Westboro Apartments

I lived at the Westboro for one year– I wanted to stay for at least two but the owner has begun «aggressively raising rent», which for my 2 bedroom apartment meant a $ 300/​month increase (from $ 1300 to $ 1600). I heard rumors of a $ 1000/​month increase for a large 3 bedroom, but from my understanding most apartments went up between $ 150– $ 300 annually. Location was unbeatable– you can easily walk to Vandy, the grocery store, Walgreens, the bank plus easy access to 440. Even in spite of the raises, I don’t think you can beat the Westboro in terms of price and location. However, it’s very loud at night (ambulances use 31^st and West End often, and the garbage truck slams the dumpster down once a week at 3am) and the leasing office is unprofessional. They mean well, but fail to communicate well via email, neglect to cash rent checks in a timely manner, lost my roommate’s money order, and take maintenance requests as a personal offense. If you chose to live here, be VERY CAREFUL to have a paper trail for each and every rent payment, and keep good records of what you owe them and what they owe you. Neighbors were fantastic– this is a great place to live if you’re new to town. The building is well-​built but drafty– expect to pay a little extra in heating/​cooling.

I’ve been living at the Westboro since April 2013. It’s a nice little place, with very friendly neighbors. My wife says our building (built in 1913) has character– I say it’s old and hasn’t been kept up with. That’s only partly true. Our kitchen is seriously dated and tiny, but the rest of the apartment is quite nice. We’ve got a one bedroom, with 1.5 bathrooms and a sunroom. We pay $ 925. Considering the location, we can’t imagine beating it. It’s 10 minutes to work for both of us– against traffic– which will be hard to top when we end up moving later in life.
Our apartment faces the parking lot, but we still get a lot of traffic noise coming in when we open the windows. We’d love to save money by turning our a/​c off and letting nature do its thing, but we also like to sleep. The sirens and life flights quickly wake you up with windows open.
Overall, we’re happy enough. Do wish we could pay our rent online!

I really love my cute little studio apartment at the Westboro! I’ve lived here for 6 months, and so far, so good. The maintenance guys have been super nice and reasonably prompt, and I’ve hardly talked to the leasing office people at all since my first day (which I consider to be a good thing, because if I’m talking to them a lot, it usually means something’s wrong). I signed the lease sight unseen, and I’m so glad that I haven’t had to regret it.
The apartment itself is sooooo adorable. My aesthetic is on the vintage-​y, design-​y side (think Anthropologie), so I absolutely love all the character in this old building. The ceilings are high, there are hardwood floors, and the windows are ginormous.
Since the building IS so obviously old, I was initially worried about things like the apartment being drafty/​uninsulated and there being bugs/​rodents. However, my unit stayed surprisingly cool during this past sweltering summer (I can’t really attest to it staying warm during the winter yet, since I’ve been out of town for the past month), and I have yet to see any creepy crawlies. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the shower water warms up! It’s almost instantaneous!
Parking hasn’t been a problem for me. There have been a couple times when I drove home late and couldn’t find a spot in the lot, but it was easy to find free street parking nearby.
The only major complaint I have is the noise from the street at night and early in the morning. (I guess the windows are really thin?) During her visit, my mom said that it was «like sleeping on a mat on the side of a highway.» The noise really bothered me at first, but I bought a pair of ear plugs, and I’ve been sleeping like a baby since.

I absolutely covet anyone who lives in these beautiful historic apartments. The place is very turn of the century, art deco-​ish. A friend of mine used to live here, and for the price you pay, you get an excellent amount of room, a big beautiful window, nice sized kitchen, hard wood floors, and you live right off of West End.
Just walking up the stairs to the apartments is beautiful; you really get to look at the architecture. From the apartments you’re within walking distance to the park, Borders, Vanderbilt and a number of other locations.
It can get noisy sometimes because you know, it’s West End, and it’s part of a «college town» but I think I could get over it really, really quick.