Apartment Improvements Characteristics Resulting In Rating Reduction
Certain characteristics negatively impact property improvements ratings. These factors also range in importance as Highly Significant, Important, and Moderately Important, and generally describe as:
Highly Significant Negative Characteristics
- Poor quality of construction, resulting in strikingly negative appearance
- A unit mix of small studio and one bedroom floorplans without inclusion, or limited presence, of other unit types
- Multiple bedroom apartments include only one bath
- Bath detail includes Masonite, or vacuum-formed plastic, tub enclosures; no medicine cabinet is provided; bath sinks are free-standing
- Restricted interior storage
- No private patio or balcony
- Ramp (motel) type unit entries, or interior corridors are narrow and poorly lighted
- Incomplete, or low-end, kitchen appliances (i.e., no dishwashers; refrigerators are single door, or non-frost free double-door; ranges are small).
- Kitchen cabinetry reflects a high degree of obsolescence of appearance (i.e. dark wood patterned laminate-faced), and/or kitchen storage availability is limited.
Important Negative Characteristics
- Ceiling heights are below standard (i.e. seven feet)
- Limited, or no, architectural appeal
- Floorplans offered are significantly (20% or more) smaller than market average size
- Second floor systems are composed of plywood (not finished in Gypcrete)
- Lack of (limited, or no) covered parking availability
- Lack of refrigeration in warm climates
Moderately Important Negative Characteristics
- Sparse landscaping
- Central metering of electric utilities
- Flat roofs
- Second floor stair landings are wood (rather than concrete)
- Kitchen lighting is by a standard incandescent fixture