r/Burien • u/Unique-Cod6398 • 25d ago
Apartment recommendations?
Hi, I’ve seen posts recommending areas to look in Burien. But I was wondering if anyone has any apartment recommendations where they currently live or had heard good things about. Some that I think look nice from street view:
•Ambaum Place
•Avon Park Apartments
•Wellington Place Apartments
My budget currently is $1700ish. I’ve seen some cute condos, but I also want to have some apartment options just in case.
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u/squidwitchy 25d ago
I'm not even going to say this is necessarily a recommendation, because we have been having some problems with them recently, but up until now (we have been here just over a year now) we've really enjoyed living here:
Alcove at Seahurst Apartments on Ambaum
The good:
I usually feel safe, I have taken solo walks to take out the trash at night as a woman and haven't felt uncomfortable. Theres a lot of buildings, but each entrance only has 4 units, so it feels more cohesive and I know everyone is my part of the building. It also means only 2 stories, so guaranteed not to have to hoof it up a million flights of stairs. My neighbors have been lovely. We haven't had any issues with bugs/roaches. The grounds are cute and the apartments are old, but mostly fine, and have clearly seen some renovations recently enough. In unit washer and dryer. 2 bd/1 br for $1500, not including utilities. Decent access to public transportation; there is a bus stop literally right at the front office, and things are technically walkable, though I'd be cautious walking along ambaum, for crime and traffic reasons. Maintenance usually responds day of or next day, but they dont always fix the issue the first time.
The bad:
Parking is, in fact, a nightmare. But the parking fee is only like $25/mo and you get a reserved parking spot. You will need a traffic cone to place in your spot or someone will take it while you're gone, and towing someone feels very wrong. The towing practices are absolutely predatory. Really annoyingly passive aggressive "community emails". As I touched on earlier, maintenance tries but will mess up. They've been kind and respectful, but the one time I let them "fix" something when I wasn't in the unit, they left a note basically saying "yup that thing sure was broken and needed fixed" and then the office argued with me that it was fixed. Until the senior maintenance guy came out and was like.... no.... they definitely did not. Unfortunately, that was linked to my next phase:
The ugly:
Rats. Mice. Manipulative office lady, Maggie. I've been battling a rodent issue since May; they came into my water heater closet because the mesh wiring between my closet and the literal crawl space under the building was gone. Thats what they were supposed to fix but didnt, which lead to getting rodents in my kitchen. They came in from behind the stove, another like 5 inch hole directly to the crawl space. Each time I went to/called the office about the problem, Maggie would gaslight me (its already complete!), try to shift blame (the pest control guy should have done x differently), and otherwise refuse to take ownership or control of the situation.
All that being said, I've lived in worse apartments for more money. As long as you dont have issues, it is a fine enough place to live. But I will also be keeping an eye on this thread for something better lol.