Hawthorne-Stone

Truly terrible.
First off don’t live at 1350 Pine:
The entry way smells like cat piss.
Elevator is constantly broken (40% this past year)
There is a insane person who lives next door not 1350 Pine. I am not exaggerating. He kicked his window out last weekend and was screaming at people until the police arrested him (he will be out in 72 hours cant wait)
When I was on vacation I came back to a sink that had filled up and flooded the entire bathroom. Apparently due to «the apartment above’s issues»
The water that comes out all of the sinks is rusty brown for 30 seconds.
I literally heard the property manager say «I feel really bad for the people who live here» when talking to the cops last weekend ¹⁰⁄₂₅.
As for Hawthorne-​Stone:
The company is all about making money. Good if youre an investor bad for tenets. All the above issues are easily solvable (except for the mentally disturbed person) if they actually cared about the people who actually live there. They absolutely do not.
Thank goodness for rent control, the only thing on your side here.
Steer clear, better places out there and better companies to rent from.

i like it when i first moved in

These guys still suck and I bet our old apartment still smells like smoke.

UPDATE:
Only fair to increase my rating as time goes by with no issues.
—
So I’ve walked up my 5 flights of stairs, carrying my bike, 7 days in a row because the elevator is broken. Again. Since we have disabled people in the building, it might be nice if they fixed it for good, since it seems to break often.
Hawthorne lets you be late once during your entire rental under them. The second time will cost you 10% rent.
Hawthorne neglected to tell the potential tenants of 845 Sutter St that there has been a bedbug problem since 2010, so it was a shock when I rented my unit and got bedbugs a year later. Cost me a ton of money, and had to live out of my living room for 7 weeks. There are traps all over the building.
This also means pest inspectors visit your apartment every so often, whether you want them to or not.
1 of 4 dryers had been broken for months now.
Hot water needs to be shut off on a regular basis (every 2 months) because they need to fix the water system.
Just rattling off some of the negatives. I pay a ton for my unit, and don’t get much in terms of service.
Just trying to keep it real.

Hawthorne Stone is a great management company. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Lived at one of their properties for almost 2 years and had no issues at all (which is hard to find in SF).

I am SO grateful to have Hawthorne and Stone management as my first (and hopefully only) rental experience in San Francisco.
I moved from NYC to SF unexpectedly in July 2010 and I had worked with Paul right before he left to find this gem of a studio I live in now. Even though he was out to bigger and better things in his future, he worked with me over the course of a month after seeing a previous and disappointing listing to find a place for me to call home. I was then passed to Joanna upon his departure, who wrapped everything up as quickly and easily as I could have wished.
As for the building maintenance, I’ve seen two resident managers now. The previous was good and the current is GREAT. Our current RM is wonderful, super nice and very prompt. I’ve had some leery managers in the past (not this building) and that always keeps me from asking for help when I need it.
All locks and safety mechanisms in the building work, all the time. I frequently see the resident manager on site working on something, whether its installing new light fixtures, cleaning up the garbage area, retouching some wear and tear on the walls… etc.
As a single female, I feel very safe in my building and everything is maintained exceptionally well.
Pest control visits every week and sprays the apartments who want the treatment and if anything breaks down, the management is QUICK to fix it. Laundry machine broken? No problem. Fixed within 48 hours. Light in the hallway out? Fixed within the day. I dropped my keys down the elevator shaft, retrieved in less than 10 minutes. Leaky sink, broken window latch? SHAZAAM! Fixed before dinnertime.
They send in whoever they need to right away. This is an old building and a couple of times the elevator doesn’t work properly or gets stuck on other floors because of the old door that doesn’t shut/​lock right, but once you call, it gets fixed within the day. Same for any problems in my apartment, if I call early enough!
The building has carpeted hallways, but it never smells musty at all. They keep the property clean as a whistle and in the near 3 years I’ve been here, I haven’t seen a single roach or mouse. Some tenants will leave junk in the garbage alley, old furniture, books and discarded things sometimes in the lobby, but they never hang out for more than a day before they’re gone. No persistent eyesores here.
If I call the office with a problem, I never get any attitude at all, just clear questions and answers. They clearly have very competent people working in all corners of this company.

I base my review on personal experience. I have rented two different places in two different districts in SF with Hawthone and Stone. I have dealt with many other management companies before, after, and in between those two houses.
What I found is that Hawthorne and Stone are the best. They are trustworthy, quick to respond, and friendly. Specifically Panthika who is currently on their staff went well above and beyond for me many times. She didn’t have to at all. She is very honest, human and helpful and in this day and age it’s very appreciated.
So if you are looking at a place and pondering Hawthorne and Stone and your agent is Panthika consider yourself lucky and take the place. You wont be disappointed by this management company.
PS I’m no longer with Hawthorne and Stone and I can say I already regret it.

I would say when I first moved in 2 years ago they were great, but in the past year it has gone downhill. First off in our building on Mason street there was a lovely cockroach on my mailbox and where we asked them to spray more often, they did so perhaps once every three months. Not enough in my opinion with a restaurant in the building.
The kicker for me and the reason I’m writing this Unilocal review is that when we moved out we had one last walkthrough with one of their staff and after he had a once over he told us aside from a cleaning fee that everything looked great. A few weeks later we get a notice saying we were charged for «bathtub damage» and were charged $ 500 for it.
So I would be leery of this company. Probably the worst experience I’ve had with an apartment rental company.

When I first moved in, they were great. They’ve gone to shit lately though.
Nothing gets fixed like it used to. Water was dripping on to my ceiling and even though repeatedly pointing it out to their «genius» maintenance guy, it was ignored. Also ignored was a ceiling light that when left on for five minutes filled the apartment with a rotting smell. Have no idea what that was.
Also a huge issue has been the lack of actually fixing the elevator in the building. Most everyone I knew had gotten stuck in it at least once! It’s a huge safety issue and they either need to fix things like this properly or just shut them down.
I had enough, especially with their crappy maintenance of the windows which let in all the street noise and cold. Now they’re screwing me out of a large chunk of my deposit as it seems they’re purely business oriented and want to use it to fund a portion of the remodel they’re doing so that they can raise the rent $ 500 on the unit.
It’s a shame as a year or two ago, I would have given them a great review, but now I agree with all of L.V.‘s points and would never deal with them again.

Love them — Joanna Stewart was awesome (not there anymore, unfortunately) and my building manager Archie and his staff are fantastic as well. I have to be careful to mention if anything is wrong because they want to fix it right away and I’m not always prepared for it!
As for people complaining about the removal of the steam heat, that’s a natural trend because steam heat is antiquated and very difficult to maintain, esp when HS tries to keep natural hardwood floors. The wall heaters are more than enough for me, I just make sure I close doors to rooms I don’t need, which you should be doing from a conservation standpoint anyway. The apartments are beautifully done and preserved with their classic feel, despite the cost benefit of just making them look uniform. I chose my classic 1919 over the corporate places they slap together these days.
I’ve recommended HS to friends as I think you would be hard-​pressed to find a better management company in a city like SF without going corporate and living in drywall hell.

For the past few years, I’ve been renting an apartment from HS. Apartments are nice, clean, market priced. Seems the management has been cutting a lot of corners lately. They removed the steam heat radiators that actually heated the apartments and replaced with small, ineffective wall heaters that are very expensive to use (the kind you usually find in a bathroom) and they never replaced the on-​site manager when he got fed up and quit. HS is very diligent at collecting the rent; however, if there is a problem, you mostly get over-​the-​phone lip service by a very nice office person. They don’t step up to handle issues that normally arise. If something needs to be fixed, they send over the «no comprende» maintenance engineers who don’t fix things very well.

I am relocating from LA to SF and was performing recon on a new apt online. I contacted Joanna (Rose) Stewart regarding an apt in Pacific Heights I saw on Craigslist. She wrote back a fairly detailed and helpful message the same day which was great. Then I never heard from her again! I sent two more e-​mails after a couple days. I called and left a message after about a week. And then, assuming the place was gone by then, I sent another e-​mail saying that I’d be interested in any other similar properties. Never replied goddamit!
Thankfully, it all turned out for the best as I found a nicer 1 bedroom in Pacific Heights with another agent at Hill & Co. who was extremely responsive and apparently more eager for my business.
They get 2 stars instead of 1 for the initial rapid e-​mail reply and also because Joanna looks fairly hot in her photo on the Hawthorne-​Stone webpage. Shawtayee!

i absolutely love hawthorne stone. Joanna helped my boyfriend and i find a perfect apartment that was a very decent price. she was so patient with us and really wanted to make sure that we were comfortable. she was very quick to follow up when we called her and we were able to move into the apartment within one week.
its been about six months now and we are still as happy as can be. they have great buildings to rent from and come right away to fix problems. I am very content with hawthorne stone and will always rent from them from now on.

Joanna Rose help me find the perfect apartment for me at the right price. She was very honest and helped make my move easily and stress free. The maintenance service at my building is also great! Any time I had an issue it was quickly resolved.
If you are relocating from another state to San Francisco I recommend contacting Hawthorne-​stone to find you place in the city.

I liked these guys. I rented from them for only a year, but during that year every interaction I had with either my property manager, Joanna Rose, or the Maintenance Manager, Archie (cant remember his last name) was good. They are friendly, responsive, and always go out of their way to help.
Archie even drove all the way out to my apt once when I was out of town to check and make sure I hadnt left the front door unlocked. I called him, in a real state of panic, and he really came through for me.
Anyway, I liked this team a lot and I’d highly recommend renting from them.

Leasing agent Joanna is A-​M-​A-​Z-​I-​N-​G.
Incredibly accomidating, friendly, understanding, and patient.
She has been an advocate for me over the last year renting with Hawthorne Stone. She found for me an amazing apartment when I was unhappy with my previous living situation. She really listened to my concerns and made sure to find a place that addressed the issues I was facing. Highly recomended!

(If you’ve noticed a tendency towards 5 star reviews, it’s just because I’ve struck a karmic goldmine of late and am throwing more coal into the fire by giving credit where credit’s due.)
Joanna from Hawthorne Stone delivered the most perfect apartment right into my lap, fully renovated, after a brief conversation over the phone a day before I flew off to the east coast for a week. She told me that the apt I had been jonesing for on Craigslist was taken, but that someone was vacating a similar unit on the top floor which she had not yet advertised. She actually saved it for me to have first viewing/​dibs, and arranged for me to move in just 4 days later! She was so accomodating and so efficient. in a relatively new city where I didn’t really have anyone to turn to for help, she made it easy for me.
When I contacted the agency asking for a letter for the SPCA to allow me to adopt a cat, and to fix up a dead outlet, I got 4 call backs from 3 different agents within 2 hours (I couldn’t get to my personal phone at work, but still very impressive from their service end).
I accidentally broke a stairwell window moving in, and between the resident manager patching it up to the agency rep replacing it, it was dealt with in 4 days… and I never heard another word about that.
They really keep their buildings up to par, which says so much in a city where agencies are quick to up their prices, but not do any extra work.
I heart Hawthorne Stone and everyone I’ve dealt with there.

The new resident managers are exceptionally diligent about ensuring a pleasant and livable home for all residents. Everything is kept clean and in good repair, including the area outside the building. Any tenant problems are addressed immediately.

Was my apartment beautiful? No. Was my landlord fantastic? Hell No. Was the neighborhood picturesque and safe? Nope. However, I loved having my apartment under the management of Hawthorne-​Stone, and here’s why… I was in a tight spot and had to take this über-​tiny, ultra-​expensive apartment on a sidestreet right on Market next to the freeway exit. I had a medium-​sized dog and desperately needed a place to live… Despite a CREEPY landlord, a sketchy hole-​in-​the-​wall location, and a box of an apartment, Hawthorne-​Stone was always great. They were incredibly responsive when any problem arose, super-​sweet about my dog (even invited her to visit their offices!), and helped me get my security deposit back from the sheisty landlord. The only reason I didn’t want to move is that I knew this kind of service is so hard to come by with property management.

I love Hawthorne/​Stone. Although «technically» I am not on a lease with them. Nor is my dog or cat. My roomie is though and he’s been in our apartment for over 5 years and we love it. The only reason they lose a star is because of our janky elevator. It’s truly scary. Once I was stuck in it for about 45 minutes. There’s nothing quite so humiliating as listening to other tenants pity your uncertain fate and laugh. I took a nap on the floor of the elevator while I waited for it to be operational because what the hell else was I supposed to do?
Anyways, I love my apartment and have no intention of moving. Unless they find out I’m not on the lease and give me the boot. That would suck. So my name is Paul and this is between y’all.