International House is a great place to live in! While I don't go to Cal, my girlfriend has been…read moreattending Grad school here and I've had the opportunity to spend a meaningful amount of time here as a result. The building (which has been around since 1930) is beautiful and well-maintained. It has an old-worldly charm which you just cannot miss. The rooms are small but cozy. The heating is reliable and WiFi fast enough. The rooms don't have a sink area and you'd have to go to the nearest restroom for that -- not too bad, but good to know if you plan on living here. The food (which is my favourite part of Int'l House) is very good! As a busy student running between classes and other college work, it can be easy to forget to take care of yourself and spend way too much time figuring out a meal plan and living here literally takes all of that off your hands and lets you focus on what's important. I particularly love their brunch on the weekends and the Vegan Jook every morning is quite splendid, I'm told. They have Coffee Hour every so often with snacks from different parts of the world. This can be a great opportunity to meet other residents who are from different parts of the world. Being in the melting pot that is Berkeley, this place truly reflects the diversity of the Bay Area and I would recommend Int'l House with great pleasure.

Lunch for students? 1. Sorry we ran out of meat. There's…read moreonly chips, white rice, and salsa for you! And yes I was already charged for entering for food! 2. Fried bacon and fried beef patty are all the options for entree! How healthy and how wonderful is the dining experience! Oh also did I mention these happen regularly?

I've been staying in a Raj Properties apartment for the past year, and it's been a great…read moreexperience. The building is well maintained, with cleaners coming regularly and maintenance responding quickly to things like broken lights and other repairs. I'll be moving into another Raj Properties apartment next year, and they've been very accommodating. My roommate and I are looking forward to another year with Raj Properties.

Very poor maintenance response and they are they do not maintain the apartments broken issues…read more Heater brakes down every winter. PG&E told them the heated needs to be replaced. Nothing has been done. NO RATING IS APPROPERATE. 200 Montecito Ave, Oakland, CA 94610

Always a fun time when I visit friends who live here!…read more I live a few blocks away and probably spend more time at Channing-Bowditch than I do at my own place; I'm so jealous! It's a really great set up. My place is more dorm style apartment living while CB is actually like an apartment. It's part of the university too, which can be nice, I suppose. The apartments in this building are super spacious and they come furnished! A large living room, eating area and kitchen, bedrooms, and bathrooms are all in each apartment. It really is great. I wish this is where I lived! It sure would have been nice. I don't know too much since I only go to visit friends, but everything I know of the place is good!

2/20/2025 The bad…read more Old and uncomfortable furniture Old yellow lights that make the rooms hot Poor lighting- not a lot of natural light and poor ventilation Old and cheap faucets and low water pressure Old laundry machines that stink and dryers that don't dry Old appliances Old musty carpets Construction next door starts everyday at 7am won't let you sleep Party house next door won't let you sleep (They party past 12am) Close proximity to the ghetto (Telegraph Ave) The good Access to water filters 10-15 min walk to campus Shout out to the cleaning lady- she does an excellent job keeping halls and bathrooms and other common areas clean ID Card access to main gate (not side gate). You'll get regular keys for your apt and room.

Marshall and the rest of the staff in the package room are amazing! I was helping someone order…read morethings when he thought he would be moving into an apartment, and then had a last minute change and didn't move it. But we still had packages that had already been ordered and/or delivered. Marshall and his team were very kind and patient to send photos of what arrived and then print labels and get things sent back out to Amazon/FedEx to return items for us. Their communication was impressive! So appreciative for all of their help!

I've been to this beautiful building multiple times, for parties and gatherings at one of the…read moretenant's home. You need a QR code as a visitor, which you are host can provide to you. Show that QR code to the friendly folks at the front desk, and they will tell you which elevator to get on, A, B, C, or D. They will call the elevator for you, you get on and it will take you quickly to the floor you need. This building is beautifully maintained, quite clean, and service is always wonderful. Parking is shockingly expensive if you park at the building, but parking everywhere in downtown San Francisco is shockingly expensive so I don't know that it's any more than anywhere else. It's convenient and that's good.

My husband and I lived at Hopkins Park Apartments for about 3 years and we had a fantastic…read moreexperience at Hopkins. The complex is well maintained. For any big maintenance projects scheduled (e.g. complex exterior re-paint, parking lot renovation), we received letter of notice 1-2 weeks ahead. For small maintenance requests, they are always handled promptly (next day). Onsite maintenance also responds quickly to emergency phone calls. When we do have questions for the management team, their response time to emails is usually the same day / next day. Be ready to get cards / candies from the management team at holiday season : ) Neighborhood is quiet and convenient. Bart and AC Transit are both close. Parks, restaurants, grocery stores and farmers market are all in 10 mins walking distance. There's also a Whole Foods and a Japanese market, about 15 mins walking. Most people live here are very friendly and they keep an eye on your apartment when you are away. It did happen that some tenant party loud at night, but only about once in a year. Our move-out experience is very smooth, too. We scheduled a pre-move out inspection with the management team a few days before the move-out date. They provided us a detailed cleaning list and the corresponding cleaning fee for each item. We cleaned the apartment by ourselves and received the FULL security / pet deposit before their promised date. The rent is high in the whole bay area, but Berkeley has rent control. At Hopkins, the rent only goes up about every 3% (or 2%?) every year, which is nothing if you compare to other apt which does not have rent control... A few minor cons: * As other reviews said, the big wall between living room and kitchen and the water heater makes you feel the apartment is smaller even than said. * Leasing office does not take packages for you. Your package will be left on your front door. * Sound insulation can be improved.

Hopkins Park Apartments has been not just where I have lived for the past six years, but where I…read morestarted my family. My wife, daughter, dog, and cat are lucky to have been able to find such an incredible apartment complex. It's situated right behind a park and playground, in walking distance to Monterey Market, Acme Bread, BART, and much more. It's well maintained and the maintenance team is superb. The management team, especially Nicole, is awesome. They're the friendliest and most helpful ones we've ever had. They're very pet friendly and family friendly. We would stay here forever if we could; the only reason we are moving is due to work. We loved our time here, was fortunate to be able to call it home, and can't recommend it highly enough!

I moved in a month ago and am still busy unpacking boxes and setting everything up (home studio for…read morefilm & video post production and music composition). It is an absolutely wonderful place with huge industrial sized lofts and windows. The conversion former warehouse was well done with high end materials, nice marble top kitchen, brand new fridge, freezer, dishwasher and oven, and so on. They spared no expense and paid attention to details such as industrial pipes and beams which run through the building. The neighbors are super nice, I believe most all of them are artists in some way, shape or form (sculptors, painters, jewelry). They organize a 3 monthly F3 art exhibition which you should definitely check out, very cool. The neighborhood is very cool, industrial and somewhat gritty (graffiti, garbage) but we're working hard to clean it up and keep it that way. Right next to the Nimitz freeway so depending on the traffic I can be in downtown SF in less than 30 minutes. The only disadvantage is that the construction of the hardwood floors makes the place susceptible to noise, especially flanking noise and noise creeping through the cracks in the floor (the walls are pretty decent by the way, very little sound leakage). It will take me some time and money soundproofing the floor, but well worth the effort. Rent is very reasonable, a mere fraction of what you would pay for something comparable in San Francisco. Some more pictures of the place I moved into: [IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/2qa0pbq.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/2w72t02.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/faq247.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/r6yd6w.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/a2dld1.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/2w7n9z5.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i42.tinypic.com/2ijhhyw.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/2e51c2q.jpg[/IMG]

DO NOT LIVE HERE! Noise, bad management, lies, there is no community. Like Others has posted it's…read moremostly a retirement home. Nobody's an artist here anymore. Just people who complain because they're old. They have no businesses and complaining about businesses making noise. This is a commercial building. Full of people who don't use it as such.

For anyone who ever reads my reviews of fancy-ass hotels and thinks I'm pampered, delicate, or…read moreotherwise squeemish, let me set the record straight right now: I lived in Ridge House for two years. The co-ops are not a gentle place. They're not a particularly tidy place, or a quiet place either, but Ridge house is a good place. Some good people, and good experiences. Plus, where else are you going to find housing and food a block from campus for $400 a month? ...To give a bit more detail, for those unacquainted with the Berkeley Co-ops, the USCA is a largely student run organization (independent from the university) that operates 20 houses around the Berkeley campus. These are big "houses" -- converted mansions and even some apartment buildings, housing 20-200 students (but probably averaging around 40-50 per house.) Since there isn't a landlord making profit, rent is cheap, and since the USCA can buy food in bulk for all the houses, food is cheap. That doesn't necesarily mean that it's good. As with anything student run, the houses are pretty messy -- there are workshifts to be done each week as part of your rent, but some houses have more diligent residents than others. Ridge is pretty squarely in the middle, both on the cleanliness front, and also on the character of the house in general. It's not as wild as some of the more notorious co-ops, but it's not as quiet as some of the others. It's an old faux-tudor mansion from 1915, and the ballroom on the first floor is pretty neat -- wood floors and high ceilings. The old servant's quarters downstairs have been converted to single bedrooms -- they're tiny, but you get your own bedroom. There are mice. Mostly in the downstairs rooms, and maybe they've gotten it taken care of by now, but I do remember several occasions of jumping on a chair, followed by getting over it and just chasing the things out of the room. The food can be good and bad -- there's almost always a vegetarian option, but since it's your fellow students cooking as part of their workshift, the tastyness of the dinner depends on their skills in cooking, and their ability to give a damn. Said ability to give a damn is ultimately why I moved out of the co-ops -- one afternoon I saw a guy open the fridge, accidentally spill a bottle of hot sauce on the floor, and walk away from the broken glass and red pepper mess. I asked him if he was going to clean it up, and he said he wasn't on kitchen duty that week. I decided it was time to move on. But despite the general grime, the occasional awful meal, the mice, and a few rotten housemates, I'm glad I lived there -- a little grit is good for you, learning to cook dinner for 40 people is good for you, experiments in small scale socialism are good for you, and sitting on the roof looking at the bay and San Francisco drinking beer with your rather random housemates is definitely good for you.

I lived here for only a year. It was a cheap place to live. And overall, it was a good deal, but…read morenot great. I loved how close I was to campus, loved having conversations about all sorts of issues, loved the yummy and innovative dinners my housemates cooked, and loved going out clubbing with them. I did not love the communal bathrooms, did not love the way things got really dirty as the week progressed, and did not love the hills I had to traverse to go home.

While my rating is 4 stars due to what had happened I want clarify that all team members mentioned…read morein this review were extremely helpful and kind and deserve 10/10 stars. When I moved in I received the wrong key, resulting in me having to wait 4 hours to get into my unit. I do appreciate how they have after hours customer service which is how I got in touch with MJ who helped contact a manager to come out and help me. She was very nice and gave me updates when she could. Danae is who came to help even though it was not her building so I really appreciate how she came from her house on a Sunday. She ended up having to call a maintenance man to drill out the door since no one could find the right keys. She was also able to help me put in works orders I needed in the building and was extremely nice. I wasn't able to get the name of the man who drilled my door but he was nice and helpful too. I also had an issue with parking. I was told I could park in a specific spot but was then notified that I couldn't park there because someone had reported me and I had to move or be towed. This was a stressful and confusing situation but Ryan Garcia the customer service rep was able to give me updates and walk me through the situation the best he could. I was eventually able to get the situation resolved with a satisfactory solution. Efrain the maintenance man who came to help with my work orders was super helpful and nice. He went out of his way to give me a better lock on my window and went to the store multiple times for better parts. He was very efficient and respectful of my space. I appreciate that he came out promptly to help fix my issues. Lastly, although my agent Colter was the one who gave me the wrong keys, he was extremely apologetic and otherwise very helpful during my application and move in process so I appreciate him as well. While I had a rocky start to my move-in, I appreciate the help from the team members and I am overall satisfied with my unit.

It's hard to imagine a group with more contempt for tenants and less pride in their work…read more Usually no one picks up the phone when you call - or calls you back. Repairs can take weeks to months and are done as cheaply as possible so they always look shoddy. They don't even replace smoke detectors - they just add new ones so my apartment walls now have three dead ones, one active. Clownish. The property manager typically ignores calls, emails, and texts for literally months, and wouldn't come to the property even when there was a safety emergency. The accounting department is prone to making mistakes, but, like the property managers, ignore emails and calls for weeks so it's hard to resolve things. Notice that most of the few positive reviews (not many of them tbh) mention maintenance people that SG contracts with... Not SG. Don't believe me? They have an F rating from the Better Business Bureau.

I have been a tenant of Charles and Cindy since May of 2007 and I have never had such a positive…read morerenting experience. When I first went to rent the apartments I was a student at the University of Illinois and I moved out here due to graduate school at Cal. Cindy and Chuck were the only people who were friendly enough to do all of the renting and showing of the apartments by email and phone. If things would have been different my moving experience would have been much less fantastic. Additionally, they let me ship all of my things to their home before I moved to California -- this saved me so much trouble. Even beyond my initial experience, Cindy and Chuck have constantly proved to be amazing both as landlords and people. They are constantly working on the apartment and surrounding yard and garden to make the place look immaculate. They are friendly, honest and genuine -- hard to find in people, let alone in landlords. The apartments themselves are furnished and well taken care of. ANECDOTE ALERT! In the past, they have made me cookies and pie and dropped them off freshly baked. In fact, one evening, I got a call from Cindy saying she just baked a peach pie for me and she wanted to drop it off while still warm. Much to my chagrin, I was unable to return to my apartment that evening. So, what did she do? She said, "no big deal, we'll bake you another pie tomorrow because we want you to have it hot". Awesome! Needless to say, that pie was eaten in one sitting. Beyond the food, and hard work ethic, I genuinely love living in my apartment and it feels like Cindy and Chuck genuinely care for their tenants and their well being. Sometimes I think about the fact that someday I will move from this apartment and it saddens me a bit -- I know that as far as landlords go, this is absolutely as good as it gets, everything else will pale in comparison.

Hands-down the nicest owners/landlords in the world. Chuck and Cindy have not only been great as…read morelandlords but they have also become friends. On many occasions we have received fresh cookies, pies, cakes, and anything else Cindy has made a bunch of. I will review the different aspects of the Channing-Milvia Apartments experience. Apartment itself: The apartments are around 600sq. ft. This may seem small but we, my wife and I and soon to arrive daughter, have found it to be the perfect size. The kitchen is large enough for anyone who cooks a few days a week to every night. While they aren't huge they have allowed me to cook quite a bit of food at a time. The living room is large with a desk, bookshelf, futon, and two windows. Apart from the kitchen and bathroom, the apartment has hardwood floors which help to brighten even the 1st floor apartments(we have lived downstairs and upstairs). The bedroom is perfect for a couple, two roommates or a single person. There is a nice closet and a walk in storage room with shelves. The bathroom is small but it really is big enough. Outdoor scene: The backyard is fantastic! Not only is there a grass area capable of holding 15-30 people for a BBQ, but there is a large garden that residents are allowed to use to grow food. There is a peach tree in the garden and a lemon tree along the driveway, each of which produce an abundance of fruit in season. There is a large charcoal grill and a smaller charcoal grill, which residents are free to use at their leisure. Furnishings: Wow, these apartments come with everything you could need. I love to cook, always have(my dad owns a restaurant) and these apartments are supplied with more than enough stuff to prepare holiday feasts. The linens are great and the rest of the furnishings are in great shape. We have just about everything we could need/want here. What if a problem arises? Chuck and Cindy are skilled handy-people. They can fix anything from a leaky faucet to problems with your stove, light fixtures or plumbing. If you report a problem, any problem, they are extremely quick to fix it. We could not wish for better landlords or friends, we will be sad to move in May. We HIGHLY recommend renting here, you will not regret it!

I lived here my 3rd year of undergrad, and I had a pretty good time. Stebbins is a relatively quiet…read moreco-op - not too crazy but still pretty social. The house has really nice big singles, but tiny little doubles, and turnover tends to be pretty high. The common space kind of sucks, which is a large part of why I left. It's gotten better since, but it is in some serious need of a remodelling (especially the gaping chasm that is the basement). But, honestly, how can I complain when it took me longer to walk to the front door from my room than from the front door to my first morning class? I still see a lot of the people I lived with here around, and I can't really say I'm not nostalgic.

This Yelp is a little dated: I lived at Stebbins in the 1971-72 school year, the first year it was…read morecoed. I was a senior coming from the south side highrise dorms and Cloyne Court the year before. Stebbins was relatively quiet, very close to campus, sociable, and comfortable. I had the nicest double in the house, 2nd floor, northwest corner, the room occupied by children's book author Beverly Cleary in the late 1930s. Anyway, I met a very cute and sweet young lady there and we have just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We signed both our kids up for Stebbins when they started high school, but both went off to Cal State Universities instead of UCB. I'm going to the reunion tomorrow and hope to find if you can still rent garage space there. I kept my '68 English Ford Cortina safely in the garage my last quarter. After I beat the draft and stayed out of Vietnam in the summer of 1972, I came back to Berkeley for a second BA, tried to get back into Stebbins, but ended up at Ridge House, which was still all male.