RUBs - This is a bullshit system to be added to your rent with. This is basically saying “on top of what you’re paying to use, you’re to pay what EVERYONE else in the building uses!” even if it’s divided up. I get fucked over every winter for example, because I use electric heaters in my apartment and nothing gas-related. I’m still smacked with $48 ~ $62 of usage, despite that. This raises my rent up and makes it variable.
No-Bite Management - Management who lets nearly everything go, despite them trying to sound strict. You may be in a bit of a rivalry with a neighbor who likes slamming things or having loud music, obviously breaking lease agreement, who makes you wonder why they’ve gotten away with it as long as they have. You record, you report but management does next to nothing. They tell you to your face that the only way they can move forward, is a police report. Now that kind of thing should be reserved for more escalated and involved cases, not something management could deal with when they were the ones who made up the terms of the lease agreement.
Pets - From experience, people are AWFUL with their pets. Mostly dogs, I’ve never seen anything go wrong with cats, unless the owners don’t care enough to let them run around until they’re kidnapped or ran over. But dogs, they just let them go and go with the barking. Not to mention the dog shit on the ground they refuse to pick up.
I pay attention to the condition/cleanliness of the hallways and stairs in the building. If the owner can’t be bothered to maintain any of that then you already know the apartment itself is going to be a mess as soon as something goes wrong.
A bit harder to judge but if it looks like other tenants/random people make a habit of hanging out in the hallways/stairwells then that’s a massive red flag. One time I went to see an apartment and a guy inside the building on one of the stair landings was chilling out smoking a massive cigar next to the window… I knew right away that building is always going to have cigar smoke.
This one might sound silly but I have a habit of testing the water in the bathroom and kitchen. That tells me what the water pressure is like as well has how well the hot water is working.
Maybe a bit nit picky but I usually bring a tape measure and do some quick room measurements to figure out if furniture is going to fit & whatnot.
Oh and like the other comment said it definitely helps if you know what the area and the building surroundings are like at night.
Gonna have to disagree on your second point. Stairs landings etc. are public places and if you live there you have every right to hang out wherever you please so long as its not impeding foot traffic. The thought that people existing outside their homes and apartments being a red flag is ridiculous and encourages people not to know their neighbors and community.
To each their own.
Some folks like a place where people keep to themselves.
You can both exist in public and keep to yourself! I know its a horrible thing, but sometimes you have to see and exist near others in public.
I managed buildings. There is no scenario anywhere where anybody would be allowed to linger in a common area
The fuck is the point of a “Common Area” if I can’t exist there in the building I pay to live it? You sound like an overbearing manager.
And you sir sound completely ignorant and pugnacious and childish.
You can just go online and read standard building rules and learn how the use of common areas is basically defined in every rental agreement. In short, get a fucking clue
“AnD yOu SiR” and you sir sound like a stuck up reddit mod who would fine anyone they could if they were head of an (also trash) HOA. Rules don’t relate to morality. The more sterile your environment is, lacking community with hard line rules about where you can and can’t exist, the more it sounds like a prison meant to keep everyone afraid and isolated from their neighbors.
Just admit you had a trash corporate job vacuuming up wealth from tenants and pushing the trash agenda of probably Greystar Management since they’re one of the largest rental REITs there are.
Welcome to the block list, child