Been in the burbs for 3 years-moving closer to town and need help! (Franklin: real estate, apartments)

[pghjosh08]

hey everyone. i hate to post generic stuff like this but thought some of you on here seem very knowledgeable and may be able to help. I've been living in moon for two years as a student and 6 months since i graduated as a working professional. I have decided to take a leap and accepted a position in Shadyside. I live alone and am looking for an apartment nearby. Every complex style apartment area i have found within a 5-10 mile radius has horrible reviews either about the apt. itself or the management company and everything i find with like duplex houses and stuff is owned by some small company that has worse reviews than some of the complexes. Also, everything i seem to be finding is so outdated (example: stove/ranges from the 60s/70s, old boiler heaters,etc.). ive looked at more apartments in the past 3 weeks or so than i have in the 3 months i was looking for places before i moved to pittsburgh. I would love to commute everyday just cant afford the time and or money to do so. does anyone know of anyone that rents properties or have a decent recommendation as to a place in the shadyside,lawrenceville, bloomfield,edgewood, swissvale,squirrel hill, friendship, morningside, etc. or anyplace to look. Ive been using craigslist alot and other sites like it but no luck this time. the apt. ive been in going on 3 years, i found in the post gazette but havent found anything great there either..... let me know!

[PeterRabbit]

Welcome to Franklin West

[onwardandupward]

I think you need to understand that the areas in which you are looking all have older housing stock, and trying to compare what you'll find there to what you may have in a brand-new housing complex in Moon is like comparing apples to oranges. The apartments and complexes in the city will have older types of infrastructure; often hot water heat with boilers instead of forced air heating (btw, hot water heat with boilers is MUCH preferable to forced air in my opinion), older elevators, tile, windows, etc. There's a lot to be said for the charm that you find in older architecture vs. the cookie-cutter look of much of newer architecture. Don't expect to find in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill what you have in Moon. Urban living is different than suburban living - try to keep an open mind and embrace the differences instead of comparing and contrasting. Just my $.02, and welcome to city living!

[pghjosh08]

Originally Posted by onwardandupward

I think you need to understand that the areas in which you are looking all have older housing stock, and trying to compare what you'll find there to what you may have in a brand-new housing complex in Moon is like comparing apples to oranges. The apartments and complexes in the city will have older types of infrastructure; often hot water heat with boilers instead of forced air heating (btw, hot water heat with boilers is MUCH preferable to forced air in my opinion), older elevators, tile, windows, etc. There's a lot to be said for the charm that you find in older architecture vs. the cookie-cutter look of much of newer architecture. Don't expect to find in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill what you have in Moon. Urban living is different than suburban living - try to keep an open mind and embrace the differences instead of comparing and contrasting. Just my $.02, and welcome to city living!

hey onward. thanks for pointing that out. i didnt expect anything to be as good as what i have in moon, pricewise-or updatedness however what im living in here is also from the 70s but does have an updated stove, fridge, etc. -- but i still expect to find a couple management companies that have decent ratings which ive maybe found 3 that do so far and none of them have any vacancies.--cant imagine why since the majority of things ive read on other companies are horrid. i love the charm of older houses. i lived in an older house before i moved to pittsburgh so the house itself being old and having some true character to it doesnt bother me. i found a place yesterday owned by Herbert Harlsband Properties that was the best i had looked at so far after looking at about 10 apartments but their deceptive marketing over the phone referring to themselves as "HH Properties" rather than the companies real name "Herbert Harlsband Properties" is rather shady and im sure they know to use HH until youve looked at something because it returns completely different results when looking at ratings... i dont mind the boiler heaters that was just a quick something that came to mind thinking of outdatedness but as lots of people have told me, theyre really nice- however, i also dont want a fridge, stove, and range out of the 60s which seems to be a bad pattern i keep running into. i liked a couple places i looked at but the companies were not willing to even consider newer appliances. i dont feel like moving somewhere and then having my appliances die a month later....

onward----any recommendations on any properties to look into?

[pghjosh08]

thanks for the link peterrabbit---have you lived in a FW property before? or is it just something youre recommending? any thoughts you have on your experience there (if you have any) would be appreciated.

[PeterRabbit]

Originally Posted by pghjosh08

thanks for the link peterrabbit---have you lived in a FW property before? or is it just something youre recommending? any thoughts you have on your experience there (if you have any) would be appreciated.

I'm not the only one on this site who recommends them. I've had friends over the years who have rented from FW and never heard a complaint about them and their places were very fit to live in. Review sites give them a poor rating but consider that the few people who write these things are usually angry about something and a bad review is like a way to get even.

I used to work in real estate and we managed a lot of apts. When tenants got behind paying the rent we'd give them a few months to catch up and if they didn't we'd have to evict them. Most of the time they trashed the place like it was our fault they didn't pay their rent. These tenants would probably bad rap us for the rest of their lives.

One of the places I worked for was Arthur F. Texter and Associates. I would answer the phone Texter Realty and another guy would answer Arthur Texter. When you have a long name like Herbert Harlsband Properties I think it's normal to abbreviate it as HH when answering the phone., the full name is most likely on the business cards.

Appliances are expensive and often last over 30 years. It isn't reasonable to expect them to be brand new or close to it when you rent a place. If they break a normal landlord will have a repairman there or a replacement ASAP because they know you can call the health dept. if they don't. They answer complaints quickly and don't give much time for a situation to be resolved before they start issuing fines.

[tmorrisn]

I'd recommend a privately owned property - maybe drive around the area and look for "for rent" signs?

[pghjosh08]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

I'm not the only one on this site who recommends them. I've had friends over the years who have rented from FW and never heard a complaint about them and their places were very fit to live in. Review sites give them a poor rating but consider that the few people who write these things are usually angry about something and a bad review is like a way to get even.

I used to work in real estate and we managed a lot of apts. When tenants got behind paying the rent we'd give them a few months to catch up and if they didn't we'd have to evict them. Most of the time they trashed the place like it was our fault they didn't pay their rent. These tenants would probably bad rap us for the rest of their lives.

One of the places I worked for was Arthur F. Texter and Associates. I would answer the phone Texter Realty and another guy would answer Arthur Texter. When you have a long name like Herbert Harlsband Properties I think it's normal to abbreviate it as HH when answering the phone., the full name is most likely on the business cards.

Appliances are expensive and often last over 30 years. It isn't reasonable to expect them to be brand new or close to it when you rent a place. If they break a normal landlord will have a repairman there or a replacement ASAP because they know you can call the health dept. if they don't. They answer complaints quickly and don't give much time for a situation to be resolved before they start issuing fines.

thanks again for that- i know their are bad reports out there on the company handling the condo i rent now, but ive never had an issue myself everything has been taken care of in a timely fashion and im not too hard to deal with however, the majority of complaints regarding HH were maintenance related with things being taken care of in a very untimely fashion. i dunno what to do haha sick of looking at apartments but also would like to find a decent company to work with. im going to get a copy of the lease from HHP and i also sent an email to FW to get some information. hopefully ill hear something this morning otherwise ill try calling them this afternoon. thanks again!

[pghjosh08]

Originally Posted by tmorrisn

I'd recommend a privately owned property - maybe drive around the area and look for "for rent" signs?

ya ive called on a few that ive seen as i was thinking more about private places---havent found a whole lot of anything great and a couple that i called on after seeing for rent signs were still owned by companies haha---thats my luck.

[fleetiebelle]

I'd recommend a privately owned property - maybe drive around the area and look for "for rent" signs?

Even though you haven't had much luck, I'd second this. City apartments aren't in complexes like there are in the suburbs. Lots of times you find a great apartment owned by a landlord who just owns one or two buildings (and not necessarily an apartment building--maybe a house converted into apartments) as an investment.