Pros:
Great location, open communication with landlord and super. Huge rooms, tall ceilings, natural light, tall windows, backyard access for first floor only. You can do what you like with the backyard. Rooftop but no access most of the time. Powerful heat that works 80-90% of the time. Gorgeous rooms, hardwood floors, small but nice bathrooms. 3BD plus a small spare room in the apartments. Nice stoop with a pretty plant. Super eventually gets work done. Landlord sends out group texts to the whole building. Rent didn’t increase over several years.
Cons:
Grab a seat.
Super (Ald. who is married and has a little boy) has made unwanted sexual advances, has poor communication skills (texting and calling), and lies constantly. He takes 5x as long as needed to fix anything and when he does it’s worse than before with no explanation as to why.
There was some illegal wiring done to bypass the power meter, not sure how long or who set it up exactly. The doors aren’t properly sealed underneath (no thresholds) so roaches and other critters walk right in to the apartment. Exterminator comes about every 3 months, there’s always mice, roaches, silverfish, and centipedes.
Water pipes in the 2nd fl bathroom burst in early 2020, they procrastinated on repairs as covid mounted, then had to do the repairs over months (working 1-3 days a week at the super’s direction) at the worst point of the pandemic in 2020. I never saw the super wearing a mask either.
Heating is powerful but faulty. Every winter there is a heating problem. Several times the super forgot to turn on the heat after turning it off for whatever reason. The insulation is terrible so 4hrs without heat and you’re about as cold as outdoors as proven by internal temperature readings I had to start taking. Heat is supposedly controlled by a third floor thermostat for the whole building, but the story changes every time. 1st floor freezes, 4th fl bakes. Pipes are prone to freezing and must be kept running/dripping when under 32°.
Backyard is full of decrepit furniture, centipedes/bugs, rats, and overgrown weeds but you’re welcome to completely fix it at your own cost for the landlord’s benefit. The walls are beyond thin. Bedford ave always has ambulances rushing along it so be prepared. It’s a very busy street.
*move in and move out dates are altered to protect identity.
Advice to owner:
Fire your super and get someone who can handle a cell phone and treat your tenants with more respect than the two of you are capable of. Also, the floors need to be carpeted 80%, you can hear every single movement, voices, conversations. 0 sound proofing.