Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j6elhfz wrote on January 29, 2023 at 8:22 PM

Reply to comment by jab296 in Unresponsive management in loft buildings by Ahap169

The thing about these types of places is that they never have planned openings-- just randomly people leave after like 5 years and something gets posted one day online. These places are never, ever corporate buildings its always small LL who maybe do it because they're laid back and don't have a high mortgage, just want to checkout with low turnover tenants, or they're just balancing costs with low passive income to play the equity game/live for free in building.

A lot of these things are done through networks of their friends or colleagues before going to market-- I've lived in buildings where I happened to be the only person who didn't know the owner ahead of time. As housing gets more difficult, I feel like this gets more common. I have a friend who has a multifamily that was like 150-200k, so she only charges 1600 for a 3 bedroom to a local family. Could she charge more? Yeah, but she's an awesome person and she isn't fixated on maximizing her investment since she's happy with some side income, helping a good family, and living in the other unit.

So my only advice is to sort by new, spend time like a full time job, and be the first to contact. I actually saw multiple extremely cheap/updated places (like 1500/2bed) and viewed them, but I wasn't always fast enough. Also, if you work locally and have a community here already, chances are you have a whole network to draw from if you need help.

Oh and look before you need to move. It's worth having an overlapping lease. My current place was listed 5 days before the lease started-- If I had to be out of my current place by end of the month, I would have already committed somewhere hastily like musical chairs. Having time gives you options-- don't expect a great place and flawless lease overlap.

jab296 t1_j6f9sy1 wrote on January 29, 2023 at 10:47 PM

Yeah I agree with everything you said. I’m in a place like you described where rent hasn’t gone up in the three years I’ve been here because the owner knows it’s more important to keep good tenants than to squeeze every dollar out. However I’m in Maryland and we want to move to Providence to be closer to family. We have an owner virtually showing us a 2 bed room on Rochambeau Ave tomorrow and he straight up told us that he listed it for $2,600 to weed people out but is happy to negotiate on price “for the right person”….luckily for me and my girlfriend we fit that bill but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people say the quiet part out loud.

If you hear of anything opening up this spring/summer (honestly April - July, we’re flexible) we’d love the tip! 😉

Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j6g7qhh wrote on January 30, 2023 at 2:34 AM

I mean, yeah that's got sketch vibes, so I'd tread lightly because this is probably going to be the first but not the last red flag. I lived somewhere once where something seemed off when we signed and it was a nightmare of a year including when we tried to get our security deposit back. So I'd cautiously proceed-- all the LLs I mentioned were by the books and protected themselves, but this is way different. Also, this gives me "if I don't like you and your gf I will also do sketchy things to push you out" vibes since they've sort of given you that playbook. I'd go off of whatever vibes you get tomorrow, but when I lived in buildings run where they were outspoken about sketchy stuff like that they were usually pushing boundaries a lot (avoiding their taxes, not providing stuff on the lease, stiffing maintenance workers, not providing/deducting security deposit like legally required).

Also good it would be lower because 2600 that area is....high. I would avoid Rochambeau and Camp intersection possibly too (feel free to dm me as you proceed with this process). Also you should know that in RI they can't ask for last months rent too-- it's weird to me how many people move here from MA and buy and then ask for more than 2 months up front when it's illegal.

I saw one place asking for 3 months (first, sec, and last) and the owner seemed nice, but I later saw they listed and sold only a few months later. If I had fallen for that, I probably would have never seen that money again once it changed hands-- glad I went with my gut and picked a different place.