I sympathize with you on the savings and income piece because I found myself in a similar situation when I was looking for my first apartment, where I had the money to afford rent but my credit history was thin. Savings and and income may not be enough for landlords to deem you as a reliable tenant if your credit score is not up to their standards. Could this be a factor in your situation?

I’m no longer a resident but when I lived in Dixon Mills it was upsetting to hear all of the sirens on their way to the medical center during Covid

Agreed with overpriced sandwiches especially for the size, but it’s convenient from my apartment, and their regular bagels aren’t too pricy. I still think they are solid compared to NY, and definitely stand out in the Boston area.

Bagelsaurus in Porter! ( confirmed delicious from someone who grew up on NJ/NY bagels )

I definitely wouldn’t attempt all by myself. I checked the lease though and it says no self-installation

It says I can’t use it in the winter, but doesn’t mention removal. That being said, there is a $200 “Violation of AC Units Policy” fee. Which is essentially the same amount as the reinstall cost…

I’ve taken a closer look at my lease, and specifically the air conditioning portion, and it looks like in my lease I can’t run it from Nov 1 - Apr 1, but it doesn’t specifically say I’m required to remove it by a certain date. However, it says that failure to adhere to any of the installation or usage policies is a $200 fine and of course the ever looming threat of non-renewal/eviction. So the cost of installing them again is essentially the same as the fine ironically.

It just seems like another way to squeeze money out of tenants unfortunately (the whole installation takes less than 10 minutes) but I guess I’ll go with it in hopes that my rent doesn’t jump up too much this year.

That’s exactly how I feel - like I’m agreeing to being ripped off! I do like my apartment overall and maintenance is usually very helpful/prompt, so maybe I’ll look into alternatives for next summer even though my current units aren’t very old unfortunately.

Thank you! I think I would still face the dilemma of the $90 fee, but this is good to know in case I go down that route anyway.

Thank you for the suggestion! The installation fees would already breakeven with the cost of this air conditioner so I will seriously consider one of these!

The AC units are both mine! If they stored them, I’d 100% agree it’s worth it, but as of now the $90 is just for installation/removal. (Maybe I’ll ask if I can keep them in the shared basement, so thank you for the idea)

I’m 90% sure we’re not supposed to do it ourselves, probably for liability reasons.

Yes agreed - removing isn’t as much of an issue, but I would be a little nervous to reinstall it and knowing me I’d probably end up dropping it out of the window. But I guess I can probably ask some friends who are stronger than me to help out.

Editing to add that I’m pretty sure the lease agreement says we’re not supposed to do it ourselves but I don’t know how closely they keep tabs on these things considering they manage multiple buildings

I’d give the restaurants a call to check before placing an order - or even better, order directly from the restaurant!