The Buchanan apartments and the leasing team are superstars and always ready to assist. Buchanan is a place a call home. I definitely recommend the place to anyone that would like to live in a safe and comfort location in Arlington, VA. The price of rental is affordable and they are a lot to discover around the neighborhood. Cheers B. Teams.I’m happy with the overall services as a tenant!

Horrible experience living here. The elevators are constantly breaking and the hot water goes out at least once a month. Floors are uneven. There was a major fire in the building last month that caused severe damage to half a dozen apartments and made the building reek of smoke for weeks. Building management still hasnt shared anything with residents about the cause. Homeless people sleep in the elevator lobbies and hallways. It feels unsafe and dirty.

Nick was very good when I was coming to print my documents.

The fix is working. I will check on the fix in a couple days to ensure the icing has been fixed. So far, happy

I toured the Buchanan with my boyfriend last week and I loved the property and amenities offered. Nick was great and gave us the tour and offered a lot of information except one IMPORTANT detail. I decided that I wanted to apply, paid the $60 application fee and then was told that I do not meet their requirements for income. I make “too little” and would need a guarantor. I was approved for the apartment but I would need someone to sign with me. This is something that needs to be stated BEFORE paying to apply to your property. I could’ve saved time and money had I know that you all require residents to make 3.5x’s the monthly rent amount. I just would not have applied knowing that I didn’t meet that. It’s not okay to just assume someone makes that amount or to just assume that they have anyone to sign with them. This needs to be relayed to people before applying. Other than that. Great property and nice location.

Experience with management has been excellent, they are responsive to any issues and questions. Its an older building so there are frequent water issues that cause outages from time to time. Utilities are shared which creates a weird structure by which you may use little electricity and pay a lot. I understand its difficult to rewire the building but its worth knowing going in (they tell you when touring about that arrangement). Rooms are larger than most in the area which is nice, and most have big balconies. Would love a roof top deck!

Wonderful place to live...great voew and access to yhe city...Arlington is truly a wonderful place and Crystal city hasa variety of everything.

The overall management and maintenance of the property has improved significantly since the change to in-house management. I greatly appreciate, for example, that the hallway walls and apartment front doors are being kept well painted and that damage from move-ins/move-outs is being fixed quickly. Even this resident portal works much better now, without the constant freezes I used to experience before. Three suggestions: (1) Since a couple of months ago, the parking garage B3 level has several dark sections, with no power to the lights. This needs to be fixed. With the recurring homeless trespassing issue we have in the garage, areas without good lighting become a safety concern. (2) The garage entrance door needs to be fixed. This would hopefully help reduce trespassing. (3) The curb area on 23rd Street South immediately outside the building front door tends to flood whenever it rains. I think that the flood water seeps into the garage and floods large portions of the B3 level, especially during heavy downpours. In any case, whatever the source of the garage flooding, it should be fixed.

The Buchanan was our first apartment when we moved to the area. It really wasnt as bad as it is now, but the bad experiences keep accumulating and building management doesnt seem to care.This place is an accessibility nightmare. As of right now when Im writing this, the elevators are out of service - all of them. Avoid this place at all costs if you have mobility concerns or use mobility aids.Other issues:The fire alarms also go off randomly and without warning.Second hand smoke that we can smell through our kitchen.Chemical smells that make us dizzy via the heating/ac system.Broken laundry machines - both the public ones and our in-unit machines (which still havent been fixed as of a week after the initial call).A/C & heating gets changed on a fixed schedule, so there are weeks in March and October (and beyond) where your apartment is extremely hot or extremely cold.These are issues that are happening right now that havent been addressed or fixed. Please rent somewhere else.

I really, really dislike this apartment complex. The first night I moved in, the toilet was completely broken and flooding. Two weeks after moving in, we had an ant infestation in my room. Along with the water break breaking (leaving us with no water for the entire day), the hot water is shut off pretty consistently. The washing and drying machines reliably never work, and it is rare that the office will get back to you on any matter or any voicemail. Now, the pool is shut down, which is the only thing that was saving me from writing this review. At least they gave us free ice cream once?

I moved into the Buchanan a little less than a year ago. Things seemed to be extremely disorganized at first, but in the last few months things have seemed to change. They recently switched from Gates Hudson to Dweck and it is apparent that they are trying to make the property better (they are doing renovations in apartments, they just installed new doors for the parking garage exit, and maintenance seems more responsive). It is an old building and it shows, but my 1 bedroom apartment is the largest that I have seen in this area. At the end of the day, I am happy here and I am getting the best bang for the buck. If you are looking for space, definitely move here.

From the leasing agents to the front desk, everyone gave us an warm welcome and help us out with our move. We could not be more happy! Special thanks to Nick Segedi. He gave us peace of mind by having our apartment ready to move on time! Thank you all!!!

I lived at the Buchanan from late 2016 - early 2021. I leave with mixed feelings about my time here.The good:The location is great and the convenience to my job made me stay here for as long as I did. They have tried to update a lot of things here in my time. Some renovations like repainting the walls and general upkeeping, I think they’ve gotten better. Also, I want to shoutout the front desk and the maintenance people. Malat, Debbie and all the maintenance people were all amazing and I loved interacting with them throughout my time here.The pool area (3rd floor) was amazing to grill and the the pool is pretty big and clean and I used it a lot over the years (except last year due to COVID).The bad:The leasing office experiences I’ve had over my whole time here have honestly been very frustrating and confusing. I’d often come in with questions and leave wondering if my issues would be resolved. I never felt like a valued member of the Buchanan community. It was as if I’m paying rent but they made it seem like I was lucky to be there. Having said that every interaction I’ve had with Marisa (the property manager) personally have been amazing and she usually resolved every issue but that’s only after I escalate it to her after talking with the other people in the office. I think that was my biggest frustration in my years here. I never felt respected or heard by the leasing office until I met Marisa, and that didn’t happen until my last year here.The elevator and water outages were far too frequent as well. With the water, some of it was due to construction and I know they couldn’t really do too much about it, but it was very inconvenient and annoying at times. The elevator issues were extremely frustrating though and way too frequent.Cosmetics:It’s an old building so there are some things you’d have to accept coming in, but the carpet change they did in the hallways a couple of years ago was honestly terrible. It’s red with silver linings and gold in it as well. They did this to go along with grey walls and dark grey doors. Very confusing. Everyone of my guests made comments about how ugly it made the hallway look. It made the hallway look like one of an old hotel rather than a modern apartment.If your bathroom is not reglazed, tough luck! It has flowery yellow feel that makes your apartment look like it’s still in the 1950s.Overall, it’s a bang average community but it has location and price going for it. There are other communities in the area that are a bit more renovated with better accommodations and staff interaction, but you get what you pay for.

If you don’t care about being able to use AC for part of the warmer months go ahead and move here. When I signed my lease it was not disclosed with me that the system here works on a boiler system and so they can either provide heat or AC but not both at the same time. If I had known best believe I would not be living here as I’m typing this. With the amount of money it cost to live here you would think some how they would upgrade things to be able to make both possible somehow. Sitting in a hot apartment when it’s 90 degrees outside is not fun. I’ve been here over a year and I cannot wait to move out of this place and tell my friends at what a bad and uncomfortable experience I had living here. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TO LIVE HERE!!!

I enjoyed living here, there’s definitely some great things about this building but also many issues that need to be fixed. Let’s start with the good things though! The apartments are spacious and have proper amenities. The pool is well-maintained and the gym is well-equipped, you don’t need a gym membership anywhere else! The common spaces get cleaned every day so it’s never dirty. The staff is very nice and helpful and I’ve never had any issues with the package service. The apartment is located near many restaurants as well and is a 10 minute walk from the metro.As for the issues with this apartment complex, it’s an old building that’s not managed very well. There are water outages almost every two weeks, so you don’t have any water between 9AM and 4PM. Nothing to cook, flush the toilet, brush your teeth...And usually you get notified about this really late, like the day before or maybe 2 days beforehand. There are also emergency shut-offs or unexpected leaks in the pipes, so you’re without water without any explanation. Last time this happened they didn’t even send a notification and the property manager wasn’t there, so we could only guess why there was no water. They’re also doing some renovation which is great, but they didn’t hire the best contractors so the work is slow and dirty. There’s still paint on my door that’s not cleaned up. The contractors also broke my internet cable and although management told us they would pay the replacement bill for us (about $200), we only saw our money after the bill was due, about 3 weeks after the incident. We did notify them about the incident immediately and sent several reminder emails. When we finally paid the bill ourselves and went to the office to ask for our reimbursement, there was a new property manager and she told us she couldn’t help us as the incident occurred under the old manager so “it wasn’t her problem”. After some debating and us standing our ground, we did get our money reluctantly. People also smoke in their apartments and the staircases and I feel like no one checks on that.So yeah, there’s some good and bad things about the Buchanan. If you wanna live in Crystal City, my advice would be to look at different apartment buildings as well as I noticed those are managed better.

The Buchanan is a nice place to live. The maintenance team is typically responsive and friendly, and they complete requested tasks in a timely manner. For example, they were helpful when I had a number of run-ins with various pests, but I did need to take matters into my own hands by buying external pest control products to solve the problem.The communal spaces are also kept very clean, and placing hand sanitizer stations throughout the building has been appreciated. My only complaint is that the mask mandate in the gym is not always well enforced.Further, although the parking system is not ideal given that the garages overnight guest parking level is inaccessible from inside the building, weekend parking is free and the process has become easier now that you can just scan your parking ticket on the way out of the building. The package delivery system is also really convenient.

Ive been pleasantly surprised by with my stay here in the Buchanan. My only big complaint is that the washer/dryers on the floors dont work consistently or well.

I looked into renting at the Buchanan and I chatted with some of the construction contractors nearby after reading these reviews...and that’s all it took. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE. Water outages, pisspoor management, High utility bills. No amount of money would get me to sign up for bad management skills.UPDATE: Marisa Scott..I called the Buchanan and left SEVERAL message to which there was NEVER a returned call. That is why I decided to personally drive there and physically talk to someone. BUT it may have been a miracle or some sort of sign when speaking with the construction workers. “The management at Buchanan is the worst I’ve come across. Can’t get ahold of them” stands true too. You still haven’t called me. Yet, you all work these reviews FAST AF

Before I begin...FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. FALSE ADVERTISEMENTIm not sure how an establishment with such low reviews and complaints are still able to rent out to people, or even post on apartment sites period. After a long search and aligning myself with my new job and expectations for a new city; BOY WAS I DISAPPOINTED!The listings shown are not available and are posted with intentions to false advertise.Should I call the Better Business Bureau? Because I dont see how this business/ establishment can get any BETTER!Do better were in a BLOODY PANDEMIC!Also, My star does not count, I could not post my comment without giving one!

My roommate and I have lived here for a year. While there have been some good things (larger rooms) and some noticeable bad things (pests living within the wall, frequent water shutoffs, extremely high utility prices) all-in-all we were happy with our stay. Unfortunately, we have recently had a very difficult problem with the leasing office. We were never notified about our renewal notice, which we were told when we moved in that it would be emailed to us and we “shouldn’t worry about missing it.” Due to that mistake, we submitted our 60-day “move out notice” too late and are stuck paying $2,000 + utilities (despite the fact that no one will be living in our empty apartment for 20 days). For some reason, we have to pay for the 12 days it will take to clean the apartment. There is nothing to paint, no holes to patch up, or any other major renovation or cleaning necessary.When we reached out to the leasing office we were stuck waiting 45+ minutes and then had a curt conversation with a condescending leasing agent. The property manager has so far refused to get on a phone call with us and given us several “non-answers.” To re-emphasize, my roommate and I have just been trying to have a phone conversation to speak about the situation.It’s really disappointing that this is how our stay is ending. With COVID-19, times are hard and unfortunately very unpredictable, and the property has been incredibly difficult to deal with.

Im a fairly new resident and quite pleased with my stay so far. I admit I had concerns about reviews I read here and elsewhere, but those have not panned out. Based on what I have seen and experienced, I would venture to say management and service have greatly improved. I have placed two non-urgent maintenance requests since I moved in and both were taken care of within 18 hours. When one of the washers quit working in the common area, I placed a work order online and it was addressed the very next day as well. I have had packages, as well as furniture, delivered through Fetch without any issues and I was able to schedule my package deliveries after 6 PM so I didnt have to leave work early. In fact, I even got one of my packages delivered on a Sunday. One small discrepancy on my rent was very quickly resolved with a few simple emails. The concierge desk personnel have been warm, happy and helpful. Its nice to get a friendly good morning on my way out and a cheerful hello when I come back home.In fairness, I have to admit the first apartment I toured was not acceptable. It truly showed the age of the building and the kitchen was far too cramped with all the appliances in it. This was a let down after viewing the lobby and website photos. But Nick showed me around to several other apartments, and I located one of the more recently renovated apartments and I am quite pleased. Behind the scenes, there is still much improvement needed in the trash rooms, service corridors, and parking garage. But even there, some improvements are under way, like the new garage doors that are being installed. The building appears to be older than many of the apartments in the area, but along with that comes larger apartments and lower rent.In the end, the biggest plus for me is location. My office, restaurants, pharmacy, post office, National airport, bus stops and metro rail are all within a short walk and grocery stores are convenient and also offer delivery to your door. Its nice being able to leave the car in the garage and not fight traffic so much.

Great location and attentive staff. Definitely renewing at the end of my lease. If youre thinking about moving, this is the place to move to!

I guess there is new management here according to some of the recent responses from ownership but I really dont think I want to take the chance on this place given all the very negative reviews. Lost packages, water outages, smoking all over the building... Nice photos but there are too many options now to risk on new management

The worst management ever I have seen. Increased the the rent 35% compared with last year. Now we have decided to move out.

I lived at The Buchanan for almost 3 years and can easily say its the best place I lived so far. The apartments are spacious, the building is elegant and the staff members are so helpful with every issue I ever had, that it makes it hard to ever leave. Shelly, one of the leasing office managers, was extremely helpful during my time of residence there. If anybody is looking into moving to The Buchanan, I highly recommend to speak to her directly for outstanding customer service. She is without a doubt the propertys best asset.

Shelly is a tremendous asset to The Buchanan. The lease I have will expire shortly and Shelly set it up so everything will transfer over when I sign my lease to a new apartment at The Buchanan next month. She saved me the headache of filling out a new application because I want to stay. She answered all my questions and showed extreme patience in answering all my questions. I appreciate her kindness and professionalism.

The location of the apartment building is very good and close to crystal City metro station. I have lived there for one year and had a great experience. The one thing that made me put three starts for them is the concierge services. Almost all the employees working at the front desk are rude and have a bad attitude all the time. If you like to shop online a lot I recommend that you stay away from this property because you will have your packages mysteriously vanish!

So I went down to go get my package which Amazon clearly States that it is here at this apartments. Well I asked the front desk to see if it was Labeled wrong on the apartment number, and then the lady told me I was getting hostel, because I asked her to do her job and to see if there are any other packages with my name on it... both ladies would not even do that then they Accuse local residents for taking my package. What a great place to live at if someone saying that your neighbor stealing your stuff. If this place had a negative star I would have put it a negative 100. Great customer service Wait now psych.

I lived at The Buchanan for 1 year. Great location; easy access to the metro through a stroll outside or tunnel. However, the lady at the front desk very rude and unfriendly all the time.

There’s water shut offs at least once a month (lately it has been multiple times a month), and the water is shut off all day. In addition, half the laundry machines don’t even work and just eat your money. Pay attention to the 2.4 star review this place has. It’s not an exaggeration.EDIT: the heat has not been working in my apartment for 2 weeks. Maintenance was supposed to come and fix the thermostat. They supposedly needed an extra part that was supposed to come in DAYS ago and it still has not been fixed. I’ve been calling everyday for an update and no one has been able to tell me anything. Seriously y’all save your money and live elsewhere.In order to address the response to my review below (since I cannot directly reply), there is no need for a phone call. How about we not have water shut offs constantly as if we’re in a developing country, or compensate tenants for the inconveniences that we’ve all endured. This is far from a “luxury” standard.

I lived here for 1 year. Water gets shut off once a month, garage b2 is always leaking water, garage door is always broken. Washers and dryers are always broken. It normally take more than a week to get technicians if you find damage in your room. Elevator sometimes get broken. Contractors always park at the entrance and exit of the garage, which is dangerous. Employees are not well trained, they dont know about the policies and job rules. When i talked about those issues with Shelly, the manager of the management office, she said i could move out. Had quite a lot of conversations with other residents of this apartment, no one was willing to sign new contract with buchanan.

Ive been living at the Buchanan for 3 years and overall have had a good experience. Ive seen several changes take place to better the community and because of that I cant complain. I have had a handful of maintenance requests over the few years Ive been living here and they are usually fixed within the same day, but sometimes the following day, but nothing too major. The person I would recommend in apartment staff is Ashley, she is nice and would help all issues I have. Im glad to say that she is exceptional and Im satisfied!

I used to be happy with the management but lately things have been falling apart. Maintenance requests have taken multiple months to be taken care of (broken kitchen drawers, broken faucets, broken elevator lights so you can’t tell if it’s working). There is also a huge problem on my floor with second hand smoke and all that has been done was letters to the tenant - the manager said she would call me back about issues with second hand smoke coming from my neighbors room directly into my bedroom and I haven’t heard back from them. They did not offer any sort of compensation or even reimbursement for an air filter or moving units.I really hoped not to write this review as I do like some of the management staff but the truth is I have been very patient trying to see if there would be changes made to the level of responsiveness to resident concern and I have not witnessed it.

I have been living at the Buchanan for the past year. The space, price, and privacy is very impressive.We have a new property manager, Lindsey who does an amazing job. Since she took over as manager, there has been a lot of positive improvements and changes to how resident issues and concerns are addressed.The front desk manager Debbie goes beyond the call of duty to help residents and address their concerns and needs. Debbie always greets you with a smile and never fails to ask how you are doing. Debbie makes you feel welcome everytime you enter the building.Our new maintenance manager is very efficient and professional. He addresses your maintenance request within 24 hours or less, which is a vast improvement from what I experienced before.If you are a student like me and looking for a reasonable, safe, clean, and affordable place to live—the Buchanan is the perfect option.

Water and heat shuts off everyday. Cold water only works in my sinks. Fire alarm ringing randomly all throughout the day. The worst was when it went off at 2am for 30 minutes on a weeknight (now I need to buy ear plugs). Laundry machines do not work at all and have to climb multiple floors to find one working machine. Loud banging noises all hours of the day from renovation. And this is the tip of the iceberg!

Im looking for an apartment and about to check out the Buchanan but since I see a lot of negative comments here, Im gonna pass.

Moved in only for two months and already expecting the day when my lease ends so I can move out. Thanks god I only signed for a year and wont have to suffer here anymore after end of 2020 (which is still long way to go but I try to stay bright).In one word: TRAIN YOUR STAFF.Some of them have no basic concept and fundamental knowledge of how a CUSTOMER SERVICE looks like and they are always so mean and so unfriendly that I was even confused and even questioned myself that did I owe you money??? They have no idea that we residence LIVE HERE AND WE PAY FOR IT. These workers absolutely don’t deserve a salary at all as well as any respect from any residence. I won’t mention someone’s name here as my last courtesy, and you should probably already have a clue since I am sure this worker should have been reported multiple times. So far in my life I have never seen a leasing office behaving like this. Amazing place.

Great location. No matter the weather, you can easily access the metro through a nice stroll outside or through the Crystal City Shops indoors. Blizzard? No problem. Sunny and 75? Also, phenomenal. 10 minute walk at most. When I input a service request, even when I set it to a low priority level, it gets fixed that day or at worst the day after. All of the maintenance technicians are extremely nice. The staff in general at the Buchanan are friendly and easy to work with. Never had any problems with the neighbors. The noise is regulated because of the thick walls. The building itself is on the older side, as most things in the DC area are. There are a few minor annoyances such as having to pay every time you would like to do a load of laundry, but overall our experience has been excellent.

I’ve have not experienced anything that would from keep me from Loving my Home.

Seriously, I don’t want to say anything bad. But today we received a bill that wrote we have to pay more 10% late fee of our rents. We didn’t know this policy. No one ever reminded of us when to pay the rents and the results of delay. Other apartments all have someone to remind you when you signed the contract or send you email in advance. But our apartment did nothing and directly gave us a “fine”. Besides the rents, their customer services to the tenants are bad. One of the receptionists has really bad attitude to us. She even had a fight with my friends. And last time I told them my faucet in the bathroom didn’t work, then I have waited for a week until someone came to fix it. I don’t know whether just I met these problems, but I really think they should do something.

Front desk staff giving wrong packages to people. Be careful and double check to make sure you have received your correct items!

I dont recommend it to anyone. The location is very good. however the rent is very high, you never receive the same level services. there are a lot of problems. It means you pay high but the service that you expect to receive, is zero; you will never receive it. for example, the heater and cooler system is not working at all. the winter has been leaving but nobody look after the issue to fix it. In spit of informing the apartment Managment, nobody listens. No maintenance at all. we are experiencing a very bad winter this year with Buchanan. because, it has three months the heaters of our unit dont work in spite of informing the management, no action has been taken. the send somebody to fix it, it gets fixed for a day or two but it goes down again and again.the Utility is another issue, you are required to pay for others. you are charged more then of what you use/spend it.

Keep your bike in your apartment! My bikes were stolen in the LOCKED bike room. Little did I know there is a giant hole cut on the other side of the fence next to the bike thiefs ghetto chop shop. So not cool.....

Lived here for almost two years. While it is comfortable, it is a bit overpriced for what you get. I have sent responses to management regarding a few issues that have not gotten responses back. I am willing to concede that I am simply not doing that correctly, but I have no other way of contacting them. Utilities are very high for the constant shut offs as well. I do enjoy the location and concierge is very kind, but it would be nice to know that my concerns are being addressed.UPDATE: After posting this review, at least one employee at concierge started “losing” my packages. I already had this issue before with her, but I could literally wait until her shift ended at 10pm and ask the person replacing her. Lo and behold! But suddenly this seems to happen far more. Others seemed to have this issue too. The reporting link on the site leads nowhere, and complaints or concerns I filed went unanswered. Once moving out, we came to find a lot of mold in our a/c units, and after a month out, my chronic health issues have lessened quite a bit. A lot of people were moving out around the time had said the same thing. The units were inspected a month ago, before, and cleaned personally. I have it documented that nothing was at fault. I lived near a former laundry room and our a/c knocked out often due to the construction. We also had water damage from the pipe in our ceiling. Water bills in the hundreds a month that we didn’t even get to use seven days a week. And the time they decided to get an exterminator on short notice and give us little time to find a place to board our cats, when all the places in the area are booked up. Can’t leave them, they had to be gone for unspecified time. Couldn’t take off work. Was told “tough” until I asked the leasing office to call me a second time.I realize that renting in an old building means that you will have to deal with water damage. However, between he rain we had this year, the continuous pipe, boiler, and plumbing issues, needing constant turn offs, as other reports share (yelp has a screenshot to prove it), my issue wasn’t the mold. It’s that I could report this and the portal never goes anywhere. My doctor had referred me to an allergist because of the mold I’ve probably been breathing in and trying to prevent. In this regard, the lease is written out in a way that puts all of this on tenet in an impossible position. How can we turn on a fan in the bathroom to shower when ours didn’t have them? How are we supposed to dry our clothes if the dryers rarely worked, repair requests never went far, and we are not allowed to hang them in the apartment? How can I report my ac or mold if the portal you had never worked, and my requests went I responded to? And frankly, why was your concierge staff allowed to treat people so rudely? During move out, I was told several different things about the elevators, and it really sounded like nobody at concierge knew the answer. That’s not their fault and I know that. For as much as we paid, I felt we were put in an impossible position where we could not fulfill our end, and frankly, it is not a good place to be in.Roosevelt and Debbie were the best folks working here. They deserve praise for being genuinely helpful and doin bang up jobs. Two stars for them.

My wife and I recently moved out of the Buchanan after living there for two years. Despite the building being older and needing some love, the staff do the best they can with what theyve got and made every accommodation to meet the tenants needs. If there was ever anything broken, it would be fixed within a day or two. If there was ever an inconvenience, theyd make up for it. Its in a great location, and offers the most bang for the buck. Theyre also in the process of installing in-unit washers and dryers, which will make a huge difference in the quality of life there. Really, the only bad thing about the Buchanan is some of the tenants who think they live in a dorm, but I think theyre dealing with that as well. Thank you Buchanan!

While I cannot speak for the place as a whole, one particular Staffer, Belinda, was extremely helpful and took her time to properly explain things, and help myself and my roommates out greatly in our search for a place. Due outside to circumstances, we decided not to rent at Buchanan, but I would encourage anyone looking for a place to contact Belinda. The world needs more people like her.

Costumer service is the worse. I spoke with them over the phone and told me that they had an apartment available to move-in in a week. The lady that I spoke with, scheduled me a tour visit the next day at 1000 AM. So, I showed up on time and no one was expecting me, plus they didn’t have anything available until 2 weeks. They didn’t even show me anything. Drove from Fort Bragg to Crystal city for 5 hours, woke up at 3 in the morning and to my surprise these people made me waste my time. This seems to be a nice area but costumer service needs a lot of improvement.

Ive been living here about a month or so, and all initial maintenance requests were fulfilled timely. Everyone in the building is very friendly, decent fitness facility, walking distance to a ton of restaurants.

The leasing office staffs are so bad and not honest! Mine was Shelley. I refereed one of my friend to live here and asked them several times for the referral fee. They asked me to fill a tax related form, and never sent the check to me. I waited for almost three months, and still got nothing. When I asked them, they just said they would send to me ASAP.Bad leasing office staffs ever!!!

Constant infestations. Constant service calls. Constant maintenance. Warned all residents about turning off electricity over the weekend for mandatory maintenance work, and I had to throw all my food out thinking I would lose power to my fridge for a day. Turned out they never turned power off at all and face no notice.Two weeks ago I flew into Houston for work and got stuck out there with the hurricane. Not being able to come home until recently I paid my rent 4 days late late and charged me 10% in rent fees. Nice people.

Good place for the value. Management are good people - helped me out when I was in a pinch. Overall, good experience.

This place is very poorly run. It takes them months to fix things that everyone uses (Like the automatic front door and service elevator), most of the staff is unfriendly, and the utilities like water and gas are constantly being shut off for service on the building. I advise anyone who reads this to stay away from signing a lease at The Buchanan.

First day here and neither my bedroom door nor bathroom door will close. The handles seem to be placed too low in relation to the strike plate. The doors are also notably crooked, with the top clearly not flush. This may be contributing to the door unable to close. At least it appears closed, but it can easily be pushed open.Either the doors are incredibly old, or they were hung by inexperienced doormen.It has a nice location and individual air conditioning units, fortunately. The wifi is also fast. The pool was nice as well, with barbeques present.Just dont expect privacy, I guess, since you cant physically lock somebody out of your room.

Generally a nice place. Older than a few buildings, so no in-unit washer and dryers, and the windows are just single pane so youll hear your neighbors if theyre on their balconies. That being said, the people in the leasing office are great, maintenance is responsive, the concierge staff is by and large fantastic (a couple of absolutely outstanding people, with the rest being professional at least), the building is in a good location and well maintained, and there are quite a few amenities such as a great gym, billiards room, pool and deck, et cetera.

My family and I have lived at the Buchanan for over a year now and although theres always areas for improvement making it easy to complain about any residential management organization were quite pleased with our experience. When maintenance issues arise, they deploy people to address the matters as soon as possible. Management representatives including the concierge are nice and responsive to our questions and concerns. The unit is relatively large, amenities plentiful, rent competitive and the building is in a great location near the metro and a host of bars and restaurants and parks and downtown DC.I dont typically write web reviews, but I thought it worth doing so in this case so potential residents know what theyd be getting.Update: Although we enjoyed Crystal City, our growing family prompted us to buy a house in Alexandria. Tragically, the Buchanan totally botched the move-out process, souring us on our experience, there. After an in-person walk-through of our apartment revealed no/$0 damages we needed to address to avoid fees, over a month later, they mailed a final invoice for $700 in painting charges (to our old Buchanan address even though we submitted our new address in multiple fashions), explaining that the walk-through that we participated in--and couldve had the opportunity to resolve any issues--didnt count as there was apparently another walk-through that occurred days later that did.

The wash machines r trash if u use credit card. It shows bad read but still taking the money.

AVOID THIS PLACE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!!! Living here was a nightmare to me, Im happy that I have left this apartment and found a place thats cheap and friendly.Below are a few facts about this apartment:1. The staff are very rude, impatient and have attitude problem. Every time when you talk to the lady in the leasing office shes rude and tries to insult you! The small black girl in the front desk who has strong accent is very unfriendly almost every time when you try to pick up your packages. You just dont know why many of the staff behave so strange, seems like they have been tortured too much by their boss and think you own them a lot or what ...2. Everything in the apartment is old and unreliable. The microwave oven was broken two weeks after we moved in, we talked to them several times and they replaced it reluctantly. We have to ask them to come to our apartment to fix the refrigerator every two weeks because it will stop working every two weeks, as this happened quite a few times and we could not bare it any more we asked for a replacement and they replaced the broken one with something thats even older and dirty and smelly... The AC makes annoying noises like whistles and they told us we have to turn the wind speed to the lowest level then we figured out the best way is to turn the AC off completely and never use AC in our apartment... The door of a closet fell off one year after we lived here...3. There are leakage everywhere, I dont know how many holes they have drew on the walls on the floor that we live, but there are at least three big holes in our apartment as they were trying to identify the sources of leakages...4. The basement parking garage is flooding now and then, I was quite worried that my car and so many cars of others would drown someday, and I dont have to worry about this any more since Ive moved out5. As mentioned by others, we also see bugs in our apartment for a few times6. The rent is way too high, if youre looking for an apartment at Crystal City, see Crystal House, Crystal Plaza, Crystal Tower, and so many others before you make your decision to live here.

Ive just left the Buchanan and will really miss the place. The staff were all fantastic, decent people who actually care that you have a good experience. Overall, the service and maintenance personnel did their jobs, and did them right.So, why did I leave?First off, its a relatively old building. Cosmetically, it looks good, but the aging infrastructure is a serious limiter on your overall experience there.Because the plumbing wont support every unit having its own; the washers and dryers are shared communal units that you have to pay for using a card. Basically, its like being in college... having to run down the hall because you forgot that you left your laundry in the machine and hoping no one dumped it on the floor. The washers and dryers are pretty old, and break down frequently. Unfortunately, they are priced like they are brand new industrial units. Currently the price is two dollars per load, and that is a 40% increase over what it was in 2008, when the washers are three years older...The fire alarm goes off very frequently late at night. This is not the buildings fault, but they have a linked fire system with the restaurants below them... so every time someone at Chilis touches off a grease fire when they are trying to clean the grills at the end of their shift,... you end up outside with everyone else shivering in the cold while the fire department takes 20 minutes to clear the building. It happens waaay too often, and leads to a not so good experience for residents.The buildings management company at some point made a deal with local universities to be contracted housing for undergraduate students. Expect that a significant portion of your neighbors will be college kids who (noisily) party on weeknights, walk to and from the laundry room in boxers and no shirt, occasionally puke in the hallways, and occasionally punch holes in the hallway walls. This is all perfectly normal behavior for dorms, but I didnt sign up to live in one.Overall, a good deal for the area, but no what you are getting into.Ill really miss the staff, they work very hard on a tight budget to keep an aging building functioning, but without a major renovation, this building will continue on a downhill slide no matter how hard the staff works.

By April 2017, I will have lived for three years in this building. I am writing this review with the hope that they will improve things, and would like to advise people to stay away from this building unless they seriously upgrade it. I will not be renewing my lease agreement anymore.- The windows are very old; not sure if you will enjoy the wind and the whistle it blows coming through the windows on windy days in winter.- The building is in a noisy area and the windows are not sound proof, so all the best with listening to the drunk fights, the noise from the Regan airport and the trains (if you live on the east side), the fire engines and ambulances, and the ventilation machines on the roofs (if you live on the 3rd - 8th floors). In summer, you better spend your night at the bars under the building than being in your bedroom trying to fall asleep (if your apartment is on the 23rd street). Also, you should deal with the alarm from time to time and evacuate because there is something wrong in one of the kitchens of the restaurants under the building.- The doors of the closets come off all the time, it is really dangerous if you have children at home.- The curtains are rotten, they keep coming off.- The radiators are horrible. They make horrible noise, and even shake the dry walls. It is such an old system that they switch between AC and heater, and shut them down for some weeks between switching, doesn’t matter if you freeze off or sweat.- The kitchen appliances are so old, we have stopped using the dishwasher long time ago; it doesn’t clean dishes, takes a long time, and makes horrible noise.- The microwave is very old, once its handle came off, and we put a work order, had to wait for weeks to be fixed temporarily, with the promise that they would bring the spare part or replace the microwave, but still there is no news.- The bugs in the kitchen keep coming back. Two weeks ago, seeing the kitchen table seemed like the ground for ants’ military parade. We are so tired of placing work orders; facing some of the staff at the front desk (you should face them more than once for a work order as it normally gets lost) doesn’t make you feel good – their behavior is not professional.- There is constant water shutdown, at least 1 full day water shutdown in every two weeks. There is always problem with hot water; they shut it down to fix the boilers, it gets better for 2 – 3 days, and goes back to old condition.- There are no washer and dryer in the unit. You should take your laundry to the laundry room in the hall way; all the best if your arrogant neighbor has left her laundry in the machines and she is out grocery shopping. Or have fun cleaning your neighbor’s dog’s hair from your clothes because they didn’t clean the filter after they used it. Last but not least, it will cost you $4 per each washing and drying, that is only if you get lucky and your card swipe works in one go, otherwise you could be charged twice for one wash. And finally, they don’t clean, but ruin your clothes . You definitely need washer and dryer in your unit if you have kids.- The utilities are split among the tenants – there is no meter for each unit, so you should still pay the same amount even if you were out of town the whole month and didn’t use power and gas as usual.- The basement where you will park your car gets flooded when it rains; and you will not be able to find space when there is a party at the hotel across the street – they all part here where ever they wish to.- There is no business center, and the lobby area is very small. The elevators are so old, slow, and one out of 4 is permanently out of order.- The rooms are carpeted, and they are so old. We requested to remove the carpet, but the hardwood underneath is even worse.This building needs serious upgrading, and this piecemeal maintenance has made the lives of tenants miserable, and it doesn’t improve anything. So, stay away from this building unless there is a serious improvement.

The apartments are huge! For the price and location its pretty fair. BUT the building is old and falling apart... there is constantly water shut downs because repair work is necessary (I mean like once every two weeks) The elevators constantly have problems and the parking garage always has an issue with letting people in and out (not that it is there fault, but it does come with living here.) At night expect to hear a lot of drunk fights, police, and ambulance. its a nightly occurrence. Maintenance is incredible but people at the front desk can be very rude and unfriendly. While the lobby is beautiful, the apartments are very old and dated. All in all Im not sure the price of 2500 is worth the stay, but it is close to shopping, restaurants, and all public transportation.

Comparing to the other apartments, its not the best option. Location is not good cuz its far from Panafon center and cristal city metro station. Price is cheap but theres no business center downstairs. Small pool is not good. Although staff here are nice, I wouldnt be living here if I knew all the other options like crystal house 2000, crystal plaza, lofts 590. Its true that the leasing office nickel and dime you for basically everything. I paid 810 dollars for a lease change. I dont know if leasing offices of other apartments charge so much or not but I feel so upset to give out the money.

Needs A LOT of work. Its basically a hub for Air BNB which results in rowdy, drunk twenty-year olds and a lot of problems. Since living here for 3 months there have been crazy partys on my floor until all hours of the night, people vomiting in my hallway, there was a drug raid in the apartment a few doors down and many of us have called the police numerous times about drug activity and noice ordinances.UNACCEPTABLE! My advice is to look elsewhere.

I am writing regarding an issue my significant other had with Buchanan apartments from December 15 through July 16.We decided to move into another larger apartment closer to my workplace and we inquired about options for breaking the lease. We were told by several employees that the rental success rate at Buchanan was in the high 90s and that it would be easy to find a new tennant. With this information, we decided to break the lease and expect to be responsible for one months rent while another person was found. If another person couldnt be found, we had multiple friends that were interested in subletting or taking over our lease so it didnt seem like a huge issue. After one month, my significant other visited the office (January 2016) to speak with the property manager about whether or not the apartment had been rented. The manager looked up the apartment number on the directory and confirmed it had been rented. He also went again in February to confirm that the apartment was no longer his responsibility. Again, the manager assured the apartment was rented. With this, we considered the issue resolved. Also, please keep in mind that we no longer had access to the online payment portal to see if there was existing bills or rent left (no one mentioned anything about further payment at the two meetings in January and February).Fast forward to April of 2016, he received an email from Buchanans bookkeeper/manager Doug. He informed that approximately $8000.00 was owed for back rent. When he called to ask what this was about, he was informed that the apartment complex didnt actually rent the apartment until April. Doug said that he was unable to contact my significant other- which was weird, because he had his email address and apparently was able to contact him through this avenue. We are pretty upset with the outcome of this, which had been remediated by the new manager to $4100. The new manager, Ramine admitted that the situation was not handled well and that he was surprised. He has been much more reasonable to work with but the end solution is still unsatisfactory and I intend to speak with the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint before we pay the money off to ensure the apartment complex is at least reviewed for its unethical practices.We wanted to make others aware of this situation and hope to dissuade others from choosing this apartment complex. They will wait months, not try to contact you, and then threaten to take action on your credit report if you do not pay. Please dont just take our word for it though and feel free to ask questions if you would like to see screenshots or letters sent between us and the management.

The good: Physically nice apartments with a really convenient location.The bad: THE STAFF (all staff - management, desk staff, leasing office). I have experienced errors with billing (rent/utilities), lost packages, laundry facilities not working (for weeks at a time), and a reservation of the guest suite issue. While the amenities seem nice (24-hour front desk, guest suite for rent, etc.), poor management, bad customer service, and lack of communication ruin the living environment.

The washer and dryer cost money to use, which I can live with, but when they don’t work you are out of luck because the Buchanan won’t accept responsibility or give you your money back

Building is in terrible condition and poorly managed. They took 5 months to repair our leaky windows, and that was only after we elevated the request twice. Very glad to be moving out, I would never lease in this building again.

Concierge is lazy and wont do their job (letting deliveries into the building and unlocking the elevators).

Despite signs banning it, smokers in the stairwells are fumigating the top 8 floors while management does NOTHING.

No A/C.