Lovely hardwood floors in this place, even though they squeak a bit. Great sun in the afternoons. Price is high in absolute terms but typical for the area. Layout varies with the unit but usually the kitchens are small, while the bedrooms are big. Decent for two people, definitely cramped with three.
A big plus: You can park in an assigned spot in the back, as long as your car is small! A Honda Accord will fit, a minivan will fit if you pull in both mirrors. A van or full-size truck will definitely scrape the walls. Street parking is pretty hard most days. Guests will have trouble finding a spot. Often other tenants will block the driveway temporarily.
The place is generally secure. Strong front door and side gates, a few security cameras up. There's shared laundry in the basement, a decent ratio of machines to residents. Indoor bicycle racks (which you need for the neighborhood) but they are always 100% full and spilling over into the laundry area.
But here's the main problem, and the reason I've given it two stars: NOISE.
Unless you live on the top floor, you will be able to hear bloody everything going on above you. And if you live on the first floor, you will constantly hear people banging in through the front door to the building, tromping up and down the hallway and stairs, closing the laundry room door, and if you live on the west side of the building, the engine noise of the cars leaving the back lot as they creep around the building, right up against the wall.
And this is just noise from the building itself. Outside, it's pandemonium. Garbage trucks arrive early and often. The one that serves this building has to drag the bin 100 yards from the back lot to the street since the garbage truck can't fit. The adjacent building has three large bins and people open and slam their lids all day and night, including the homeless foraging for cans at 3:00am. Sometimes they will leave the plastic lids open and they will lay across the driveway to this place, and people parking their cars will run right over the lids, making an incredible racket.
People honk at each other while parking. The nearby buildings have automatic gates that grind open and shut, and people block the street to wait for them. The maintenance crew uses gas-powered weedwackers on the topiary and lawn. People hang around outside the restaurant at the corner and you can hear them arguing. All the windows are single-paned, thin glass, including all the bay windows at the front of the building, and you will hear all of this in excruciating detail. I swear, you can hear the neighborhood dogs defecating on the front lawn; the sound of their owners crinkling plastic bags to pick up the result; the sound of them opening the bins to toss the bag.
The landlord (who used to live on site but moved back to the Presidio after he "got overwhelmed listening to complaints all day") will tell you "sorry" and refuse to be involved in any of your plans to improve the situation. He prefers to communicate with you through his LLC, and the most interaction you will have with him will be in the form of certified letters, propped against your door when you return from work.
I came here thinking "oh I don't mind a little noise, I'm used to the city." But you cannot go 20 minutes here, even in the dead of night, without some hideous noise coming at you. A while back I woke up at 3:00am to a BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM. I pulled up the shades and saw a woman running up the street, and a man walking in the other direction. In seconds they were out of sight. I'll never know what happened. So I went back to bed. But what hit me the next day was, I was so used to waking up from noise, the only thing novel about the incident was the source. The only thing I thought was, "what is it THIS time?"
In summary, if you are really, REALLY okay with constant noise, day and night, this is the place for you. Otherwise, think twice. Three times even. read more