While this complex works hard on its promotional image, and is easy to spot in most vacancy listings due to its SPECIAL! SPECIAL!! ads, I urge any prospective tenant to ask themselves what kind of place they want to commit to before shacking up at Greenhaven (I offer my own answer, of course, at the end of this review). It says something that when I let a neighbor know that we were moving out, his response was instant: "Yeah, we're ready to leave soon too. This place kind of sucks."
For background: I'm a serial renter. I tend to stay 2-3 years before a job or other life event takes me somewhere else, and I love being able to change up the scenery and start fresh. The tradeoff is that I always risk landing in a place that has subpar management, or is in the deposit-keeping business rather than the rental-upkeep business. I've been fortunate to have some great property managers, and so I know what a good job looks like.
So let's talk Greenhaven.
What you will love is that it really does live up to its name: the common areas and landscaping are incredibly green. Even in an historic drought, the management works hard to keep the sprinklers running (even after it's rained!). It makes this a nice place to walk around, especially at night when the hot summer days become slightly more bearable. I spent a good deal of time in the pool area, which is well maintained and adorned with patio furniture during the warmer seasons.
It's common sense, but don't let the gated entrances fool you into thinking that this is a safe enough area for you to leave your garage open at night. We made that mistake, and were robbed. That's not the fault of management - we just mistook the area to be a little more secure.
Maintenance is not always done timely or completely. Less than a year into my tenancy, a pipe burst, leading to a leak in the ceiling above the garage. It required a repair of the pipe (which the plumber noted had already been given a "quick fix" sometime prior) and a patching up of the ceiling. This alone took upwards of 2 months to complete, after multiple follow-ups (and a highly unnerving gaping hole in the garage ceiling), and ended with with a big discolored patch where the contractor hadn't bothered to finish the job by painting the drywall. We left it alone because after 2 months, you're just tired of asking when stuff is going to be finished. Fast forward to move-out time, guess what shows up on one of the many bills that was taken from the deposit? "Paint garage ceiling". That's a nifty little trick, isn't it? Leave the job unfinished so that you can charge the tenant for the rest at move-out. Genius!
Common area maintenance can be scheduled at seriously inconsiderate times. You may love those lush, green trees in the complex, but will you feel the same way about living there when tree trimming, which features a constant motor of chainsaws literally right outside your windows, starts up at 8am on a Saturday? Hopefully you and your kids are already up, because someone already made the decision that you should be!
So you can guess what move-out and the settling up of the deposit probably looked like. Here is a fair warning to those who fall into these common cheap tricks: The complex will charge you for paint, with complete disregard for the 2 year useful life rule of thumb that most responsible landlords abide by. And TAKE PICTURES. It does not matter how much you clean. They will charge you for cleaning (and then some), and if you're like me the list of things you cleaned will not only include, but be LONGER than the list of the services Crystal Clean Homes provided.
So ultimately the question you want to ask is, "What kind of place do I want to live?" If you want to live in a place where care and cleanliness is recognized, timeliness and responsiveness are simply the way that work gets done, mutual respect is upheld between both tenant and property management and there is no attempt to nickel-and-dime you once you have fulfilled the terms of your lease ...well, then you might want to keep looking for your next home. read more