Beautiful, Dirty & Cold
Pros
The apartments are spacious and have great natural lighting. The living room, dining room, and bedrooms have nice molding and wooden floors. The neighbors are all friendly and it’s a quick walk to the J.
Cons
When we moved into the apartment, we had to deep clean everything. There were mouse poops in all the kitchen cabinets and cockroaches. No matter how clean we kept the kitchen we had cockroaches and mice. The shower never drained which meant our shower was always dirty. Hot water randomly turned off. The radiator leaked water occasionally. The toilet broke a few times. The winters were brutal, especially when working from home. We bought an indoor thermometer and learned that the apartment got as cold as 52 degrees during the day (had to wear a winter jacket inside). When talking to the manager, she said she didn’t turn the heat on during the day because “the sun is hot.” The landlord would reply quickly but was slow to send people to fix the problem. The problems were usually never fixed. Other people in the building had similar complaints. When moving out, the manager threatened our security deposit because we didn’t tell her we were leaving at the end of our lease. She then requested we move out a day early. When we told her we’d be moving out the day our lease ended, she threatened our security deposit. We cleaned the whole apartment and all kitchen appliances but forgot to close the kitchen window. A bag flew into the apartment and she threatened our security deposit for not cleaning. In the end we got our security deposit back but with a lot of agression, harassment, and arguments.
Advice to the owners
Fumigate the whole building and the restaurant downstairs. Visit the apartments during cold days in the winter to see how cold it gets. Fix the heat in each apartment. Clean the apartment before tenants move in.