I lived here last year while I went to school. The landlord is hard to get hold of, although there is a building manager too. Although I never had a reason to contact her. The apartment was nice, with the exception of the bathroom, which is poorly ventilated and thus prone to growing mold on the ceiling from 3 or 4 showers a day. There is hardwoord flooring through (except for bathroom and kitchen, which were tile) and there was a nice 'fireplace' which didn't work (it had been sealed long before) but had a great mantle to put books and things on. The floors are super squeaky, so I'd sugggest a top-floor apartment, which you will pay about $900/mo for instead of the typical $800 or so. The laundry is kinda expensive ($1 each for washer and dryer) but that's typical for the area. There are 3 washers and 3 dryers on the first floor, a storage hallway with closets you can rent (I don't know how much) and a fair amount of storage space in the apartments.

The building was built in 1930, and it shows. It's got character, that's for sure, although I don't know if some of it is desirable (squeaky floors, veeery unstable water pressure, a Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque elevator). The fire escape on the back of the building is in good shape - one thing I can definitely vouch for is that the landlord does his best to keep the place up. Painters and cleaners are in and out when people move out. There's a pretty high turn-over, most likely because students from the nearby colleges are renting. The fire escape doubles as a second staircase for the building and goes down to the basement level, where there is an underground parking garage. I was told you have to pay $50 a month for a spot in the garage, or you could just get a Cleveland Heights parking permit, which lets you park in a lot behind the building. I didn't opt for that, and boy am I glad - a friend of mine had his card broken into not once, but TWO times in the underground 'secure' parking garage. Apparently some people don't know how to close the door, so someone walked right in and smashed the windows out of 3 different cars in the garage. It happened again about a month later. It's definitely frustrating. The area is safe during the daytime, but it's pretty scary at night. Once a shady-looking guy followed one of my friends from the bus stop to the front door when my friend pulled out his cell phone and started talking and then the guy turned around and started walking away.

Proximity to places is good. 15 minute walk to CWRU quad, 5 minute walk from Starbucks/restaurants/grocery store. Right next to a bus stop. Entry is a buzzer system that interferes with your phone (not separate from your phone line like some are).

One of my big complaints was the water pressure/temperature fluctuations in the shower. I never once took a shower where the water stayed at a consistent temperature or didn't go from a trickle to a firehose the entire time. Maybe because we were on one of the upper floors'

Overall, it's a decent place to live if you don't own a car and don't mind the landlord treating you like crap (if you're a student, that is. He seemed to treat other people better, but was still way to harsh when dealing with people). I don't blame him for being such a stickler for paperwork, but still - I think he probably uses much different procedures for students than for normal people. Heck, he's even tough on grad students. I had to provide proof of employment, identification, a letter from my parents stating that they'd pay if I broke something, and I signed at least 10 forms and paid a HUGE deposit. I've heard from previous residents that you don't get much of it back. We moved out a month ago and haven't received any of it yet (we were told that we would get a check up to 2 weeks after we moved out).

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