Madison Apartments

Im a little more than half way though my lease, I wanted to wait a bit so I could leave a better review. Ill list out the positives and negatives as well as tell you about my personal expereience with management!
POSITIVES
— Non Smoking & Pet Free Building: I personally cannot stand cigarette smoke or pet hair where I live.
— Very clean building: Since the building is older, on obvious concern is upkeep and cleanliness. Nearly every morning, as I exit the elevator on my way to work I can smell the freshly cleaned floors & I love that. Everything is always wiped down and clean. This includes, floor, elevators and laundry room. The Madison staff keeps the building 10x cleaner than the brand spanking new building I was in before.
— Newer Laundry Room: Coming from a unit that had its own washer and dryer I was a little apprehensive about having to use a community laundry room. That being said all the washers and dryers are brand new super nice front load machines. Much better quality than my in-​unit machines were at my previous place. Also the best part is you use a reloadable card to pay for service. No quarters necessary!
— Spacious Layout: The units are laid out really well. I looked at about 6 units before deciding on one. All of the units were so spacious. I am in a studio but its nearly the same square footage as my previous 1bdrm that was $ 300 more per month!
— Rent Controlled: Its good to know that The Madison is a «rent controlled» building. I did not realize how important this was until my last apartment lied to my face and said rent wouldn’t go up on year 2 then raised it by 18% come renewal time! I wasn’t planning to move & was literally forced out because it was no longer affordable.
— Little Noise: The walls are thick which is great. I even went as far as to asked my neighbors if my loud late night TV or Singing & piano playing bothers them and they said they never hear me! From the hallways you can hear noise but not once inside a unit.
— View: I live on Northside of the building for I get a beautiful view of the hollywood sign and magic castle. The units are wall to wall with windows, the view is so beautiful. It still makes me feel awesome each morning I wake up to it.

NEGATIVES
— Ive honestly been racking my brain to come up with a negative & surprisingly I haven’t had one issue which is such a HUGE relief. My last apartment was a renter’s nightmare. The only thing that could «use improving» is the parking for guests but thats really not even an issue with the building its the hollywood area in general. To resolve, I simple pay $ 12 for my guests to stay in overnight parking (or $ 2 an hour) at the highland center which is right next to the building. Problem solved :)
MANAGEMENT
The last place I lived in blatantly lied to me & was down right negligent to both the tenants and building. Because I had such a terrible experience with my last apartment, I wanted to wait a bit before writing a review to see if the management was still reputable after initial move-​in.
When I decided to try and get a unit at the Madison, I was really nervous bc to be frank my credit score is really really bad. Its old stuff from 5+ years ago but & Ive been turned down numerous times. When I filled out my application, I was upfront with Rahvaunia (the AMAZING manager) and let her know my situation & that while I had terrible credit, Id never missed a rent payment & had a stable income. At first the property owner rejected my application but Rahvaunia went above and beyond by fighting for me & in the end got me an approval on a beautiful studio with brand new wood floors and tiling in the kitchen. Not only that, I was even awarded the «move in credit», even though I had bad credit. That’s unheard of!
After I moved in, Rahvaunia and the maintenance team have been nothing but outstanding. After a few months, I emailed management to let them know that my water heater didn’t seem to be heating up water long enough to shower for more than a few minutes before getting cold. Without question, she had maintenance come take a look & a day later I came home to a brand new, even larger water heater & I can now take enjoyable hot showers! This was just night and day from my last expereience where requests would takes weeks if not months!
I can honestly say that living at the Madison has been the MOST ENJOYABLE apartment living expereience I have had. Rahvaunia cares so much about the people that live here. Not only with her words and character but with her actions. I havent had one single problem that wasnt immediately taken care of! Really really happy to have found this little gem of an apartment that I can proudly call home :)

The best thing about this apartment is the property manager Rahvaunia Johnson. She is professional, conscientious, transparent, helpful and organized. After looking at many many apartments and meeting with agents, leasing staff, property managers, I can confidently say Rahvaunia was heads above the rest. She had a packet ready for me when I arrived with the floorplans marked for viewing. She was patient while I debated between two units. She made the lease signing process relatively painless — I went thru the application process and signed the lease in less than 48hrs. She also gave me great inside tips about the apartment and let me back i. the unit to measure for furniture. She was also super accommodating when it came to my move-​in date and coordinating deliveries. I really couldn’t ask for more. Someone give this lady a raise!

The 5 star goes to Rahvaunia, Madison’s onsite manager. Since she’s been on board, her and her team has done a wonderful and thorough job at fixing up the complex and individual units. I definitely appreciate how diligent and accommodating Rahvaunia has been in addressing maintenance requests– she is very communicative and genuinely wants to help her tenants out!

So I’m going to start out with something nice…
Rahvaunia, Madison’s newest manager is incredible. Rahvaunia is organized, honest, and accommodating while making sure she is completely fair. She will go above and beyond to make sure that tenants at the Madison are heard and accommodated. She is constantly working to keep everything as it should be but I believe could use a better support team to make it all happen.
I also want to say… I LOVE MY UNIT. I have a beautiful unit that I take great pride in keeping pristine. Often times, before Rahvaunia joined the team, I believed I cared more about the building then the management and maintenance did.
If Rahvaunia ever left, I would definitely move and I know of other tenants that feel the same. She is wonderful to work with and I just wish the parent property company would allow her to do her job by giving her a support team to do so.
In short… if you love Hollywood and are prepared to keep detailed notes on your requests and agreements with the property company, come and live at the Madison.
I’d just suggest making sure to ask for Rahvaunia when you arrive…
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HAVING SAID THAT… HERE ARE MY ISSUES…
I have lived at the Madison now for over 4 years and my experience has been less then great. Before Rahvaunia I went through 5 managers in 3.5 years. From the day I executed my lease until Rahvaunia joined the team, there have constantly been issues.
Issues start from the top, Arnold, the apparent property manager who’s in and out, showing up once a week at best, never remembers what he promises nor does he follow through with what he agrees to. Prior to Rahvaunia, if you didn’t get it written and signed by Arnold at the time of agreement, you weren’t going to get what was agreed upon. As any good business man, Arnold wants to maximize his profit but doing as little to the building or your unit as humanly possible. I understand that a business must profit, but this is rental property… take care of your tenants.
Maintenance is a joke. For example… I had a terrible leak from my 2^nd floor master toilet that dripped through the 1^st floor ceiling causing a smell and stain on my stairs landing. It took 7 months to get anyone to look at it.
When I, no sorry Rahvaunia, finally got Arnold to agree to change out the carpet, I asked for hardwood floors on my second floor to replace the nasty carpet that had been there from before I moved in… I PERSONALLY HAD TO PAY an extra $ 500 to have the hard wood put in to replace the very dingy and smelly, past tenants carpet and improve property that didn’t belong to me. I had to pay maintenance’s labor… to NOW STILL be waiting for the job to be completely finished 4 — FOUR WEEKS LATER! THE JOB IS STILL NOT FINISHED! During the initial floor install the closet door in my guest bedroom was broken and has yet to be replaced… so currently my closet only has one door and my doors where never finished by sealing the wood.
I’ll get back to you when they finally finish the job… again maintenance wastes more time then any department in this building.
Let’s not even address the day that we put my front door key into another tenants door and it actually opened… That was the day I finally got new locks.
Or the fact that maintenance tried to fix my broken toilet with a paper clip… no people… I’m not kidding. A paper clip.
Or the time that 6 cops, with guns drawn, asked me to go back into my unit b/​c squatters had 6 people living in one of the unit through air B&B.
Maybe getting security to walk the building at night or have a door man so that the random Hollywood homeless, air B&B squatters, or the guy that cornered me in the laundry room, doesn’t happen again.
OR MAYBE WE SHOULD SPEND THAT MONEY ON A BIKE HOLDING ROOM LIKE WAS JUST BUILT… yes… yes… a bike holding room sounds like a much better idea??? (I believe Arnold is an avid bike rider.)
Oh and there was that year a letter around Christmas was delivered from the Madison asking you to tip the maintenance team for their great work… again… not kidding.
Well as you can see I could go on and on but I’m going to end this with another positive statement. Rahvaunia is amazing!!! She is what gives tenants hope that things here are changing.
You’re probably reading all this and think… why don’t you just move??? Well as I said I LOVE my unit, it’s close to work and after living somewhere for 4 years, moving is just a pain in the butt. I was planning to move before Rahvaunia started and then when she arrived, it felt like positive change was happening and maybe it was worth staying. I even agreed to pay more rent, b/​c of course that’s what Arnold enforced.
Rome wasn’t built in a day… I’m confident that Rahvaunia is going to make some truly positive change and since you’re reading this… you should come to meet her and take a tour.

I was a tenant at Madison from June 2013 to July 2014 in a studio on the north-​facing side of the building. I had a great experience during my tenancy and would stay there if it wasn’t for my job (had to move to Oregon).
Rahvaunia was a great manager while I was staying at the Madison. Even after I moved out of state she was very helpful and treated me as though I was still a tenant. I had a problem with my deposit refund check (got stolen from my doorstep here in Oregon!!!) and she was always available, quick, and kind with responding my calls or e-​mails, and finally reissued my check and mailed it again.
Before Rahvaunia joined the Madison as the manager, the building started to get quite a bit unorganized and the previous manager just seemed to not care enough. Fortunately Rahvaunia changed everything.
As for the location, this building is located in –the– Hollywood (as Hollywood as it can get!)… Chinese theatre, Dolby Theatre, Hollywood & Highland, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Jimmy Kimmel’s studio are right there, 5 minutes walk !
My one and only complaint is that pets are not allowed anymore, so even if I wanted to stay in LA I would have to find another place ! :(
Overall if you don’t have a dog this place is perfect !

The Madison has been great to us. The views are incredible. Great location with gym, grocery store, pharmacy, and restaurants all walking distance. The apartments here have a lot of character. The people in this building are the most friendly of any apartment I have lived in. Rahvaunia is our property manager, and she has been a gem. This woman is on the ball — responds promptly to emails, writes passes for visitor parking, deals with maintenance requests ASAP, and more. She takes her job seriously and works hard to make sure her tenants are satisfied. Would highly recommend the Madison.

The building is close to everything and is in an especially nice location, close to runyon canyon and on the nice side of Hollywood Boulevard. The views are great and so is the service especially. Ravhaunia, the current manager, is prompt on everything to meet your needs. It is really wonderful to have that and her here! I am a few blocks from my acting school which makes it perfect. Thank you to the Madison, i enjoy living in Hollywood and I am close enough to everything, and somehow the building is just out of the way of all the traffic, its great. Great experience.

I have lived in the building for almost 4 years now and it is getting better and better each day…
The place is well priced, beautifuly located, and the recent improvements in the building have changed the vibe in a very positive direction.
We finally have a building manager in Rahvaunia that get things done and brings improvements never before seen. Great addition to the team here.
The new laundry room is great ! New pool furniture, newly painted garage …
Great place to live.

I’ve been living at The Madison since March of last year and I couldn’t be more pleased with the building, my studio and especially the management. I spent a lot of time searching for a reputable and safe mid-​rise building in Hollywood and my studio is more than I could ask for — it’s spacious with a view of the Hollywood sign, wall-​to-​wall windows, 2 sliding closets and additional cabinet space, a vanity enclosure as well as modern furnishings (a half bar, adjustable lighting, even a mod faucet) and HARD WOOD FLOORS. I’m in love.
On top of that, the management here is like my family. Rahvaunia is AWESOME. She is the current onsite manager and she has been super responsive to all my needs — temporary parking permits, parking permission, new blinds, facility fixes — even sometimes helping me move my packages! I see her onsite often and she is super friendly and makes me feel at home. Additionally, since she’s come, she has implemented many improvements to the building to improve the experience for residents — trash regulation, tenant parking enforcement, laundry room remodeling, parking lighting, no-​smoking, etc.
In addition to Rahvaunia, I’m good friends with Wes the former manager as well as Bert, the owner of the building. Wes is super friendly (and a great pianist) and Bert is funny and incredibly helpful. Miguel, the facilities manager, goes out of his way to make sure my apt is well kept, says hi to me every morning, and will follow up on my requests if it gets stuck in the pipeline. He truly cares about his job and again, I say, the team is like family.
Pros about the building:
+ A walk away LA Fitness, Runyon Canyon, Madame Tussaud’s, CVS, Fresh & Easy, Muji, Roosevelt Hotel, Magic Castle, and a ton of shops along Hollywood Blvd.
+ Efficient facilities requests /​responsive mgmt
+ Modern fixings /​hard wood floors /​big windows
+ Friendly neighbors :)
+ On site laundry
+ Package holding (in office)
+ Heating control
+ Parking structure for tenants
+ Small pool
Cons:
+ A/​C wall unit doesn’t help much/​loud fan noises
+ Hollywood can be a challenging place to live (traffic from Hollywood Bowl, Oscars and other media events)
+ Challenging guest parking without a permit

I think most of the low reviews on here were from before the current Manager. Rahevaunia came a few months ago and everything has turned around. She has been exceptionally efficient when it comes to answering questions and getting back to her tenants. Additionally, a great deal of work has been done on the parking and now the laundry room is being updated. We had a leak in our refrigerator and it was literally swapped out the next morning. A+ service from her and her team. Miguel is also the man!

Live here now. It’s amazing. Apartments are worth the cost. Huge brand new studios. As big as some one bedrooms at other apartment complex. Best location to be in Hollywood. And not to mention best views in hollywood and only high rise around. All apartments have huge wall to wall windows and some have balconies as well. Walls are very thick. I can never hear my neighbors. Management is just amazing. So nice and always at tentative. There are other apartments in the area costing way more and not nearly as nice and clean as this place. This place is spotless. I love it. Rhauvanna goes above and beyond to help the tenants here. She is a an amazing manager.
… Update Feb. 14^th, 2014
I am updating this bc Rhauvanna went above and beyond to help me get into the apartment I wanted with a balcony. And I couldn’t even be happier. It’s a studio but it’s the size of a one bedroom and even has a seperate area for the bed with an bookshelf cabinet built into the wall it looks beautiful. The balcony is as long as the apartment itself and U have a slider door all the way down and a huge window! The only part without window is the area for bed so it’s just perfect! I couldn’t be happier. Thanks so much Rhauvanna! Not to mention being able to see the Hollywood sign from my balcony and the ocean. Win win win:)

Rrahvaunia is a Fantastic onsite manger, Migel and the maintenance team are great! Very accommodating, very pleasant A+ service, haven’t had any major noise complaints at all.
Overall, I do recommend this place for others.

lived here for almost a year. super clean bldg. friendly management. units are nice, for the area, and if you get a high floor, like i have, the view can’t be beat. great place for the price.

This place is pretty cool. Great location if you need to get to anywhere since it’s centrally located. Small pool on the east side. If you sleep here, south side of the joint is riddled with Hollywood crazies and the alley way of trash, loading, and tour bus galore. North side I hear is quite, but doesn’t have the view.

3 negatives, 3 pluses equals a content tenant but that’s why you’re getting a 3.
NEGATIVES:
We should have read the one and only review by Mandie before we moved in. Definitely rent at your own risk…
It is the middle of Hollywood so we expected noise but there is one tenant on the 7^th floor that does blare music at all hours of the day. If you are offered a preference we would recommend a couple floors up and away from his unit.
Bathrooms do not have vents… Guess you’ll have to get use to leaving the doors open for venilation.
AC units are sufficient but heaters are not. They blow warm air therefore beware that your heat bill will go up in the winter. Some units can be programmed electronically while some units are manual. We only had 1 electronic unit which means when it gets too cold in the other two rooms you have to get up in the middle of the night to turn it on and off. Totally annoying during the summer when you’re trying to sleep. BUT this is typical for Californian apartments. We left ours on because it blocks the street noise and noisy neighbors.
POSITIVES:
The view is great! We enjoyed waking up every morning and watching the sunset over the Hollywood Hills.
Walking distance to the Runyon, gym (24 hr fitness), groceries (fresh and easy) and Highlands mall and restarants.
Nice finishes include granite counters, wood cabinets, stainless steel, laminate floors, carpet in bedrooms and mirrored closets.
KIND OF A BIG DEAL BUT NO REALLY and should be EXPECTED:
No visitor parking but then again there aren’t visitor lots anywhere in Hollywood.
Constant traffic road closures for events on Hollywood Blvd.
Good luck!

Here we go.
Man. this might be a long one.
So, I moved here with my ex (before he was my ex) back in March of 2007 because the place we were living down the street decided to raise our rent another 200 fucking dollars… so we bounced. We knew a guy who lived in this building, and by word of mouth we ended up getting a really nice (but small) studio on the 7^th floor, north facing view of the Hollywood Hills (Hollywood sign, the whole lot… loved it) The actual apartment itself was really cute, I loved how the windows went across the entire length of the studio, it really opened up the space and made it livable.
However, that’s where it ends.
When we signed up, we were told the elevator that wasn’t working would be «fixed soon» and the pool is «going to be fixed this year.» Well, we never saw any kind of construction happening the entire time I stayed there (which was about 3 months) and my ex has only recently moved out at the end of last year. Management was always leering and chain smoking in front of the building. Super creepy.
Anyway, management told my ex that he could have his car stored there in one of the many empty parking spots even after we moved out. Turns out he had it towed and never told my ex and he couldn’t afford the couple grand in fees to get it out of impound… so… no more car.
Laundry machines worked horribly, very small and one of the dryers never actually dried my clothes.
They also tore a hole in the ceiling of our bathroom to install a new water heater … which they didn’t patch the hole for at least a week. Also the guy next door was SUPER annoying and blared music at all hours of the day.
Rent at your own risk.