East 88TH Street Owner LLC

The amount of space you get is pretty nice, plus outdoor. The neighbors are also friendly (the ones who have been in the building for a while especially). It’s a pretty quiet street too for the most part.

It’s pretty dingy, but tolerable. Very old flooring, finishes, and appliances. You have to pay for heat because that and the stoves run off electricity (something they fail to mention before you sign the lease), so keep that in mind for overall costs. The elevator breaks ALL the time, like multiple times a week, and I’ve heard people yelling that they’re stuck inside. The walls are pretty thin too, so you can easily hear your neighbors. It’s not super bad (and this IS NYC), but I’ve lived in other places in the city where it hasn’t been nearly as loud. For what they give, I’d say it’s not worth the prices they’re trying to inflate it to. No apt here is worth over $3000/mo simply due to how old and poorly maintained they are. The apt across the way from me has had turnover each year I’ve been here because they cannot fix a leak that makes their outdoor space unusable. So beware or lemon apts like that. Things like paint peeling, half working appliances, doors not being able to close are all things I’ve dealt with in my unit alone.

You’re running on bare bones with this building so either get things up to date or know that you can’t expect people to pay for low quality when their money gets them a nicer standard of living next door. And fix that elevator for good or else don’t call yourself an elevator building.

There are some good schools arround

Firstly, the electricity bills are astronomical—around $1000 a month—even when trying to minimize usage! The maintenance of the units is very poor. I faced issues like clogged toilets and roaches lurking around.
The floors are old, noisy, and damaged, and a leaking roof led to moisture and even mushrooms growing on the walls! The management team is not only unresponsive but also quite rude. The management play illegal games, trying to accuse me of damaging the unit when I left and attempted to make me pay for repairs. Thankfully, I had all the pictures of damages from before I moved in. They backed off, saying they wouldn't charge me just because I documented everything. It leaves me wondering—what if I hadn’t taken those pictures?

Elevator, laundry in basement, balconies on most units.

Maintenance of the building is just OK and buyers beware that all utilities are the responsibility of the tenants.

Be upfront about the all in cost of the apartment & respond to requests.

You are walking distance from transportation, restaurants, shops and super markets. Most units have a balcony to relax.

The building's stove and heating is all electric so you're bill is always going to be high. The laundry room is pretty small so you either have to go off peak times or just do laundry outside. Packages go missing from time to time. During winter if you have a balcony unit get ready to freeze. The insolation sucks. But the biggest con of all is the live in super. Any request it makes it seem that you are asking for favor. I knew he sucked when it was moving day I contacted him in the morning to get the keys and he was shocked that I was even asking for it saying it was too early. It was 9am and its my moving day! oh and he didn't have the mail key ready so I wouldn't have access to my mail box for a week.

Hire a new super

Layout is wonderful. I have a 1 bed 2 bath

No key card access or at least a security camera. Neighbors smoke a lot.

Hire a new super

Love the layout. I have a 1 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment.

The worst thing about this building is the super. He smokes like a chimney, is so lazy, seems like I owe him when I ask him to check on something in the apartment.

Find a new super

Nice balcony and location

Packages stolen sometimes, some cockroaches and pests, dated interior especially the bathroom

The neighbors were great. It was close to the Carl Schurz park and about anything you need, is within one square block.

The owners skimped on repairs. There was no timely request to any maintenance problems, including constant hot water heaters that would break and flood into the basement along with rodent and insect problems. If you’re in the basement, your apartment starts on the top of the outdoor address listings and brokers never had a key to show potential renters available apartments so inevitably you would get buzzed all the time by brokers, expecting you to just buzz them in and be OK with the intrusion. The owners are also aware that the two basement apartments that are next to each other with private backyards are also haunted with a lot of poltergeist activity which anyone who has ever visited or lived in those apartments can concur. I lived in one of the basement apartments and experience things that I can’t explain and was disturbing and would request a priest to come in periodically to bless the apartments. There were a lot of red flags when I initially rented the apartment, but I was too enamored by the fact that it came with a private backyard, and an attic for storage along with them allowing dogs. It seemed too good to be true, because the rent at the time was very reasonable for this unbelievable find. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

Fix the building façade an elevator on a regular basis, because that is a common theme on the complaints and citations seen on the New York City Department of building website

Nice apartments. Almost all have a balcony. Location can’t be beat. Laundry in building.

Elevator breaks down 1-2 times per month and management closes for the weekend so they don’t fix it until Monday or later. If you live on a high floor like I do you’re stuck with up to 7 flights of walking for days. The super lives in the building but don’t let that fool you- he does absolutely nothing for the units. Every time you bring an issue to him he makes it seem like it’s something you should be doing (including fixing broken appliances..) super will see you carrying heavy things into your apartment (like building materials when you have to hire people to do handy work as he refuses) and he looks the other way never offering to help. In general we and the other tenants have put more of their own work into the units than the management company has ever done. Laundry room has 3 wash 3 dry which is not nearly enough for a building of 45 units. They raised our rent $700 because they saw our outdoor space when renting another unit and knew they would get $ for the work WE did and paid for. Absolutely no negotiation and they milked our decor and hard work. I’ve never seen exploration like that before.

Hire a super who is helpful and actually works on making the building better. And fix the elevator for good!! You’re going to have a big city complaint on your hands if you don’t fix it.

Super is great.
All the units have balconies.
Unique layouts.

You can hear your neighbors at, like, all times. Be prepared to know more than you’d like about them.
Not all units are renovated. You’d expect something a little more updated for the price.

Nice building
Outdoor space
Laundry

Owners are greedy, upped rent $600 in lease renewal saying that they would “work with us”. Listed apartment for $400 above current rent and had it rented by someone else when I offered to pay that much over my original pricing

Stop lining your pockets and keep your tenants

The balcony is nice

Terrible building, mold everywhere, management company terribly unresponsive and do not take responsibility. The super does not do anything besides taking out garbage. The apartments are freezing and their heating system costs an arm and a leg

Get a real super and spend some money on the building.
Before it’s too late

Good building so far. Clean and quiet.

Not fully accessible, elevator leads to stairs.
Some tenants smoke marijuana and apartment will reek of it occasionally.
Super is neglectful.

Laundry in building
Close to Subway (Q)
Balconies in most apartments

Heating expensive
Can hear your neighbours on the phone

N/A

The outdoor space is nice and the building appears to have all the right amenities like an elevator, a laundry room etc.

The landlord is completely unwilling to negotiate on anything- particularly unfair rent prices during a global pandemic. The elevator breaks constantly, the heat doesn’t work and is not included in rent. Lots of tenants smoke in the back of the building and it smells quite strongly. Packages stolen from lobby several times. No precautions taken to ensure shared spaces or elevator in building is sanitized per new covid guidelines. Mice running around on balconies is rather disgusting.

Fix the elevator and treat your tenants with the respect they deserve and perhaps all the tenants wouldn’t leave after one year.