The apartment we ended up in was a luxury compared to most apartments. We lived there for close to 3 years and never had to worry about theft, people stealing our parking spot, or bugs. We were in an apartment that was a former office, but they had turned it into a loft. That being said, we paid no utilities in that unit. And it was spacious.
The apartment complex is pretty quiet. The walls are well insulted so we rarely heard anyone. Since, the complex has a limit of 2 people per studio apartment, the complex didn't have much noise (since families didn't live there, just couples or occasionally a couple with an infant....that's 3 people so I'm not sure how they got away with it).
Management was pretty on top of things. There were a few things that broke.. One incident we had was a leak in the bathroom and they fixed it within the same week. Another we had year we had a fridge give out on us and they replaced it within 3 days. The following year, the stove (although old) broke and it took them a week to replace it. They did replace it with a brand new stove.
Now for the not so great stuff: parking and pets. Parking was a nightmare. You get one parking spot. You cannot pay to have a second spot. If you have 2 cars, yours stuck finding a spot on the street. And since the street is a cul-de-sac with nothing but apartments (and large families), you can be stuck without a parking spot.
As for pets, you're allowed to have dogs or cats if you're moving in with a pet. You cannot get a pet after you have moved in. I was pretty annoyed that management chose to tell us this after the fact. At the very least, those apartments that had pets are forced to keep them quiet, or else they risk facing some consequences.
Overall the apartment was decent. But parking sucks, rent is expensive (given the Santa Barbara area, which I'm not a fan of). However, it was a short walk to the beach, a short walk to 7/11. It's definitely a gem compared to all the other apartments I've seen in the area.
Plus, the area is safe enough where you can walk to the store past midnight and not have to worry about being mugged. read more