1955 E 120th St

This building is owned by a local small operation landlord. As such things are fairly easy going and if something happens he's very responsive to get it taken care of.

That being said, it is an older building, reasonably priced, in a hot market area. The apartment is not "updated". The flooring is pretty shabby and the exterior of the building could use some love. I use window plastic in the winter to keep the cold out in the winter and have put some work into trying to seal off gaps where the air get in under doors. But for the price you can't beat the space or the location.

The apartment has a full and roomy kitchen (no dishwasher), two good sized bedrooms, a spacious living/dinning area, and a front balcony that is a blessing in the summer. Coupled with easy access to Case, the RTA, and an amazing Little Italy community (block club meeting happen once a month just a few houses down at Holy Rosary Church) I could not be happier to live here.

It's an old Cleveland double with a third unit addition in the back. Things can be wonky, the insulation is not good and half of the apartment doesn't get heated properly because the vent for the front room and bedroom doesn't work right. But if you don't mind the little things or doing some things yourself it is a great price for the location. Unfortunately, a good deal means constant anxiety wondering if you'll still have a lease next cycle. I've been in the property since Feb 2020 and the property changed hands this year.

The rent was cheap and the location was very close to campus, these are the only two good things about the unit. The house is in extremely poor condition and seems as though it has not been renovated/fixed in 100 years. We had multiple plumbing problems with the upstairs neighbor that caused our bathroom ceiling to partly cave in. It took well over a month for the landlord to fix this issue and they never repaired the ceiling. The apartment was also in a horrid condition when it was passed to us to start renting. Everything was filthy and there were satanic drawings on all of the walls. There was also a bunch of large pieces of furniture that we left that my roommate and I had to drag out of the unit and dispose of ourselves. When we moved out the landlord tried to keep our full security deposit without merit. Should be avoided.

The apartment is very cheap for a one-bedroom.
The place is also quite spacious for a one bedroom: downstairs there is a living area and a kitchen. Upstairs there is a bedroom/ spare room minus a closet/ a tiny bathroom. There's also a basement for storage. There is a small back patio area too.
There is a one-lane driveway that can fit one car, unless you can work something out with your neighbors to park front-back. There is on-street parking. The unit is shared with two "front" apartments.
The location is the best part. It's in the main business/restaurant strip of Little Italy and is very close to the brand new RTA.

Despite those great qualities, the landlord doesn't take great care of the place. I honestly doubt she's ever been to the location. She will answer texts and phone calls, but the excuses pile up for why things don't get done. She blames the roofing company or the contractor for failing to fix things. To be honest I almost sued her. Her main job is running a separate business. Her job as a landlord is of secondary priority to her at most.