm that was important particularly to me was ensuite laundry we'd heard sort of horror stories about people where they had to go down into the basement or somewhere to do the laundry and that was something that we didn't want so it was really important to us to find an apartment where we had our own washer and dryer and some of those apartments some of those apartment buildings with basement washing machines they're coin operated oh yes so you actually down whole bag full of coins so you actually had to pay didn't you whereas it's all included for us we don't pay any any extra for it which was another real big plus wasn't it demographics team it's important when you come to an apartment building because it's communal living almost it is that was important to us wasn't it it is so the average age in this building is over 60 I would imagine um yeah I would say maybe about 70 percent of the building is over 60. at least so it's not kind of full of wild parties and things is it wow they get a bit of that marijuana in them you know no there's no wild parties we don't hear anything um outside of our apartment basically unless there's some construction work if they're replacing some floors or doing some work like that we can hear a little bit of that but that brings us to safety as well so this apartment building is made out of concrete so our apartment is totally self-contained in a concrete box so the outer walls of our apartment um and the inner wall and the exterior wall raw concrete so in case of a fire um the fire is self-contained within a concrete structure so that was important to us as well yes it was wasn't it and um we also did work out that we heard that the local fire um trucks actually have ladders that will actually get up to our floor so that was another plus that we'd heard of but you're talking about security norm and safety I think what's really important to us um when you come into the building you actually have to have a key to get in the front door and that is the same one we mentioned about the underground parking once you're in there you actually have to have a key to get into the corridor to actually get to the elevators yeah so you can't just walk in here so you need one key to get in through the front door and then yes we go up the elevators but then we have another key to get into our apartment so that gave us a very safe feeling didn't it so not all landlords are created equal are they Tina no they're not so we yeah rent from uh very large corporation that only rents apartments and townhouses now that just Diversified so they build their own apartments and then they lease them out and the advantages to that are they're constantly maintaining the buildings so for instance distance they employ their own gardeners snow removal plumbers appliance repair people um I have a lot left anything out um we have a building manager of this resident yeah we have a couple that lives actually on site and they're available 24 hours a day for any sort of emergency or anything which is great so the one thing that we can't stress enough to you is the department living is Cost Containment we know every month how much our living space is going to cost us and so unlike a house that has variables what's going to break down this week what uh repair are you going to have to unexpectedly find money for it's all those unexpected expenses and maintenance isn't it that we don't have to worry about that's a huge a lot of stress is taken away because of that so if you think about buying a house and we've bought plenty of them in the past you buy a house and you really want to decontaminated from the previous owner you want to personalize it to you so maybe the the paint is the wrong color for you or um there's wear and tear in areas that you don't want wear and tear so nearly every homeowner that buys a home in the first year or two are into heavy expenses of decorating of upgrading flooring paint fixtures fittings appliances we don't do that in an apartment when we came to this apartment it had been renovated from the previous owner said there was no trace of the previous owner everything was brand new wasn't it everything was a very neutral color um it had been completely painted a lovely Ivory beige color um the carpets were all neutral they'd all been steamed and cleaned all the walls had been patched up if there was patches everything was painted everything was checked for make sure had all the appliances and everything and you basically just walked into a brand new space that was just then yours to personalize it it was very exciting wasn't it it was yeah and apply and apartment living is really stress-free we can't we we can't stress that enough but for instance everybody has kitchen garbage so we just don't you know ties up the bend walks out into the corridor goes down a few yards and there's a chute throw it in the Chute we never see it again no because a lot of places now Norm you actually have to pay and actually have to get taxed to put on your garbage we don't have any of that just take all the houses in this town have to pay by a garbage tag to put on every bag isn't it so we don't have that just take it out put it down the Chute and it's gone it's great we don't have property tax no we have rent and in the rent is included our utilities so we're paying well we don't tell him yeah okay we pay very little for the utility bit included in the rent don't we it started off at 35 and it's gone up about one percent or one half percent per year since then and I think one of the really important things is and we have mentioned this before that if you move to an area with rent control we have rent control here and to give you our clue um for this coming year our percentage increase is only 2.5 percent that is so small um less than inflation yeah we've been here seven years now and it's minute how much each year the rent goes up and during the big plus during covert this company um gave us a one year they didn't increase the rent no to try and help their talents out and the landlord since we've been here has upgraded the toilets put brand new toys it's in putting new thermostats in new shower heads lots of things haven't they um I was just going to mention Norm that um compared to when we were in the house we did have a slight thing about a week ago yeah the kitchen sinks we have two sinks they both filled up um with sort of Mucky water didn't they and it was like oh my goodness what's this we instantly called the superintendents within 10 minutes the super was there walked through the door and said there's a plumber on their way you'd already called the plumber who works for the uh yeah and within 30 minutes the whole thing was fixed um we were blown away whereas when we had the house we'd have to get the phone book out we'd have to find a plumber we'd have to be charged probably for Quick Service this was all included and then it was all fixed it was great does take a bit of getting used to doesn't it normally because when we had problems before Norm would fix it yeah now we have a whole team of people fixing them so one of the things that may happen in retirement is you decide to stay in your own home and there's nothing wrong with that and it's uh there isn't a one-size-fits all we understand that no but what we do here especially in Canada um is that towards the end of retirement when you're getting elderly your property taxes just keep going up and up and it's the property tax that drives you out of your home because you can't afford the monthly expense so when we decided to throw money away in rent we sat down we did a budget how much did our mortgage-free home cost us to carry every month without repair costs and at the point of Us coming here it was roughly um 950 dollars a month to just carry the house without any repairs without any maintenance um and we moved into this apartment at around thirteen hundred dollars so by the time we'd actually added that extra maintenance and things on wasn't it we reckoned there was only about a hundred dollars difference that's right between the two and we just thought wow this is amazing and for us because it was actually a bungalow that we lived in before this was great because it's one level living um yeah we come up in the elevator but once we're in here and for anybody who's not familiar with the 1350 square feet that we do have we have two bedrooms we have two bathrooms and we have a very large balcony which was important to us wasn't it so we do have outdoor living yeah it's roughly 36 feet long by about six and a half to seven feet deep so it does give us quite a bit of outdoor living space doesn't it and when the weather's nice it's great to have an outdoor area retail breakfast and lunch out there and uh it's just perfect because it's we get the sun in the afternoon as well so it really helps so all they were saying is that have an open mind and part of what we're seeing is we're on a retirement Journey that we're seven years into and we've been fed as a fertile and and traveled and had great times but we can start to feel the aches and pains we can see in the future that you might not be able to take care of a home because we saw how our parents were they got to the stage that by the time they got to their late 70s they were incapable of taking care of the the home decorating it and all this sort of stuff so then they had to start hiring a gardener to mow the grass it became sort of locked and tied to the home that really the home was then owning them wasn't it and the major major thing that led to our parents demise we think was social isolation and that is the one thing in an apartment building that you can socialize you can interact if you want to you don't have to no but just getting in an elevator have you ever heard of an elevator speech we were both in sales we could tell somebody in two or three minutes exactly what we did or exactly what we were selling and we can do that in the elevator here and have a yeah a very quick conversation with somebody and we feel as though we've socialized yeah whether we're going down to the mail to get the mail or whether we're going swimming or to the gym we have all that in the building too um it is important especially during covid we'd heard that a lot of people in houses didn't see anybody whereas we were still seeing people and it was really quite nice just even coming to our own apartment wasn't it so we've traveled extensively from this apartment and I'll tell you once we lock the door on the way out that's it we don't think about about it until we're walking back into the apartment building we don't worry about it uh if anything goes wrong with the apartment if there's a leak that there never has been but there's on-site staff and they'll take care of it so this is something for you to consider we're not saying it's the perfect solution but it is a solution absolutely it is isn't it so we hope everybody is staying safe and keeping well and until the next time bye-bye bye

Channel: This Is Our Retirement

Views: 78,070

Keywords: retire, retirement, baby boomers, retirement travel, retirees, retirement lifestyle, retirement planning, this is our retirement, retirement fear, norm and tina, norm and tina retirement, apartment living, retirement downsizing, sell your house and rent, retirement sell your home, stress free retirement, protect your retirement savings

Id: NLx5aKY8Fx0

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 15 2023