Don’t rent here!
Pros
In some ways, the building has been renovated in a great way — there’s updated appliances, original shutters, full-sized mailboxes, racks for your bike, etc.
Cons
The building was renovated with very cheap construction — there were large gaps in between floorboards, under the baseboards, and around the radiator pipes. Wood stain and grout covered the kitchen counter. Pieces were missing from the fridge and kitchen cabinets. The windows weren’t sealed properly, so I had an ant infestation in the warmer months. The landlords were very difficult to deal with — it’s one thing to expect me to take out my own trash, but it’s another thing to email me directly to clean up litter in front of the building. The heating barely worked throughout the winter — it was consistently 60 degrees in the apartment, and although I kept contacting the landlords, they never fixed the issue. I also reached out about an ant infestation, and the landlords told me it was probably coming from my plants (I watched them enter the apartment through the bathroom window). The worst part is leaving the building. The above issues led me to break my lease, after which they became very aggressive. Ultimately, although the unit had no damages and was rented out immediately after my departure, they illegally withheld $1000 from my security deposit. Apparently, two previous tenants had similar issues leaving the building, whether it be a $1600 charge for “cleaning”, or requesting a tenant leave a month early from their lease and then charging that tenant for that month.
Advice to the owners
Hire a building manager! It seems that the landlords don’t have much experience, based on how nasty they got about building maintenance and changes to tenants’ leases. I would suggest hiring a building manager to do that work for you.
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