We lived in a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment from July 2015 until July 2016. Our rent was…read more$615 per month and we also paid pet rent of $25 per month for our dog.
Note that while this complex is pet friendly, the weight limit on each pet is 15 pounds.
We had two major issues with this apartment complex. First, when we moved in, the place was not in great shape. The frames on the doors were loose and coming away from the entry. The dryer vent was not attached to the dryer. There was mold or mildew on the ceiling in one of the bathrooms. When we told an employee, we were told to spray it with bleach. I'd prefer my apartment mold and mildew free when we move in, thanks. The other issue was that when we moved out, we transferred to another Lindsey property and were given a move-in date. That date was delayed, which meant we needed to stay at Cornerstone longer, but the manager at Cornerstone said that we couldn't since he had already rented our apartment to someone else. Then the manager went on vacation. It was a stressful couple of weeks until he got back and agreed that we could stay longer, but this issue was resolved to our satisfaction.
Other than that, here's the good and the bad.
Noise level: The apartments are insulated well between apartments. We could go outside and hear that our neighbor had extremely loud music playing, but when we went inside, we could just barely hear it if we didn't have the TV on. However, noise from right outside our apartment and coming from the interstate could be quite loud.
Grounds: Groundskeeping is fine if you can view it from the parking lot. However, it could get pretty bad behind the apartments. This is partly the residents' fault since sometimes they would drop trash or just leave trash bags around (come on, clean up after yourselves people!), but at other apartments, employees have occasionally picked up trash around the ground. I did not see this very often at Cornerstone - trash would sit around for weeks. Sometimes the guy who did the mowing would mow right over trash, shredding the trash and making it worse.
Safety: I felt very safe in this complex. I frequently walked my dog late at night, as late as 1pm, and I never felt unsafe or uncomfortable. The area is well lit, even behind the apartments, and if you report that one of the lights is out, maintenance is there very quickly to change the bulbs.
Neighborhood: The only place within walking distance was Casey's, but that is convenient if you just need to grab milk or need to get gas on the way to work or school. There are several restaurants and grocery stores very close (a few minutes maybe, depending on traffic) which is also quite convenient.
Maintenance: The appliances here are pretty old and break down somewhat frequently, but they work well. The washing machine gets clothes clean and the dryer gets them dry. The dishwasher works well. In the year we lived there, the dryer went out twice, the dishwasher once, the water heat had a major leak once, and the garbage disposal got clogged once. That's a pretty high rate of failure BUT each time maintenance came out very quickly and fixed the issue. The employees are very polite and each time explained the problem, what would be done to fix it, and how long it would take. The second time the dryer broke, Cornerstone's maintenance had to call in a maintenance guy from Lindsay, who also couldn't fix it, and it was replaced with a new dryer. We were without a dryer for a few days but again this was communicated quite clearly to us.
Staff: I found the staff very friendly and polite. I didn't have to go to the office often but the lady who works there is great. As mentioned, maintenance was also great to work with.
Pests: I did not see a single roach the entire time we lived there, which is fantastic. I've lived in luxury apartments where I saw the occasional roach. After a heavy rain, we would sometimes see ants - not going somewhere specific, but just sort of wandering around, usually on the wall. This wasn't really a huge deal for us and would clear up after a day or two. We were also on the ground floor which probably didn't help.
Quarterly inspections: Every three months, employees will come to your apartment to check the air vent filter and the smoke alarms. I can see how this might be annoying but I really appreciated it. I think it's part of the reason why we did not see any roaches as I suspect any nasty tenants are found out quickly because of the inspections.
Moving Out: The moving out process was easy (aside from the delay I mentioned earlier) and we felt that our refund was appropriate.
