Buz just got a report on Hopkins House!

Just spoke to one of my long-time readers of my other blog, buzoncrime.blogspot.com. He told me that after several years of living in crime-ridden, always-look-over-your-shoulder Charles Village, he decided to leave his greedy, inept, and deferred-maintenance landlord (like many are there), and rent in Hopkins House. (I know, that's a run-on sentence). It's right across the street from the Broadview next to Wyman Park and basically across the street from Hopkins Homewood campus.

Though I've been in there several times with clients, none have actually rented there, and I thought it was perhaps 95% students.

My informant tells me that it's only maybe 60% students, and many of those are graduate students, who have their noses in their demanding school work. He says that he got a good deal in the 2+ years he lived there with his wife and their newborn baby. He had no problems with the place, and they spent a lot of time sitting out on their balcony. Though the walls are thin, his neighbors on the 9th floor were very quiet and respectful. When he had some maintenance problems, the staff often were there in less than an hour. He said the desk and the staff can be kinda gruff, but some of these young people think they were living in a 4-star hotel, with all the entitlements due their soon-to-be rich station in life. He said he didn't really have a problem: he spoke politely, simply stated the problem, and did not demand now.

Anyway, that's good to hear. The place is certainly situated in a good location and has many stunning views from its apartments. The rent is reasonable, but parking your car in the garage is pricey: Buz would park nearby along University in Roland Park or in Wyman Park and walk, but then I'm a cheapskate. Thanks, Jaimetab, for the info on your experience, and welcome to Hampden!

The Broadview is kinda nice!

Buz has taken a couple of clients relocating to Baltimore around, who were interested in North Baltimore, and had occasion to look at apartments in the Broadview, one of several high-rise buildings near the Hopkins Homewood campus on the border of Roland Park and Tuscany-Canterbury. And though I had been by the place many times, I'd never actually been in it before.

I was really surprised how nice and neat and well-laid out the apartments were, and how quiet the hallways were, even on a Saturday afternoon--two Saturdays in a row. But the two apartments we were shown, both under a $1000 a month, really had good views, one with a 3rd floor right angle window so you have a view on your side out a window as well as straight ahead.

And they had a nice little fitness room, and a really nice resident lounge, along with a easy connection to a restaurant/bar. In the lounge an Asian gal was playing the piano, a guy was watching a football game, and another guy was shooting some pool. There were books for free borrowing, board games, and lots of nice easy chairs and reading lamps. Truly, one would never get to be lonely in the Broadview. And they have someone on the door 24/7 also--a rarity in these days of cutting costs. We stopped an older guy, and, as I am often in the habit on my rental finding tours, asked him an open-ended question: how do you like living here? He said: "I love it! I've lived here for 20 years, left town for 3 years, came back, and have been here the last couple years. Love it!" Well, sir, nuff said.

relocation tidbits

Buz has had a pretty busy August and September with relocation jobs, and has found a lot of interesting places along with his clients who are moving to Baltimore---

• We've been really impressed by the newly renovated Falls Road Apartments, in a little court just off the 4200 block of Falls Road in the neighborhood of Medfield, just north of 41st street border with Hampden. (A lot of people think this is Hampden). Wow! What a deal. Now, nothing special, but you can get a nice, clean, never-lived-in-since-renovated apartment, all new appliances and systems, bright, freshly-painted, and airy; in a relatively low crime area of the city, centrally located; for one bedroom at $795/month. People moving to Baltimore are voting with their feet: you see cars from many states in the parking lot. No amenities: no gym, no pool, no biz center/concierge BS. But you get free parking on their lot, and access to their small laundry room ( 3 sets of washer/driers). You want all the exercise stuff you can pay for it yourself: Meadowbrook is up the street a bit, along with Whole Foods. And a city police officer lives here too. To top it all off, the leasing agent is moving here next week.
• I am really depressed, on the other hand, at how poorly privately-owned properties show, when compared to professionally-managed. Like, can't you, if you're a landlord make the place look nice and presentable and livable before you put an ad on Craigslist? Most can't. The places in Charles Village show especially poorly; but I guess the landlords there are so used to sucking from the Johns Hopkins trough, and charging high rents for their deferred maintenance, they have little incentive to worry about making the place they're renting look nice.
• The smart Hopkins kids moving off campus look for a decent place in Hampden.
• A recent Goucher grad just moved into a whole house, shared with several girl friends in Hampden; she told me that she doesn't worry about the Charles Village crime anymore.
• Many apartments are now adding fees on to the rent, so watch your bottom line, if it's important to you: they're charging for water, sewer, trash removal, amenities, public areas, and making you share the gas and electric bill with others. Makes me uneasy.

Can a black gal move to Hampden without singing the blues?

Buz recently had as a client for relocation a pretty African-American professional woman who was moving to Baltimore in order to be a program person for Teach for America. We spent seven-and-a-half hours looking at apartments in her price range, that were in the city. She would be working in city schools, and though there were some nice apartments in Owings Mills, she really wanted to live in the city.

But Buz was left with a conundrum: several areas/price range, and availability were in Hampden, with the kind of housing she was looking for. But I didn't really want to show her apartments where, if living there, she would feel uncomfortable, or worse case: where she may feel unsafe.

We know Hampden is changing, and for most young professionals, race is irrelevant. But Hampden has had a long history, shall we say, of being unwelcome for black people.

So, we ended up looking a one place there, a kinda neat, funky, "loft". And then we looked at a rowhouse apartment, but it wasn't ready. But I ventured into the area with her with a certain amount of trepidation.

BRAC is coming!

Buz just last Monday night stumbled onto a talk by a representative of LiveBaltimore a nonprofit group funded partly by the city and partly by the "real estate industry" loosely. He was their representative for BRAC, and was talking up the possibilities of BRAC folks moving to Baltimore and buying in the various city neighborhoods.

Now, BRAC stands for Base Realignment And Closing Commission, a process under which military bases are eliminated, downsized, up sized, right-sized, and closed. In other words, made more efficient. So, apparently there are several closings which will affect the Baltimore areas. One is the closing of programs at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey (not too far from New York City), and relocation of them to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County. Other programs will be relocating to Ft. Meade in Anne Arundel county. So Baltimore will be bracketed on two sides by an influx of more than 30,000 military, their dependents, defense contractors, and their dependents.

So, I asked the guy: do you think any of the BRAC folks are gonna wanta live in Baltimore, my beloved home town? He said: absolutely! He even pointed out to the various folks from northeast Baltimore, the group he was addressing, that the first house purchased by a BRAC person was in a Northeast Baltimore neighborhood. Wow! And here Buz thought that almost all of them would stay in Harford County.

No, the guy said, a lot of them want the amenities of a big city; many of them are highly educated, like sports, culture, museums, and such, and like to walk around in neighborhoods on sidewalks. So, it would be a big plus to get them to Bmore, for them and for us.

HMMMMMM. So, I thought, you know, that many of these folks might benefit from the assistance of a nice relocation consultant like myself, since it would be a wiser move to rent in a strange city first, instead of looking to buy a house. Betcha: 30-1, I can help you find a rental property  meeting your needs quicker than you can on your own.

The rental season starts again! Finding rentals in Baltimore for school or work

Now is the time of year when students (and others) are leaving their apartments and moving to other chapters in life and other people are moving in. So a lot of incoming students, post-docs, and hospital employees will soon start looking for places to rent in Baltimore.

I am hoping to help some of them, as my international relocation company, Dwellworks (formerly RAI-Relocation Assistance Incorporated) has not been having much work in Baltimore lately. So, perhaps I will help people moving to Baltimore find a rental, using my full day or half-day rental finding tours--as an independent consultant.

I've only been averaging about 1 rental-finding tour each month since the economy collapsed in October-maybe even earlier.

I found it interesting that 5 out of the last 6 rental tour clients I've had did not rent in the city, which was really interesting, since previously, almost all of my young professionals wanted to live in either Canton, Federal Hill or Fell's Point. It's really troubling for a lifelong city resident like myself, since I find most of the rentals in the surrounding counties, with some exceptions, to be sterile, cookie-cutter, almost you've seen one-you've seen-em-all kind of thing. "There's no there, there!", as one of my young gals put it.

I'm a bit concerned that crime and rowdiness and general icky-ness of traffic and parking will drive people to live in the evil counties.

I've noticed that the signs of spring are here: for rent signs have sprung up all along places where Buz travels in North Baltimore.

One newly-renovated property of interest is the big apartment building at University Parkway and Roland Avenue; it's now being called the Ardmore, and Mr. Preller, of Preller Properties has been spending a great deal of money on it and appears to have done a great job. They're-offering two months free rent as part of their grand opening, and do allow pets; they have both one bedrooms and 2 bedrooms. Buz has not been in there yet, but hopes to see the inside soon.