renting?

For a friend- what is better... to rent in a complex or rent within a private home. Anyone have experience with either?
I think they are looking to rent for about a year?


TIA!

Re: renting?

I would look into a private home.

Less of a chance of having neighbor problems in such close quarters.

It's also very hard to get a lot of renters out so she may need to move out again to avoid neighbor issues, and then she'd be looking at more security and potentially a brokers fee.

Also there can be issues like bed bugs in apartment complexes because they go from apartment to apartment.

renting?

I would prefer an apartment complex or a private home if the landlord was not living in the home.

renting?

We looked at both options. We decided to live in an apartment complex because we loved the super. So far, we definitely made the right choice - everything is maintained beautifully and any questions or repairs we need get answered ASAP.

We looked at renting a private home in RVC but the landlord lived upstairs and I've heard nightmare stories about that. Personally, I don't think I'd rent in a private home.

Re: renting?

I prefer complex, without a doubt.

renting?

Complexes are alot easier to live in. They usually have a maintenance staff and everything is taken care of for you. The downsides of a complex is that they are pretty inflexible if you need to break the lease and they are usually a little more expensive than renting in a private home.

Re: renting?

It really depends - there's no clear cut answer. I've done both and there are a lot of things that come into play. You can have a great private landlord, or an awful one. Same with living in a complex.

For me, the private house was more more flexible (we extended our lease 3 months and most complexes won't do that). But in the private house, we lived downstairs to the owners and they controlled our CAC. They had a great ocean breeze and we had nothing. And they were too cheap to run the CAC all summer so we were hot a lot. In the larger buildings/complexes our complaints were usually addressed faster, but you have to deal with neighbors who can be loud, dirty, smelly, etc.

renting?

personally I have found houses to be better but it really depends on the landlord.

I had great apts when I lived in Northport. One was owner occupied and one wasn't. The owner occupied was great because we were both quiet people. Both fixed things right away.

Then I lived in 2 apts in Lindenhurst and both LL were great but we had bad neighbors in both. Both apts were not owner occupied and one LL would not deal with the other tenant and their issues but the other LL actually evicted the other tenant because of noise and other issues. We paid less that complex rates and generally had bigger places. I looked at both options each move and the houses always just fit us better

Re: renting?

if you're not looking to deal with the maintenance (lawn, etc) then i'd go with the complex. The house next door to ours is a rental, the landlord lives OOS. Which is a pain for us because sometimes the tenants that live there don't bother with mowing the lawn, picking up garbage in front of the house, etc.

Re: renting?

If you are looking at apartments within a private home, I would prefer to rent within a building or complex. I think you get more privacy than sharing a home with other tenants or a landlord. In my experience, landlords often want or need the rental income, but also want to restrict tenant's activities (noise, having people over, etc.). Often times if you rent an apartment within a private home, you are restricted in yard use (can't use the yard, or it's shared use), so you are not gaining a yard over being in a complex (and some complexes may have a pool or other amentities).

If you can afford a whole house rental, it's much more private (no shared walls, etc.), and you'd likely have more space, but there's often more cost and maintenance involved (landscaping and utilities are usually not included with whole house rentals). In a rental building, usually heat and hot water are included (and you don't have to worry about landscaping).

Personally, I would prefer to rent in a building or complex (and that's what I always did prior to buying, although I lived in the city then, and rentals were much easier to come by than they are on LI!).

Re: renting?

I've lived in both during college and right after and I definitely prefer a complex….pretty much for all the reasons Christine listed above