Pros:
Up to the past year, it has been kept well and the on-site employees have been generally friendly and responsive. The other tenants are pretty much fantastic; family atmosphere, quiet inside the building. The units are turned over in excellent condition, and unit maintenance requests are handled in a timely, competent manner. Outdoor areas of owner responsibility are neat and clean. Addition of online rent portal is probably the single greatest improvement made here in recent years.
Cons:
This street is very noisy on non-winter weekends as the sidewalks are pretty much people's living rooms around the bodega. Broadway-facing units are like the starting line at an NHRA event. Courtyard units are more quiet but less sunny -- The owner denies responsibility for safety from trespassers and provides no modern method of vetting visitors and buzzing them in. Building safety issues, when surfaced, are almost always blamed on or passed off to tenants. -- In the past year, management attempts at improving the common areas have failed, leaving paint splatters, puddles and sloppiness throughout, almost as if it's a strategy of some sort. -- Some tenants are allowed to sublet or move to other units; less popular tenants are not allowed either.
Advice to owner:
You might try actually telling the tenants what is going on, or even update contact information. Are you afraid that people will ask for things if you communicate with them?