Lofts on Main — Local services in San Antonio

Goods: Affordable - These apartments are cheap for downtown lofts, especially if you're living in Phase 1 where all utilities are included.

Looks - They look good on the outside (notice I said outside, and only outside)

Location Pros - The location is great, it's downtown and you can certainly step out at night and not fear for your safety.

Staff - The staff is friendly and there to help. They do care and while they may not know everything, they will go out of their way to find out.

Bads: Condition of Lofts - I said they look good from the outside, and they do. Keep in mind though the people that live here are mostly college kids out on their own for the first time. The floors in the halls are covered in filth, kids are constantly vandalizing the apartments (knocking "Exit" signs down, spray painting stair wells, leaving trash everywhere, etc.). Just look down when you walk and you'll see stains everywhere, a pressure washing in the hall way is long overdue. They will clean up the pool area at the time most people are trying to lease so it looks presentable, but don't worry it will become filthy and unusable shortly after (read below).

The People - As mentioned above, the kids that live here are college kids. The majority of these kids have never lived on their own prior to this. Consequently there is a lot of partying. People will often get drunk, play loud music late at night at high volume and do drugs. It is what it is... College. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, people should be aware that they don't get to choose their roommate in Phase 1, and if this isn't their kind of life, you're stuck living with it. You may think I'm an old complaining fart, but I'm 22, for someone my age to say that it gets this rowdy, trust me it does. They have a model unit they show you on your tour while you're with your parents, and they won't show it after dusk, because if parents saw what went on there at night, they likely wouldn't let their kids live there.

Build Quality - These apartments are built CHEAP. They are only a few years old and pipes are already breaking, the walls are paper thin so you can hear everything that goes on in your neighbor's apartment and the common area, walls are beginning to crack, etc.

Location Cons - While Tobin Hill is a safe neighborhood, you have to be smart, don't leave your car unlocked or valuables in it, don't walk around in the middle of the night covered in expensive jewelry, etc. Additionally, Tobin Hill is home to the famous "Strip", the gay district of San Antonio. This means there are lots of clubs and restaurants that have music on full blast in the middle of the night during the weekend. While it is admittedly quite fun to head on down to Luther's at night and enjoy some food and energetic vibes, keep in mind that if you live facing Main St. you likely won't be getting to bed on the weekends before 1AM. And during the week the occasional Tobin Lofts parties that the college kids decide to have by the pool will keep you up as well.

Lease - The lease in confusing. Everybody's lease is up on July 31st, even if you signed a lease the month before (June). I didn't know this and since my lease was signed in September, I thought I had a 12 month lease. I was notified on August 1st that I had 24 hours to vacate or they would dispose of all my possessions. The confusing part is the rent. The lease said I had to stay until July 31st, but the rent would be billed for a full year at $9300 with a 12 month payment plan. I stayed a total of 10 months ($7750) and was told I had to move out because my lease ended on July 31st. They also said I didn't have to pay the remaining $1200 that the contract said I owed. I don't know why they have that amount on there if I'm going to have to move at the end of July regardless. It's confusing and I was given little warning or notice, which caused me to have to move out overnight. Fortunately I have family in San Antonio, otherwise I would have been...

Renters beware. Tobin Lofts comes stacked with a long lists of cons to its very few pros. I lived there for a year while going to school a couple miles away, and it is more of a glorified dorm than an actual apartment complex. If you are moving in, be prepared to live in a college-friendly environment. Another situational feature of note is how close this apartment is to the LGBT strip across the street.

Lord help you if you get placed across from Pegasus because you are never going to sleep on time as they close around 2 am (3:45 am was the latest during their dance competitions). Noises include:

-Booming bass and pop music from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. every night -Drunken cries of patrons from the multitude of bars across the street and the occasional brawl -Police and ambulance sirens (there's a hospital nearby) -Other tenants' music

Other issues lie with the apartment itself and the maintenance supporting it. Major issues such as broken A/C will be taken care of on the day it occurs as it is an emergency, but if you find yourself with a minor issue good luck getting it resolved within a week. The first week I was there, I moved into an apartment that had a couch with absolutely destroyed couch cushions. It took me about two weeks to get them replaced and all that needed to be done was have a replacement given to me from a stock room full of them. Took someone in the front office five minutes to fix an issue that maintenance ignored for a week.

I also take issue with the general cleanliness of the place. The trash rooms get full very fast and accumulate roaches. There is a dumpster on one side of the building, but its proximity is close enough that roaches will still be in the building. I had small roaches (Palmetto bugs I think they're called) in my apartment for almost the entire year. I requested an exterminator and all that was done was a pesticide spray behind my fridge which stunk up my apartment for a few days. The roaches didn't seem to mind. I had to throw away a coffee maker, rice maker and kettle because those pesky bastards infected all of them. They also seem resistant to store bought traps and chemicals.

If there is anything I can say positively about the Tobin Lofts near SAC it would be about the front office staff and apartments themselves. I personally never had an issue working with the staff and the maintenance guys are generally very nice when you work with them albeit pressed with a lot of other issues--like the elevator that's been out in building one for over a month and the water fountains next to the gym that have been out for over six months and, to my knowledge, still are. The apartments themselves are furnished enough for a college kid to live comfortably and they've got a decent, contemporary design although somewhat cheap feeling. I won't be renewing my lease here, but there are certainly worse apartments out there. If you do plan on moving into Tobin just be sure to ask for a place on the quiet side or as far away from Pegasus as you can. Or if you don't mind the noise then more...

Edit: A2 Floorplan are all on that side

I don't know where to start...after 3 months finally being out, and finally receiving a paper that should only took 30 days (3 months instead), emailed too and ask about it, no response That place was the worse to live. I don't know if you all saw the movie District 9, but that's what that building besides Luther's Cafe literally was like. I didn't even mind the loud music on the weekend, I got used to it. People don't even know there are apartments, because there is no sign or anything at all. So everyone who come by and looking for building, they don't even know where to go. The gate was ALWAYS broken, gate for the stairwell has never worked, and even they "fixing" it, it still hasn't worked. And last day I wanted to get my stuff, none of the doors worked so o had to go all the way around to get in. The elevator was horrible, smelled always and when it was broken, it took 2 to 3 weeks until it was fixed. So stairwell gate ain't opening, so what was the solution? Walking through the parking garage to the second floor, entry there to take the stairs. Plus too, you get charged for the parking garage even you put on the lease you have NO CAR. They charged you anyways. Parking spots for visitors are zero. Then the hallways, always dirty, sticky and smelly. They cleaned maybe just one part of it, but never where I lived at. Maintenance? You can put in an order, especially about the smoke detector when the battery just needed to change, it's something that takes 2 min which someone could come by fast and change. But no, even you put it in as "emergency" throughout the day no one showed up, and I had to go to the office 2 times and tell them no one came. If you needed them on the weekend, there was no emergency maintenance or something, so basically you had to live with everything until the next business day. About the trash, I think they empty it only when they want to. Every time I had trash out to get puck up, all other people's trash was gone but ALWAYS mine was still there for another 2 or 3 days. Makes no sense The only good thing at that apartment, you could easily plug in a usb cable to charge your phone (only a few were there) but that was literally the only "cool" thing... When I moved in there last year, no one explained how things work and where to find what. Just gave me the key and didn't even told me where to go until I asked for help, I had 3 luggage back then too. The app to open everything is nonsense if nothing is working and always broken. For that price I was paying, for a 1 bedroom....I pay less for a 2...