Schooner Bay Apartment

Current Resident 633463

Resident • 2002 - 2003

Tiny, overpriced, ant-ridden.

Lots of problems here. The ants are tenacious (management´s response: "well, we ARE by the water"). <br> <br>Aggressive rent increases (management´s response: "it´s ´market´ rate). Maybe they mean the Tokyo rental market. <br> <br>Anyway, the path along the slough is filled with non-residents careening on rollerblades and bikes, making it a hazardous walk for our dogs and children. <br> <br>Schooner bay offers the least value for the money of any place we have ever lived.

Current Resident 583863

Resident • 2002 - 2003

Deposit Stealers

Schooner Bay failed to give me my cat deposit back. Since they failed to bill some months of water they Schooner Bay Management decided tp use my deposit for these un billed water bills. First off, who charges for water - no one I have ever rented from. Also, it´s thier mistake for not billing a year ago - why punish me. Nor, was this listed out on my deposit they just weren´t going to ackwoledge I paid a cat deposit. WRONG WRONG WRONG <br>Poor mangemnt decissions. Oh...did I say they also rised my rent by 10% in 6 months - <br>Crazy decison especially in this market...On to a better place to live.

gracielet

Resident • 2002 - 2003

Really nice place-shocked at terrible reviews!!!

I keep this web site on my favorites so that I have quick access to the rental office phone number if I need to call. When I logged on today, I was shocked at the terrible reviews, and just don´t understand them. <br>I have lived in a townhome for almost a year and a half. I have renewed my short-term lease twice, and each time the rent has DROPPED, without any negotiating for a decrease on my part. <br>Yes, the carpet isn´t the best - and the kitchen cabinets are servicable but cheap looking. But overall, the apartment is lovely, the patio is large (and they resurfaced all patios this year), the view is beautiful and relaxing, there are 2 heated pools that are never in use in the evening so you have complete privacy, the gym is perhaps not state of the art, but there is never anyone there if you want a lifecycle/stairmaster/treadmill etc. My upstairs bedroom has a vaulted ceiling and view of the water and lots of friendly ducks. My downstairs ceilings are higher than standard (either 9 or 10 feet). When I request a repair it is done immediately. AND dogs are allowed - even large ones -even multiples (I have 2 small ones). (Perhaps this is why they don´t install top of the line carpet - I imagine some people totally trash it). <br>This is a lovely apartment complex.

Current Resident 502426

Resident • 1999 - 2001

Over priced slum!

We are former tenants and could not wait to move from this overpriced antiquited complex. The office staff (which is constantly turning over) is the most unprofessinal and uninformed I have ever met. <br> Repairs were shoddy if and when you could get them. I see ants were mentioned numerious times and they were a serious problem. I cannot tell you how many times I had to throw out food. <br>The rents were was out of skew and we had to pay for everything. Our unit was near a fountain that never worked. It was not until I contacted corporate and raised hell about the mosquitos in the stagnant water, that the fountain was turned back on. <br>This place is a disgrace to the people living there and to Foster City! <br>Do NOT waste money moving here because it is a total rip off!!!!!! <br>

Current Resident 253992

Resident • 2003

Price is negotiable

Negotiate for better price otherwise you will end up paying 30 to 40% higher than some other teneats who joins at the same time

Current Resident 967428

Resident • 2001 - 2002

I hope you like ANTS

Do not move here unless you really like ants, because within a short period of time, they will be everywhere. The "friendly" management won´t tell you when you move in about this infestation problem, and then they will try, in a "friendly" manner to blame you for it afterwards. HOWEVER...Any half-wit can see that the infestations are thouroughly entrenched within the walls, so no tenant alone could cause the problem. In addition, the garages flood when it rains and the balconies don´t drain properly (read: big puddles by your front door!). Overall, the complex looks nice from a distance but up close is just a big mess. Do yourself a favor and rent somewhere else!

vjha

Resident • 2001 - 2002

Expensive ..but worth it ...

We have been here for over a year...it expensive but comes with a lot of peace ..no traffic ...nice lagoon (which fills and empties everyday ) ...great jogging trail ...lotsa greenery ...lotsa parking space if you have more cars .. <br>but u do need to pay for garbage and sewer too ...mgmt is very friendly ...

Current Resident 875668

Resident • 1997

a total ripoff!

beyond hateful. one neighbour had a teenager living in the garage below our bedroom. the other neighbour used to have fistfights with his wife and leave dogshit on the mutual stairs. management did little about that or the neighbour with the muscle car who would burn rubber at 2am every morning. they did recover the exterior walls whilst we were living there. an incredible noise, dirty and dangerous. the workers smashed in a window whilst my baby was sleep near by. the landlord gave us $200 off that month´s rent. we left after only nine hateful months. i hear it hasn´t improved much, although the rents are up.

Current Resident 742089

Resident • 2002

Happy Camper

I´ve been at Schooner Bay for about 4 months now. Thankfully, I have not encountered any of the unfortunate events that the people who posted the other reviews have. I have had a couple of problems with my screens and those have been fixed promptly. The office has been very accomodating to my needs of having to reschedule the patio resurfacing and helping me arrange for my movers. I also happen to think that I´m paying a fair rate for my apartment. My heart goes out to those who have had bad experiences, but I guess I´ve been lucky.

Current Resident 443745

Resident • 2002

Bad and Good

Overall this complex is mixture of good and bad. I´ll start with the bad. The management is generally incompetent and their records are not well kept. They do try to respond promptly, but often incorrectly. However, I get exceptional responses if I call the parent company of schooner bay and complain. I have had problems with rodents, but not with ants. Traps temporarily solve this problem for months at a time, but the rodents normally return (usually in spring). Finally, it seems that the apartments were made from cheap materials, such that label of luxury apartments is a misnomer. <br> <br>Now the good. The location is excellent and hard to match. The landscaping is done well, although they do sometimes overwater some of the lawns. Finally, management is fairly lax on many of the rules, and I have made many customizations to my apartment that would have been frowned upon in other complexes. <br> <br>So my recommendation on this apartment is that its worth it, provided you bargain on the rent (which is negotiable). Schooner bay advertises ridiculous rent prices, and I pay 33% less than what the quote.

Current Resident 432120

Resident • 1999 - 2002

FEEL LIKE GETTING RIPPED OFF?

We are current tenants at Schooner Bay (a.k.a. Rip Off City) where management will GLADLY take advantage of you in a heartbeat, and still have the audacity to tell you that you should be so lucky to be paying these exhorborant prices....oh, by the way, I guess the mgmt doesn´t watch tv, because according to them, rents are not actually going down, they are going UP!!! Oh, yes, the economy is recovering quite nicely, according to them. The only reason we are here is because we love our dog, and our choices are so limited. But I guess they know that, and take pleasure in charging about 300-400 more than real market value. After living here almost two years, I can honestly say that the management are truly incompetant. The buildings are old, full of cobwebs, they never wash the windows, even though they promised us that they do power washes every few months (a total lie). The walls are paper thin, and you can hear everything from the people upstairs. We had infestations of ants and rats. They call this luxury, but the carpet is old and disgusting and the kitchen appliances have not been updated (probably never). Our fridge is obviously refurbished, different color panels and stains to boot. And if they replace it for you, they act like you should be oh so grateful. As soon as we find a place to keep our dog, we are outta here....in the meantime, we have to put up with flaky management who will lie to you and take advantage of you with pleasure. We have many friends who have already moved out, because of the rent mainly, but the management will still refuse to acknowledge that the rent is way too high. Maybe when only the ants and rats are left, they will finally wake up and smell the coffee. <br>

scottfree68

Resident • 1998 - 2002

Rats, ants, nosy neighbors, oh my!

Unless you enjoy listening to scratching and screeching in your walls during the middle of the night, you may want to consider living elsewhere. It seems that SB has a problem (one of many, I assure you) of rodents taking up residence (for a lot less rent, I might add) in the walls and ceiling crawl spaces. After speaking with several of my neighbors, I can conclude that this is not an isolated incident, regardless of what the management staff will have you believe. Here is my story, which is indicative of the experiences by other residents in other complex buildings: <br><br> <br><br>During the night, scratching and screeching could be heard behind the shower/bath wall, and one night something made a very large thud in the wall, and I could hear whimpering from whatever it was that fell. I have also had to listen to things scampering across the roof (I live on the second floor), and I have followed their little footsteps into the wall. Needless to say, I was put off by this, but I figured that as long as they stayed in the walls, I could deal with it. Then one day I had the fortune of seeing through a ceiling opening and spying sunlight coming through the outer roof above. It appears that there are plenty of openings around the exhaust pipes on the roof that allow the critters to get into the crawl spaces and walls. I informed the front office about this and they sent over Orkin the next Wednesday. The Orkin Man came out, I told him the problem of rodents in the walls, he told me there was nothing he could do about that, and he laid some traps in my upper cupboards (where I did not have a problem with rodents). After he left, I started to figure out why he would just make a whirlwind tour of the apartment and tell me that he could do nothing about the rodents in the walls and ceilings. I came to the conclusion that he could do nothing because in order for his work to be effective, SB would have to seal all of the access holes in the roof so that the rodents could not come and go as they pleased. Therefore, Orkin is ineffective, and SB will not take the necessary actions to alleviate the problem, even after I pointed out to the office staff why they had the problem in the first place. I was then told under another encounter with maintenance that they were fully aware of the problem and that just that week alone, the maint. man had caught and killed 4 other large rats, either trapped in a garage or stuck to the rodent sticky-traps. I mentioned the holes in the roof, and he just ignored my comment, and said that the problem was because of living so close to the slough (the swampy water). Needless to say, since SB refuses to address the problem, I have now called the County Health Dept. Perhaps this will light a fire under their butt. <br><br> <br><br>As for ants, these tend to show up after a good rain, and since the construction around the windows is so poor, this is how they get in the apartment. Well, that´s not entirely true, since they have also found their way into my bathroom, and there are no windows there. Again, this is a major problem in all of the buildings within SB. <br><br> <br><br>Now, the nosy neighbor who fashions herself after Mrs. Kravitz from "Bewitched." She has got her nose in everyone´s business, and she believes she is entitled to do so just because she has been here so damn long (over 15 years). She randomly leaves notes on your car or garage or front door for rule violations--she is not authorized to do so by SB, and she does not get everyone who breaks the same rule. For example, at SB residents are to keep their trashcans in their garages, and a great many of the residents do not, and she will single out a single offender and threaten to confiscate your trashcan if she finds you in violation of this rule. She does not leave the same note for every offender, just you. Well, the cans belong to SB, so she´s not really stealing from me, and secondly, I will just place my trash with someone else´s for disposal--it will save me from having to pay BFI the overpriced fees. <br><br> <br><br>All in all, I would suggest moving when your lease is up; there are cheaper places to live in Foster City and who accept pets, and the rent is NOT at "market value," no matter what the SB staff seems to think.

Current Resident 359022

Resident • 2001 - 2002

not so bad

Aside from the older appliances and trim in the kitchen, it´s been ok so far. The maintenance guy has been very helpful and friendly. Negatives : extra cost for water and garbage, ant problem, manual garage, pathetic gym (equipment is probably 15 years old and broken), hot tub always under repair, never seen anyone do pool maintenance. But great location.

Current Resident 352016

Resident • 2000 - 2002

Poor Management

Hot tub was out of service for 6 months and the pool for more than 4 months. Every time we asked when it would be fixed, they said "next week". The fitness room has old equipment that hardly works. The grounds aren´t kept too well - the man-made pond was drained (very ugly) for about a month and limbs weren´t picked up. They price gouge the tenants and give false information about current market rates. The staff is rude and no one seems to know what is going on.

Current Resident 286978

Resident • 2001 - 2002

Vote with your feet

Management is unreasonable about rent as well as passing along their costs to tenants in the form of fees and fines. They´d make tenants pay for the landscapers if they could get away with it. <br> <br>Anyway, if you don´t already live here, just rent somewhere else in Burlingame or San Mateo and save yourself $600 per month. <br> <br>If you do already live here, check the want ads in the paper. You´ll see many similar apartments for much less money. Then come lease renewal time, you´ll get a terse letter from SB stating that your inflated rent is really "market rate", and you´re lucky to be paying so much. Take a current copy of the want ads into the SB office with all the comparable apartments yellow-highlighted. Tell them you´ll continue to rent at SB if they will match the market rate, where "market" is determined by real comps, not by SB profitability targets. <br> <br>Be ready to move if they won´t match it. Let them gouge someone new in town who hasn´t researched the market. <br>

Current Resident 256722

Resident • 1999 - 2002

Pillaging and plundering are alive and well

As I read the posting of other residents, past and current, I cannot believe that we all seem to have the same concerns and gripes. My biggest complaint about this complex is that the rent is so over-priced and that the management appears not to care about gouging their tenants. The current rent amounts are out of league with the rest of the peninsula and do not take into consideration that the housing market has plummeted. <br> <br>As for dealing with the office staff, I can only suggest that one avoid it at all cost. They are condescending and rude, and are essentially the corporate talking heads you would expect them to be. They have the nerve to charge you way too much--not to mention for garbage and utilities--and have the time to harrass you if you leave your trashcan outside. For a complex that is relatively old, you would think that they would offer some kind of incetive for tenants to actually want to stay. By the way, one other complex in Foster City--Lantern Cove--offers free garbage. <br> <br>Don´t rent here.

nocomplaints

Resident • 2001 - 2002

No Complaints

I´ve been living at Schooner Bay for about a year now and haven´t had any complaints about the property or the management. I chanced by this site while trying to help a friend of mine relocate to the area who wnats a 3 bedroom apartment. I am appalled by some of these comments. I think it is a great place to live and would definitely recommend people to live here.

Current Resident 119702

Resident • 2002

Basic Amenities, Basic Overpriced Accommodation

We were on the verge of moving to this place until we read the comments and discovered for ourselves first-hand just what the messages said. Leasing staff wanted $2200 for a 2bed townhome. Originally wanted $1800, but claimed needed the extra because they replaced units in kitchen. Correction, replaced cupboard doors in kitchen, this does not warrant an increase of $400 per month. Staff rude and would not drop the rent to a reasonable level. You can rent brand spanking new for $2400. Basically the office staff are a bunch of crooks. They do as little as possible to the units and then they don´t return your deposit monies. DO NOT RENT HERE. Take your money and RUN.

Current Resident 86749

Resident • 2000 - 2002

1800/month for 2bdrm. townhouse,

WEAK management, they will come down on the rent if you haggle. The mailed me a letter saying they were lowering my rent from 2400 to 2100, when I called I got them down to 1800 for a one year lease.

Current Resident 74225

Resident • 2001

They came in the through the bedroom window

... and under the sliding glass door, and through a well-traveled hole in the bathroom wall. These ants are relentless. I use 3 different brands of those ant bait stations, and even that doesn´t stop the influx of hundreds of ants, although it does slow them down a little. <br> <br>The high rent makes it worse. Based on the want-ads, these units are about 40% over market rate, and management won´t lower the rent upon a lease renewal, even when the bottom falls through the market, as it has in the last year. <br> <br>The bike path is not worth $7,200 extra per year, especially since it is a public path. <br> <br>Very thin ceilings, so you can hear your neighbors walk above you and use the bathroom. <br> <br>Service: if you leave a voice mail on the office´s machine, the office staff will usually ignore it. You have to personally visit the office to get anything done. <br> <br>Skip this apartment complex, you can do much better for less money. <br> <br>

Current Resident 72303

Resident • 2000 - 2001

Nice, quiet neighborhood

Love living here...convenient to bike trail, restaurants, shopping...15mins from San Francisco airport!! The maintenance staff is great and very helpful and usually gets things done ASAP. And they actually decreased our rent when renewal came up this time around!!

Current Resident 33553

Resident • 2001

PEST friendly

It seems that living with mice is bog-standard at this apartment. <br><br>You will receive mice, ants, and several kinds of pests as free gifts from apartment. <br><br>Since wall is paper thin, you can feel as if mice were your pets. <br><br>Do not worry, they do not enforce pest control. <br><br>Here is a paradise if you like pests. <br><br> <br><br>

Current Resident 26950

Resident • 2000 - 2001

Not that great!

I lived in Schooner Bay for one year and moved out in June 2001. From the beginning we had terrible ant infestation to the point that my food cupboard was full of them and everything had to be thown out. I saw ants on a daily basis in every room of the apt. All the management ever did was send some guy over with a can of ant spray. Not a great solution when I went thru many cans myself! They laughed when I told them it was awful and said oh well that´s really terrible. <br>I also had a dog when I was there and after putting down an $800 deposit I paid $50 a month to have the dog. What´s the point in putting down a deposit when I paid that much every month? It wasn´t like it was costing them anything for me to have a dog. Whenever we made phone calls to the office they were never returned. Basically, the service sucked and my husband and I tried to avoid having to deal with them at all. I don´t suggest living here unless you want to get ripped off and have terrible service!

Current Resident 938972

Resident • 1999 - 2001

Move on!

I moved here because of the proximity to work and to SF. The cons have started to outnumber the pros lately. <br> <br>Last year when the housing market was going gangbusters and my lease came up for renewal, they said they´d have to keep up with the market and raise it 15%. This year with the market in the crapper and vacancies all over town, they still have the audacity to tell me the market rate is the same as it was last year. A little haggling might save you some bucks. When I mentioned that their internet site has the same apartment as mine currently available for $400 bucks less a month, the lady simply said that was old pricing. Too bad the lying sales rep didn´t cover the piece of paper in plain view on her desk with the same pricing as on the internet. Talk about lying right to your face. She also said the demand is such that there are no vacancies. I look around and see neighbors moving out but no one moving in. You can see several empty apartments when you walk around the property. <br> <br>I´ve heard other neighbors complain about this robbery as well. Unless you have dogs, this place is a rip! <br> <br>What else is wrong: poor insulation (winter time draft through windows raises heating bills), maintenance requests often not responded to or require multiple visits, ant problem, thin walls and ceiling (hear upstair neighbor walking about). <br> <br>It´s definitely a buyer´s market. Look elsewhere for a bigger place that charges less rent.

Current Resident 898672

Resident • 2001

Run, run very fast

The manager just called and asked me to provide proof that my dog died!!! The insensitivity is unbelievable. The only reason I moved to this overpriced ugly cracker box was because of my dogs. Don´t believe that these folks care about their tenants in any way. BTW - getting screwed on the rent, paying $500 more than folks who moved in just one month later than I did.