I recently discovered this Tumblr blog regarding some of the worst apartments NYC has to offer. 

http://theworstroom.tumblr.com/

Sadly, I've seen a few apartments in Toronto which were as bad.

If you've read the Home page you will know that I work as a photojournalist... which sounds a bit more glamorous than "newspaper photographer". To be a bit more specific, I work for the Toronto Star, and as of tomorrow will have worked at the Star for forty-one (Yikes!) years.

It's always nice to hear from a former tenant, but even nicer when they call to tell me they would like to return to Grace's Places. In the case of MT, she has just returned from two years in Rochester NY and by a happy coincidence her former apartment was coming available just when she needed it.

Speaking of coincidence, a few days after Magda's email I received a call from Amanda J, who last year gave up her tiny Grace's Places bachelor for a larger apartment elsewhere. Alas, Amanda discovered that the quality of the landlord is as important as the size of the apartment, and accordingly was hoping to return to Grace's Places. Unfortunately in this case the best that I could offer was a prominent spot on the waitlist.

It's always sad to see a tenant move out, but it's more bearable when they are moving from one Grace's Places apartment to another, as was the case when T & C left their one-bedroom apartment at my Annex building to move into my favourite apartment at my Cabbagetown property. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to freshen up and modernize. (Continued here).

The City of Toronto has approximately 500,000 rental apartments. Given that the average tenancy in Toronto is 3 years we can surmise that in any given month there are about 14,000 apartments turning over... and about 14,000 prospective tenants trying to find the perfect apartment.  

Finding a great apartment is likely to be a challenge, and if you do find the perfect place there is a good chance that you will be competing with several other prospective tenants, and you will need to convince the landlord that you are the best tenant that he or she could hope to find. Here are some tips on how to find the apartment you are looking for, and perhaps more importantly you will find some tips which will increase your chances of having your application accepted.  continue reading

I’ve recently changed the text on my Home page… given that it formerly described all of the apartments as being “recently” renovated. Time flies when you’re having fun, and it recently occurred to me that my first reno… the one-bedroom plus den unit in Cabbagetown… was renovated almost eighteen years ago... not exactly "recently".


Nonetheless, we’re always finding ways to make improvements and modernize, so this month after the former tenants bought a home of their own (after more than six years at Grace’s Places) we took the unit out of service for a few weeks for a mini-makeover… new bamboo flooring in the living room, a new countertop, sink and faucet, new doors on the kitchen cabinets, a new dishwasher and new faucets in the bathroom.

Click here for more photos

For many businesses being “Green” is just a marketing tool. At Grace’s Places, however, reducing energy consumption has always been a cornerstone of my business model. At the end of the day (or the fiscal year) a penny saved is the same as a penny earned, and lower costs mean lower rents (more)

I’ve always been a big fan of energy-efficient lighting, but of course at my Annex and Cabbagetown properties I pay for the electricity so that’s to be expected. I started using LED bulbs in hallways and common areas about a year ago, and gradually have been retrofitting the apartments. The new LED are an attractive warm colour similar to halogen, but generate much less heat. And they’re dimmable.

But I have not limited my lighting retrofits to those properties where I pay for the electricity. At the Upper Beach property (where tenants pay for their own electricity) I have just fitted all of the lighting in the kitchen and bedsitting room in Apartment 1 with LED light bulbs. Amortized over the expected life of the bulbs my $450 investment will cost me about $4.50 per month, but will likely save the tenant more than $16.00 per month (assuming that the lights are on for six hours per day. Indeed, with LED bulbs the tenant’s cost for lighting should be less than $2.00 per month.

Given that many tenants at Dalton Road have expressed interest in beautifying their decks and balconies, I will once again be offering encouragement in the form of $25 rent credits to any tenant spending $50 or more on plantings, and a $50 prize for the best deck garden, to be determined at the end of the summer.