Avalon Sunset Towers

Awesome location and many of the apartments have an incredible view. Management staff is top notch as they are very responsive and caring.

This has been a great place to live! The whole team is really amazing! Richard and Suzy in the office are always super helpful. They always have a happy smile to greet you whenever you come home!

My husband and I moved here from Texas and rented site unseen (scary!). The leasing process online was great since we didn’t have to be in the city searching for an apt and competing with 20 other people for a place while not having a home. At the time we moved in, our rent was a little above average for a 1 bedroom apt in the city.
We lived here for 2 years, along with our cat and dog. Overall, the apartment was quiet despite being on the 3^rd floor but we did have a corner unit that backed up to Mt. Sutro. We rarely heard neighbors which was really nice. We had a renovated unit so it was a good transition for me, coming from Dallas apartments.
The staff here is beyond great. Richard, Suzy, Drew and the maintenance crew are always helpful and friendly. Cannot say enough good things about them.
The area is safe, close to public transportation, and very close to restaurant, shops and Golden Gate Park. It’s also rent controlled which is nice. Tons of dogs in the area! Neighbors are generally friendly.
The only reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the cost. This isn’t necessarily their fault — more the SF rental market in general. But we ended up getting a 3 story townhome with a garage in Rockridge for only $ 100 more than we were paying for our 650 sq ft apt at Avalon (including rent, pet rent and garage parking).
Sad, as I’ll definitely miss this place and the neighborhood. But highly recommend Avalon Sunset Towers if you’re moving to the city/​Sunset and can afford it!

Lived here for six years and thought it was great. First of all, it’s RENT CONTROLLED, which is huge, and really pet friendly. Further, the staff, Richard, Suzy and the maintenance and grounds guys are totally awesome. They’ll help you out in any way that they can and provide prompt, great service. Our apartment had sweeping views of the ocean and amazing natural light. The new, updated apartments are much nicer, and although this Avalon has fewer amenities than others, it’s in a great, quiet part of the city and perfect for pet lovers.

I’ve lived here for more than 3 years now and love it. As a dog owner this is the ideal place — I get a spacious apartment, nice common areas (that are kept clean and pretty even though almost EVERYONE here has a dog) and close proximity to the off-​leash dog park at Golden Gate park. The staff in the leasing office are great too. There used to be a lot of construction noise but that’s passed, and it’s been pretty quiet for a while now. They seemed to have fixed the loud furnace as well. I’ve been really happy here for the last year. For the people in the earlier reviews who said that the place looks run-​down or whatever, it’s been renovated so it no longer has that tired look (I guess all that construction noise paid off). It does lack amenities, but I don’t really care about that myself.

1 star only just because it was easy to rent and a roof over our heads. We lived here for one year and I was depressed the whole time enough to flee out of this place costing us lots of money. We experienced construction noises M-​F as they are renovating the units. Repeated requests to enter our apartment, water being shut off, electricity being shut off, and fire alarms. The walls are very thin and we heard our noisy neighbors from side to top. If you want a half way peaceful place, this is not the place. if you are a night owl and don’t care about disturbances, then go for it. But then you will have to get use to the neighborhood it’s in. Loud kids playing ball on the Main Street, Locksley and the awful fog of the Sunset District. Management is completely unorganized with there billing. Suzy in the leasing office was very sweet and accommodating. But it wasn’t enough to recommend this depressing place. Please consider what I am saying.

I looked at a lot of nasty $$$$ apartments before I found Avalon Sunset Towers. I’ve been here 3 months now and am very pleased.
They went through some major renovations over the past year, so I was pleased to find that my 1 BR/​1BA apartment was like new. It looks very much like the pictures they post on their website.
My leasing agent Suzy was great! Very welcoming and helpful in getting you settled.
Great restaurants on Irving Street and access to MUNI. The complex is dog-​friendly and the proximity to UCSF creates a nice community atmosphere.

If you are thinking about living here, here are some thoughts:
Work with Natalya. She is by far the best leasing agent. She bent over backwards to help us and I’m a pretty picky customer.
If you have a maintenance issue, you may need to ask to talk to the regular person’s supervisor. I had to call 4 times about a strong cooking odor coming from another apt and the issue seemed to be that the regular repair guy isn’t the best communicator.
Our neighbors dog was barking and although the problem took 2 – 3 weeks to resolve (they got a bark collar), it was taken care of. Otherwise you cannot hear people people above you at all and other sounds have not been an issue.
I thought I would hate not having laundry in my unit, but low and behold the laundry room has never been busy and the ability to do 4 – 5 loads in less than two hours is pretty sweet. They have cards you put money onto with a credit card, so no quarters!
Overall, this is a nice place to live. It’s well-​maintained and the people here are friendly. And — the Sunset is an amazing neighborhood, especially if you like the outdoors — because of Golden Gate Park. My favorite hood so far and I’ve lived in the Mission, Marina, Nob Hill and Lower Haight.

My bf and I lived here for nearly five years, and here’s the lowdown on our experience:
PROS
* Staff — The folks in the leasing office were courteous and always greeted us by name. Maintenance requests were always responded to within 24 hours. Plus, the leasing office is happy to sign for your UPS/​FedEx packages and hold them for safekeeping.
* Pet policy — They accept large dogs! Those of you with big dogs know that this is extremely rare in San Francisco.
* The building itself — Construction is solid concrete, and the walls are fairly thick. Most days, we couldn’t hear our neighbors above, below, or on the sides of our apartments.
* The neighbors — Most of the people here are med students, UCSF-​affiliated people, older folks, and other types of people who keep to themselves and don’t make a lot of noise. Our upstairs neighbor tried to have a party once and the cops shut it down within 20 minutes. Those of you who don’t want to listen to partying neighbors won’t have to at Sunset Towers.
* The neighborhood — The Inner Sunset’s foggy summers are not my thing. However, if you can deal with the fog, there’s a lot to like in the surrounding area. You’re close to Golden Gate Park, shopping and dining on Irving/​Judah, and lots of public transportation options (K, L, M, N, 43, 44, and 6 are all close by).
CONS
* The garage — Our car got stolen from the underground garage, as did several others during our time here. Car theft is a problem here, as it is throughout the city, so don’t assume that your car will be safe if it is kept underground.
* The laundry facilities — How would you like to share six washers and six dryers with hundreds of other people? Securing a washer or dryer was often a nightmare for me, even when I tried to do laundry during non-​peak hours.
* The construction — Oy. Yes, the newly remodeled apartments and lobby look really nice. I like the fact that they are finally trying to sink some money into this place and make some upgrades. But the frequent noise, obstructions, elevator logjams, and random construction guys in and out of the apartment were a massive pain after a while. If you work traditional hours, you might not notice these things as much. However, if you work from home (like me) or if you work non-​traditional hours and sleep during the day, you may want to consider finding another place to live.

I would never recommend moving here to anyone. I lived at Avalon Sunset Towers for less than a year and I am so happy to have moved out.
My biggest complaint about this apartment complex is their customer service. I did not have a working refrigerator or freezer for about five months. I called about my refrigerator not working about a month after I had moved in, and that night someone from maintenance came in to take a look. He said that he would be back the next day with a new one. The next day they took the old one and replaced it with an even older fridge, which was also broken. I complained about the new one being broken. It wasn’t staying cold and there was a bunch of ice that had built up around the vents, but the freezer was not keeping the food cold either. The maintenance person came and chipped away the ice, leaving it all over my floor and in my sink, but did nothing to repair the broken unit. This went on for months. I would complain that the replacement unit did not work and they would replace it with another old unit that also did not work. After they put in the third broken unit they started blaming me for breaking the refrigerators. It took about five months before they finally installed a working unit.
I also had other problems with their customer service. They would blame me and my roommate for trash that was outside of our apartment that was not ours. I have a service dog and they put a notice on my door complaining that my dog was barking at a time when neither me nor my dog was in the apartment. My apartment was entered on more than one occasion without my permission. Once it was entered by maintenance unannounced when I had specifically told them that they needed to make an appointment with me. Another time a construction worker wondered into my apartment for no apparent reason.
I had a screen on my window that had been broken by some strong winds while it was storming. One individual from Avalon approached me about the screen and asked what had happened, and when I told him that the wind messed it up, he said that wind would not have done that. I actually saw that wind rip the screen and was really offended by this guy basically calling me a liar. The screen remained unfixed.
I lived on a ground floor unit and it had a back door that went to the street. The apartment had little sunlight that came in from my only two windows that faced the street. When construction started, the workers began parking their trucks in a way that blocked both of my windows and my back door. I complained about this over and over and over. The day that I complained Avalon would ask the workers to move their vehicles, and the next day they would be parked blocking my windows and door again. This went on until I moved out. I must have complained at least 8 times and the problem never got fixed. At one point Avalon told me that they would not take my complaints anymore, even though the problem was never resolved. So for the last four months of my stay I had a view of ugly trucks, and absolutely no day light coming in from my windows.
I would receive packages in the mail that were taken to the office, and no one would ever give me notice that these packages were there. Once I knew that a package was supposed to arrive and I never received it, so I called the company that had sent it. They told me that it had been delivered to the office. When I went to the office no one would answer the door. I came back the next day and saw someone in the office so I was ringing the doorbell and he was simply ignoring it. After about 15 minutes another worker was reentering the office and I finally got inside. I asked for the package and discovered that I had four packages inside the office, and had never received notification of any of them. There was also a package that I should have gotten that the office has claimed never arrived, I am assuming they lost it.
All of my complaints were brought to the attention of management in a written statement to which I received no response.
If you are thinking of moving to Avalon I would think again. The units are overpriced, complaints never get resolved, the workers are rude, the construction is loud, and the customer service is appalling.

I’ve lived here for 2 years until 2007 I think… I really liked it then. People in the office were great. Dave the manager was the best — knew everyone by name, was really normal and personable, cared and was really good at his job. So after moving out of the area and then returning at 2011 I figured to give Avalon a shot… disappointed BIG TIME
All the staff is gone, BUT more importantly seems like current staff is simply «going through motions»
Stopped in 2 times. First time. I announced that I’m looking for a studio, asked me to sit down and 5 minutes later told me they don’t have ANY apt’s availabel at all due to reconstruction and asked me to return in couple of weeks… ok, then why the for lease sign outside???
Second time, immediately asked the manager about studios, he said yes and made me wait about 10 – 15 minutes… when a leasing agent walked in he told me there are no studios currently available… are you shitting me.
anywhooo, I’m just frustrated at their lack of care, as this would never happened back when I lived here…

Checked out the scene at Avalon Sunset Towers — Wouldn’t recommend it. The building (at least in the common hallway areas) smells musty and old. It feels like you’d be living in a crappy hotel of some sort. The rooms at the higher end of the price range look nice, but aren’t worth the price they’re asking, especially if they’re going to charge «pet rent» for pets, in addition to an animal deposit. Plus, there aren’t really amenities here that are usually associated with community living (a gym? a pool? c’mon now…) You’d be much better off finding a place in the surrounding area for cheaper rent, no pet-​rent + deposit, etc. The sunset has plenty of parking — no need to buy a space with them and add on to the already ridiculous rent you would be paying to live here.

This was by far the worst living experience I’ve ever had. If I could give them negative stars, I would. Please save your time, money, and sanity by looking elsewhere– I wish I had. They spend a TON of time promoting their customer service philosophy, but you’ll notice that becomes of secondary importance once you’re actually paying them on a monthly basis.
In the one year I lived here:
I got trapped in the elevator for an hour (the manager was hesitant to call the fire department right away because it might dent the doors!!)
Our apartment flooded as I was headed out the door on a business trip, and when I came back they had left mud prints on our carpet. (We subsequently had to pay for carpet cleaning out of our move-​out security deposit… what a joke).
The gated lot I paid to park my car in, for security, was stuck in the ‘Open’ position about once a month, often for multiple days.
The laundry room cash machine was robbed, and management not only took over 5 months to replace it, but they made us go to their offices (open very little for someone who has to work, I’d rather not have to plan my laundry around when I’ll have a Saturday morning free, especially since I’m PAYING to have 24 hour access to laundry facilities) to recharge our laundry cards, putting up signs that this «temporary» measure was for resident safety.
They did, however, repeatedly spend their time putting up shiny new fliers promoting their customer service philosophy instead of taking care of existing problems. Many of the other residents found this as insulting as I did, it was horrible to see them in the elevator each day.
After getting vague answers about when the machines would be back, I finally got fed up and had to take off work TWICE because the manager is only in from something like 9 to 4, and no one who reported to him was able to give me a straight answer. The one woman who seemed sympathetic to my complaints was suddenly not there soon after. I even went up to regional management to find out when this would be resolved and if they could work with me on the out-​of-​pocket I’d had to spend on nearby laundromats… his answer was literally «that’s your problem, not ours.»
The guys who answer the routine maintenance calls are very nice. However, in their corporate brilliance Avalon now makes you call an 800 number for these things, and the operators can’t tell you when to actually expect your need to be addressed…
Overall, seriously consider saving yourself the trouble. I got a new place nearby as soon as our lease was up (they did try and file the lease renewal paperwork in a very sneaky manner as well!) and have been much happier ever since.

So it’s been about a year and I have now moved out of the complex, most because of the cost associated with living there. First and foremost, the community manger who knew everyone’s name is gone. He was the most pleasant person I have ever had to deal with… the new guy is nice but I can tell he is not the same. One of the office gals is also gone, she was very friendly too. Maintenance requests are handled very quickly, never had a problem with them (i’ve called for 3 different things). The one thing I don’t like is how you have to mail rent in to a central office in Virginia, you can’t take it down to the leasing office anymore. If you fill comfortable with parking your car on the curb (I do it, it’s safe I think) do it and save the $ 120/​month on a parking spot. Overall I enjoyed living here, good service and you will be taken care of… just a little pricey… then again it is the City!