apartment advice?

Just wanted your opinions on this...

My uncles brother in law has a 2 family house near Massapequa (Seaford). The tenant is moving out in mid July and he is offering us the 2 bedroom apartment for $1,400 + utilities (which the current woman says run about $220 a month for gas + electric, but I cant imagine that for a small space! she must have everything on constantly). The apartment is the 2nd floor of a house, with a separate entrance. It has a decent sized kitchen with room for a table and 4 chairs and a pantry, a living room, a small bathroom, a bedroom with king sized furniture in it right now, and a smaller bedroom that we would use for the computers. He is an absentee landlord, so we would be the only ones in the house. There is a washer and dryer out back and we have acess to the yard and park in the driveway.

Since he knows us (sort of like 6 degrees of separation) he is not taking any security, 1st or last month rent, or broker fee AND is not tying us to any lease -- we can stay as long or as little as we want.

He is going to paint the apartment in the colors that we choose and have all the rugs cleaned. He said we can have the key when the other lady moves out but we dont need to start paying til Rob moves in in Sept or we move in in October...

The kitchen and bathroom are outdated and there are rugs EVERYWHERE (inc. the kitchen!) and the lady before had a cat, which I am allergic to. I am hoping that the cleaning just fixes the prob!

We hope to be there less than a year and actively search for a house or condo over the winter.

Would you take this deal for the simple fact that whenever you find a house or a better place you can simply move out? Or would you look for something with cheaper rent and utilities included from now and just resign yourself to being in that place for a year??

Thanks for reading!

Re: apartment advice?

Message edited 1/19/2007 4:46:10 PM.

Re: apartment advice?

$220/month seems excessive - our share of the utilities are just about $220 and that includes OIL, cable, electric, water.

Re: apartment advice?

I think its a good deal, b/c it doesn't tie you down...you can take your time looking for a house/condo and not worry about timing it with your lease (of course some landlords are very flexible in this matter)


you won't have to worry about not getting your security back and you know that the LL will be around if you need if and if hes not, you know where to find him


I guess it would depend on where you work. If it takes you way out of the way - you have to factor in extra gas or higher train ticket.

Re: apartment advice?

Re: apartment advice?

you say you would be the only ones living at the house. That's cool, but if you are bearing the cost of utilites alone for the whole house it could explain why they are so high.

A house is different than an apartment in a building.

I would still do it..but I would ask him to replace the carpets..if you are allergic to cats you will never get all the cat out of the carpet.

Re: apartment advice?

The 1st floor is never occupied, unless the landlord stays over on a Saturday night every other weekend...

We have a separate meter and thermostat and our own burner in the basement, so it's just paying for the apartment's utilities.

I guess if it was an apt. building he would be REQUIRED to pay the heating portion of the utilities, right? But since it's a private house it doesn't apply?

Re: apartment advice?

Message edited 1/19/2007 4:46:24 PM.

Re: apartment advice?

Re: apartment advice?

I have lived in building and apartments in houses and the landlord has always paid for heat and water

and gas for the stove

I never heard of having a separte burner-

Re: apartment advice?

Re: apartment advice?

I saw the current tenant's utility bill.

Do you mean the main floor's utility bill?

The current tenant is a teacher so she says she's home all day in the summer and has the A/C blasting the whole day, so it spiked, so instead she chose to do a budget plan with LIPA which averaged their use and made her bill for electirc a steady $117/mo and gas $105. The stove in the kitchen is electric.

Re: apartment advice?

I've lived in apts and houses, and I always had to pay heat when I lived in houses.