Dodged a bullet, toured this place and found 3 red flags in 10 minutes

The listing was on Zillow, looked immaculate in photos. $1,525 for a one-bedroom in South End, which is actually on the low end for that area, and that should have been my first signal. I scheduled a tour for Saturday morning.

The leasing agent was fine, friendly enough. But the moment we turned on the AC to show me the climate control, the overhead lights flickered. Not a little. They dimmed noticeably for about two seconds. The agent said "oh the AC does that sometimes, it's an older system." I made a note.

In the living room corner, near the ceiling, there was a patch of texture that didn't match the rest of the ceiling. Slightly different sheen, slightly different pattern. Classic water-damage patch job. I pointed at it and asked when that had been repaired. The agent said she didn't have that information. I asked if I could speak to the building manager about the previous tenant's move-out. She suddenly got very businesslike: "I'm not able to share information about previous tenants." I hadn't asked about the tenant. I'd asked about the move-out condition of the unit.

I walked out, sent a polite decline email, and blocked the number. That combination of electrical weirdness, ceiling patching, and defensiveness about a completely reasonable question tells you everything you need to know about how maintenance requests are going to go.