Get What You Pay For
Pros
- Cheap. The studio was $1800 and only increased by $100 at renewal - High ceilings in apartments - Good water pressure - Management company is pretty responsive and very kind. They replaced my fridge ASAP when the exterminator said roaches may be living in it. - Decently sized units, some of which had two closets - Returned entire deposit quickly
Cons
Where to even begin: - While the management company is pretty decent, the landlord himself was/is terrible. Very passive aggressive and, at times, retaliatory. - No heat for two winters. Multiple units complained, the landlord gave us space heaters (the ones that cause fires, especially in old buildings with old electric wiring) and we spent 1 winter with only space heaters (frost gathered on the INSIDE of the windows), and 1 winter with inconsistent heat until, later, heat was piped in from a govt emergency vehicle parked out front - Inconsistent hot water. The landlord would accuse tenants of lying about the water problems and request pictures of the temperature. Management company was better about this - Roaches everywhere. Spent an entire month cleaning and re-cleaning my apartment just for the roaches to keep coming back (I even removed all food and stayed at my partner's place for a week with roach spray/power down and still roaches). Landlord sent the exterminator who admitted that an infestation of this level wouldn't be affected by his spray - Random pee smell in the closet. Never identified what it could be, possibly rotting wood. It disappeared when I finally moved, so confirmed it was the closet. - Windows are old and drafty. Front-facing units may as well sleep directly on 9th avenue - Walls are painfully thin. I could hear my neighbor burp, even if I had the TV on. - Charges a 15% broker's fee and the broker pushes tenants toward the front-facing and/or unrenovated units - Garbage is housed in the basement, which is fine. However, the thai restaurant next door also uses the basement to store fresh food, which felt a little gross at times.
Advice to the owners
Renovate all the units, do a proper extermination. Keep the current management company and do not ever have landlord interact with tenants
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