Fairmount Apartments

The building was beautifully renovated but seems some corners were cut in the process. The heating is radiant heat (which can work!) but they installed them ABOVE the windows and heat rises. Meaning the heating does not work effectively. The walls are pretty thin, which allows noise between units and hallway etc. If you have a complex issue in your individual unit – know that it will likely go unresolved. The staff seemed willing to help in the beginning – but once it was apparent it was a... costly fix – they abandoned the project and made it seem like it was the tenant's issue. I will note that the maintenance staff are super helpful but seemed unsupported by the property management to truly address issues. For example, there were rat’s underneath some of the first floor units—and those units had to be vacated. And there was a ceiling leak in the common area that was reported and never fixed (over 10+ months).

Summary: If issues don’t arise in your unit, and you don’t mind poor heat & thin walls. This place might be OK for you! But if issues arise – prepare to be treated poorly, and for the issue to go unresolved. I wanted to love the place, but decided to move during the pandemic to get out of the situation. Read More

Pros:
Recently remodeled, although 100 year old building.
Beautiful old wood timber flooring.
No carpet.
Good storage
Nice location/near Forest Park
Internet is easy to setup; fios.
Free wifi although they keep adding "firewalls."
Homeless in the area way better than the rest of Portland.

Cons:
Garbage disposals aren't allowed.
Parking is hell. Car was broken into multiple times. Tent was even stolen from roof and car exterior was thrashed.
Despite "triple sound insulation" you can hear your... neighbors talking
Single pane windows that let heat out and sound in (since its a historic building).
Heaters are only on the ceiling right above the single pane windows.
Lost time (plus a good 10 bux) from laundry machines not working randomly.
Leasing office almost always empty and staff changed multiple times.
If you care about electrosmog: Wifi is on full blast in each unit even if they're not paying for/using Internet. There was some crazy emf field through our apt, where the lights even computer monitors would flicker
Mild draft from space between floor boards.
Nearby construction started a few months after moving in with no warning.

Personal issues:
Cost to renew lease was much more than what we were paying (despite many units being totally empty).
One of our heaters was screwed into sheetrock and fell.
Thermostats would turn on even when "off" wasting a ton of electricity. Had to take them apart and jam something into them so they wouldnt turn on. We had a number of problems with our heater and went weeks without heat on and off. Eventually learned to just use portable space heaters.
Charged us over $1100 for replacing all the blinds after we left. So, if you have pets, don't use the paper blinds. You might end up using blackout curtains anyway. Mgmt told me to schedule an inspection on leaving, however they never sent me the email to schedule the inspection and it could not be scheduled otherwise; they told me they would resend the email but I never got one, even though I was the only one in the apt that communicated with them through email.

Just make sure you're ok with the above before signing here. Read More