Would you pay $200 a year for something that you used maybe twice? I know I wouldn’t.
Now, what if that $200 was charged to you monthly? You’d probably scoff and laugh at that notion, right?
Yet, when it comes to apartment amenities, such as the fancy rooftop pool, the clubhouse with the big-screen TV and pool table, or the nice BBQ and fire pit area, many of us are doing just that.
Sadly, I had fallen into that trap as well.
I was lured in with the notion that the pool would be a great place to spend my Saturdays. The gym would mean that I wouldn’t need to drive to my local gym. The fire pit would be a place to hang out with friends and unwind after a stressful week.
The big problem?
I used those amenities a whopping four times over the course of my year-long lease.
Yet I was paying a crazy amount of money each month just to have access to them.
Why Apartment Amenities Feel So Valuable
Leasing offices are smart and know that amenities help sell, or in this case, rent apartments.
They get you to imagine yourself using these amenities, and from there, your emotions run wild. Instead of making a logical decision, you make a decision based on emotions.
You feel as if, if you live here, your life will be perfect because it will be filled with weekend hangouts, daily workouts, and places to unwind when you’re stressed.
The big thing that these apartment complexes are doing is getting you to make a decision based on fantasy and not reality.
The Math Can Add Up Fast
In some cases, it can be hard to determine how much of your rent is going toward the apartment itself and how much is going toward the various amenities.
And so, the only way to really figure that out is to compare similar-sized apartments that have amenities versus ones that don’t.
So, for example, let’s say Apartment A is $2,000 per month without amenities, while Apartment B is $2,300 per month with amenities.
That becomes a difference of $300 per month. If you multiply that by an entire year, you spent an extra $3,600 for these amenities.
Now, if you’re like me, you don’t like moving either, so the odds that you only live there for a year could be slim.
So what if you lived there for three years?
That means you spent $10,800 over those three years for these amenities.
Let’s look at this from a different angle.
Would you pay $10,800 to use a car 12 times over the course of three years?
Absolutely not.
If you were only going to use a car that much, you’d probably just rent a car when you needed it and save yourself thousands of dollars.
Why not take the same approach to apartment amenities?
Amenities You Already Pay For
The other interesting aspect is that most of the amenities being offered are most likely being paid for in some other way or fashion.
For instance, I paid for a gym membership, meaning I was technically paying twice for the ability to go to a gym.
And if you really dug into what that gym membership got me, it also gave me access to a pool.
Thus, once again, I was paying twice for the same amenities.
But what could be even worse is that the town I lived in had a community pool. So if I really wanted a pool day, I could have just gone there.
Now, what about that clubhouse that had the big-screen TV to watch a movie or the big game?
Well, guess what?
My living room could do that.
I didn’t need to spend good money for something that I could get without ever leaving my apartment.
Or what about the free coffee at the fancy club?
Well, I paid for a coffee maker and kept my apartment stocked with coffee, yet I was paying again to have the ability to make coffee in the clubhouse.
Sadly, if you really think about the amenities you’re paying for, you’re most likely paying for some of them twice.
Calculate Your Cost Per Use
Another way to break this down and see if it makes sense to pay for these amenities is to think about how often you will use them and how much each use would cost.
So let’s say it costs you $300 a month for the amenities, yet you only plan to use the pool 10 times a year.
That means it would cost you $360 per use of the pool.
That’s a pretty absurd amount to pay per use.
How about instead of paying for that, you just go to the local community pool and pay the small entrance fee when you want a pool day?
And you can do this for all the different amenities that are offered.
How often will you actually use the gym?
Will you use you use the clubhouse?
How often will you sit around the fire pit?
If the answer is “not very often,” you should think twice about paying extra for them.
Amenities That Could Be Worth It
Now, I’m not completely against amenities as long as you can get good use out of them and they can save you money or time.
Take the gym amenity, for example.
If you use the apartment gym and cancel your existing gym membership, then it could very well be worth it.
In this case, it could save you money and valuable travel time.
Package lockers are another great amenity.
Having lived in some not-so-fancy apartments in college, packages were known to go missing if you weren’t home when UPS or FedEx delivered them.
So having a secure place for packages to be delivered is amazing.
In-unit washer and dryer is probably the biggest and best amenity of them all.
Not having to go to the laundromat will save you so much time and effort.
When I was looking for an apartment, this was non-negotiable for me. The apartment had to have an in-unit washing machine and dryer.
And so, when looking at what amenities you should get, I would suggest focusing on the amenities that save you money or time, rather than the ones that will impress your friends.
Conclusion
Those amenities that come with your fancy apartment living aren’t free.
They’re baked into your rent every single month, and you’re probably paying an arm and a leg for them.
So the next time you’re looking for a new apartment, instead of being drawn into the fancy pool, look for the amenities that will actually save you money.
Or simply ask yourself:
“How often would I actually use this amenity?”
Because the best apartment amenity isn’t necessarily the one that looks the best during the tour.
It’s the one that provides enough value to justify the rent you’re paying for it.
Leave a Reply