Eastwood - Who lives in Eastwood..good neighborhood? (New York, Syracuse: hardwood floors, sublets)

[deerstar]

I am thinking about renting a place in Eastwood. Presently live in Calif., will be moving April 1st....the apt has everything I need, but landlord wants a 1yr. lease....I have not been to Syracuse yet. I have been looking nonstop for the right place, and this place has it all...any suggestions?
It is a second story, unfurnished, hardwood floors, screened in front porch, new windows, laundry hook ups....2 bdrm...$650.a month
with garage cover for car...sounds pretty good to me...how does it sound to you? I am really hoping I like it, I really want to like it.....

[acknight]

Whereabouts in Eastwood? I'm currently a renter in Eastwood; it's overall a pretty good neighborhood, but some parts are better than others. The price and specs you mentioned are about the going rate for flats around here.

[proulxfamily]

Eastwood neighborhoods vary quite a bit but for the price/specs, it sounds like you'll be in a pretty decent area.

And welcome to Syracuse!

[deerstar]

Dear Acknight,
The address is 1352 Teall Ave, Syracuse, New York, 13206
Tomorrow she will send pictures.
I was trying to get a street view, but not successful, there is a screened in porch, it is the top unit, do you think it is in the front or the back of the unit....I am really excited, what I wanted to find that was important to me were these things: under 700.00 for rent, laundry hookups, fireplace, and screened in porch, pet friendly (2 persian cats) & hard wood floors thru out........ so happy about this, I wish I did not have to sign a lease before seeing it, not sure at this point how this will be resolved...but after much hunting for a place to land from Calif. this has all the right
important things I was looking for....so I have to ask myself...okay you will have to live there a year
so I will have to have a plan to make sure I am busy for a year, if somehow I get there and do not like it....well I think to myself, I wanted 4 seasons and boy am I going to experience a real winter in
Syracuse....I am pretty creative in finding interests to keep me busy....but do you think I will find some friends in Syracuse? Please tell me the truth about the address, is this a good one?
Thank you so much for helping me....sincerely sandra

[deerstar]

Dear Proulxfamily,
Thank you for the affirmation. Here is a question? The Landlord said I will need to fill out an application, and there is a $25.00 fee, how does this work? Do I get a copy?
Can Landlords ask potential tenants for this fee, then say no, and just keep the $?
My income is a retirement benefit, how will the landlord check this? Thank you for any insight to these
questions....Up to this point in my life I have owned a home, so this is new territory "renting" and understanding the legal garb of it all.....sincerely, sandra

[proulxfamily]

I'm going out on errands that way tomorrow morning and will take pictures of the address and street for you, if you'd like.

[acknight]

Originally Posted by deerstar

Dear Acknight,
The address is 1352 Teall Ave, Syracuse, New York, 13206
Tomorrow she will send pictures.
I was trying to get a street view, but not successful, there is a screened in porch, it is the top unit, do you think it is in the front or the back of the unit....I am really excited, what I wanted to find that was important to me were these things: under 700.00 for rent, laundry hookups, fireplace, and screened in porch, pet friendly (2 persian cats) & hard wood floors thru out........ so happy about this, I wish I did not have to sign a lease before seeing it, not sure at this point how this will be resolved...but after much hunting for a place to land from Calif. this has all the right
important things I was looking for....so I have to ask myself...okay you will have to live there a year
so I will have to have a plan to make sure I am busy for a year, if somehow I get there and do not like it....well I think to myself, I wanted 4 seasons and boy am I going to experience a real winter in
Syracuse....I am pretty creative in finding interests to keep me busy....but do you think I will find some friends in Syracuse? Please tell me the truth about the address, is this a good one?
Thank you so much for helping me....sincerely sandra

Teall's pretty good over there. It's a busy street, so it may get a bit noisy, but it's a good area. I actually looked into buying a house a few blocks from there.

[deerstar]

That would be just terrific!!! Well, still what is your opinion of the immediate neighborhood? There is a couple in their 30's (no children) downstairs, she (the landlord said). Thank you so much for being so thoughtful, I really appreciate even the idea of it, so if you can't follow thru, thank you anyways...super
offer of you to even think of it!!! sincerely sandra

[SteveMax58]

Sandra...I am new to the Syracuse area myself, but I can confirm a few things that are typical from my experiences in regards to renting in the area. I too am a homeowner who came here to rent (for me its only temporary though).

The $25 fee is an application fee, and is very typical in most rental scenarios (not just Syracuse). It typically covers the cost of evaluating your application, running a credit check, and confirming income. I can't say how the landlord will verify this (and it's possible they may not if it looks reasonable, though I am not sure), but that might be something you could ask the landlord?

The 1yr lease is pretty typical in the area from what I have found (i.e. no shorter-term leases unless the place is intended for short-term and they tend to be VERY pricey). Also, I was surprised to see that it isn't typical to have a lease-break specified, which I have found in the past. But I suspect that's because Syracuse is not as transient as other areas I've lived, so it just isn't necessary to have in place (from the landlord's perspective). But depending on how long you would like to rent the unit, this may not be something that is overly important to you (it was for me, since I have a family and am renting until I can get into a home later this year after seeing where we want to live).

EDIT: I meant to add that if you are looking for shorter term leases, you may want to checkout http://syracuse.craigslist.org/ and look into sublets. This is what I did and found a place for 6 months that worked for us. Sublets (if you aren't familiar with them) are just an agreement to take over the lease rental from the current renter. You would typically negotiate a way to handle the deposit (since it will be transferred to you in most cases by default), but I found a great person who was very flexible and was happy to get out of their lease agreement as they needed to move. So, you never know.

I don't know the Eastwood area very well, and there are many who can give you more insight, but I was driving around that area yesterday and it looked pretty nice to me (though it falls in the Syracuse City School District and wouldnt work for me and my family's lifestyle currently).

Best of luck to you!!

[acknight]

Originally Posted by deerstar

That would be just terrific!!! Well, still what is your opinion of the immediate neighborhood? There is a couple in their 30's (no children) downstairs, she (the landlord said). Thank you so much for being so thoughtful, I really appreciate even the idea of it, so if you can't follow thru, thank you anyways...super
offer of you to even think of it!!! sincerely sandra

I can't speak too much to the immediate neighborhood, but it's pretty stable. There's Shop City just a few blocks away with a supermarket, drugstore, a handful of banks. Teall between James and Grant Blvd (the plaza's on Grant) is pretty good. Smallish lots but that's partly why there's rentals over there.

The only real detractor I have for over there is that Teall's a busy street, so getting out of your driveway may be difficult during peak times. That end's sort of transitional - it's blocks from the (very nice) Sedgwick neighborhood, and really on the outskirts of Eastwood itself. South of James it's a bit rougher, but still alright.

At that address, you're two blocks from Lincoln Middle School and a few more from an elementary and a high school, so you'll probably get a fair amount of pedestrian student traffic nearby.