Pros:
I loved this building (aside from the issues mentioned next). It's pre-war and I got an AMAZING pandemic rent deal that I just couldn't pass up. We took the top floor (4th-floor walk-up) and despite the climb, it was nice to have no one above us. We also faced the back of the building, so it was typically quiet. We came from a more expensive studio, so we felt like we were living big in our one bedroom. It had great train access as well.
Cons:
One word: roaches. Listen, I get it. Old buildings, New York City, it happens. They were few and far in between when we first moved in, but as time went on their numbers grew. I'll spare you the long-drawn-out story, but 11 months into our lease after making them aware of the growing roach problem ~5 months into our lease, it is JUST now *sort of * being taken care of. (Meaning they treated our kitchen and then didn't fill any of the holes after so all of the roaches are riiiiight back).
And this came directly after we were blindsided and told our rent would be increasing by $700, effectively kicking us out as it is way over our budget. Good luck to whoever moves in next, I hope your undesirable r(coach)oomates are fully gone.
And last thing? Don't list a one-bedroom as a two-bedroom just because you put in a partition wall, effectively ruining the layout of the living space and cutting the beautiful fireplace in half. Waste of time and resources.
Advice to owner:
If you, the leasing agents, and the super can't all communicate about your tenant's issues, you may want to reconsider your career. I had multiple people saying multiple different things to me about our issues and even got into a yelling match with the leasing agent over the roach and price increase problem when in the end, he was only so rude to me because he thought I was a different tenant (???????). And don't put your tenants out on the street because of financial issues caused by personal decisions made during the pandemic. Just because you almost went bankrupt, it doesn't mean I should when attempting to resign my lease in this roach-infested apartment.