One word: Caution.
I lived in the Elliott Bayview Apartments (EBV) for one year and four months. I am the typical story for someone who relocates to this area of town - relocated to Seattle to work for Amazon. Have no idea about the areas or parts of town or rental prices. I went on a house hunting trip and stumbled upon EBV and it seemed great - easy walking distance to work, high walk score in the city, right by the space needle, dog friendly, life will be great. Then I moved in.
Renters beware - read: there are 3 homeless shelters within 2 blocks of this apartment building (one is directly across the street). You will often wake up and walk out of your building to find 2 homeless people sleeping in the flower beds, on the stoop of your entrance, and urinating on the side of the building. They often tailgate in to the building and use the Keurig machine and common-area restroom in the EBV building itself. If this isn't caution enough to not rent here, feel free to continue reading.
Burglary - There were 3 break-ins during the time I lived at this building, none of which showed signs of forced entry. That only implies one of two things: (1) someone expertly picked the lock with no trace of entry (not probable), or (2) someone had a key. The only way someone would have a key is if the property management didn't switch out the deadbolt when they moved in, or if it was an inside job and someone who works at the building or a vendor for the building did it. One of the tenants who was broken in to specifically asked to leave the building and the property management company refused to let her out of her lease. Make sure you look at police stats for this property on the Seattle PD website before signing a lease!
Elevator - The elevator in this building appears nice and durable and it is great to live on the 7th floor with an elevator. Until the elevator is down every other week for days at a time and you are walking up and down 7 flights of stairs with groceries, a pet, your backpack, and a bike. After the elevator was down for several days per week for 5 weeks in a row, a few of us in the building filed a housing complaint with the City of Seattle Fair Housing Commission. When the inspector visited the property, the elevator was conveniently fixed the next day. Management was unwilling or unable to fix the elevator that they agreed was a common area element paid for through rent. After weeks of the elevator being out constantly day after day, management refused to credit rent for the not-functioning elevator that they promised would be functioning when we signed a lease (& agreed to a price).
Make no mistake - the rent at this apartment is expensive. Relative to other like-units in the area, it is expensive. You may think you are getting a deal because they give you free internet or a free gym membership (actually a really nice perk), but you are paying more than others in the area simply by the fact that there are no amenities in the building and rent is the same price. The rooftop is great, but there usually was this aggressive dog running around the rooftop that a tenant on the roof owned and let run around without a leash (and the building refused to take care of for over a year), which prevented me from using it ever. Because there are no amenities, and prices in this building are already higher than other buildings, you are inherently paying more for less.
On a positive note, Jason (the maintenance guy) is very responsive, very helpful and was a great representative in the building. He was responsive, answered after-hours calls, and unfortunately is in a tough spot between his management and the residents.
Overall, I would highly discourage you from living at the Elliott Bayview Apartments and caution you about this property management company (Indigo Real Estate). You don't want to deal with this headache for your housing situation. I promise, there are much better housing options out there for the price. read more