If you are currently living in a major city or if you are thinking about relocating to a major city some time soon, you know how confusing it can be choosing between the hundreds of apartment complexes in your area. Even a small city with a population under two million has hundreds of apartment complexes and buildings to choose from, so how are you suppose to know which ones are winners and which ones are traps?

Thankfully, the Internet has made this chore much easier. Many national and local apartment hunting websites have areas in which people can leave comments so you’ll know long before you sign a lease if a place is worth staying in. However, as great as these databases are, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

First, many major apartment complexes switch owners on an incredibly frequent basis. For example, when yours truly lived in beautiful Orlando, Florida, the apartment complex I lived in changed owners four times in five years and is now condos! That’s why it is only worth while to pay attention to reviews from the last calendar year. Any older reviews may not reflect the current management group that now controls that property.

Finally, you also need to consider the likelihood that an apartment complexes competition has filled out bad reviews on those websites. Similar things have been detected on restaurant review sites, so it isn’t a leap to think the same thing can happen on apartment sites. Read all reviews with a grain of salt.