Waterford Place

I have been staying here over an year now and I have never faced a single problem. The maintenance guys are right on time if we face any issue. As it happens, one of my friends car was towed by towing service as we had parked in emergency. The towing agency asked for $ 400, but, thanks to Tea our community manager, we were reimbursed the amount. It was nice to know that they followed up with the towing agency and helped us out, I really appreciate their communication. This definitely makes it a hospitable place to live in!

Overpriced, run down, bikes stolen form the parking lot (they had chaiins), and they took our deposit away, counting every little dent on the wall.
Front desk people are not happy, customer service people either. Except for when you are there to look at an apartment.
Lived there for a year and a half… so happy we left. Thankful that it was a safe place to transition when moving into the area.

If you like loud people on their cell phones in the parking garage at night, so loud you can hear the people talking from your apartment, this is the place for you.
If you like a management that claims they’re working to fix a situation like loud people but never does, this is a place for you.
If you like a shitty security service that gives you attitude when you call in a noise complaint, this is a place for you.
If you don’t enjoy loud and rude migrant tech workers and a management that does nothing about them, don’t live here. Because it seems like every night I wake up to some idiot who can’t keep his cell phone conversation in his own apartment and feels like all the other sleeping residents want to hear it.

I have been here for about 18 months and am very happy overall!!!. It is the best place and best apartment in san jose, ca. It is a huge complex but yet its still very quiet. Very good car parking, fitness center and pool. The front office staff is exceptional as is the maintenance.
completely satisfied with my experience prior to moving in. if there’s any maintenance problem used to solve the problem less than a day. Really thankful to Tea, Huy, Miguel and also other staff from Essex property working at Waterford Place.

I have lived in the Waterford Place community for almost a year now and couldn’t be happier. Huy, Natasha, and Tea are wonderful and accommodating. I moved here from Ohio initially and Huy ensured I was completely satisfied with my experience prior to moving in. Throughout this past year, any time I had questions or needed anything, someone would follow up with me in less than 24 hours. Miguel and the maintenance team are extremely professional and respond to maintenance issues in no more than 24 hours. The grounds are beautiful and the pool has just been renovated, as well as our fitness room. The leasing office and clubhouse, with wifi lounge, are currently under complete renovation too. I am also pleasantly surprised to see more families as my neighbors and less «techies» lately. Bravo to the Waterford Place team, I’m staying another year.

I stayed at Waterford apartments for one year with my family and can’t be more dissatisfied.
Reasons you shouldn’t rent here:
1. This place is dead once you are outside community. You find nothing on 1^st or 4^th street other than car garages or parking lots
2. No preschools or elementary schools nearby
3. With current rents, $ 2300+, I won’t even think about moving here
4. Their gym is piece of sh*t, it never worked during my stay
5. Staff is good but upper management won’t let them do the right things
6. They have history of *stolen cars* from parking lot. Yes, check with SJPD if you don’t trust me
7. Your car and home insurance will go UP once you move here
8. You will always drive 5+ miles to buy groceries
9. Your kids won’t find enough place to play within community premises
10. They hike rents every year, no matter how the market looks like
11. This place has lot of San Jose State students, smoking, drinking and hanging out all over the place, not ideal for family environment
12. VTA station nearby Waterford, Gish is the dirtiest station on entire 1^st St. Be prepared to deal with nuts when you onboard light rail
13. If you ever miss a payment by mistake, you will be screwed
14. Night security patrolling is a joke, I have seen homeless people within premises. During one year time, I saw cops almost a dozen times within premise. Don’t feel safe when you are inside Waterford
15. Why to pay more money when you can find something better around? Look for communities near Montague, they are awesome.
Thanks,
Jass

This community has given me lessons in hard way. I would recommend stay away from Waterford if at all you can find other communities around. Look for apartments in North Park San Jose or around.
PS: This bad review has nothing to do with Leasing Office or their staff. Its for the ugly policies Essex Corporation posses which always works against the common man.

I’ve been living here for about 6 months now. Below are some of the things i appreciate.
1. First of the management/​maintence team is really good. Very professional, reasonable and approachable. They will often go out of the way to help you out for specific issues. Have to give the manager (Teah) a kudos for his service.
2. The premises inside the apartment are always maintained really well. As in no dirty pathways or gardens. The pool is always sparkling clean.
3. I think the location is quite good. It is 5 minutes from san jose downtown by car. A VTA station is right next to the apartment. San jose airport is really close too and there are a lot of places and restaurants to go to which are within a 3 – 4 mile radius.
4. Proper ceiling apartments. I hate apartments where if i jump i can touch the ceiling (im not tall). The layout inside the apartments is also quite nice and
5. All the equipment inside is new and working.(no 10 year old microwaves or washing machines). My drier had some issue once and they promptly changed the whole unit with a new one in 1 day.
5. You get your own parking spot inside a gated parking garage which is quite nice. Overall the whole community is gated from all sides which bodes well for security.
Coz of its location (close to VTA, san jose downtown and freeway entrances), nice maintainence and a really good management team i would recommend this place.
Thanks,
Sudaksh

I’ve lived here for about a year now, and so far I have no complaints. The apartment was clean and in good shape when we moved in. The office and maintenance staff are friendly and helpful (we had one minor plumbing issue and it was quickly resolved). I also like being 2 blocks away from lightrail and close to downtown San Jose.

Overview: We rent a 2br 2 ba apartment for 2200 a month. We pounced on the place bec of the price after a stressful string of apartment hunting. Rent is completely absurd atm, no?
Anyhoo, lets get the good qualities out of the way, shall we? The complex is nice, pretty clean, and well maintained. The maintenance staff friendly and quick to respond with any repairs.
You get one parking spot in the garage with your rent.
There is a pool, hot tub, and gym. Pool is heated throughout winter/​spring, so I’ve been told (have not stuck around long enough to find out for myself yet). Hot tub is heated all year round. The gym is kept clean and has one weight machine and several other cardio machines. The two stars are mostly for the awesome maintenance work.
Now, the bad, starting with the meh-​ok I can over look that to the omg-don’t-live-here:
People swim/​dip in the hot tub in their UNDERWEAR. EW.
I’ve seen people turn the garage into a skate park. Bunch of people blaring loud music and skateboarding down the garage. Whatever, just not around my scratch-​less car please.
Someone knocked on our door soliciting for «donations» to his fake college fund.
The neighborhood is pretty shady. If you have kids, don’t live here. If you like walking to places, don’t live here. Basically; if you want to see drugged up looking people, ragged looking prostitutes, and possibly get mugged on your walk home, you can live here.
What I think is the worst part of this place? Terrible, terrible sound proofing. A bunch of college students moved into the unit above ours, and on the occasion that I sleep over, I hear the lovely orchestra of the night owls over head: heavy stomping, loud thuds, and all in harmony of drawers opened then slammed shut. Did I mention that these night owls love to make these sounds 12mn-​3am? So magnificent that I want to die… lol. We have gone to management regarding this situation multiple times and have asked nicely, then firmly, for the people upstairs to be considerate to their also-​paying downstairs neighbor. Today, my mom brought up the situation again, only to be told (basically disregarded), that being woken up EVERY NIGHT is normal for people who live in apartments. I’ve lived in San Francisco apartments for 2 years and never had this problem. Twice in a college dorm and another in an apartment complex. NOT ONCE was I woken, dead in the middle of the night, by stomping college kids or evening dwelling neighbors. I never knew if they were cooking up a midnight munchy or having guests over, because I NEVER HEARD any of it through the ceiling. Can’t wait for this lease to end.
BEWARE: My mom wakes up haggard and fatigued EVERYDAY, because apparently hearing loud thuds and heavy footsteps through the night is standard apartment expectations here. At this price, and apparently «luxury» setting, shouldn’t sound proofing be standard? Look else where, and save yourself the stress and possible illness.

I lived here for one year. Inside the complex it’s a nice enough place, very clean with nice facilities. The downside of the place and the reason I decided to move was largely the surrounding area. It is located very close to lots of the airport motels and there are lots of shady characters outside the complex.
If you are okay with this it’s not a bad place to live, although there is one other thing you should be ready for… at the end of our 12 month lease, they increased our rent more than 10% (about $ 300)! And when we declined and moved out they kept our entire $ 500 deposit and charged another $ 100 on top of that (and yes we did clean the apartment when we left).
So I can’t fully recommend this place considering the area and the way they took advantage of us when we moved out.

The apartment complex is centrally located and is well managed. It’s close to 3 major highways, airport, VTA, mall, grocery stores like Target and Trader Joes and offices. It is a safe community.
The maintenance staff is always responsive and prompt. The community manager (Teah) is very approachable, personable, understanding and accommodating. The rest of the staff (Joel and others) are extremely helpful as well. These 2 bd\ 2 bath apartments have the best layout with ample storage and closet space in the South Bay Area. There is ample parking in and around the community. I experienced noise issues but my concern/​complaints were promptly addressed by the management. This is a must community to consider if you are looking to rent in the South Bay Area.

My two roommates and I have lived at The Waterford Place for one year now. It is great!
Let me try to remember a year ago… Getting a tour for the apartment was easy, and with an upcoming availability for a 2br 2bath so was moving in. Joel (and Sanjuana at the time) helped us relieve the many stresses that come along with moving to a new place. All of the paperwork you are required to sign is online, easy, saves trees, and is quick. The only thing about this place is that it is considered a «Below Market Rate» apartment complex. So there is an income limit depending on how many people you live with. Rent is not cheap, but it is the going rate for 2br 2bath in the area.
Pros: Staff is always friendly and meets any needs we have, maintenance requests are completed within a day or two, if there are any notices they give us ample time to let us know they’re coming, grounds are clean, parking is great (and lots of street parking), usually always quiet and barely any disruptions from neighbors, washer/​drying in unit, I use the gym almost every day, the pool is kept clean and furniture is added during summer months, we feel safe and at home here. We still hand in our monthly check because I feel safer that way and they don’t complain about seeing us every month.
Cons: None really… Rent is high BUT you can’t complain since the complex is in a SUPER convenient location (next to airport, major freeways 101, 880, 87, downtown, stores aren’t far away, and the VTA is steps away). Also, there aren’t many light fixtures in the apartment itself (only in kitchen area, bathrooms, walk-​in closet, desk area) so you have to provide your own (which I guess can be okay if you’re into putting lights where you want them).
We are renewing our lease for another year in a 3br 2bath (and adding a cat to our lease). We bugged Joel for a couple months about this because we really wanted to live here. Thankfully everything worked out. Joel was really patient with us and made the transition painless. We look forward to another year.
Thank you Waterford Place!

I’ve been in the Bay Area for almost a decade, and this is the best apartment that I’ve ever had. I was really surprised at all of the negative reviews, so I felt compelled to give my experience from the viewpoint of a tenant that STILL lives here and has lived here for years.
I’ve lived at Waterford Place Apartments for almost two years. In that time, my experience with the management and the staff has been about as good as it gets. When we had our cat, the staff was perfect about not letting him run away, and about not traumatizing him when they came in for maintenance calls. This is a big deal in their willingness to be respectful of pets. Our cat has chased vets out of their examination rooms, has put the fear of god into delivery men, has permanently scarred many with his claws, and one prior landlord refused to enter without a guarantee that the cat was quarantined to a room. Yet at Waterford Place, no issues. I had a broken dishwasher tray, it was fixed the same day. I had some lights out, they were fixed one day later. The bathtub got plugged and Drano wasn’t cutting it, it was fixed and refurbished a day later, and the maintenance guy Miguel resealed the tub, fixed the fan, and replaced the faucet handles. On a random Sunday (when management isn’t on site), My door lock got jammed, and I couldn’t lock the door. I called the 24-​hour maintenance line, and maintenance was there within an hour, replacing my entire front door handle and lock assembly. When I had problems with Fed Ex not delivering a package because they wanted a signature — something that I had not required upon delivery, and the Fed Ex claimed would be communicated to the driver, management intercepted my package while I was at work, called me, put the driver on the phone, and I told him to leave it in the office, and he did. They didn’t have to do this, but they offered to do it. They’ve never lost a package when delivered to the office, and I get 3 – 5 packages a month here.
The security is never a big concern, and in the entire time I’ve been here, I’ve never heard about anyone having theft issues. I’m not saying there never has been –it seems that the only time there have been issues, people have lit their torches and posted on Unilocal– but no place that spans for four city blocks’ worth of space (Waterford Place spans from First street to Fourth Street, it is quite big) will be perfect. We are also realistic about living close to many hotels, the light rail, and First Street. We never leave our place wide open and inviting to anyone when we were not home. We don’t leave the blinds wide open, showcasing our property to people while we are not home. And we certainly wouldn’t leave a window wide open, if we lived on the first floor of any apartment in San Jose. That being said, the experience of calling security has not been that much different than calling security at any other prior apartment we’ve lived at. So complaining about security would only make sense to me when comparing it to other similar apartment communities. Here, it was about as expected (not very fast), but we had the benefit of a responsive management that would back us up when we told them about issues. If a car parked in your spot or a visitor spot without tags, I want that car towed, and security and management would get it done. I’ve lived in way too many places where I’ve paid for a parking or visitor spot, and have come home to find a random car parked there that was never towed. Access to the property is also with electronic FOBS, and parking is on the same floor as your apartment, which makes moving stuff from your car to your home easy.
My apartment is beautiful, well maintained, the gym is nice, clean, maintained, the pool is beautiful, clean, maintained, we have nice cabanas in summer, free BBQs available for summer cooking, a free business center where you can print free and use the internet, free WiFi in the pool/​lobby area, nicely maintained grounds, plants, trees, and grass, and it is well-​lit and feels safe when you are walking around at night inside the complex.
Last, my rent has not gone up more than at any other place. It went up consistent with what I expected for the market rate. For anyone looking to rent here, don’t rely entirely on the star level of the 20 or so reviews that have been posted. People tend to post negative reviews on apartments more than positive experiences. Just glancing at a few of these reviews, we see some clear issues that are not representative of what it would be like to live here. One person gave the place 2 stars, saying everything was great, but she left her window open on the first floor and had a theft. Another was upset that her own roommate’s credit rating was bad, and the roommate didn’t want to pay rent. Choose better roommates, and don’t rely on management to fix your bad relationships. Visit for yourself, then make the call. I love it here.

I have been staying in this apartment homes since the past 6 months and believe me, the experience has been absolutely awesome. The staff, service and maintenance is the best. One of the cleanest and the finest experiences I had in my stay at San Jose.
The security is top class and so is the living experience. The best part is the apartments are clean and hustle free. Plus various events are organized for different festivities and seasons. Overall, truly a WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE.

Do not under circumstances do any business with this place unless you are a masochist. They will lie, cheat, and rip you off. Not to mention constant theft from vehicles, constant noise, complete lack of respect from staff, management; creepy ground keepers, and so on.
People that run the place are outright crooks who are now trying to con us out of $ 6,000+.

DO NOT EVER LIVE HERE!
The worst fucking management ever. They are so shady and two-​faced. They have absolutely no idea what they are doing and they will try to screw you out of your money in anyway possible.
Joel is by far the worst. They approved a roommate but he had terrible credit and no income. But they said it was a whole apartment so it didn’t matter. When that roommate ended up not paying but refusing to leave. They refused to help evict him: they gave me the choice of pay his portion or everyone can be evicted and credit ruined for 7 years. After that Joel advised me to print a 30 day pay or quit notice to my roommate. Then after I did that he advised my roommate that it was not legal for me to do that and he could get me in trouble for that!
When i moved out they charged me for all kinds of extra nonsense. Including trying to add 4 days onto my rent, 4 days that I already had to be vacated from the apartment by. Why would i have a lease for 6 months and 4 days? And prorated 4 days is not $ 400. Then they changed documentation to say what they pleased, asking us to resign «exact copies.»
Besides that the apartments are not worth the continually increasing rents. Every year they up the rent by up to $ 1000 a unit. The materials are all cheap made to look nice, but the apartment falls apart quick. The maintanance team was awesome actually, but they had to make way to many visits seeing as the place was built less than 10 years ago.
The security also sucks, you can break into the doors with a credit card. No its not talk, i did it all the time when Id lock my keys out. There were tons of break ins to cars even though we had a gated parking lot and «security.» But security was only there to tow you car, even sometimes when you had a parking pass!
My only good thing to say was the pool area is nice. But don’t let it fool you.

***Prices good for 06/​30/​2012 only***
$ 70 pet rent for two kitties, $ 500 deposit to move in with an additional $ 500 for pets. Wowza.
First and second floor plans have no fireplace; they’re only available in units on the third level. Despite the fact that more apartments have no fireplace, every floor plan includes it.
Their two-​bedrooms (the Ashworth-​$ 2194 and the Kelsey-​$ 2279) were 1095 SF and 1151 SF, respectively, which isn’t that small considering the size of the apartment we’re moving out of, but we’re really looking for a little more space since ~someone’s~ game collection grew enormously this past year.
So we were more interested in the three bedroom (Lismore-​$ 2670+/-, 1305 SF), which we couldn’t even view until sometime in September. The grounds looked nice enough, parking looked a little wonky, however, with few visitor spots, but the real issue sunk in on our tour of a two-​bedroom unit… the noise was incredible.
The Deal-​breakers:
The windows were all shut, the doors were all closed, but we might as well have been sitting in a tent for all the street noise that permeated throughout the apartment — regardless of how far away we stood from the street side. The fixtures looked cheap and the walls seemed thin. The units had an older feel to them that didn’t speak of great craftsmanship when they were upgraded.
On the up-​side, it’s conveniently located across the street from VTA lightrail, and because of that, this apartment get a lot of temp-​to-​hire and nurses as their main residents. We got such a weird vibe from this place, though, that we knew it wasn’t a good fit.

I have lived at the Waterford Place for nearly 1.5 years now and I have been happy! The complex is conveniently located to light rail, the airport, and all major freeways. The grounds are well-​kept, the pool area is rarely overcrowded, and the management team is AWESOME! I also enjoy the fact that complex is fairly quiet and at times, you can easily forget you’re located downtown. With that said, yes — there are police officers in the area (blocks south of the complex) but again, when moving to a highly populated suburban area, this is something one should not be shocked by. I wouldn’t walk down First Street at night but, the same could be said about evenings in San Francisco!
I have noticed that there have been complaints on the rent increases. In my experience at the Waterford, if you renew prior to the expiration of your current lease your rates STAY below-​market rate. So with that said, you have clear options. It’s NOT a sudden, unforeseen increase! It is fact that you’re given (1) gated parking spot per unit, but street parking is ample and the area is well-​lit.
Overall, I am quite pleased with life at 1700 N. 1^st St.

Friends have a spot here.
It is conveniently located near freeways and stuff to do. Parking on the street was not an issue.
Overall.polite staff who open doors when you have your hands full and ensure you are comfortable while waiting in the lobby.