I struggle with how I feel about this place.
Yelp considers 2 stars as "Meh. I've experienced better." Seems about right. I feel 1 star is extreme, but I strongly considered it because of the upkeep.
My husband and I have lived here for over a year.
At this point I'm not quite sure why we renewed our lease, we assumed things would get better.
The Good:
In the summer, this place isn't bad. Really. It's cool when you leave the windows open, there's a cross breeze, we have a peeking view of the ocean, it's really quite nice. Generally speaking, the maintenance is acceptable. Come to find out, we got into a pretty good lease price, as our upstairs neighbors pay over $300 more per month than us.
This place is very pet friendly. The apartments (1 bedroom layout) are extremely spacious and I honestly LOVE the floor plan. You have access to great internet speeds, and the location and proximity is really, really nice. The pools are beautiful. And some of the staff tries to provide a great experience, I do give them that.
I want to love this place, I really do.
The Bad:
While our income was more than qualified, our credit was less than ideal. After jumping through numerous hoops when applying for this place and paying nearly three times their "standard" deposit amount, we were able to get in. We pay rent every month on time, often early, but once I simply forgot and was 12 hours late. I paid rent and the late fee on the 4th, but that evening they served me a stern "pay or quit" notice on my door. Very impersonal.
The biggest issue here is the water. Some people simply don't get hot water, some simply don't get cold. Ours gets a mix of the extremes, and every shower is a gamble of whether we will leave with near scalding burns, or if it will be "tolerable". We have seen all but one neighbor who surrounds us move, simply because they needed reliable water temperatures throughout their day (simple request if you ask me.) I do know they are "working on it" and have plumbing out quite frequently doing who knows what, but it has been this way for the entire year we've lived here, and at least a year prior according to our (since moved out) neighbors.
My next issue with this place is the general upkeep. Depending on where you go, everything seems really nice and tidy on the grounds. Near the lower area and the forest line, you can see that maintenance lets their excess flow into the trees and all the dumpsters get explored nearly daily by random homeless people that emerge from the woodlands. While there's no way for them to necessarily control that aspect, when maintenance drives by on their carts, I have never seen them pick up the trash and actually contribute to the cleanliness of the entire area.
In the winter, when it rains, everything becomes overwhelmingly apparent that they cut corners. We have called three times about leaking windows in this storm, and after the 3rd call, we got a messy, bright white caulking around just one of the two windows that are leaking. The window in our bedroom, the most important of the two, was left untreated and we've experienced mold problems even though we maintain a very clean home and continually allow ample airflow as the lease recommends. The leak was also located right above an outlet, that was likely a hazard, but I suppose that's not of importance to maintenance. Our upstairs neighbors were experiencing the same issues, but have since moved out.
We had our fridge break, and were given a "new" fridge that looked like it might have been dropped a few times. The bottom drawer portion is held together by electrical tape. Our "new" fridge seems to get the job done, but is by no means new and has an incredibly loud hum for a solid 10-15 minutes every few hours.
I feel the units closest to the clubhouse are the ones they focus on most. They definitely aren't able to upkeep standards throughout all units. We leave our apartment nearly every day, walking to our car, to be greeted by a beautiful ocean view, and a heaping pile of trash. The heap started as if it were scrap pieces for the dump from remodeled units, but residents have taken it upon themselves to turn it into a dumb/goodwill station and simply put whatever they don't want there. See photos. Honestly it's pretty embarrassing to bring friends or family over and to explain them that they can park next to the giant trash heap (the guest parking area near our building).
TLDR: Don't expect nice showers. If you get a cheap lease, it's worth it for a year I guess. Be prepared for a hard winter, and the possibility of ruined furniture due to mold.
I've taken all of these concerns to management. Amy is wonderful, but not everyone is upheld to that level of care to the happiness and home environment of their tenants.
Yelp will not allow me to write any more, but I think you get the idea.
As mentioned to management, I will update this review once they update their standards of cleanliness and care accordingly. read more