The Westmont

Don't Count on Staying More than a Year The westmont is a decent building, doormen and maintenance staff are fine, and they are working to improve their appearance. They market it as a luxury building but it really pales in comparison even to it's sister building, key west, or to the nicer, newer apartment buildings in the area. (808 columbus, the lyric, etc) Two key things I wish I had know... [more]

Don't Count on Staying More than a Year The westmont is a decent building, doormen and maintenance staff are fine, and they are working to improve their appearance. They market it as a luxury building but it really pales in comparison even to it's sister building, key west, or to the nicer, newer apartment buildings in the area. (808 columbus, the lyric, etc) Two key things I wish I had know before I moved in. 1. There is a significant and very real difference in the quality of the apartments between renovated and non renovated. Renovated gets you updated kitchens and baths (can't do anything about the underlying cheap, non-descript 1980s construction) while unrenovated gets you original everything complete with parquet flooring, original cabinets, and paint layers hiding yellowing walls that will take you back to your college apartment days. 2. The management has 60 days notice from existing tenants to rent apartments to new tenants. With 60 days, they do what any rational owner would do, set the price very high and fish for someone to bite. When the move-out date approaches and the unit hasn't rented, the price drops, after the current tenants leave and the apartment is sitting empty, the price drops significantly. Based on this pricing mechanism, you are very likely to see a significant increase at renewal time because they still have plenty of time to find a new renter. Hence the title of the post. For reference, from my floor alone, we had an effective renewal increase of 25% on a two bedroom, and two other neighbors in 1brs both saw 20% effective increases in a market that at best strengthened 5-8%. If you want to live here and have no intention of staying longer than a year, track the inventory and real time pricing on the website, wait for special incentives that pop up when there's too much inventory in a building, and cherry pick a great price. Just don't be surprised like we were when they come asking for significant rent increases in 10 months. [less]