Living in an extended stay building as a tenant

January 15, 2018 12:44 PM

I'm about to sign a lease on an apartment in a mixed use building. It offers extended stays for executives, and it has long-term tenants living there. This would be my home. Any reason not to do it?

I'm relocating within my current city and apartment hunting sucks, but I found a place I think I like. Overall, the location is in a bustling popular part of town, the rent is competitive with other places I looked at and the building itself is only a few years old, so it's very new, up-to-date and clean. It has all the amenities I wanted at a price point I targeted (plus I don't have to pay my own utilities, which is a bonus). The unusual thing is that it's a mixed use building -- it hosts corporate clients who are in town for weeks or months at a time in furnished units. But it also has unfurnished units for people like me who sign year-long leases and move their stuff in. Is that weird or anything I should think twice about?

It being mixed-use means they will have guests staying there on shorter terms, but does that matter? The building is secure, requiring a key fob to get up the elevators, and they have people at the front desk when the entrance is open during business hours. Heating and cooling is done via a wall unit, but it's a studio anyway since I decided I wanted to scale down and stop wasting money. They recently reconfigured the building and opened up some more apartments, which is how I snagged this one. Renting in the city where I live is competitive, but they were willing to wait until my current lease ends, which many places were not, so I'll avoid double rent. I had a back-up place that was willing to do the same because it's a new building in its "lease up" phase, but this one is a better deal. I've checked reviews for this place, but the only reviews are as a hotel, not as an apartment -- overall the reviews are very positive, although some people thought the popular street it was on is noisy. That concerns me slightly, but I've lived on busy loud streets before and it didn't affect me in the past.

I hate making big decisions like this and I constantly second-guess myself. Anything I need to make sure of before I sign? Thank you!

posted by AppleTurnover to Home & Garden (15 answers total)

It sounds great to me. I wouldn't hesitate to live in a building like this if I liked the amenities and the terms.
posted by quince at 12:53 PM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: My sister lives in a building like this. She's been there for like...five years now? I thought it was weird at first, but there are a lot of benefits. Common areas are kept to a really high standard because they're constantly working to attract new tenants. Utilities, including cable and internet, are handled by the building. There's always staff around. If you have loud or annoying neighbors there's a good chance they will be gone in a month. And -- ymmv on this one, particularly -- her building really values long-term tenants (easy money I guess; turnover's expensive), so they are very willing to negotiate on rent increases etc. to keep her.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 1:01 PM on January 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

Sounds fine to me, no red flags that I can think of. Knowing going in there might be more short-term tenants than a regular apartment building might actually be a plus, in that it's above the board and not being airbnb'd or things related.
posted by cgg at 1:04 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sounds great - no muss, no fuss kind of living.
posted by Gnella at 1:11 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

My only concern would be security of valuables if cleaning staff come in or have access to your room.
posted by shortyJBot at 1:56 PM on January 15, 2018

Best answer: Temp term executive tenants rarely have herds of children or barky dogs.
Do it!!!
posted by phunniemee at 2:00 PM on January 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

I have a coworker who ended up renting a place like this. He started there as a corporate client (part of his relocation package) and then ended up renting like anyone else once his corporate lease was up. His only complaint was that annual rent hikes were kinda steep (supposedly because of the number of corporate clients who could easily handle the increases).
posted by noneuclidean at 2:01 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

You know, the only thing that would make me hesitate is that your "neighbors" (short-term tenants) are not going to have gone through a background check to ensure that they're not axe murderers. Extended-stay buildings strike me as the perfect crime scene, with the transient population. Maybe I watch too much Criminal Minds. I'd probably still rent there, but perhaps install an extra lock on the interior of my door.
posted by juniperesque at 2:21 PM on January 15, 2018

Best answer: I lived in a place like this for five years and recommend it -- it sounds so much like yours, except there wasn't a key fob to get up the elevators. It was great; I never heard a peep from any of the executive suites people (to the point that apparently one of my now-coworkers was staying there when she was relocating, and I had no idea).

Also, seconding goodbyewaffles's sister's experience: I also had my rent raised only very little despite a booming rental market -- when I left, I was paying $500 below market for a 1br.
posted by batter_my_heart at 2:28 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'd have the same concerns re: safety as juniperesque. That's just something that would be in the back of my mind constantly and keep me a bit on edge.

Also, even though it's a new building, if the mixed use part includes restaurants or places that serve food, there is the potential for noise issues due to delivery trucks and customers and pest issues like roaches, ants, and rats. That right there is enough to give me pause. I hate dealing with pests.

If I were you, I'd talk to some of the other long term guests before signing anything and see if they like living there. And don't be afraid to play Place A against Place B to get a better deal on rent or a free parking space or any other amenities you can think of; it's just business, after all (which is what they'll say to you when raising your rent in a year).
posted by LuckySeven~ at 2:35 PM on January 15, 2018

My sister's condo has a unit or two close to her unit that are owned by some corp for occasional use by visiting execs and whatnot.

Wasn't a problem until it was (some exec's kid apparently booked the place, were real dicks about it - loud EDM, partying, smoking tobacco/cannabis on balconies through the small hours of the monring, and trashed the place).
posted by porpoise at 3:24 PM on January 15, 2018

A friend of mine lived in a place like this for a few years and it was soulless but very pleasant and quiet. It was near a hospital complex so poeple had weird hours and there was an emphasis on quiet. She dated like 45 doctors/ dentists/ traveling nurses and executive types during those 2 years, which was kind of a bonus I guess? None of them were serial killers as far as I know. She moved out because she wanted pets but I know she misses amenities and security.
posted by fshgrl at 4:43 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

This wouldn't bother me at all -- although obviously one could always have issues with neighbors in any rental (or purchasing!) situation, it seems like travelling executives are likely to be quieter/cleaner than, say, random AirBNB guests that your neighbors are illegally renting their place out to. :)
posted by rainbowbrite at 5:03 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: If you have loud or annoying neighbors there's a good chance they will be gone in a month.

Temp term executive tenants rarely have herds of children or barky dogs.

Great points. My current neighbors are fine and I never hear them... unless one of them plays any music with deep bass. It just cuts straight through the walls and I can feel the vibrations from it. I've talked to her about it, but I don't want to be that person, so I just have just begrudgingly lived with it. It'd be easier if I knew she was leaving in a month. In a previous apartment, my downstairs neighbor had a toddler who screamed all the time. It took me months to figure out it wasn't a dying cat or some creature in distress. Then she moved out and I got a crazy old woman as a neighbor instead who kept accusing me of things out of boredom/loneliness, which was a real headache.

Extended-stay buildings strike me as the perfect crime scene, with the transient population. Maybe I watch too much Criminal Minds.

As an anxious person who worries about safety more than most, I have to say this doesn't worry me at all. Like I said, the building is secure. I was wrong about the elevator key fob, but the doors are secure, the front desk is usually manned, and I think the odds of someone wandering to my exact floor and my exact unit to commit a crime are exceedingly low. And I tried to actually book a unit via booking.com and their direct website to see how easy it is, and I can't find any dates with availabilities. I suspect most of the booking is done directly with corporate clients because there never seem to be any vacancies. A murder can happen anywhere, including a normal hotel, or walking in the street but I still wander around those places, so yeah, I'd say you should watch less Criminal Minds. ;)

Anyway, I'm going for it. I will save $3000+ in rent and utilities over the course of the year by moving to this place, and the location is really fantastic. I'm already thinking about all the restaurants and bars I'm going to be hitting up and how I better use the gym in my new building. So thanks for the feedback everyone -- I feel more confident in my decision now!
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:49 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

If it makes you (or anyone else reading this thread) feel better, my husband, daughter, and I were in one of these buildings just a few months ago with a corporate relocation and they ran pretty extensive background checks on us before we were able to finalize booking. And this was even with the company my husband worked for (for the 6 years prior, at that!) booking the apartment through the relo rental company. We had to register our cars with the building too.

So you likely won't be surrounded by a den of criminals, just executives and their families waiting to close on their new house so they can move permanently.
posted by danielle the bee at 7:54 AM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]