I want to start out by saying that I am a Leasing Agent at another company near campus, so I am a…read morelot more tolerant of issues with the multi-family living industry. Some things, however, are just not permissible in my opinion.
My apartment was not horrible when my roommate and I first moved in. However, upon further inspection, there were a lot of things we were unhappy with. Bedroom A's bathroom had a few issues. The toilet paper holder was broken, one of the doors doesn't latch, etc. It should be noted that we did not contact maintenance about this door, as it didn't bother my roommate that much. Maintenance did come and fix the toilet roll holder when we placed a work order.
My bedroom, has a hole in it. It was there when we moved in. There is also a large dent in the wall (likely caused by prior residents slamming it). The apartment was covered in a light layer of dust, and did not feel clean at ALL when I moved in back in August.
Despite, the condition of move in, my roommate and I agreed we wanted to relet our apartment. We were sent one (ONE) email in early September or October, I don't remember which month, that if we resigned by the 1st of the following month, we would get a special. Well, come Thanksgiving time and we decide to resign our lease. Our leasing agent, who I will not name, told us we could, and she'd send the documents over and call us back. Only when she did, we were told our apartment had actually been signed already, and they were sold out at the building. We were very angry. No notice was given to us. One email informing us of the special, and then nothing. I know firsthand that it is the ethical thing to do to give your current residents a deadline. However, this is not covered in the lease, so we didn't press the issue. I ended up finding another complex very close by that is a way better value. Nothing was done to try and remedy the situation from my understanding. A high turnover rate (the amount of resigned leases vs new leases is much lower) is a poor reflection on either the property management group, property, or both. In this case, it seemed as if GSR was more focused on getting new residents, and didn't give a crap about their current ones.
This all said, we knew that this was a college apartment, and did not expect to be living in the Ritz Carlton. However, when our lock was broken a few months ago, we were asked if we could "just deal with it." Maintenance came by, it wasn't working properly, and we were met with that solution. After my roommate put up enough of a fuss, which she should not have to do since lock issues are deemed an emergency, they finally installed a different lock.
Due to my (limited, but valid) experience, there are some issues I can make do with, and some I cannot. The lock incident was not appropriate. The renewal incident left a bad taste in my mouth, and I would not recommend this company.
HOWEVER, I will say that they are very responsive to work orders, and there's something to be said about that. I'd advise exploring all options before signing with this company, but hey, maybe you'll have a better experience. I'm only sharing my own, which was below average at best.