We haven't actually ever met Mingpeng in person, we met instead his uncle who lives next door. Yet Mingpeng was always available on the phone and he was helpful when we needed that which did happen a couple of times: once the heating stopped working and mornings are still cold in San Mateo; another time the Internet went down and he was able to restore it after a short while. So Mingpeng seems a nice, helpful person, but we thought that the apartment/house could do with some cleaning, especially the bathroom and its cabinets. In fact we spent almost all of the first day cleaning up. Finally the place is several blocks from downtown, so it is not quite like walking outside the door to cafes and restaurants, but not too bad of a location.