I was thinking about a poll that was once conducted on this site about how many cVillain readers actually live downtown (which I cannot find in the archives for the life of me). The results showed that most of this site’s readers don’t actually live downtown, which is the scene that this blog revolves around. Now I will tell you that when I moved to Charlottesville, I knew nothing about this city and not a soul that lived inside it. I looked at a lot of different apartments in a lot of different locations, but as soon as I saw the downtown area, I fell in love.
What’s not to love about living downtown? The mall is social epicenter of this wonderful city, and it exudes a unique and dignified air with its countless number of fantastic food and drink options. Not only that, but I could get as drunk as I wanted and never had to call a cab (which is apparently iffy in this town). I felt like I was part of some hip and trendy crowd that always knew what the new black was. Whenever I had friends over, they all agreed how cool it was to be living in downtown Charlottesville.
After spending almost a year living downtown, however, I have noticed a few drawbacks to my seemingly perfect existence:
Rent –It is ridiculously expensive to live downtown (I know, DUH). Being fresh out of college, however, I didn’t really understand the economic consequences of maintaining a four-figure rent. I found myself living in this great location with little money in my pocket to enjoy it.
Parking – It is a pain in the ass finding places for your friends to park. What can be a minor annoyance when you have one guest coming over is a logistical nightmare if you plan on entertaining a bunch of people. Unless you are willing to pay for parking, but who does that?
Lack of a Legit Grocery Store Nearby – Lilith did some helpful research on this a while back. How awesome would a downtown grocery store I could walk to be? Alas, if I need to get groceries for the week, the only real option is to cross over to the 29 side of town (ugh). It may only be a few miles away, but it takes FOREVER. And don’t you dare try to tell me that Reid’s is a legit grocery store.
So I pose this question to you, cVillain readers. Is living downtown overrated? Does it make more sense to just live outside the downtown area to avoid the rent rape? Let’s think about it, less money for rent = more money for booze. Or is it even better to live outside of the city of Charlottesville entirely, leaving you with a giant swimming pool of money to come home to after a night of downtown drinking?
Popularity: 82% [?]
Tagged as: apartments, Charlottesville, condo, Downtown Mall, mortgage, Real Estate, rent
Hell yes Downtown living is overrated.
I’ll go on record with a hell-no-it-isn’t. Three figure rent is totally feasible if you have a roommate.
You must not live downtown Thor. Because it fucking rocks!
lived downtown for seven years. I loved being able to walk places, and miss the parks like riverview, but it’s actually pretty nice that I’m closer to whole foods and kroger. and a cab ride from downtown is still less than ten dollars.
I wouldn’t be able to go any farther out, tho. it’s nice to get the random call from someone sitting on a patio drinking and you can say, “be there in ten” instead of, “you gonna be there a while?”
I love living downtown. Now that I live Downtown, I don’t think I could live anywhere else in the city. Aside from the grocery store, which I pass everyday on my way home from work, I don’t have to drive anywhere. And as often as I go out, all the money I could save on rent would be spent on cabs, so I doubt there is much of an economic gain for me.
It is ridiculously expensive to live downtown
Bzzzt! I live in Belmont and pay $270/month.
“Living Downtown” is a euphemism for being under the influence and or addicted to heroin, so that is how I will choose to read this thread.
Carry on with your bad junky selves.
I cant afford it and want more room than an apt
I will never-ever-ever live anywhere else in Charlottesville than downtown.
I’m thoroughly spoiled by it and couldn’t be elsewhere. I have no problem paying whatever silly amount of rent one must to live downtown, because for me being happy in my location and apartment is the most important thing, expense-wise. I live, work, work out, and play all within a couple of blocks and couldn’t be happier– the only time I have to get in the car is once a week for grocery shopping. Obviously I would like that to be within walking distance as well, but I’ll survive.
So no, definitely not overrated.
more room than an apt
My $270/month goes towards a three-bedroom house with a backyard, including a horseshoe pit and a badminton court. But yeah, you’re right, I mean, we’re practically sardines packed in there.
@8 You could always steal and recycle copper wiring. I hear that’s hot right now.
@ 9 because for me being happy in my location and apartment is the most important thing, expense-wise
Yeah, it does tend to become one’s central economic focus.
raise your hand if you have reliable AC/heat/landlord maintenance at your downtown abode.
/raises hand
/also raises hand
/also also raises hand
When I first moved to town, I knew I wanted to be close to downtown. But I wanted a yard, too. I don’t mind a long stumble or a short $4 cab ride home, which hasn’t been that hard to get. The walk is good for my hangovers, the cabs are good for my driving record. To each his own, though.
I pay $540 and have a room in a three story 4 bedroom house with a backyard. With parking. No AC though. Lotsa fireplaces. If I need groceries I can go to the City Market/CVS/Lucky 7/Country store…
Actually, I’m going ahead with a complete reversal of my position up till now. I concur entirely with the post. Living downtown completely sucks. I highty urge everyone not to live downtown. And if you’re currently living downtown, your best best is to leave now and go live 20 miles out on an old farm in Greene.
No. Really. I’m serious. This is my serious face. No one else come try to move downtown. It’s awful.
@14,15,16 - damn you all! I’m going to pretend like I didn’t see that.
I get all my produce from the Lucky 7. I should write a review.
I’ve lived around grounds and now downtown. I’m also in the camp of people that will never live anywhere other than downtown. Sure, it’s pricier… but I’m sure the cab rides to get my drunk a$$ home would add up to much more than the difference in rent.
Try grocery shopping in Pantops, it’s not that far and you don;t have to deal with traffic on 29.
I hit Reid’s sometimes. They don’t have the hugest variety but I wouldn’t say it’s not a legit grocery store. The people that work there are nice too and nod at you when you come in and say Hi.
Oooh, let’s have an elitist downtown dwellers club.
If it’s elitist, I’m in.
/has fully embraced Charlottesville living
I hit Reid’s sometimes
Me too. They sell pig feet in five packs, which to me is the perfect illustration of the absurdity of life. I just go in, stare at them for a while alternately giggling and weeping, and I am restored.
Chiming in for the not-overated, although when my dealer (landlord) is a little cooky (recently outlawed use of drying rack in laundry room) and my fellow users (neighbors) here in my little junkhole squat tell me to shut the f up while trying to finish off my last firecrotch of the evening while sitting out under the stars in my non-partisan backyard slum patch (and then proceed to bang on the floor above my cardboard box the next morning at 730am just to exact revenge), I do start to wonder a little if it would be better to go ride the horse and develop further addictions out in the country somewheres…plenty of weeds and seeds out in them there hills…
/then again, 100 steps to South St, 150 to X Lounge…”Living Downtown” has its privleges, this junky is too happy/wasted to even think about packing it in yet
/raising hands too (another word for also)
5th Street Extended for the win!
Close enough.
@26: They have chicken feet too, in the freezer. Next to organic bagels. It cracks me up. Besides, one day you might actually need to buy one of those 10 gallon cans of mustard.
They have chicken feet too, in the freezer
Do they come in three packs? Because I could vary my routine a spell. I dont think you are feeling me.
(pssst… nature packs pig’s feet in fours)
@29: Sorry, you’re not allowed in the club dude.
I hope living downtown isn’t overrated, because we’re about to start construction on a house we’re building on an empty lot on an established downtown street.
For us, the attraction is being able to walk and bike more places than we currently can now (we’re in the City, but a few miles from downtown). Being further away from some grocery stores isn’t a big deal, plus we’ll be so much closer to C’ville Market.
@31: I thought you meant 5 pairs. But yeah, they have some weird shit.
I can’t imagine living anywhere but downtown. I could never be as lazy as I am and still go as many places and get as much done (perfect example, on Thursdays I walk from my office downtown to pick up my farmshare at the IX building, then go work out at ACAC, maybe pick up takeout somewhere for dinner and then walk home), let alone without starting my car. I bank downtown, I work downtown (so does my husband), when I’m feeling financially stable I shop for clothing downtown… why would I want to live somewhere else? I can even walk to IY when in need of veggies in the winter, and Reid’s carries local eggs (not to mention Seafood at West Main and the Organic Butcher in the Main Street Market).
Sure, I could have a house with twice as much square footage outside the city limits, but then I’d be a slave to my car (let alone my vacuum cleaner - I don’t want any more space lest it gets filled with more crap I probably don’t need) and it wouldn’t fee like I live in Charlottesville but could be anywhere housing development land. I have just enough yard for a 10×10 veggie garden, a small patio for entertaining and just enough grass for my hammock the swing above. Go on, envy me.
Did I mention I haven’t filled my gas tank in over a month?
Yeah, it would be nice to have a clothing store that was less pricey. A video store would be great too, and a pet store.
@ 7: C’mon baby, let’s go Downtown, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go Downtown…
I miss Sami Snacks being in the Gleason’s Building, but the monthly trip to Barracks is very manageable (and truth be told, I don’t mind driving to pick up 20 lbs of dog food instead of lugging it sherpa style down Water St). As for video store, I am a Netflix head (and I believe the Country Store does some video rentals, or at least they used to).
Hey mods, when are you gonna fix the obvious extra html in front of Odie’s bold drawbacks. Lookin’ sloppppyyyyy…
@13 - raises hand
Odie’s bold drawbacks
…would make an awesome band name.
/sees no html errors
yeah, it’s looking like the hook over here, ‘cept with posts.
@40: It says · in front of each of his list of three drawbacks to living downtown.
@43: That’s just to illustrate how ridiculous each of his drawbacks is.
Those are not, albeit very small, bullets?
Size isn’t everything you know.
@42 dontcha mean unci UNCUS?
I can’t live in a place where I can’t walk for coffee, the paper, drinks, dinner, etc. Heck, I’ve only lived away from a public transit line once in my life and I hated it (and only lasted three years there).
When I moved here, I plotted out the location of my job and the downtown mall and decided that I would live either near one or between the two so I could walk to work and to fun.
Can you imagine driving just to get the paper or a coffee? Or to Fridays? Or to the market on Saturday mornings? Yuck!
I love not getting DUIs.
Have you all tried Charlottesville Produce, think it was once Kathy’s?
That may be a touch more down town than what you all are talking about.
Also there are the Mexican and Chinese food stores. My kid was going to Tandem so
they were all on route.
Whoa! Welcome back.
[…] This is why. […]
@ 49 Hey! Welcome back!
Chinese
Korean, isn’t it?
@ 53 Nope, chinese.
Oh. The restaurant is Korean, though, yes?
Are we talking about red lantern or the asian foods mart next to (formerly) cathy’s? I am pretty sure they are both chinese. They respond in chinese when I speak to them in chinese…
i can’t wait til they build the new mega-mall on 29/Hydraulic so i can get wasted at TGIFridays and walk home.
56: Huh. Don’t know what I was thinking.
I have so many problems with 57 that if you aren’t being sarcastic, my head might implode.
@57
Beats Blue Light.
i bet i have more problems with me
I {heart} my house in belmont.
It sucks being responsible for all maintenance (hand raised as long as wallet is full). We bought years before the boom, when belmont was still laughed at & we adore how close we are to everything we need. We only own one car & both work downtown. After serious discussion we figured that moving farther away would end up costing us more than staying put. The mill creek Food Lion is close enough; but produce is always better @ C’ville Market & the city market. I only wish a larger hardware store was closer for all of the continuous projects around the house, though martin’s and medowcreek suffice for the small ones.
I would rather hang out at TGIFridays than Blue Light too.
@56: 什麼是您談論？
I {heart} my house in belmont.
Amen, sister. Represent.
I am soon to make a departure from JPA to Belmont and couldn’t be happier. But still definitely jealous of Shen & co.’s digs downtown, though.
excuse. reid’s has a sick selection of popsicles.
/has lived next to snl for 1.5 years. loves it.
would rather have a yard & a garden. And still be close to d.town.
are yards and gardens overrated?
yes
LYS, you are FAMOUS!!!!
http://www.realcentralva.com/2008/06/23/why-live-in-downtown-charlottesville/
@58 Theres a Korean place between it and 2 sides…maybe thats what you were thinkin’ about. Ive only eaten there once but it’s pretty good…
LYS, you are FAMOUS!!!!
Not only that, you write marketing copy for FREE!
Ive got this little business venture Im cooking up, and Im gonna need someone to kick some ideas around with. Im so happy to have found someone that doesn’t charge!
one more vote for living downtown being great. cheap rent is out there if you do your homework. i actually just took a new job in charlottesville so i could stay in this apartment. and i dont even go out.
on the other side of the coin, i vote eagles landing as the worst place to live. not just in charlottesville, but maybe in the entire state. ill never make that mistake again.
oh my god, eagles landing. a festering pit of depravity disguised under a facade of… condoms floating in the pool.
….downtown. little mortgage in a little house. ain’t payin’ for no petro. suck on that.
I have never seen a “little house” downtown, at least not what I consider downtown. I’m happy for you and all, but perhaps it would be helpful for the mentally challenged like myself if we defined what exactly “living downtown” entails, if at least for the sake of this discussion. Boundaries anyone?
Oh, and while I do have a list of things that I do quite enjoy ’sucking on’, your indefinite reference to “that”, I suspect, falls well outside my parameters. An attractive offer, perhaps, but I will have to pass.
let’s do some gerrymandering.
Re: legitimacy of a grocery store downtown. Agreed, there’s not a Whole Foods/Teeter/etc. within a walk of Downtown. Whether it’s Belmont or the Mall, you’ve got a good walk, even to Reid’s or C-ville Market. And I’ll throw C-ville Market out there as a pretty sweet place to shop. Check it out if you don’t know. However, the point I wanted to make was, walking to a grocery store is overrated. It’s a better idea in your head than in reality. If you’re doing legitimate grocery shopping for the week, you don’t want to walk home with $100 worth of groceries. Even if there’s two of you. We lived a 1/2 mile from a Teeter in NOVA, and we even bought one of those personal grocery carts so we could walk to the store and wheel it home (they were prevalent in Pentagon City), and it was still a pain to walk to go “grocery shopping.” Granted, it was great for buying takeout, or milk, or beer on the way home from work, but I think we’ve got those bases more than covered b/w all the restaurants, the CVS, Beer Run, C-ville Market and Reid’s.
@76, what are you getting all scientific on us?
“walking to a grocery store is overrated”
seriously agree. walking is for drinking. driving is for picking up groceries on the way home. i hate how i currently have to plan out my shopping excursions, buy only what fits in one bag, & walk a mile through the hood worrying about whether my ice cream’s going to melt. & when i inevitably forget something, there’s no way i’m going back for it.
@76: super genius urban guru Christopher Alexander described the perfect neighborhood size as having a 5-minute walk radius. That is “A local resident is rarely more than a five-minute walk form the ordinary needs of daily life: living, working and shopping.” That is difficult to achieve in American cities, and clearly some people consider Park Street and Belmont to be downtown neighborhoods. So for the sake of today’s argument can we say “downtown” is a TEN minute walk from the mall?
/all scientific and shit
for me, downtown= the area east of ridge/mcintire, west of 10th st ne, north of the railroad tracks, and south of the perry dr/wine st/farish st/sycamore st line.
if belmonters want to be so proud of their unique neighborhood identity, then they cant ALSO claim to live downtown. (nothing against belmonters… just sayin)
Just gotta throw in another “Yeh” vote for living downtown. Walking everywhere is great, plus I love me some 7 bus. Minor drawback: my kids will whine when I actually try and drive somewhere (”But Mama, I want to ride in the stroller! I want to ride on the trawwwwwwwwwwlley”).
I agree that driving to the grocery store is generally better than walking, but that said, I still wish there was one closer, esp. when you just need an egg or some sugar (well, I guess in that case, there are always neighbors). My dream - Rent-a-Center on Avon out, Trader Joe’s in. And, as long as I’m dreaming of highly unlikely things, perhaps Charlottesville will magically get a minor league baseball team and the fancy new stadium will also be downtown. While I’m at it, maybe I can have a pony, too.
It seems pretty obvious to me that if you appreciate the finer aspects of living in the Charlottesville area, you’re either going to be close to downtown as possible or out in the country. I mean, who WANTS to be living in the great in-between of suburbia? Those of us who are in the middle are as close as we can afford to one extreme or another. Of course, you have the whole calculus ( see, there is math involved) of weighing of one choice versus another. I mean, if I really wanted to live close to downtown I could live in Friendship Court, but I’d rather not live in government project housing. I’m bourgeois enough to hopefully not get too sanctimonius about the whole thing.
Pedestrian grocery shopping = capacious, strong back-pack. Place shopping in back-pack as you shop so you know it fits; arms free + weights = speed-walking home.
I’d rather not live in government project housing
KCB: as an aside, I think it’s a bit of a misnomer to call Friendship Court “government project housing.” It’s Section 8 housing, meaning rent is subsidized by HUD, but the property itself is leased to, and administered by, a private group, viz., the National Housing Trust/Enterprise Preservation Corporation. Here’s a decent snapshot of the background info, from about a year ago.
Just picking a nit, but I think it’s a nit worth picking.
Downtown living is the best. Although, I own a car, I really do not need one. Everything is here for me. Here is my Friday - Sunday, typically.
Friday: Work walk home walk to the Pavillion walk to Continental Divide walk to Maya’s for drinks walk to Blue Light walk home.
Saturday: Walk to the City Market walk to this little herbal spot in between the block off of the downtown mall, drop off clothes at the new green dry cleaners Eco Dry Cleaners on main next to Continental Divide, wish Continental Divide was open in the morning lol walk home to grab my bike, helmet, and bag of recyclable items to take to Mcintyre Recycling Center then ride around the city for 35 miles pass Baracks and towards the Rio Road area and so forth, ride back home and take a shower, walk to downtown mall to meet friends for lunch at the Nook, walk around and hopefully something good is playing at the Regal if not check on LiveArts, may go out later in the heat of the night or take it easy and rest for church on Sunday. It depends.
Sunday: Walk to church, after church sometimes I get in my car and go out for lunch if I do not cook at home. I would not be able to do this typical weekend if I wasn’t in the downtown area. Walk Walk Walk. Downtown living is the best.
@86 -You’re right, I was careless in my wording. I guess my point is despite my desire to live Downtown/Belmont, I choose a different kind of “quality of life” life just outside town rather than living downtown at any cost. I can’t afford to own a home I’d like downtown, so I’m parked a little uneasily in the burbs. I grew up in Queens/NYC and spent my 20s living in the middle of DC, so I can appreciate the general sentiment of everyone to live near the action. Alas, my choice of the non-profit world doesn’t give me as many living options as I might like.
I can’t afford to own a home I’d like downtown,
Are you sure? Now is an excellent time to buy…
***swirls hands, summons jim duncan who is always, always lurking just off to the side, ready to pounce***
I live downtown. And work in Crozet. Le sigh.
Bummer Shen! At least you’re going against rush hour traffic to and from work.
It’s a pretty drive. But come Friday, the car gets parked and not used again until Monday morn. 1 ticket to downtown weekend funtime partyland.
downtown weekend funtime partyland
That sounds like my kind of place. Who wouldn’t want to live there?
@93: For realsy. I feel like I live in Disneyland.
@94: On Friday afternoons/nights, it really does seem like an adult amusement park, and I have to make sure I ride every single ride.
@95 with the enormous amounts of fun, overpriced food & drink, and the occasional throwing up, I would have to agree with you there. downtown charlottesville is totally like a big kids Disneyland.
Hello…IGA? All the colors of Boone’s Farm you could imagine. Mmmm.
maybe I’m retarded but wtf is IGA?
98– it’s the supermarket whose space is now occupied by Staples downtown.
“Drinkeyland”
@100: I like it.
@100, 101 memories of Duff Gardens come to mind
@70 - hmm, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. or a sign that I have become so typically yuppie that my life makes for perfect real estate brochure fodder.
/oh well, i was never that unique to begin with
@99,98: Didn’t know Staples used to be an IGA. But there’s still one at 5th & Cherry. It smells funny.
@104. Really creepy too after hours.
@103: The latter. You need to hang out with me more.
@85 still doesn’t solve the ice cream problem.
I got rid of my car a couple of months ago and couldn’t be happier! I, like Shen, was making the Crozet comute but I got fed up with paying for gas so I got me an ol’ fashion city job. I rarely buy groceries, so that’s not a problem(but finding finding a restaraunt I’ve never eaten at is starting to be a problem. I think with Zydeco last night, I might have eaten at every restaraunt in Charlottesville. BTW, that place is filled with yum juice). So yeah, I’d say my $270 a month, A/C filled, badminton/croquet/horseshoe pit filled backyard isn’t over-rated.
@106 - as usual, you are completely right.
Ok… I believe this is an appropriate place to post this, since low rents are being discussed. There is a really nasty scam being conducted on Craigslist right now which disgusts me so much… here it is….
I have recently come across 2 instances of homes being advertised on Craigslist for very very low rents, but they are asking for a high security deposit($1800) or 4 months rent in advance($2400). These homes turned out to be homes for sale, and the scammers had pulled interior and exterior pics from the CAAR MLS website and pasted them into the ad. I inquired about one home and received this amazing email from the ‘landlord’ telling me all about the house (paraphrased from the agents blurb on the MLS) and how they would be entrusting their precious house to me while going to work for UNICEF… blah blah fucking blah.
So please be wary and smart when dealing with something on Clist…. that’s a lot of cash to lose.
What bastards! I miss the “good ole scammers,” like the e-mail from the “agent” of some rich dude who died with no family and the agent wants to split the money with me. I just have to send him some money first. That was a quaint little scam.
Yeah… or that ridiculous one where you fill in those piles of forms and submit them before April 15th and then get told you have to pay a load of money or go to jail. What a classic… Nigeria written all over it.
Or how about the old PayPal/bank/financial institution “security alert.” YOUR ACCOUNT MAY HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED. Log in immediately so we can steal your money. I’ve only seen that one about 10,000 times. And they always spell something wrong in the subject line: Bank of Amereca Security Alert”
Err Smiley… I was referring to the IRS.
Floozy, you’re a little to subtle for ole Smiley.
Floozy subtle? Hehehe…
The bloom is off the Charlottesville rose.
@117: Whatevs, Jadey McJadedson
@117 But it’s the thorns we love. They hurt so good.
@114 Oh, I get it now. Duh on me.
cville landlords need to get over themselves. I keep finding shared places to live for $250, $300…good places.
Landlords: If your place doesn’t have AC, get over yourself.
If you want the tenants to take care of the yard, get over yourself.
If some amenity like cable or internet costs extra, get over yourself.
If the current tenants are going to tell me you don’t like to repair, return calls or spray for pests, get over yourself.
$5 or 600 to share a drafty old house with no AC, centipedes and no washer/dryer - oh, and utilities not included - doesn’t work anymore.
It’s the “no AC” thing that really grinds my gears. WTF is up with all these rentals with no AC? We live in the South, dude! If there’s no AC the rent should be like $100 per person living there.
@121, agreed. Cville landlords are among the worst. One of the problems is that so many of them are rank amateurs. Completely inexperienced and in way over their heads.
My landlord jacked up everybody’s rent and then stopped getting professionals to do repairs. On the rare occasion she does call on professionals, she tries to finagle them to work under the table for her, behind their boss’s backs. And she’s always up in her tenant’s personal business, because she’s under the delusion that she’s a “therapist” and a “humanitarian.”
Anybody have any rental or management companies they can recommend that deal with downtown and surrounding neighborhoods (Belmont and WM)? Professional and ethical would be nice qualities. I’m a-lookin’ to move.
Recommend Wade, Real Property, MSC
Recommend Wade, Real Property, MSC
Really? I’ve heard of mixed results with the corporate types, but I’ve always done well finding a good solid landlord or landlady with only a few properties to manage. It takes some investigating early on—e.g., asking questions: what will happen if the plumbing gets screwy? What kind of problems have you encountered here in the past? What’s your vision for this property and for our agreement? That kind of Columbo questioning can reveal a lot.
@122 Forget about the corporate types too if you have pets. The difference between a 30 pound and a 35 pound dog? Not much, except a lease. I haven’t had any problems with my pets when renting from individuals who hold a few properties. They have been very flexible and respectful.
@125 Totally agree. That distinction has always baffled me, as I’ve known 30lb dogs that could shred an entire apartment and smile afterwards, while my 75lb pitbull just lays around all day like a big baby. I realize it’s easier for landlords to make bright-line rules if they have many properties, but the amount of damage a pet does is linked much more closely to the owner than the pet.
I much prefer the style of non-corporate apartments/houses, and non-corporate landlords. Many of those corporate places can get away with murder because they realize that the rent money is coming from mommy and daddy (which, totally fine. I did it too. Just trying to say that accountability might live in another state). I once rented from a corporate-type place in Richmond that forced you to mail in rent so it got there on the 1st of the month and no later, or you were charged a 10% fee (and they didn’t provide a drop-box either — you had to mail it, even if you lived 4 blocks away from their office). Everyone just anted-up for the fee bc there wasn’t really anyone to hold the company accountable.
The dog size may be more liability based than property damage based. As sue happy as people are nowadays, the at-fault renter doesn’t seem as fruitful of a target as the rental corporation.
@121: Buy an AC unit. It’s $100. Put it in your bedroom window. Problem solved.
@126: I thought you were lame for the iPhone but you redeemed yourself for having a pitbull. Got pics?
Cville landlords are among the worst.
Oh come on now, not all of us! I am a “landlord” (a term that gives me the jibblies). I rent an upstairs apartment, with AC, for a reasonable amount. I haven’t raised the rent in 3 years even though its written into the lease that I could. I try to respond to every “fix it” request as fast as humanly possible (I bought the tenant a whole new oven just because the old one “wouldn’t hold a constant temperature making it hard to bake cookies”). I do all the yard work. I would consider dogs or cats or sea mokeys or whatever.
I only refused one prospective tenant due to pets… but they had two dogs. A Great Dane puppy, and an elderly Great Pyranese - a creature more akin to a polar bear, perhaps the largest, drooliest, most white fur sheddiest hound I have ever seen.
I am not a corporation, I have very limited resources in my skull and wallet, and the place is by no means a palace. But it is nice, and I try to do the right thing always. There are others like me, I know it.
You may be an exception to the rule B yo
@127 good point. The restrictions might be set by insurance companies rather than strictly by the rental corps. Still rather arbitrary to me. As a landlord, I’d be much more persuaded by a prior landlord’s reference, vet records, and seeing the dog interact with the owner. But then again, that reveals my preference for single- or few-property landlords who have the time to consider such things.
Hey, I was on the other side for a long time. In my five years at college I was evicted six times, some I deserved, some I did not. I have had every kind of bad landlord from the absentee, to the micro manager. When my ex was pregnant with our first son, we were evicted on her due date by the psycho indian landlord! [Tapan Chatterjee, I hope you get reborn as a dung beetle you bastard!]
/golden rule, across the board. its the only way.
do NOT deal with Godfrey Properties. slumlords.
I second that, I have some friends who rented from Godfrey and they hate it
I’ve had equally good and bad experiences with corporate vs indie landlords. But I have to say the best apt I lived in was “corporate”. It’s a good thing when a big company has the resources and experience to do everything right. Quick response to maintenance calls. Leaves tenants alone. Keeps grounds clean. Competitive rates. Lots of amenities included in rent.
@135– I agree. When you’re lucky enough to find an honest company, they do the best job of being professional (which is to say, leave you alone/do maintenance without hemming & hawing/keep abreast of paperwork etc) and easy to deal with. It’s so nice to be able to know that you’ll be able to reach someone during business hours rather than leaving some possibly ignored voicemail on your landlord’s cell…
I’ve definitely heard some very bad things about Godfrey, and have personally dealt with Real Properties and Wade and find them both to be very good and honest.
@129. I hear ya. I’m sure you’re a good landlord, but good independents are hard to find. I was a landlord myself for many years. Quite a few of my former tenants still correspond with me years later, let me know how they’re doing. I got high marks for being fair and going over and beyond the call of duty to keep my tenants happy. Most of them were reasonable in their requests and took good care of their apartments.
So that’s why it sucks to be on the other side now with a landlady- and her assorted relatives- all with boundary issues. I pay my rent, which is fair-market value, and expect timely repairs and professional interactions. Not a bunch of psycho-drama and personal crap. Don’t ask me if the illegal aliens you hired to paint the house can come in and use my shower and toilet for the next 6 weeks. When the vinyl in the kitchen starts to peel up at the edges, don’t nail assorted randomly-sized chunks of wood to it to hold it down. If you’re the kind of landlord that holds one corner of a clawfoot tub up with stacks of bricks, then don’t suddenly raise the monthly rent by an amount exceeding $100. Because, guess what?– your stack of bricks isn’t even remotely “picturesque.” And I’m STILL waiting for the lease you promised me last September.
I’ve heard nothing but bad stuff about Godfrey and know that the police have had to dog them. I’ll try Real Property and see what they have available. Thanks for the suggestions!
@137 Boundary issues are the worst. One previous landlord had a whole mess of children who would peer into our windows and try the door knob randomly. She would come down and ask us to babysit or just want to hang out and invite herself in when you opened the door after her persistent knocking and sit her bony ass right down in my living room. Terrible. And the conversation was awful-always with the birthing and nursing and menstrual flow. Who talks about that stuff with waht amounts to a stranger? Just thinking about it now makes me tear my fucking hair out.
@138… Many moons ago, I came home early from work one day and walked in on my Polish landlord sorting through my underwear drawer, sniffing them. No kidding it was just like the scene from Scary Movie 2 when Cindy drops her suitcase and the creepy butler with the screwy hand picks up her knickers and inhales them.
When I quit the apartment, I hid a medium sized mackerel on a ledge underneath the range close to the nice warm pilot light. Now that gave him something to sniff.
@138 and 139… Holy christ, that’s skeevy. A friend of mine rented off of Fairway in the WM. Her landlady would let herself in and borrow my friend’s clothes, DVDs, etc. Then the stuff would always show up a few days later, just as quietly as it was taken. Creepy. Needless to say, she bolted.
Fortunately, my landlady doesn’t invade personal space as much as she does mental space. Nothing like coming home from working a 15-hour shift in blazing heat to a rambling series of passive-aggressive, condescending, voicemail messages full of therapy-speak and faux concern. When I see her coming, I run.
If she weren’t also letting this place go to seed, then the drama might be more bearable. Can’t wait to find a new place!
@140 Well the place im in now is great (except the utilites between apartments are shared and thus super high) and Im moving out end of july. You should check it out. Its clean and pet friendly, no water leaks and gets lots of light.
those are awful stories. here at parlington estates, we take pride in the way we treat our tenants.
parlington: where all bets are off.
isn’t it against the law in virginia for landlords to enter the property without an express invitation? it is in florida.
Is that a really fast invitation that doesn’t stop along the way?
As a landlord, you must give 24 hrs notice, unless waived by the tenant.
If you have five or more units, then you must follow the rules of The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (VRLTA) to the letter. It also covers certain duplexes and other types of dwellings. Those landlords not included are urged to follow the Act anyway, because they are very good guidelines and cover all of the legalities about important stuff like deposits, gaining access to the unit, etc. You can download copies lots of places online. Know your rights as a tenant, and as a landlord!
i rented in massachusetts for a month, & i kept waking up in the morning to find the landlord’s husband in my bedroom, “refurbishing.” after that, i moved back in with my parents.
@ 76 I just stumbled across this thread… If living downtoan is the goal, it’s do-able and doesn’t have to be expensive. Something small downtown? Yes- I bought a place three blocks off the mall for under 140K. You bet it’s small, but it’s full of charm and I love it. My mortgage is lower than most folks rent (sub 600/mo.) Before that for several years I lived a block off of Locust, @ 425/mo., one mile away from downtown. That was an upstairs apartment w/ it’s own entrance and it was absolutely great (as were my landlords.) The point is that w/ a careful and patient search the good finds are out there. Is living downtown overrated? That’s too subjective…it just depends on the lifestyle you want and what area of greater c’ville you prefer. It’s certainly not for everyone, but it is for me.