said by kherr:If I was a renter on a fairly new structure and it wasn't wired for TV and phone in the bedrooms and living area, I'd tell the landlord why I was walking. With the cost of the wire, it's ideodict not to pre-wire. When done it's a good marketing feature to advertise pre-wired for TV and phone to keep the units full. The only thing you can count on is a wired system. If it was me I'd also pre-wire at logical places for computers also.
Around here (Springfield, MA), there is no shortage of tenants but there IS a shortage of rental housing (even worse shortage of code compliant rental housing). You always hear in the news about people living in housing/apartments with multiple code violations (not to mention full of rats and roaches as well) and cannot move because they have nowhere to go. And I have heard horror stories about landlords having to fight the housing courts tooth and nail to evict problem tenants. The reason we moved to this community was that Mom is originally from here and she has a decent job with the city (residency requirement) but when she retires, we are moving either back to Iowa or up to Maine. The city was nice when she grew up but has been on the decline since then.
The only easy way to evict problem tenants in this area is if they are found to have illegal drugs in the apartment as they can be evicted without a hearing in housing court (police ordered eviction). I know this because I know a few of the local police officers (and on good terms).
FYI: I do live in the better part of town (near the town line with an affluent community).