I rented an apartment from Ithaca Rentals and Renovations (IR&R) last year. They rent primarily to Cornell students (both undergraduate and graduate) in the Collegetown area. The apartments are generally in very good shape. I rented an eight bedroom apartment with friends at their 407 College Ave. building.
The building is relatively new and the apartments are carpeted throughout (with the obvious exceptions of the bathrooms and kitchen). The apartments are in very good shape and ours came with a huge 52 inch big screen TV. The rooms are decent in size.
Overall, the apartment was a good experience. Since it was relatively new, there weren't too many problems. I did have a problem with cold air coming through my exterior wall. Maintenance caulked the window, but it didn't completely solve the problem. One of several grips about IR&R is the lack of responsiveness to some complaints. While many were taken care of, there were certain things that I literally had to harass them about in order to get done. I am one of those stubborn people that won't just let things go so I made sure they got done, but this wasn't necessarily the case.
Rent was decent, but relatively high for Collegetown. However, this is also due to the fact that this was a higher end building. Every apartment got free internet and we got free basic cable too.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend living in their apartments, but I would advise to be organized and keep up on things. Keep all forms and document calls and maintenance requests. Compared to other places and horror stories I've heard about Collegetown, 407 and renting from IR&R was a good experience.
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