Tenant Reviews for 5017 N Wolcott Ave

I have rented a studio on an upper floor in this building for the past six years and have just renewed for another year. For the rental price, (I have one of the un-rehabbed units in the building), I feel this building is an economical value. The building is in a very safe neighborhood, well-lit; a 9-minute walk from the Ravenswood Metrarail stop, and Mariano's is opening a brand new store two blocks away next week! I walk to the Sulzer Library, St. Matthias Church, Old Town School of Folk Music, and all the action available in the gorgeous uptrending Lincoln Square neighborhood. The building pays the utility bill, and each apartment pays its prorated portion, which is around $46 per month. If you're looking to keep costs down, 5017 North Wolcott ("Wolcott Terrace") is a good building to check out.

Pros: - Nice finishes in the kitchens- and pretty solid-looking places for sure. - Tons of buildings in good neighborhoods like Lincoln Square and Ravenswood, which are awesome- and still affordable, hip neighborhoods despite Horizon's best efforts to monopolize the properties and drive up rent medians. Cons: (Buckle up.) - 3 building managers in 2 years. (Not that I've been able to reach any of these people- I'm convinced they're either Secret Service or just being paid not to work- ever.) - Only open 9-5 Mon-Fri. So, hope you're not employed. - Paying high heat utilities to Horizon, while still having to pay the same utility company on a separate bill for cooking gas. Ran the numbers once- it really doesn't add up- was pretty upsetting. - No online way to pay rent- unless you want to pay a laughable fee- since the internet is such a cutting-edge technology in 2013. I mean, someone's gotta pay for the tube maintenance, gear greasing, and what-not. - Having to drive or walk to their giant new immaculate office building every month to pay for each of the above - and witnessing their ridiculous overhead and record-setting operational inefficiencies firsthand. - Token- based $4 loads of laundry- and the token machine is rarely stocked. - Having the maintenance guy sent over to put on a bigger shower head and telling you that you're wrong about your shower water pressure being LAUGHABLE when you tell them that it isn't even close to acceptable. Not kidding- literally considered connecting a garden hose to our bathroom sink and running it to the shower after months of being told we should change the time of day we take showers. You laugh, eventually so did we. Lots of enraging shower experiences- but it varies- and we eventually conformed to evening showers for that good pressure option. We should have just listened to them sooner. - Spending 3 days without access to your own bedroom because you've had to quarantine a gigantic rat in there until the following Monday- when they can send someone. They told me to "put out some traps". I did- but, turned out they were half the size of the rat that I ultimately had the traumatic experience of beating to a bloody death with my tennis racket on the Sunday that I'd finally had enough. Then we got to clean our feces-covered room and the blood stained floor. Took all day and night. They sent us 6 laundry tokens to make it up to us. INSANE. - 7 months with bricklayer scaffolds outside your bedroom window and listening to the world's slowest crew of 5 guys spend ONLY SATURDAYS AND MONDAYS FOR 3 MONTHS waking you up at 8AM sharp every single Saturday- one of the days actually cutting through your actual wall and literally burying your room in brick dust. I have a video of this and wish I could include it here. I went ballistic, needless to say- and as a former mason laborer of 4 years in my 20s, I can tell you from experience- their pace was criminal, and the work itself was so insanely bad. One more inefficient service that we the tenants not only suffer through, but surely pay the price for in their insane fees and annual rent increases. Congrats if you read all that- I'm impressed. AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE. We went manual on the search and just checked all the obvious sites and eventually found a way better place in the same neighborhood for nearly half what Horizon was trying to raise our rent to. Took less than a week, and now counting the days until we never have to deal with this joke of a company again.

Overall this building is in pretty good shape, many of the apartments were renovated and nice. It was quiet and in a great neighborhood with decent parking. The only negative I have to say is that do not rent the ground floor/garden units. The entire basement flooded twice during living there and there was a fair amount of mold growing on the walls. Horizon Realty was the management at the time I lived there and they usually did a decent job of taking care of things, the flooding is hard to control I guess so just rent an apartment on the 1st floor or higher.