Cottonwood was one of the most poorly managed apartment complexes that I have ever had the pleasure…read moreto live in. On the outside, it looks nice and neat, but heaven forbid you have any issues that require you seek help from the property management, then you're pretty much screwed. Management is either completely apathetic or just biding their time until they retire. I can't decide which. It could possibly be both. However, I can live with apathetic. What I can't live with is why I'm writing this review. You see, I moved down here for a job. I have a dog and I quickly learned that here in Bismarck finding a decent place that accepts dogs is extremely difficult so when I found Cottonwood would accept my dog and NOT charge me an arm and a leg, I was pretty pleased. Sure, it was a bit more expensive than average, but whatever. This is the good part, the part any potential renters should pay attention too. Cottonwood, and by extension IRET, BLACK LIGHTS their apartments but they don't tell you they black light until you're pretty much moved out and they say it as kind of an afterthought, like it's not a big deal. So you wanna know what shows up under a black light? Short list: bodily fluids (urine, semen, blood), anything that contains phosphorus such as cleaning supplies and laundry soaps, Vaseline, white wine, and pretty much anything biological (bugs, spiders, etc..). I did my walk through and the apartment manager was impressed. Basically told me that she had never seen such a clean apartment and would feel comfortable moving someone in the next day. All 5 across the board. So imagine my surprise when I get a big ol' bill and a letter explaining that my apartment has been completely trashed and they had to replace all the carpet, repaint all the walls, and oh, I was also being charged for the 3 days that they couldn't rent it out because of repairs. Yes, I was furious but I was over the place and going on vacation, so I paid it. Then a few months later, I start getting phone calls from a collection agency. Guess what? IRET hadn't received my payment. So after spending nearly 2 hours at my bank, they found the check I had sent them. Guess what? It had IRET's official stamp on the back and it had been cashed. Apparently, they had taken my payment and put it on someone else's account (FYI, they do this a lot, applying payments to the wrong account. Their accounting practices are super shoddy. Keep receipts!) When I sent a PDF to the collection agency, I was told that they would look into it but if they couldn't what account it had been put on, I would still be held liable for the money. Well, it's amazing what the response to the phrase "Not according to my lawyer" gets you. So, rent with caution and remember, black lights and pictures are your friends!
P.S. I would also like to point out that I'm fairly confident that the black lighting is so far specific to IRET. I've spoken with friends who've rented from RJR, Goldmark, Gold Star, and privately, and have an uncle who works for Aladdin Reality and they all indicated that they have never been black lighted.