I lived in this complex for a year and what drew me to the complex was: the location, the greenery surrounding the grounds, and the affordability. I loved being close to so many places. I have two dogs, so it was great to find a cheap place where I did not have to worry about insane pet fees. I appreciated being able to do flex pay where I could pay on the 1st and 15th of each month (for a fee of $40 extra tacked onto the rent).
The downfalls: my apartment was on the bottom floor and there was a constant musty odor. I don't know if the other apartments smelled like mine, but it truly smelled like a basement. No matter how much I freshened up the apartment, I could not get rid of the smell. Probably the mold that many are talking about. I did develop issues where I would have coughing fits when I was in my apartment.
The first day I signed for my keys, my friend noticed daylight where the wall and the floor met. The opened space was about 4 inches tall and you could see the sunlight and outside through this crack.
You could tell that they painted over everything to give the appearance that it was clean. The tub was sprayed with a paint material that started to bubble and peel off during my 5th month in the apartment. Each time I would wash my tub out, the paint would just peel. It was not pretty so I placed a mat on the floor until I moved.
The vents were brand new, but when we removed the covers and cleaned out with a brush, a great deal of black dirt was all over the floor. I couldn't believe I was breathing in all of that stuff. Again, it "appeared" like they cleaned out the vents.
The exterior of my apartment and around the doorways were all painted. You could see they were in such a hurry that hornet nests were just painted over so that it looked fresh.
Although the office staff were incredibly nice, they would sometimes notify me if I received a package by placing a note in my mailbox or they would email me. Then after about 3 months of living there, I would have packages in the office for a couple days that I was waiting on, but no one would tell me. It was hit or miss on whether they would tell me and because I worked a lot of overtime, I did not always make it to the office on time to check. This was frustrating.
One day I had washed clothes and tried to save money by drying my clothes on a drying rack on the balcony. My clothes were neatly on the rack and I placed it outside at night and brought it in during the morning, but I was too late. The office took a picture and emailed me at 0800am telling me I was violating my contract and that I was pretty much making the complex look junky as a whole. I never put anything out again, yet, half of the complex would throw wet clothes over the rails and on hangers daily. You could not walk through without seeing this. It upset me that I did it once and it was treated as if I was going to have my rental contract terminated, but it was acceptable for other residents who hung their clothes all day for days on end with no repercussions.
No matter how much I sprayed or the fact that pest control stopped by, the bugs were really bad. I always killed bugs every day, literally. If I woke up at night, I was killing them. When I was getting ready for work in the morning, I was killing them. That was a part of my daily routine. I get that there will be bugs sometimes, but this was ridiculous.
During a week of hard storms in Austin, I came home from work to find about an inch or two of water had made its way into my living room. Thankfully, none of my furniture was damaged, but anytime it rained hard, I was worried that it would happen again despite maintenance "patching it up".
After 7 months of living in that complex, I began staying with my friend off and on for the remainder of my lease. 3 months before my lease expired I was living someplace else 100% of the time, but I just stopped by to grab things I needed and to check mail. The fact that I was paying for an apartment and not living there anymore, speaks volumes. It would have cost me more to break my lease.
During that time, I noticed that my coughing went away. My dogs were not sneezing or having respiratory fits when we stayed with my friend like they were in the apartment.
Overall, the apartment was cheap and it's in a great location to enjoy Austin, but you're paying the price in your health and well-being. I give it 2 stars for the pros I mentioned at the beginning, but there were way more cons in my experience there. I won't tell people not to move here, but you need to figure that part out for yourself and determine if the location and price are worth the other issues you will face. It's clearly up to you. read more