We had a great time staying at Ivan's Rio apartment. While the location seemed a little bit suss on the first day (there's a favela entrance across the road) we had no problems at all and felt very safe walking up and down the winding cobblestone street (also I want to note that we stayed during the Olympics which meant that we had a lot of police driving up and down the street/staying at the bottom of the street). Alternatively, on the days that we couldn't be bothered walking up the hill, we found that Uber was very cheap and easy. Also the apartment is very close to the metro station, supermarkets and beaches, which was great! The only concerns we had during our trip was with the new local agency that has taken over the apartment. While they were very lovely and accommodating, the man that let us in forgot to turn on the hot water (so had no hot water for the first few days) and the company took a few days replacing the toaster as the one there was broken.
But overall I would recommend this apartment to anyone wanting to stay in Rio.