Beautiful apartment, awful dynamic
Pros
Beautiful, clean and right off fort Greene park. Apartment makes you feel like you live in a well maintained real townhome.
Cons
The landlord lives downstairs on the bottom floor and add us feel like we were guests staying too long in her home (vs someone you pay almost 4K/month in rent to). She dismissed our own concerns (water is scolding hot or cold with no in between, and the gas and electric bills are triple what they are anywhere else). It looks family friendly but it's far from it. No strollers allowed to be kept anywhere except inside your apartment. Entry way mat needs to be diagonal (??) and other quirks were bizarre and hard to abide by if you're not paying close attention at all times. Landlord raised the rent 10% after the first year. And you pay a broker fee when you move in so not great if you're only able to tolerate it for a year.
Advice to the owners
Upgrade heating and cooling systems and don't rent to families.
Nice space, hidden expenses
Pros
Great natural light, very quiet, good floor plan, spacious kitchen, lots of closet space, recently renovated.
Cons
The gas bill was constantly excessively high and the landlord was generally uncooperative about investigating it. The previous tenant confirmed the same thing. On our own we discovered that the plumbing was done incorrectly and hot water (which you need to pay for because of the gas water heater) was being used to fill the toilets. Gas was between $60-$100 per month. Electricity was also weirdly high for the size of the apartment and how frugally we used it, about $120/month regardless of season. There is in-unit washer and dryer which would be amazing except that the dryer vent is faulty and vents into the closet, leaving the walls and closet contents dripping wet. Also worth mentioning that the vent services all 3 units, so the closet steams up whenever anyone in the building runs their dryer. The landlord lives on the ground floor and was pleasant but very sound-sensitive and extremely strict with minor things like requiring picking up packages within hours of their delivery, and the specific placement of the doormat (it must be diagonally placed in the middle of the foyer?!). Overall we always felt that we were walking on eggshells and couldn’t ever really feel relaxed at home, and considering that, we felt that we were paying far too much.
Advice to the owners
Recommended to fix the hot water plumbing and dryer vent.
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