Harbor Cove

I lived here for over 5 years. It used to be a nice neighborhood, but it went downhill fast. The new management/​owner lowered the standards tremendously. Prepare yourself to live in a ghetto, where people bring shopping carts back, and there is always at least a couple of them on your floor. Where people keep their apartment door open all the time, so you get to smell everyone’s food, and hear everyone’s conversations. Where people leave their trash in the stairway rather than the trash container. Where kids and adults get their exercise in the hallway, rather than outside.
Please note that most of the positive reviews here are referring to staff, more specifically Thomas Smith. HE HAS LEFT TOO!

The attention is great, ask for Tommas at the leasing center, he is an awesome guy, and would help you as best as it can be.
Also the maintenance team was very helpful, and polite with us.
I totally recommend this place to live, the price is very competitive, and the views are amaizing.

Hands down the worst apartment I have ever lived in. Poorly run management team and horrible up-​keep of the property. From moving in, to various maintenance items to moving out. The whole process was a disaster. I would not recommend this property to anyone.

Just went to drop check for friend, their policies are not at all customer friendly. You cannot drop check they will send you notice.
Buildings are old too, I have seen delayed and okay maintenance work.

Like another reviewer — this is NOT A REVIEW OF HOUSING. Review for staff only from a visit in May 2015. Thomas Smith is the ultimate in being people oriented. Empathetic and genuinely eager to help whether someone is a prospective client or not. I was only interested in checking out apartments with a specific minimum square footage — and those were not available at Harbor Cove. Thomas understood this right away and clearly knew that I was going to check other communities. Despite that he listened carefully to my housing search requirements, offered me a ton of relevant information on the leasing market /​areas — and even searched AND printed a few listings from Craigslist for me to check out — that had absolutely no connection to his work. Very helpful, professional and impressive.

I have heard great things about this place, and as a tenant this place has everything you would need as a software engineer fast internet, pool, washer/​dryer hookups, and generous parking per Foster City. We are still making our decision, but the leasing staff was very helpful. I will keep you posted in my revised review.

Ok, here we go… First off ignore the bad reviews! I can honestly say I’ve lived and rented on the peninsula my whole life and the staff in the office (Thomas and Linle) as well as maintenance crew (Manny and Joe) are by far the friendliest, most understanding, and down to earth people I’ve delt with through out my years of renting. They’ve made my experience here enjoyable and stress free. At every apartment complex you can find things you don’t like. People the world is defiantly not perfect but the location of these apartments with plenty of green lawns in the court yards and an amazing waterfront view as well as a pool, gym, out door gazebo with clean bbq grills and for the most part friendly tenants makes Harbor Cove an enjoyable and relaxing place to call home.

NOT A REVIEW OF HOUSING. This is a review for staff. Thomas is a gem. On our way home from the arts and wine festival we had to take a break. Thomas saw us (and a pregnant woman) and brought ud water, without being asked. So greatful!

I decided to write a review for this place because I feel like all of the bad reviews can leave a bad taste in your mouth and I am hoping to change that. I recently moved in to the apartments and my experience has been AMAZING. Thomas and Lynn in the office are super friendly and really made moving in here a smooth and comfortable transition for us. The apartment is great, it’s newly renovated so that’s a bonus! You can’t beat the location. I’ve really loved my walks around the lagoon and the convenience of this place… Every place has it’s ups and downs I’m sure but… So far so good… I give it a 5 star your experience is ultimately what you make it.

Live here for 2 years now.
Pros:
— Beautiful ground with lots of green, flowers and waterview
— good school district
— friendly neighbors
— staffs always busy but very friendly, courteous and accommodate your needs
— located next to the water, so it’s very cool and comfortable in the Summer
Cons:
— for an old building, it’s bit over priced but its the location
— fans in the bathroom noisy
— quite often, doors break and keys don’t work. (why is that??)
— heating could be costly in winter

I’ve been here for over 5 yrs. You have a great view of the lake and access to bike and running paths. The management and maintenance staff that took over is better than the previous mgmt staff. A few weeks ago I’ve had a problem with the weather stripping on my front door and it was fixed the same day. One of the handles on the interior door was missing (it must have broke and some idiot didn’t feel the need to let mgmt. know) and after notifying mgmt it was fixed. within 24 hours.
The reason why I only gave three stars is because of the inconsiderate people who live here. They have no concept of what «quiet» means. You have adults running up and down the halls playing around like their in high school, you have kids riding scooters up and down the hall and there are both children and adults who run and stomp up and down the stairs. I am so tired of being awakened from a deep sleep three times a night.
The people who live across from me let their kid run and jump in the hallway, You can also hear the kid continuously kick the door when he is playing. When they have visitors they stand outside their apartment in the hallway and talk and laugh while their kids run, jump and do cartwheels in the hallway before leaving. They could care less if it’s 12AM. I know they must have thought I had lost my mind earlier today because I couldn’t take it any more and opened my door and screamed «SHUT UP !!!» and slammed my door closed.
They tenants who moved in below me have been here a little over a week. OMG! They are so noisy. They let the cabinet doors slam close in the kitchen and bathroom, for what ever reason they go out on the balcony and move a frickin chair around every half an hour and slam the sliding door in the bathroom and hallway instead of gently closing it. So I started giving them some of their own treatment
When she’s their by herself it’s relatively quiet. When her boyfriend is there it’s noisy. He stomps so hard when he walks I can hear him upstairs. I can’t believe the people below them haven’t complained.
The tenant that lives next to me complained about the tenants across from her slamming their from door whenever they leave or enter their apartment. I hear it as well. It’s very loud and shakes the floor. I told her to let mgmt. know but she said they won’t do anything. That’s the problem. People complain but yet they don’t want to talk to mgmt. If mgmt. doesn’t know that a problem exists then they can’t take the appropriate action to stop it.
The noise ordinance in Foster City states that quiet hours are between 10 pm and 7:30am. But that doesn’t mean you can make as much noise as you want throughout the day. Mgmt could do a better job of conveying this to tenants. Maybe a copy of the noise ordinance and language that states noise that bothers other tenants will not be tolerated.
When you live somewhere you should be able to sit in your surroundings and have peace. All this noise is taking a toll on my health so I am looking for somewhere else to live. In the mean time I will use earplugs and increase the volume on my TV so I can hear it. I just don’t care anymore.

do not live here! ever since the new management took over, this place quickly turned to a ghetto. litter everywhere, residents and employees parking in any space they want and taking advantage of amenities, increase in utilities cost with no notice whate so ever although our lease clearly shows a flat cost, maintenance does not respond to service requests and claims they fixed things that they did not. they only enforce rules that they want to enforce when it benefits their employees or property management company and does not care about the residents at all… avoid at all costs!!!

Although the apartments are seemingly nice and several have been renovated management of this complex is horrible. They do not respond to requests or complaints. They also don’t check their drop box.
The building is older and the walls are thin so you can hear EVERYTHING above, below and on each side. Our neighbors played video games/​music/​TV so loud it would rattle the pictures on our walls. The neighbors above us could even hear them. After speaking to the neighbors, we decided to call the «on-​site security» that never showed up or did anything to enforce the noise policy.
Upon making the greatest decision ever… to move out, we dropped our notice to vacate in the drop-​box and asked them to send an invoice for the prorated rent– which they never did. We continued to call and leave messages and stop by the office; they were never there. They then tried to slap us with a late fee because we didn’t pay on time. Again, they never told us what the prorated rent was.
Just don’t live here.

Stayed there for 3 years, is a good place to stay. A bit overpriced but that just the area,.

I don’t live here, I went for a tour and boy… I suggest you dodge this bullet.
We drove up for our tour and couldn’t find one parking spot. We had a major problem at our last place with parking, so we looked around… There are no guest spots! So if your 85 year old grandparents come across be country to see you, they might as well turn around an go home because they’ll never get to get out of the car! We parked in the fire zone and went in.
When we arrived, the office was full of people and the man that helped us was a younger guy with his shirt untucked (first red flag) and his desk still had another couples check on it (second red flag)! As we pushed the check across the table to him, he asked us some general questions (although he should’ve known the answers as we’d been communicating through
). He took us to a door to show us a model 1bdrm apartment and his key wouldn’t work «again» as he stated and said he «always gets embarrassed when this happens in front of new potential tenants». He wasn’t surprised, that was our third red flag. When we finally got into the apartment building, it looked like a run down motel, Maybe it used to be one? People had doors open into the hall with their dogs and children running free (fourth flag!) one dog ran up to us! The apartment was nice and had a good water view, but no bedroom door. That really threw us both off, too weird. There is no laundry in the apartment, but heard there was a mini laundromat thing on site, also a pool, gym, spa, etc. I mentioned that I wanted to see these things and he just pointed to the parking lot and said they are all «generally over there». Big help. Way to sell the apartment. This shows how much care he out into wooing a new tenant in, I can’t imagine the care they put into shlups already stuck in a lease! It’s on two major roads in and out of town. and by two bus stops, so it just smelt like exhaust. The absolute only positive we found was the park/​waterfront view on the buildings backside. Oh boy. We ran to the apartment building we were pondering on and begged them to stop letting us see places like that ever again!

Pro:
1. The 1-​bedroom renovated apartment is very nice and big enough. There are enough spacious closets with mirror doors. The patio is like an additionl room.
2. There are green lawns, trees and flowers all around. The neighbourhood is really beautiful, I can’t compare it to the concrete jungle where some cheaper apartments are located.
3. It’a a pets friendly place without size limits. Good for us since we have a german shepherd dog.
4. The Foster City recreation center with lots of activities is very close.
Con:
1. As was mentioned in other reviews, this place is very noisy, in a large measure due to the paper walls.

2. The 2^nd reason is, it’s a family place. There are always 5 – 10 kids screaming and squalling at our windows when we get back from work and would like to have some rest.
3. Many people keep their doors open so that you enjoy the smell of their cooking and sounds of running along the corridors kids.
4. The patio has no screen so it’s flooded when it’s raining.
5. There are hundreds of birds around and tons of their crap all around.
6. Old washing machines damage the clothes.
7. The gym is small and overcrowded. There are only 2 running tracks there, one of them is broken and hasn’t been repaired for half a year already. The same about tennis courts and pool — they are just too small for such big apartments complex.
8. High price. We pay over 2K for 1-​bedroom apartment. There is no sense to bargain with management, they are just not interested.

Don’t rent here.
Increased rent 30% after one year.
No building repairs. The place is filthy. Security is a joke and the front office people are of no help although some did try to help.
They will keep your security deposit and will try and charge more on top of that. I left no marks on any walls and they are trying to extort more money from me
Elevator was broken at my move out time, had to hire movers as I can’t carry furniture down 3 flights of stairs
If you do move here, message me in one year and I will happily say «I told you so»
You have been warned.

Lived here 2012 – 2013.
Summary: Would not rent here again. While it looks like they’re trying to turn this place around, the unit quality, staff turnover and inconsistent customer service all equate to a building where value doesn’t measure up to the rental rates.
Considerations:
–Be aware you are renting from a large publicly traded trust company. This is one of many complexes under ownership. Things move slow, staff churn and any dispute will be interpreted based upon your lease agreement. Recommend getting every piece of communication in writing to protect yourself.
–Rental rates continue to increase; no rent control (personally paid $ 2380 and left to avoid year 2 increase to $ 2550).
–Foster City is quite unique. Learn about the town dynamics and compare to other places on the peninsula and make sure you are okay with what you’re signing up for (very quite can be good or bad, depending on your expectations).
–Build quality is not what you would expect vs. the rental rates. Many units are being renovated and they appear quite nice on the surface but were slapped together in short order with low quality materials. Examples (just a few of many): half of my power plugs did not work, windows not sealing (and 50 years old), fixtures misaligned, $ 5 shower heads, shower mold after 3 months due to poor quality shower sealant, unit door lock was a catastrophe and hanging by a thread.
–Security is non-​existent (building and patrol). There has been an obvious attempt to address some of the problems over the last year (doors not closing properly, locks that can be opened with a credit card or finger) but there are still many weak points (exterior doors often do not close entirely and are not locked).
–Thin walls. There is little to no noise protection (wood building) so get used to hearing your neighbors.
–Tenant profile. If you are not comfortable with having kids around and the noise that comes along with kids… you’ll be frustrated. High number of units with multiple children and they love to yell, scream, have fun and be kids. This can come with some challenges in an apartment setting.
–You are paying a premium for the proximity to the lagoon but are also in one of the more high-​traffic areas of Foster City. Nice view and great for 4^th of July fireworks but kayak or boat would require lockup due to lack of security (no storage available).

Having lived here over a year now (and renewed, even!), I think this is a fine place to live. I pay something of a premium for facing the lake, but that’s one of the reasons I moved here. It’s convenient to a number of amenities, such as grocery shopping, hair salon, massage, a few restaurants, and so on, so it’s a good place to live. Kid– and pet-​friendly (though some owners are a little careless about picking up after their pooches, overall it’s not bad).
It’s an aging complex, and is frame-​built rather than with concrete floors and walls between the units, so noise can sometimes be a problem, but not too severe (at least, not since the family upstairs with two manic children moved out).
It is a bit pricey, but for the convenience, well worth it. I have one of the non-​upgraded units, and am quite satisfied with it (not interested in paying an extra $ 300−500/month for new cabinets that would actually darken the already shadowed kitchen). I have done a few minor upgrades myself, and management has actually been really great about it.
They have recently renovated all the interior halls, and are gradually renovating and retrofitting all the units. The pool is recently rebuilt (presumably to make repairs) and is quite nice. Laundry facilities are in little sheds (they’re kind of cute, actually) around the complex and are generally clean and operational.
Parking can be a challenge if your family has more than one car, and visitors must find street parking, which is not always readily available.
Friends, let me just say this: many of the complaints you read here are about previous management, which has been dramatically improved over the last couple of years. They have been extremely helpful to me, especially when I was injured and couldn’t walk easily.
Don’t expect a five-​star residence. It doesn’t promise such luxury. But be nice to management, and they will be nice to you! If you come at them to bitch, you may not be treated as well as if you are respectful and courteous. You know, the Golden Rule?
And the view of the July 4^th fireworks is unbeatable!

I’ve lived at this place for about 5 years. I’ve heard bad stories and good stories about this place but my experience here has been decent. Here’s my list of pro’s and con’s…while it may not match other people I’m just speaking for my aparment/​building.
Pro:
*Fairly Quiet most of the time.
*Maintenance staff were usually at my apartment to fix any problems.
*Office Staff seemed nice but I only dealt with them when giving them my rent.
*Good location, pretty close to most things.
*Newly updated interior halls
*I had front row seating on my balcony for the 4^th of July fireworks show which was awesome but I think because of budget reasons they won’t be doing it this year.
Con:
*Parking can be a pain for guests. Finding parking durning the day is easy but finding parking at night, forget it.
*Gardening crew starts promptly at 8:00am, sometimes earlier.
*Rent seems to be a bit high (which is the main reason I left).
*I once mentioned to the office staff about someone having a fire on their balcony and they really didn’t seem to care about it.
While not really Harbor Cove’s fault UPS will always deliver to my door while Fedex will rarely deliver to my door and will leave the package at the front office. The mail handler wasn’t the best either because I would get other peoples mail in my mail box and I even had someone bring me my mail to my door that was mis-​delivered.
At the time for the price I was paying I didn’t mind living there but I had my rent jacked up by $ 300 and it made my decision to move out. I’m sad to move out because I was content living there but I can’t justify the rent.