Gibson Flats

Gibson Flats has been one of the most difficult renting experiences of my life.
The most recent issue which has led me to finally write this review, is when Gibson Flats towed my own vehicle out of our gated garage while I was out of town over the holidays. Imagine returning from an extended getaway to a (supposed) relaxing Sunday and instead you’re tracking down your car. And I am not the only resident who has been towed from this garage.
Since there is absolutely ZERO guest parking at this building it has affected my guests as well.
Power goes out to this building FAR more often than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Best to not live on the Gibson Street side or else you’ll hear the thumping hip-​hop music from the gym right cross the street first thing every morning. Sleeping in is a thing of the past.
During the summer months the pool is constantly surrounded by chaz-​chaz frat guys or their female equivalent. Cigarette butts everywhere, glass by the pool, it’s a mess.
Moving into this building was one of my biggest regrets ever. Overpriced. Poor quality. I feel unfortunate for the professional staff that has to manage this albatross.
STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!

Absolutely miserable at letting residents know when a package has been delivered to the office. This wasn’t an issue the first year I lived here, but it’s been an inconvenience for most of 2015

Make sure you ask for the side of the apartments that don’t lose power in every. single. minor. storm. Apparently a gust of mildly strong wind is enough to knock out power for 20+ hours to the north half of the complex, while the south half complex gets off Scott free with power to spare, as well as the rest of South Lamar around you. So get ready for hot, sleepless nights if it rains on the north end. Why these two halves don’t use the same power source is beyond me.
Apart from that, you’re mostly paying for location here, which is great. I have no complaints about management or the amenities, it’s just another completely crap build job, from the power grid that fails constantly and the thin floors that allow you to hear every dog bark for hours on end (I work from home and had an issue with an above tenant’s constantly whining dog, a daily/​hourly issue that lasted for nearly 6 months.) We renewed for a second year because we loved the location and moving is a chore, but it seems like we may have made a mistake at this point and this will definitely be our last year here.

I was a happy resident at Gibson Flats when I first moved to Austin, Texas. I needed to find a place quick and the leasing staff was courteous, professional and thoughtful when it came to making sure I could visualize my couch, kitchen table, and bedroom furniture in the apartment.
Rossi Hill, and Matt Rogers were wonderful leasing staff to work with, always willing to help you make the apartment and complex felt like home. I enjoyed that the building was well managed and maintenance request were completed in a day or two depending on the service.
We had a great time at Gibson Flats and loved the walking score. Only downsides include: noisy streets at night, lack of resident parking passes (only one allowed per 1bed unit), and they are not getting GOOGLE FIBER. GET GOOGLE FIBER :)

I was one of the first people to move into the flats, I have found even tho the staff has changed every single person that has worked here has been so nice and helpful. My apartment is beautiful and surprisingly quiet. I have really enjoyed living here for many reasons but highest on the list is the staff.

It’s been almost 6 months and have to say, still pretty stoked to be here. I am a bit surprised by the bad reviews so I am going to write a novella. Big city apartment living is definitely an acquired taste. It isn’t for everyone. Being a San Francisco transplant I am used to obnoxious street parking, horrendous rent and city noise. I am ecstatic that we have not only one but two parking spaces with a two bedroom. The rent is competitive to other new builds (and yes Austin rent is too high overall-​did ya’ll not learn from California’s economy crash?). The noise level isn’t bad. The courtyard with the pool can be hoppin’ during the day but other than once or twice the noise curfew has been kept. Some serious guy in a suit appeared before I could even make the call to complain so there are some stealthy peace keepers around.
This review can’t be all fluff… I will lay it out. Yes the lack of guest parking is really hard and can be really inconvenient. I am not paying a fee to have dinner guests over but again the fact that we even have tenant parking is a new luxury to me. The noise is one of those things that I think can fall into 3 causes. One: the courtyard has an echo and I don’t think people realize whispers on a balcony blow in the wind (along with smoke). ;) Two: and this is really my only reason for not giving more stars and that is the sub floor build. They don’t build for earth quakes here so unless sound dampening floors go in you will hear your neighbor above you and your neighbor below is gifted with your own swan like abilities. Three: the train which I love and don’t notice unless I am outside.
I can only write about my own experience here with Maintenance and requests. I made a request after hours and before my morning coffee it was handled. Anytime I submit requests whether its for my place or the grounds (i.e. wasp nest, BBQ repair etc.) it is handled immediately and I always see the awesome maintenance guys cleaning, walking the grounds, or updating something. I have never rented from a place that keeps everything so clean. It’s really awesome. Painting and washing the garbage areas even! Everyone I have ever dealt with in the office has been amazing. The office gals are on it. They even take special care with packages that arrive. Have you ever seen a super prego lady out picking up bits of garbage outside an office? It’s not an easy task.
I have dealt with Rossi the most and he has always gone above and beyond. He was actually part of the deciding factor to rent here. I rented sight unseen with the help of a real-​estate agent (Plug: Rani Alowairdi RA residential;da-bomb!) so I only had communication and video’s to go on. Out of all the places Rani checked out, Rossi was the only Leasing agent to make an effort to appear on the video, wave, say high and point out features in the apartment. He is the reason I chose Gibson Flats over the others. Rossi even followed up with an email to address any other concerns or questions that I may have had. After I made the decision this was my place he worked with me to make the transition almost effortless. In all the moving stressors one can accumulate my apartment was the least of my worries. Rossi continued to check in while I was getting settled to make sure all was well. Rossi is RAD! –TheEND.

We moved in shortly after they opened and the original management was great. Since then the management team seems to have changed to new people who don’t know how to handle simple issues like parking.
They have enough vacancy that the parking garage is maybe half full and yet they won’t allow you rent an additional space. I’ve pressed them on this for about 6 months and they keep saying they will offer additional spots but won’t give any timeline. With new buildings opening (Lamar Union, Hanover) I don’t think its going to help their vacancy issue.
Our bathroom door literally fell off the hinge, which was fixed. Our patio door was hanging off the hinge and barely closed; maintenance’s solution was to hammer the metal around the door which resulted in large gaps that air can flow through.
Also, while every building around us appears to have Google Fiber, they do not. The fire doors on some stairs have been closed for a few weeks apparently due to an issue with the fire system.

If you are in the market for a WAY over priced DECENT apartment in a good location then look no further because Gibson flats may be for you. My wife and I (newly weds) signed a one year lease a year ago. We actually signed it while I was deployed in hopes that when I got home we would have fun being in such a cool location as I was getting out of the military within just a couple months after my return from the deployment. Well little did we know that if you get a one bed room apartment they will only give you one parking pass even if you are married. They expect one person to park on the street and act like that is such an easy task. Well with the Gibson bar being right next door and they have pretty much no parking so all the street spots (which aren’t that many to begin with) are already taken. It’s a shame, we were really excited about moving here in order to be right in the heart of downtown and even planned on staying for a few years (obviously those plans have changed) but I can honestly say that Gibson flats apartments has managed to make our «living in the heart of Austin» experience a pretty bad one. We began to realize the mistake we made right after we sign the lease. People purposely trash this place because of how fed up they are with this place and then no one cleans up or fixes anything. For example the gate to the pool has been broken for roughly 5 months now. The reason they have decided to leave it broken is because the part that broke is fragile and keeps breaking every few months so they’ve decided to just leave it broken. Please if you are reading this review and trying to decide rather or not you should give this place your money or not… Don’t. In fact don’t just walk from this place run… It is an absolute joke.

This review is from «Residents of the Month» and it’s a bad one. Gibson Flats drops the ball. Be prepared for an uphill battle the minute you sign your lease. My husband and I moved from DC to Austin and fell in love with the location and amenities that Gibson Flats had to offer. Staff are friendly in person but are tied behind red tape and rules. We signed a lease shortly after the tour and had high hopes. Move in day arrived and we walked in to find that our accent wall hadn’t been painted — so WE brought it to managements attention. They were apologetic of course but it was inconvenient to have painters in while we were unloading boxes and moving furniture. Fast forward about a month — our new, one week old truck was parked in the Gibson garage overnight. We woke up to find someone had swiped and hit the parked truck. I went to management and again, they were apologetic but things were out of their hands — there was no video surveillance to assist in finding out who hit the truck (even though it’s pretty obvious it was the resident parked next to the truck). The management team took the information and told me that I would be hearing from the higher ups — well that never happened. If you’re renting a one bedroom apartment then you only get one parking pass. So, if you’re married and have two cars then one is left to hunting for street parking on a busy street. Then we got a puppy — paid our outrageous non-​refundable dog fee and $ 500 per animal pet deposit. Our pup was learning crate training — so with that came barks and noise complaints. We signed our pup up for doggy daycare three times a week to help with that. We get that barking can get on neighbors nerves BUT it’s an APARTMENT complex — to be expected. You can’t walk through the hallway without hearing a dog bark — which was okay by us but not by other tenants. Gibson would call letting us know of a noise complaint due to our pups barking. Again, nice on the phone and apologetic but there was no point. We were walking on egg shells and counting the days to our end date. So, we terminated our lease early by finding another couple to take over. Talk about fees. We paid $ 300 transfer fee, lost all of our deposits and then some. Even after we moved out and thought ties were severed, they weren’t. We got a call saying we owed $ 75.00 for an automatic payment check cancellation — Gibson tried withdrawing one months rent after we moved out and my husband cancelled it. They called saying the bank charges them for cancellations and that we are responsible for the fee (even though we never owed rent)! I spoke to the management team and said we aren’t paying — give me a number to speak to — believe it or not they said there wasn’t one! They played with us back and forth about it and eventually dropped the bogus charge. This may sound harsh, but unfortunately it’s all true.

The apartments are alright, and the people in the office are certainly nice, but there are several things that make me not recommend this property. First, the parking garage is a long walk from your apartment if you live on the Lamar side of the building. Second, there is no visitor parking at all. And the biggest issue is they don’t appear to be opting in to Google Fiber and I can get no explanation of why they aren’t doing this. Google has indicated the enrollment period for this area has expired, but when I talk to the office they claim they’re still working with Google, so I’m not sure if they might eventually change or not.

I’ll start off by saying the location is great and the actual units seem to be standard for Austin.
The reason for my review is I was shown one apartment and given another. On the day of my move-​in, I found out that they had leased me a handicap unit. I was never told this when I was shown the apartment — and the unit is significantly different than a regular apartment with the same floor plan. I would have never agreed to lease a handicap unit if that was disclosed to me. After hours of going back and forth (and because my stuff was literally in a moving truck already) — I agreed to move into the modified unit and just not unpack until another unit with the same floor plan opens up 6 weeks later. In return, they agree to help me with the second move.
Now, they are telling me that «helping» me with the second move only includes them waiving my transfer fees from one apartment to the other and allowing me to actually transfer — in addition, they agreed to pay for movers to carry my heavy items from apartment A to apartment B. They consider this being generous. I expected them to pay the hookup fees for my electric, cable, washer/​dryer, etc. I paid all of those fees when I first moved in — why should I pay those again? In addition to wasting a whole weekend moving (second time in less than 2 months) — as well as having to hire a cleaning crew to clean the old unit or spend more time doing that.
So, to be clear:
they did a ‘bait and switch’ on the apartment
I have to live for 6 weeks in an apartment that is only 25% unpacked
I have to pay all the fees associated with transferring services for a second time
I have to hire a cleaning crew to clean old apartment (again, second time in less than 2 months)
All of this in addition to the general headache of moving. But they DID waive the ‘transfer apartment fee’ so we’re cool.

Gibson Flats is in a perfect, central location. Being new to Austin, it has been great to be able to get to most parts of the city very quickly. My apartment is beautiful — the appliances are top quality, and there are stylish features throughout.
I’ve encountered few problems during my time here, but every time I need help or something needs fixing, I can rely on the staff and management to take care of it! A special call out to MATT in the office who will address issues immediately, and always lends a helping hand!

Quick update: 2 months in, they’ve added a visitor parking program which is nice, and otherwise everything is continuing as reviewed previously. Same great service. The pool is too cold for recreational swimming — a tradeoff between shade in the summer when the sun’s higher in the sky (when you want to swim anyway) and not enough sun in the winter to warm it up. Still fine for lap swimming though once you get rolling. They’re pretty much at capacity now but all the common areas are holding up nicely — not overused or trashed at all, so the building seems like it’ll maintain a good equilibrium through the rest of our stay. Still really happy about the choice, now just can’t wait for the Alamo Drafthouse complex to finish and open! (the Alamo is already open, itself)

This is an update to my original review.
The girls in the office are very kind (especially Kim) and have tried hard to resolve all the issues and complaints we had since originally moving in this past December.
I would recommend reaching out to them if you have any issues with anything.
Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions on the property.