Overpriced, floors crooked, loud neighbors, no upkeep
Pros
The location and proximity to the M train/L at Lorimer were great (for weekend outages when the L stops running past Lorimer, etc.). It is easily walkable to Bedford/busy Williamsburg, and had a lot of options for laundry (offsite), local food and drinks, and was a relatively peaceful and quiet neighborhood during the day.
Cons
Neighbors on the corner from Spring through late fall blast music until about 3am on the sidewalks for block parties, which were 3-5 nights/week. The floors are insanely slanted in the apartments - if you sit on the couch, you are leaning forward. Hornets were getting in through the exterior brick walls. No interior maintenance. We were promised a paint job, fixed oven, etc. None of this happened. On move-in, I had to pull all of the caulking out from the tub (behind the wall in the shower was just loose rotted wood and black mold) - fixed all grout and caulking myself. Neighbors had roaches, so I had to seal all of the adjoining walls in my apartment to stop them from coming in through the baseboard openings. Stove was incredibly old and worked off of a pilot light, so the apt always smelled of a slight gas/burned smell. Wooden floors were beautiful in their original format, but had not been resealed in many years, so the floor had no polyurethane left - lots of black marks, dust, and impossible to clean. 1 window was cracked at move-in, and they never wanted to address or fix. Neighbors upstairs were so loud we moved out. Other than the neighborhood and surrounding food and drink options/proximity to water, this was in the bottom 2 apt experiences I have had in 25 years here. Ownership and super unresponsive. The heat is not turned on at all by the building despite having heating pipes. There are gas heaters on opposite ends of the apt (1 of which worked ~50% of the time), so the apt was always very cold in the winter, while also running up a huge gas bill. They tried to keep the security on exit for small things - quoted ~$100 for a shower head, quoted costs to repair things that were broken when we moved in. No credit given for positive improvements, just nickel-and-dime on the way out after showing the apt several times a week for the last 90 days of our occupancy (they tried to jack up the rent $300 on our exit, which failed, so the apt just kept getting shown over and over and over). Rough experience - I would avoid this building and would not move in again had I known any of the above.
Advice to the owners
Renovate the apartments, hallways, and collect an appropriate rent for a 500 sq ft apt in a walk-up. $3500+ is insane.
Good price for the location
Pros
Great location, very close to 3 subway stations. The neighbors are nice and quiet, clean buildings, and you can take trash out any time - there are big bins on the corner. The apartment has lots of light. The rent is reasonable. The manager doesn't bother me
Cons
Heating doesn't heat the living room and bathroom, old building, the management isn't very responsive. The toilet doesn't flush well The boiler kept breaking this whole winter and in the super would fix it within 24 hours and the next day it was broken again. They didn't want to install a new boiler... That was very frustrating especially when it was cold (no heating in the bathroom + no hot water isn't a great combo)
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