Villas at Bair Island Apartment Homes

I wish I could give 4.7 stars!! The Villas at Bair Island aren't a perfect 5 but they are DAMN close!

PROS:
-Friendly, attentive staff - stellar in every way! They have always taken great care of me and they take terrific care of this beautiful complex.
-Large top floor unit with high ceilings - feels more like a home than an apartment
-Super convenient to everywhere on the Peninsula
-Air conditioning
-Full size in unit washer and dryer
-Super quiet and private unit - save for the occasional thud, I'm rarely aware of anyone else living in the building
-Elevator that is always functioning!
-Pet friendly
-Very nice landscaping, attractive overall look and feel - I'm proud to live here, sometimes I look outside and feel as if Im at a resort on vacation.
-Great floor plan, spacious
-Gorgeous pool and outdoor furniture
-Beautiful boardwalk around the scenic marina


CONS:
-Expensive, very expensive - even for the Peninsula
-Expect a steep rent increase at each lease renewal
-Large-scale, long term construction projects surround the complex - expect increased traffic, debris, and noise (have had a popped tire twice from nails/construction debris on the road)
-Maintenance staff seems to regularly need access to each unit - if you aren't home, your pet has to be locked up all day - major inconvenience
-Small kitchen with outdated appliances
-Security gates and doors seem to keep out friends, family, and delivery people with non-user friendly or broken keypad equipment; however, riffraff have no problem getting into the complex to use the pool in the middle of the night or steal packages from the hallways... or worse.
-Parking garage leaves cars exposed to rain, wind, pollen and debris
-No after hours support

Even with the cons, I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here at The Villas so much so that I'd like to continue to live here but unfortunately that's not possible. Rent here is exorbitant. (I think they are trying to recoup costs lost from a recent massive defect repair construction project on the complex.)

At the end of the day, I want to avoid another huge rent hike at lease renewal time, so, sadly, I'm moving. If the rent weren't so expensive, I would live here for many years to come!

Soooo... if price ISN'T an issue - The Villas at Bair Island is a fantastic place to call home!

Update:
My family wanted to give an update on living conditions here at the Villas. Again 5 stars to management and the maintenance team. We've had several blackouts due to weather conditions and the team at the Villas are on it!

In the past, at other apartments, I had to wait more than thirty minutes for the maintenance team to open the front gate (during power outages) to head to work or drop off the kiddos at school. Very-annoying.

At the Villas, I'm extremely happy to give props to the team for being on top of blackouts. By the time , we get everything ready to start our day. The Villas team have already opened all gates to get your day going smooth. It's the little things that have impact especially starting your day in the morning.

A special appreciation for Roy from the maintenance team in helping us out with our EV. Roy, encourage us to charge our model X at the garage EV station instead of walking to the other charges that are further away. We always went to the other EV stations down the property because we thought our car was too long. Turns out, Roy's recommendation was right. He helped us to park and charge our car. That helped out so much !!!!!

Thanks Roy, for always being helpful to our family and always being friendly to the Villas community. We really appreciate you.

I lived at Villas At Bair Island for about 14 months. During this time the best parts were the great location and responsive maintenance. The weather is very nice and it's located in a pretty safe part of town while still being accessible.

There were quite a bit of issues living here as well though, mostly that the home feels like it's literally falling apart and is not worth the high cost of rent. Also our utility bill here was 3-4x higher (constantly 300$+) because the home somehow keeps 0 insulation.

And here is a list of weird issues we found in the home (just looking back at my maintenance orders pictures, I'm sure I forgot lots of things):
- The Den is slanted causing a crack in the door. Maintenance cannot fix this because the whole building is sinking into the floor I was told.
- There was a huge amount of mold first week we moved into the apartment in the washer. Check these right away.
- Blinds un-doing themselves and sagging.
- Glass light cover in entrance fell and almost hit my head.
- holder in the bathroom came off
- water issues: water comes out murky, water heater broke multiple times causing no hot water, water even leak into our living room in the middle of the night
- leaking tub requires people to enter and replace whole tub
- roof tile falls off during windy day, seems like safety hazard.

Cons:
1. there's construction ongoing day and night in the area directly facing my apartment, and it's extremely disruptive. I can only sleep with ear plugs and even then I can hear the construction vehicles banging about. this has been ongoing for the entire year that I have been here, without skipping a day.

2. about 50% of my packages got stolen before I completely stopped sending packages here. among the items that have been stolen include a Macbook pro and airpods. Front desk was sympathetic but it appears there's nothing they can do.
See the attached photo for the community letter about rise in crime in this complex

3. again on the topic of noise, living next to the creek means you constantly have crew teams rowing by with coaches on loud speakers shouting instructions, jet skis blasting past, etc.

4. The front desk when I moved in last year was extremely responsive and accommodating. My emails are always answered within 1 week. Nowadays a new team has taken over, and most of my emails never get answered. In fact, the only times I've gotten an answer for my email is when I literally call the front desk to ask about the radio silence.

5. My utilities bill has literally doubled since the first month I've been here, and I have not been using more water/gas (if anything, our consumption has been cut in half because one member of the household has moved out). Prepare to pay hundreds per month in fees that the front desk has no way of explaining.

Pros:
1. By far the biggest pro is Jose and the maintenance team. They've never left me hanging when something breaks. I've had the water heater break (pilot light went out) twice last year, and both times the team was on it within 24 hours.

2. There are chargepoint stations ($1.25 an hour to charge ~8-10 miles) if you have an EV

The maintenance team here is top notch. They are quick, thorough, and very friendly. Our AC went out, and they lent us a portable unit and replaced the entire AC, then sent in a restoration team to ensure the wall was patched up. The grounds are always clean and the construction projects actually get finished! The team takes great care to ensure the amenities are nice, up to date, and enjoyable by everyone. The neighborhood is nice, and thanks to the gated entries, we have had very little (if any?) crime that I know of while we've stayed here.

I toured the property approximately 2 months ago. I was looking for a 2x2 and I made an appointment to view the units available. I met with your Leasing Consultant Julian Morin. After visiting several other properties, it was just a refreshing experience to have met with Julian who was very welcoming, friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the property. As we walked to the unit, he pointed out the amenities, and expressed how friendly the community within the residents. As we approached the unit, he asked that I watch my step as I stepped into the unit. I was impressed of the care and attention given.

Overall, Julian is extraordinary in his job, I can see the passion and integrity he possesses.

Rosa L

We had high hopes for this apartment, but have had a thoroughly negative experience.

The single biggest negative is noise. There are multiple sources of nearby noise, including a huge construction project onsite that goes on during daily hours, and a nearby construction yard that does construction 24/7. If you will be working from home or cannot sleep through loud banging of construction vehicles, this place will drive you crazy.

I've also lost many items, including a macbook pro in their mail room. The kicker is that the apartment management is not at all helpful, as they either endlessly deflect responsibility or give you bait and switch solutions.

This is a nice apartment complex. My boyfriend and I lived in two different units, a 1BR and a 2BR. The 2BR was very spacious and it was one of my favorite apartment units to date. I loved having hardwood floors too.

The pool is quite nice and pretty. It seemed well maintained.

The rent is not super cheap (last we rent it was anywhere from $3300-$3600 for a 2BR) but you are paying for the location.

The actual location of the villas Is not that ideal though. It's not close to anything walking distance unless you count the Courtyard by Marriott.

My life is hell, I can't wait to move out once my contract is done. Here is why:

1. Windows are not sound proof and I wake up every morning with loud noises of trash pick up right next to my bedroom window. It goes away after a minute or two, but then gardners come with the loudest devices and that constant noise never goes away. I use ear plugs and that does not work. It used to happen very early in the morning like 7 am but it still happens between 8-10am. Every time we have guests staying overnight they tell us what's with all the noises. When we tell them about this issue the ignorant rental office says you're the only people with this issue so we can't do anything.

2. My bike was stolen from the indoor parking lot when I was away for the weekend. They had enough time to cut through the lock and take it. When I asked them 4 times to check the cameras they finally answered that they couldn't find anything because there is no camera inside parkings.

3. Packages are all over the place all the time, they sometime get lost, go to other mailing rooms or go to rental office. They sometime make it to your doorstep if you're lucky.

We loved our year at Bair island. It's such a quiet area with lovely walking trails, I haven't found a location like it in the bay. Even though we have moved I will still be back for the walking trails. There's a lot I will miss - central air, gorgeous pool with nice pool furniture, hot tub, new appliances, responsive maintenance, friendly staff. You won't regret it. The only con is that it's pricy, but we did feel like it was worth it in comparison to the area.

Bair Islands is good place to live and I would (already did) recommend it to my friends.
Nice service, responsive maintenance, great air, quiet nights, good smell of water in the breeze, and really friendly and responsible front office.
Apartments are well structured and hardwood floor is pleasant.
Swimming pool is good - rules are unfortunately tight. Hope we will be normal sometime again.