This one sentence would have saved me years of renter’s remorse

I made the mistake so you don’t have to

We’ve all been there. You excitedly tour a new apartment that feels like a mega upgrade. The finishes are newer, the location is better, the square footage feels so big that you could do the hallway slide from Risky Business in your underwear.

The funny thing about renting for years (see: the 2026 housing hellscape) is that every new place is in fact a major lifestyle overhaul. With every new apartment, I find myself looking back on the past year(s) thinking: “wow. I actually can’t believe that this is my home now.”

Renting becomes a marked timeline of your 20s. The times when you had three roommates and $10 in your bank account (and had the most fun of your life doing it). All the way to being a real adult with a big girl job, when you’re the one who cooks and cleans (sorry Cardi B).

And yet with every move, I find myself making one fatal mistake. One mistake that had I not made, I would have saved myself years of renter’s remorse.

I’ve never opened the windows during an apartment tour.

The problem with apartment tours is that there’s a comparison trap. When you tour one shitty apartment with a moldy shower and no AC, the next one feels like the Taj Mahal.

And inevitably, every single time, I get so excited about one specific apartment, that I become willing to overlook the details that feel tiny in the moment, and then huge when you live in them for 12 months.

My last apartment was on a main road. In a city. Next to a Chinese food restaurant. And yet, when I toured it, I became apartment blind.

I was upgrading to a city I was excited about, in a much newer build, with one roommate instead of three. There was AC. Marble in the kitchen. An office. And I had my own bathroom. What could get better than this?!

I’ll tell you what: somewhere that didn’t smell like Chinese food 24/7 (and, no, it’s not as good as it sounds on a 90 degree day with 70% humidity) and sound like I was on I-95 at 3AM.

Last month, I moved into my dream apartment. This has been on my vision board for years at this point. It feels SO good to have my own place that I pay for entirely by myself (more on that in another Substack).

The day that I got the keys it was 50 degrees outside. I walked into an apartment that read 78 on the thermostat. As I went to swing open my gorgeous floor to ceiling windows, I was met with a thud.

The windows were chained shut.

Okay, that’s a little dramatic. Here’s what really happened: there was a little safety bar that only allowed them to open about 1 inch.

Honestly, this probably would have been a deal breaker for me - if I had just opened the windows during the tour.

If you’ve ever watched HGTV or Million Dollar Listing LA, you know that *sound is a big factor that realtors love pointing out when showing a home. It’s because when somewhere is quiet, it often goes unnoticed. And so it’s the realtor’s job to point out just how peaceful a quiet home feels.

This is common knowledge in home shopping, but I think it often gets overlooked in renting. But why should it?

I’ll leave you with this: before you rent, open the damn windows.