Pros:
Building location is convenient and the neighborhood had been improving prior to Covid. The front door staff is generally pleasant. Unit quality relative to rent price has been decent due to bare bones amenities.
Cons:
The owners are Teddy and his son Orestis (who used to live in and “manage” the building). At first, they seemed like a pleasant Greek family. However, Teddy turned out to be a hot-tempered, dishonest bully and Orestis simply lazy and generally useless. I would provide more details about Teddy, but he is an extremely vindictive man and it’s a small building so I’m scared he could discover who I am if I provide more details.
Besides the personal character of the owners, the other major issue with the building is maintenance. It often took days before Orestis responded to basic repair requests (if he responded at all) and it sometimes took weeks of multiple reminders to get repairs done. The biggest problem is that the owners don’t empower the building staff to order any repair supplies or schedule maintenance workers. Every request has to get approved by the owners but they are frequently absent/unavailable. There is no centralized communication system for handling maintenance requests. The owners are also cheap with repairs. For example, the AC units pretty much all leak condensate every summer but the owners refuse to replace them.
The building staff is nice/pleasant, but with the exception of Eugene are not motivated. They just kind of sit there watching movies on their phones and sometimes open the door. This is because they all absolutely despise the owners if you talk to them about it.
Advice to owner:
Treat your tenants and staff with respect and give the building staff the ability to handle simple maintenance requests without your approval if you’re not going to be promptly responsive.