If you’re in your 20s or early 30s and are still living at home, biding your time until you get your own place, you are likely not a strange person but simply a statistic. In fact, last month, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data showed that despite improvements in the labor market, millennials haven’t been packing up and moving out in large numbers.

It’s easy enough to theorize why younger adults, despite being gainfully employed, aren’t moving out.

— You’re nervous. Maybe you’re feeling a little gun shy, if you’ve only recently taken on a steady paycheck.

— It’s just too darn expensive. Or maybe despite the paycheck, you can’t afford your own place, especially if you live in an area that has a high cost of living. Zumper.com, a search engine for rental properties, releases a monthly data report on how expensive cities are and shows a lot of cities’ rents have been on the upswing. For instance, Kansas City, Missouri, which you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a high cost of living, had seen its median rent climb 16.7 percent in the last year. The current median rent for a one-bedroom home in San Francisco is $3,500 a month.

— You’re a saver. Of course, many millennials may be saving up to buy a house instead of moving into an apartment.

But if you’re living at home and plotting an exit from your parents’ basement or childhood bedroom, consider these potential roadblocks before creating an escape plan.

Are you being realistic about where you want to live? Once you finally decide you’re really going to do it and move, it’s human nature to get excited and start thinking about where you want to live rather than where you can afford to live.

“One of the biggest mistakes young adults do when moving for the first time is not being flexible with the home they want,” says Manuela Irwin, a relocation expert who writes for MyMovingReviews.com. “Your rental bill should not go beyond 30 percent of your income. A dream home is a privilege. You may need to let the fancy furniture go, or those great amenities. A smaller place at first, maybe … until you have a steady income.”

Do you want a roommate? Are you sure? If you’re going to rent and don’t have anyone in mind to room with, you could always look for someone on Craigslist or check out websites like Roommates.com. But remember: While a roommate can be your ticket out of your parents’ basement, a roommate could also cause you enough financial pain that you end up moving back.

Sally Treadwell, who works for an alternative dispute resolution company, PeopleClaim.com, says she sees a lot of claims from disgruntled roommates.

She remembers one subtenant in a house rented by multiple people who could never pay her share of the rent on time, and the roommates ended up racking up a ton of late fees.

“She hadn’t paid a deposit, so she just left. The other tenants were left holding the bag to the tune of some $600, as I recall,” Treadwell says, adding that the tenant eventually paid up, but “anticipating potential problems would have saved everyone a lot of stress.”

In other words, you have common sense, and you know you need to choose a roommate wisely — but it’s still easy to want to see the best in people, especially if you’re in a rush, and your potential roommate can easily produce the first month’s rent.

Are you thinking about utilities? If you have the time, Rob Williams, a real estate agent at DC Home Buzz, a real estate brokerage in the District of Columbia, suggests that as soon as you sign a lease or mortgage, set up your utilities, “especially your Internet service,” well before moving in.

“There’s nothing worse than moving into a home when the electricity or water are shut off,” Williams says.

Williams also advises that if you’re moving into a house or apartment that will need painting, do it now and not later. For the obvious reasons, he adds: “It’s so much easier to paint a room before you’ve moved in your furniture and personal belongings.”

Do you have money for the actual move? It’s easy to get caught up in whether you can afford to rent or buy a home, but don’t forget about the cost of the move itself, says Sep Niakan, who owns HB Roswell Realty in Miami.

“If you squeeze out the purchase with all your funds, you won’t have any money left over to actually make your home, home,” he says. “Be prepared to have tight cash flow for six months after move-in, in general due to lots of unexpected incidentals like furniture, accessories and knickknacks you didn’t know you need until you own your first place.”

Along those lines, think about the moving process itself. It might sound like overkill, planning every step. This isn’t the invasion of Normandy, after all, and if you know you have a truck reserved and a few friends who are going to help you move, what can really go wrong?

Lots can go wrong, particularly when it comes to moving into an apartment or condominium, says Sam Gonas, a Miami-based attorney.

“One of the worst things I’ve seen is somebody not verifying in advance access to the proper elevator and the times it is available,” he says. “It resulted in them not being able to move in that day, thereby incurring additional expenses and headaches.”

Gonas adds that knowing where you’re allowed to park the moving van for unloading is also important, especially if there are homeowners association rules to follow — so you don’t tick off your new neighbors.

“Moving in always takes longer than you think, and a wrongly parked van can make the process even slower,” he says.

Have you budgeted for unexpected moving costs? Your rental truck could cost more than you think. You may have gone overboard in buying appliances for your kitchen, or furniture (although, really, wait to purchase the furniture until you’ve moved in, so you can see how much room you have). Maybe you didn’t budget for some of the unexpected fees that could crop up, from utility startup charges to the security deposit apartments typically charge.

Whatever you budget for your move, assume you’ll end up paying more. Because you probably will.

Courtney Capellan, who works in hotel marketing, says she recently moved into a 100-year-old beach-front rental in San Diego. It wasn’t her first home, but even moving veterans can be thrown by some of the fees out there, Capellan says.

“I was required to check all the boxes, nothing out of the ordinary. Spend two days inspecting the cracks and quirks and marking them down on the sheet, so that when you move out, you aren’t responsible for pre-existing damage — no big deal,” she says. “So after marking down all the issues with the ancient hardwood floors, and already having started the move-in process, I thought all was a go.”

And it was, until the property manager of the house came to Capellan and demanded a $1,000 deposit due to her dog.

“Suddenly it occurred to them that a 30-pound dog might ruin the hardwood,” Capellan says. She unhappily paid it.

So if you want to get your first place, by all means, do it. There’s something undeniably pleasant about living on your own, and if you make your move, you probably won’t regret it. Expect to be happy but (potentially) extremely broke.

More from U.S. News

10 Ways to Save on Your Wardrobe

12 Millennial-Inspired Ways to Spend Less

10 Ways Millennials Are Changing Homebuying

How to Move Out of Your Parents’ Basement originally appeared on usnews.com