renting in downtown madison? (Butler, Johnson: hardwood floor, apartments, leasing agent)

[sophiedvm]

I am considering a move to madison to complete my clinical rotations at the UW vet school. Ill be 26 when i start there. Ive been looking into rentals in the downtown area, as i would like to live walking distance to cafes, shops, and the capitol happenings. but im a little concerned that it may be a little too loud down there. while i am still young (relatively), and like to go out when my schedule affords it, im a little more low key these days, and i do not want to re-live my undergrad days, or feel like im living in a frat house. but i refuse to live in the suburbs, and i do want to live near other young professionals, or older/mature students. so, is it possible to live downtown without having parties next door every weekend? are there drunken students roaming the streets making a bunch of noise, or do they mainly keep to the bars?

and can anyone reccommend some nice buildings to look at? im looking for a studio or 1br for my cat and i for around $600-800/mo. i liked the butler plaza properties, but have read some bad reviews of the landlord, anyone know about this? any property management companies to stay away from?
any tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[tchemgrrl]

The grad student areas basically form a ring around the undergrad-heavy areas. The undergrad-heavy areas roughly run from the Capitol west to the far-west edge of campus. Not to say that there are no undergrads outside of that area, but it definitely gets louder as you head that way. A lot of grad students live in the Willy St. neighborhood (east of the Capitol) or north along Johnson and Gorham (I'd say east of Brearly or so, in particular, and through to about First St.), a lot live around the intersection of Midvale and University Ave, or the area just south between University and Regent. Both of these areas, while not full of loud drunk people, are still lively and relatively pedestrian-friendly, and well-covered by the bus system (if you go through the archives on this board you'll find some east vs. west side discussion, to give you a better idea of the "feel" of each area). It should be no trouble to get an apartment in your price range, though not every place allows cats.

You'll be a little closer to the vet school coming from the west side, but there are a couple of buses that come in from the east side and go directly by there (I know because I did some research at the Vet School, and lived at the far eastern end of Willy St.) What field are you doing your rotation in? I just recently moved away--I defended at the end of January--but I know all of the opthalmologists over there.

[sophiedvm]

thanks for the info, i appreciate it. ill just be doing my general 4th (and last, yay!) year of clinical rotations. i am currently going to school in the caribbean, so we come to the state schools kind of like exchange students to get our rotations done. so ill have to do it all, from large to small animal, although i plan on working small animal practice only. as for a specialty, im not really sure at this point, i may just go into general private practice. im originally from san diego, so getting into davis was pretty much impossible. i know, i know...i will have a huge adjustment moving to such cold weather. but im ready for a change. and if i cant handle it, ill move back to so cal when im done.

so thanks again for the info. from what ive seen madison looks like a pretty cool city, but i will definitely miss the year round tan i have down here.

[MidwesternBookWorm]

Sophie,

I spent five years working for a downtown Madison/campus area landlord, and a lot of grad students really liked the area along Old University, Kendall, Farley and Lynn Terrace. That area has a lot of professors and other working professionals, and the undergrad population is not nearly as concentrated as is the case closer to State Street. There are a lot of homes and duplexes in the area as well as smaller (eight to twelve units) apartment buildings. Rental rates do tend to be a little higher than is the case in the heart of the "student ghetto" right downtown, but the payoff is that the places themselves are often nicer, too. The price range you mention should get you a very adequate place, and you could very well find one that has all sorts of nice stuff like hardwood floors, big beefy woodwork, built-in bookshelves or china cabinets, stuff like that. That would be in an older building, of course, and you would be less likely to find things like dishwashers, garbage disposals, cable tv and wi-fi; if those modern amenities are important to you, though, there are at least a few newer buildings in the area as well.

Before you rent, please, please, please contact the folks at the Tenant Resource Center, which is sort of like a Better Business Bureau for landlords. They can give you the best info on which ones are good and which ones to avoid. Their website is at http://www.tenantresourcecenter.org/.

And as I've suggested in other threads, you will also want to check with Madison Gas & Electric before you rent anywhere, to find out how much your utility costs will be, particularly at this time of year. You can do that online, at this location: http://www.mge.com/myaccount/averagecost/.

Good luck, and bring your woolies!

[Megan1967]

Hi there,

Could you send me the links to the reviews of Butler Plaza? Just curious as I may know one of the reviewers and he is not terribly credible. If there are many bad reviews then I'd go with them, but if it is only one I'm not sure how much credence I'd put in it. I have been in one of those units and they are very nice, but a bad land lord can be a pain.

[sophiedvm]

the butler plaza reviews were on apartmentratings.com. in reference to eric minton (i think that was the name), who is the owner or manager from what i gather. it has 2 good and 2 bad reviews, so i didnt take the bad too seriously. my problem is that i will have to get an apartment secured while im down here (the caribbean) still in school. so im just trying to get the best idea of places that i can via the internet.

so which of the butler properties did you live in? were you able to get a reserved parking place? was the noise very bad there? any problems with the shared laundry facilities? sorry for the onslaught of questions, i just dont want to end up somewhere that ill regret. id really appreciate any insight you can give me.

[sophiedvm]

here's the actual link, so you dont have to go sifting through the site. and after i re-read your reply, it sounds like maybe you didnt actually live there? but if you still have any info for me (about butler or any other property) that would be great. thanks

Butler Plaza Apartment Ratings, Reviews, Map, Rents, and other Madison apartments for rent from ApartmentRatings.com

[Megan1967]

I'm pretty sure the one that reference the circuit court site is a former friend who has a history of pulling less than ethical stunts. He had a run in with Eric Minton over a broken lease.

Not sure what to believe as he often embellished on the truth, but he said he never signed a renewal and Mr. Minton automatically renewed his lease when he never received a response to the renewal notice.

MidwesternBookWorm may be able to speak to that as he/she worked in downtown rentals, but 20+ years ago I had a clause in my lease (I was the renter) that said that if I didn't respond to the renewal notice my lease would automatically be renewed. Seems a little unethical, but it was thoroughly explained to me and they always sent out two renewal notices well in advance of the deadline.

The unit I saw was across from Capital Fitness. I'm not sure how sound proof the units are. I don't remember hearing noise from the neighbors when I visited my friend, but they may have just been quiet people. I think there are only 4 units on a floor so unless you had some weird neighbors I don't think shared laundry would be an issue. I was always able to park on the street right outside his building. No problems there.

[MidwesternBookWorm]

Originally Posted by Megan1967

MidwesternBookWorm may be able to speak to that as he/she worked in downtown rentals, but 20+ years ago I had a clause in my lease (I was the renter) that said that if I didn't respond to the renewal notice my lease would automatically be renewed.

The landlord that I worked for took the opposite approach, mainly because they wanted to be able to get rid of tenants that were troublemakers. They inserted language in their lease documents that explicitly stated that NO automatic renewals would be granted, that tenants had to reapply each year to stay on in their own apartment, and would have to come in and sign a new lease each time. It was an administrative headache (I was the office manager, not a leasing agent), but was an effective way of getting rid of people who damaged property, harassed other tenants or created problems in some other way, without going through the expense and hassle of an actual eviction.

However, I have been out of that business since 2004 (thank heavens!) and it is virtually certain that many changes have already occurred, both with landlords and in Madison General Ordinances governing tenant/landlord relationships. Again, I would strongly recommend seeking advice from the Tenant Resource Center; they are the BEST source for up-to-date information on the topic that you will find in Madison.

As a side note, I do know that quite a number of campus area landlords will accommodate totally online or snail-mail leasing, just for the people like Sophie who are not able to visit ahead of time. I helped an Israeli grad student find an apartment from Tel Aviv while I worked for my former employer, and that is not at all uncommon. Some will even go to the extent of sending photos and floor plans.

[tchemgrrl]

Doing stuff entirely online is more common than it used to be; I had a difficult time of it when I moved to Madison in '01, but I just did the same thing when I moved recently and it worked really well. Most landlords are pretty cool about it if you explain your situation.