1818 Dekalb Avenue,

Queens, NY 11385

Nice bathroom, decent location, basement storage, back-yard access, apartment “looks” nice. You can control the heat easily.

Something you can’t tell before moving in, the walls are paper thin, almost just like a sheet of drywall separating the apartment walls (you can hear if your neighbor belches, or hear conversations through the walls). The frame of the building itself is not very soundproof, so if there were to be construction next door, it is quite audible. If your neighbors like to party or play fairly loud music (which they did), the walls and flimsy entry doors aren’t stopping any of that. There isn’t any ventilation for the stove (eg window or oven hood), so if you cook at home, the smoke detector will be set off pretty easily. Nobody is gonna shovel if it snows, so be prepared to do it yourself, and whoever is responsible for the trash does a poor job of keeping the cans equipped with lids that don’t blow away with the wind, leaving em wide open for rodents. Pests, there can be pests. At one point we were contacted by a pest control company without being contacted by the property management company first, it was pretty jarring, and no one could actually confirm what was actually going on. They ended up pre-treating the apartments for bedbugs, out of concern. There’s not much protecting the building from roach/rodent invasions, so one must be diligent. The property management may be friendly, but it’s not necessarily going to help anyone get anything done. Doors in the apartment don’t shut completely, too many coats of paint/painted bolts which prevent you from closing your door. This is just a personal take, if you have a high tolerance for these sorts of things, take it with a grain of salt. It is my feeling these apartments are overpriced, and designed to generate quick bucks for the owner, while not considering the quality of life for the tenants.