Monday, March 26, 2012

5 Factors To Consider Before You Sign The Lease

There are many things to think about before you move to your new home or apartment. You may be deciding on what kind of insurance you want, what movers to hire, whether or not you’re going to install safeguard systems like CCTV, etc. There are other factors that you may forget about in your scramble to get a good deal with an acceptable lease. Here are five factors you should make sure you consider before moving or signing on the dotted line:

Acoustics—Do your own research and test the acoustics of your new home. If it’s an apartment, you want to make sure that you can’t hear every step your upstairs neighbors take. If it’s a home, you should make sure that the walls aren’t too thin. Sometimes all it takes is a single closing door to send a wave of loud noises throughout the house.

Neighbors—Meet your neighbors, and, more importantly, hang around the prospective house or apartment to see how they behave themselves. If your neighbors hold loud poker games several times a week, or blast movies and music that the entire neighborhood can hear, it might be worth reconsidering the move. A landlord can address this issue, but sometimes nothing can be done.

Local services—Find out if there are recycling facilities nearby, as well as a variety of energy and Internet providers. Often times these options are limited, but it’s certainly a factor worth looking into before you move. It’s also worth looking into whether or not there are any companies that service smart homes. If you choose to upgrade your house or apartment in the future, it’s good to know there will be someone who can help you.

Wi-Fi and mobile reception—Test whether or not you get a lot dropped calls. Don’t sign the lease on a place before finding out whether or not you’re in a ‘dead zone’. The same goes with your Wi-Fi connection. A simple Google search should yield a reliable crowdsourced answer as to whether the area where you’re planning on moving to experiences frequent network trouble. You don’t want to be stuck resetting the modem every fifteen minutes.

Pests—Check the history of bedbugs, rodents, and other pests on your property as well as throughout the neighborhood. Even it has been recently fumigated, pests such as bedbugs frequently persist. Bedbugs are making a big comeback in South Africa. Fortunately, there are plenty of blogs out there that have archived tenants’ reports of their activity.

These are five factors that could spell the difference between a wonderful new home and a nightmare. Do your homework on acoustics, neighbors, local services, Wi-Fi, and pests before you sign the lease to your new place.

Are you moving soon or in the near future? Moving the traditional way puts an unbelievable amount of trash and other waste into our landfills which are harmful to the planet. Why waste time and money on cardboard boxes and tape that you’re just going throw away when you move into your new place? Instead, consider getting green plastic moving boxes from us at Rentabox. We’ll deliver them to you and pick them up from your new address so you don’t have to worry about it. With Rentabox, moving can be a streamlined, pleasant experience all the way around!

Selecting the Perfect Storage Unit

If you’re moving and are in the need for some help with the packing, storage and moving of your belongings, I’d advice you to hire a moving and storage company right away. Whether you’re moving into a well furnished apartment, an unfurnished one or are renovating and need some self storage space for your belongings, you will need to select the perfect storage unit to suit your needs.

Now, to begin with, what is a storage unit? A storage unit is a storage entity or a container-like thing that a moving and storage company will offer you if you wish to store away your belongings somewhere safe. Depending on the things you need to store, you can have as many storage units. Storage units are generally temporary storage elements which you can use for specific periods of time. There are many reasons why one may want to store away belongings. For instance, you might be renovating your apartment and need some place safe to keep your things secure. You may have to look for some place to keep some of your old furniture or things that you are not using for the time being. That is when you’ll need storage units, and the best way of going about getting them is by hiring the services of a moving and storage company to get the perfect storage units to secure your belongings.

Selecting a Storage Unit
Moving and storage companies offer safe, dry and clean storage units to customers. However, as a customer, it will be your duty to make sure that you explore all your options before selecting the perfect storage units. The most important thing is for you to know exactly what you’re looking for. First of all, you’ll need to know what you’re looking for in a storage unit solution provider. Look through as many options in order to find the best provider.

Once you’ve successfully found a good provider, the next thing for you to do is check out where the storage facility is located, i.e. where your storage units will be stored. It is always better to go for a service provider or moving and storage company that’s located closer to your location, so you can access it easily whenever you want.

Secondly, confirm the security arrangements provided at the facility location. Since your storage units will be entrusted in the care of the storage facility, it is important that you make sure they’ll be kept securely. Moving and storage facilities usually offer customers some self storage security alarm systems or locks. Some even provide CCTV’s for constant monitoring. The keys to your unit will be with you, so you can rest assured that no one will be tampering with your belongings.

Another thing you need to ensure is the climate control of the storage facility. Your goods may have some items that cannot withstand harsh weather conditions or changing weathers. Check with the facility to ensure that their units are safe for use. In conjunction with climate control, also look out for moisture and dryness conditions.

Are you moving soon or in the near future? Moving the traditional way puts an unbelievable amount of trash and other waste into our landfills which are harmful to the planet. Why waste time and money on cardboard boxes and tape that you’re just going throw away when you move into your new place? Instead, consider getting green plastic moving boxes from us at Rentabox. We’ll deliver them to you and pick them up from your new address so you don’t have to worry about it. With Rentabox, moving can be a streamlined, pleasant experience all the way around!