Curiousity killed the landord?

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

Hello all,

I have a question, an informal poll of sorts.

I'm at the beginning stages of remodeling my mother's house (she's not living there anymore). It's a two family home. The downstairs apt right now is a one bedroom.

Here's where your sage wisdom/expertise comes in:

I have the ability of making this space a nice, big, one bedroom apartment with a huge eat-in kitchen, large living room and bedroom; or I can take that "extra" room (the kitchen, believe it or not) and turn it into a second bedroom, and make a smaller galley-like kitchen, open to a common room/living room area, which, overall, would not be that big.

I know that it's difficult to visualize, and ultimately, it's my decision, but I"m just looking for what YOU ALL would be looking for in an apartment as a single renter, or with one other roommate.

As a single renter, is the kitchen important to you? The bigger the better? I know that kitchens in homes are massive these days, but do you all look for that in apartments too? Do you young'uns spend time in the kitchen like us old folk?

And, if you were to move in with someone else (have a roomate), how important is a larger kitchen for you? Do you consider the size of the living room/common space or are the bedrooms more important when sharing an apartment (these two bedrooms would be a good size).

Ok, I'm being redundant on both questions, just humor me.....


Also, in general, how important are laundry facilities on-site (ok, I think I know the answer to this one, but I'm throwing it out there as well...)??

Thanks in advance!

:D

~@~@~@~

ADDENDUM-DUM

Er... I know I should be asking a realtor this question, and I have fair idea, but what's the going rate these days for a large one bedroom apt close (VERY CLOSE) to Davis sq?????

Comments

[siderea]

One bedroom with a big kitchen and large dining room you will wind up renting to one more wealthy person, presumably an older professional.

A two-bedroom with a galley kitchen you will wind up renting to either a couple with a child or a pregnancy who are settling on the kitchen because they can't afford better, or to two college students.

You will probably be able to command significantly more per month in rent if it's a "two bedroom", however, a mediocre two bedroom will likely attract less financially stable tenants than a nice one bedroom. There are a lot more financially less stable people in the housing market than folks looking for luxurious one bedrooms right now, but a landlord takes his tenant's risks along with them. There are pros and cons to both approaches; the question is which headache you prefer.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

This is an extremely cogent expansion of greyling's comment above, and just about what I wanted to say too.

In my own case, moving to Davis in Sept 2009 as a (newly-)single 38-year-old, I had a strong preference for 2BR over 1BR, for purposes of an office/guest room. The place I got (and love), closer to Ball Sq than Davis, is $1k including heat -- but they had discounted it from $1200 when it was still vacant after the Sept 1 rush. Definitely consult a realtor for input on what the local market will bear.

My place has not only 2BR *and* a smallish living room but *also* an eat-in kitchen. However, the kitchen is down a narrow hallway from the LR, which means large-group gatherings usually end up mushing into either one or the other but not both. Based on the experiences of the ensuing year-plus, I think that if given the choice to design from scratch, I'd actually rather have a galley-style kitchen space off a larger open-plan living/dining space, for more flexibility. Then you can expand the table for holiday dinners, etc. etc.

As for on-site laundry: I am in the "have never had it and cope just fine" minority. I think it becomes much more important to you once you *have* had it and gotten used to it. (I've never had an apt with a dishwasher either!) So I would personally be much more likely to reject an apartment that had a shower stall with no bathtub, for instance, than no laundry.

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

Very good points made. Thank you.