I never write a bad review, so this is a first for me. But this place warrants it. It just wasn't ready for prime time.
First off, I arrived after sunset so it was dark and the path to find the door (in the back of the building) was practically pitch black. If I didn't see the hint of a light around the corner, I wouldn't have gone back there.
Second, the apartment was directly under the flight path for the San Jose Airport, so there was the constant noise of plains taking off or landing. Since there doesn't appear to be ANY insulation in the roof, the sound just came right through the ceiling, sometimes rattling the house. If this wasn't bad enough, the apartment is about a block away from the metro tracks. Thankfully, that wasn't as active, but when it DID come through, it was very loud.
Third, there were ants in the kitchen, the bathroom and sometimes in the living room and bedrooms. Mostly just looking for water, I'm guessing. But I was constantly killing ants throughout the 2+ months I was there.
Fourth, the parking situation was problematic. While there was a slot for me, I couldn't use it very often because there were cars parked just behind the space making it difficult to back out. It would have been fine for a very small mini or compact car, I suppose. But I found it much easier to park in the spare lot or on the street.
Fifth, there was a breakfast bar made out of something like marble between the kitchen and livingroom. While it looked nice, the couch in the living room was just under it and you had to be extremely careful to move the couch away from it or you'd end up braining yourself against it just sitting down or getting up.
Sixth, the light switches and "energy saving devices" were both annoying and counter productive. For example, the light switch at the front door wasn't attached to anything like an actual light. Instead, it was connect to the wifi and TV. The power supplies for the lights in the bedroom couldn't handle the 3-4 devices I had plugged into so it kept blowing circuits. I ended up unplugging it and plugging my devices directly into the wall instead. This was the only way I could keep the lights working. The motion detectors in the bathroom for the light and fan were amazingly stupid. The light would turn off if you were standing in the shower for more than 3 minutes. And the fan would turn off if you were sitting on the toilet for the same time unless you like to wave your hands in the air while taking care of your business. In contrast, if you weren't actually in the room, the fan would stay on for literally hours and there was no way to manually turn it off. It drove me nuts.
Seventh, the fans in the kitchen were pointless. The one above the stove under the microwave didn't have a vent. So it would spin and make noise but did little else. The other fan was above the refrigerator, far from anywhere that it might be needed. I never used it so I don't know if it had a vent or not.
Eighth, the stairs were a safety hazard when I first arrived. Whoever built them decided it would be a nice idea to have an inch wide, quarter inch tall piece of transition wood at the edge of the top stairs. Whoever was there before me must have decided to kick it off because it was broken when I got there. What remained was unstable. Both the transition or the missing piece made it incredibly easy to trip down the stairs (especially at night). Thankfully, the maintenance guy came in and fixed that fairly quickly when I called about it. He was actually very helpful.
Ninth, the fire alarm in one of the bedrooms went off a couple of times for no apparent reason. I could cut them a little slack about this. The neighbors did smoke and Santa Clara was hazy with smoke from the nearby forest fires, so that may have been the cause. I could smell it at times collecting in the house if we kept the bedroom doors closed, so I'm guessing there are no filters on the air conditioner. But it was only the one fire alarm. None of the others ever went off.
And finally, the bed I was using was a nightmare. It squeaked constantly with even the tiniest of movements. Between the airplanes, trains, fans and squeaks, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep.
I had a couple of other minor complaints. None of the pots and pans had lids. The neighbors were a bit noisy at times and the walls seemed paper thin, but that's to be expected in an apartment building. On a couple of weekends, the nearby amusement park had a short fireworks show.
Didn't bother me, but my dog wasn't happy about it. Compared to the rest, these were minor issues.
All in all, this wasn't even close to being worth the nearly $5K/month I paid for it.