A Word About Your Apartment

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Congratulations!

You’re renting a historic apartment in Baltimore City! You’ve picked your apartment because it’s everything a standard apartment isn’t: unique, stylish, more detailed, larger, better located, and at a better price, to boot! With a unique apartment comes a unique experience. There are some things that are important to know when moving into a historic apartment: 

  • First of all, your apartment is OLD! It’s probably between 90 and 200 years of age (Baltimore was founded BEFORE the U.S. Constitution was signed). Your apartment has undergone many upgrades over the years, and now has up-to-date utility service (electricity, gas and water), security, fire safety, and a whole lot of cosmetic upgrades! As you’ve seen, however, it still maintains much of its old, original details as well. See where we’re going yet? Old stuff goes wrong. Often. It’s a fact of life here in Baltimore’s historic district.

    The great news is, we’ve anticipated it! If things go wrong… a leaky pipe, a crack in the wall, a clanking radiator, a loose door hinge… we’ll come and fix it within a week of it being reported. And if it’s an emergency, we’ll come right away!

    Also, old buildings aren’t often very good with climate control. You may need to insulate your windows from drafts in the cold season, and install an air conditioning unit or two in the windows during the hot months. By doing these things yourself, you’re helping to keep the rental rate of your apartment at their current comfortable levels.
  • Second of all, while your apartment itself might be big, the building your apartment is in is SMALL, generally speaking! Since the cost of having a repair man at the building is divided by the number of apartments in the building, a big building with, say, 60 apartments can afford a full time guy while a small one of, say, 15 apartments just can’t! The rent would be way too high! To most small-building landlords, this simply equates to less repairs.

    Luckily, we have many buildings all over town, so we can split the cost of a repair man between them, and make it affordable! What this means for you, however, is that the guy who does repairs needs to travel over to your building as soon as his schedule permits. This means that with maintenance issues of lesser importance, it may take as long as a week for him to get to your apartment. Emergencies always get immediate service, of course!

    This also means that there isn’t anyone at your apartment to handle basics, like snow and trash removal, gardening, etc. We rely on our residents to do those things! In the winter, you’ll see a shovel and salt near the door. Use it! Make sure to throw all trash, including junk mail, into the closest wastebasket. And if you have a green thumb, give us a call! We’d love to have you do a little gardening to make your apartment building look even nicer! 

If you ever have any questions about your apartment, please let us know by sending us a message.