Absolutely INFESTED WITH MICE. The building is very old so they know every little passage, crack and hole. We killed about 10 of them and there was always more. Disgusting smells throughout the building, mostly TRASH, mold, weed and cigarettes. Hallways are dingy and carpet is stained throughout. After Hamilton took over they want to charge competitive prices and increase our rent by $250 for an old, disgusting, rundown building so we left. This place is cheaper than the surrounding area, that is for a reason. With Hamilton taking over I'm sure the prices will skyrocket even more with minimal, cheap improvements.The Hamilton team is also very unpleasant and confrontational. Maintenance guy is too. Not worth it, BEWARE. read more

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The place is so shabby and infested with mice. We even saw a rat in the basement. When we reported the mice infestation to the Landlord, he did nothing. We are going to be at the end of our Lease soon, yet may move out earlier and sue the Landlord if he tries to not let us out of our Lease. read more

My wife and I have been residents at Hill Estates for 6 years. I can confirm the criticism that management is difficult to contact. Actually, it's objective fact. Just try asking "How do I inquire about living at Hill Estates?" There's no website and no phone number that will call you back. This yelp page is unclaimed and has dubious reviews. If you knock on the main office door, they'll most likely be closed. As far as I can tell, the only way to inquire about living here is to contact Ingram Realty in Belmont... And I believe this last sentence is now the first and only place this information is publicly available. Aside from that (or because of it), this place is a hidden gem for the Red-Line area. Nobody seems to know about it, but it's a great place to live. We moved here because we felt like we could only find two rental options in Boston - luxury$$$ apartments, and slummy old houses. Hill Estates is the perfect option if you want something in between. You will not have new stainless appliances, a yoga studio, or a pool (but Belmont town pool is within walking distance). You will have clean, easy, affordable living. There are strict no-pets and no-smoking policies. Reviewer Jack is accurate about the amenities. Some that stand out for the area include: central AC/heat, a balcony, free parking, free storage unit, free bike storage, ON the bike path to Alewife (0.75 mi), and lawn/snow/trash services included. I challenge you to find better living for rent this low. By modern standards, Hill Estates sits on a ton of property for the number of units. There's plenty of parking, grassy spaces, and no road noise. It's quiet and peaceful. There are regular animal sightings and big trees out your window. All the space makes it feel somewhat more like a neighborhood than just apartment buildings. It's nice to walk around, and I'd recommend any prospective renter just drop by and take a walk. Don't take it from me - you'll run into residents and you should ask them about living here. I think Hill Estates is a good fit for all types of people, but I'd especially recommend it to those moving to the area from out of town. The whole Boston rental scene is tricky and there's a lot of options you could regret (I did). Like I said, Hill Estates is easy living for the money. If all you do is spend a year here figuring out something else, I really don't think you can do much better. read more

I have been a resident at Hill Estates for 3-4 years. Thus far, it seems BB is the only true resident whom has posted here. Iris Z's comments are strange because you get to check out the apartment you want to move-in to before signing the lease, and you get to check the apartment after the former tenant has moved out and the maintenance staff have cleaned the interior. Sheng J's comments don't sound right either... When you call in a request for maintenance, there is a 24/7 accessible hotline which jots down whether your maintenance request is urgent or non-urgent. I have never experienced a rude remark or someone trying to hang up the phone on you. The property is family owned by 3 brothers and the secretarial staff in the office building on the property is a very polite and soft-spoken elderly woman. Robert F's comments are kinda off as well, though not as bad as iris and Sheng... Management has to care for several hundreds of apartments a day and urgent requests for maintenance usually take 3-7 work days to fix. Most residents have lived here for over 10 years, mostly senior citizens, but there is an influx of many young couples and newly weds. I've only had one neighbor in these years that are disrespectful and rowdy on weekends, but that's their fault, not the property management, even though I wish for them to move out soon. Finally, my own word on Hill Estates... Pros: - generally a quiet neighborhood except for the rowdy college kids next door - 24/7 accessible maintenance/management hotline, though urgent maintenance can take up to several days to get back to you - rent is reasonable, $1200 for 1.5 bedroom/1.5 bathroom apartment, rent only increased this year by $35 - lots of storage space (you get 1 storage unit on your balcony and 1 storage unit in the basement) - free but limited parking spaces - walking distance to Alewife Red Line T-station - Bus 78 Stop right outside entrance - Close to Belmont downtown on Leonard Street (USPS & Macy's outlet, yah!) - Bike path that runs along side parking lot, separated by a fence - Family of turkey that have roam around bike path for past 3 years - 5-10 minute drive to CVS, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods - Coin-op Washer/Dryer facility in basement - Maintenance staff that plow the parking lots as soon as it snows - Pepperidge Farm outlet store within walking distance (if you love cookies) - Close to I-95/Rt. 128 & I-93 & Rt. 60 - Close to Belmont High School if you have high school age children - 15 minute drive to Super 88 Supermarket if you like Asian groceries - Arsenal Mall is 15 minutes drive as well... Cons: - No Pets Allowed - If your apartment faces the railroad tracks, you occasionally hear the trains pass by (would-be pro if you have a train hobby) - More and more car-owning young people moving in, which equates to lesser parking space (parking is filled after 10 pm, which really isn't that bad if you think about it) - Not many nice restaurants nearby unless you go down to Cambridge or Boston. read more

This is in great location but apartments are very old, probably more than 30 years. Bike path is great. I often smell smoking cigarettes in the walkway of our building. It gets very noisy with landscape works and commuter rail passing by. Walls are just too thin. Rents are OK but we get huuuuuuuge electricity bills, this Feb we got $520 (just one month). UPDATE: Bathroom toilet broke and water gushed out. This is turning to be nastiest apartments I ever lived! Time to move out. read more

We moved in 5 days ago to find our apartment extremely dirty, as if never cleaned for us. When heaters or airconditionings are on, there are lots of huge noise all over the building - need to close the windows tight. The entire building looks cheap and the hallways often smell like grease or bad. Poorly maintained. Our windows can barely close, hard to open, screens were broken, bathrooms have the cheapest facets, very hard to turn, ..., parking lot lights are broken at our corner, ..., over all these apartment will not make you feel like home. Do not rent this place. Do not trust the brokers who advertise for this place in Boston craigslist or elsewhere, you can find no honest persons in Ingram Realty (brokers for the Hill Estate). The only thing we like about it is: close to the elementary school, and close to bus 78, and it is also close to Belmont center on Leonard street. read more

Having such a spacious 2bed, 2 full bath apt with free parking and elevator in MA and pay $1,700? I absolutely can't complain. lived here for an year; plan to stay here till I leave MA. read more

Hill Estates - Master bedroom - Apartments Near Me - Belmont, Massachusetts

The place started out nice but has become extremely noisy. As I am typing this, I can hear the landscaping crew blowing leaves all over the place and oh boy, it is loud! They do that couple of times a week, sometimes early in Saturday morning. In the fall they blow leaves and in summertime they blow dust on the cars. I guess supposedly they are "cleaning" the streets but it does nothing but blow dust in the air in the company of horrible noise. It has been getting on my nerves a lot! At some point the management started driving around in those little golf cart type of vehicles. Besides being obnoxiously loud, the place now seems like a farm or a warehouse. In the winter, expect a middle-of-the-night asphalt scraping fest! As soon as the first snow flakes touch the ground, snow plowing will begin! It does not matter what time it is. The maintenance crew here thinks that it is ok to take off half of the asphalt at 2 am. They have zero regard for the residents here and their general attitude is extremely lousy. Oh and then there are the planes! Of course, one cannot blame management for low-flying Logan traffic at 4 am Saturday morning, but nonetheless it is aggravating. Avoid this place! read more

The apartment is spacious and nice, kinda old and needs some work but it's ok. The biggest issues are the slow elevator. They're finally replacing one but it's slow going. The washing machine is new but horrendous. It left my clothes entirely soaked. The dryer did not touch th em at all. I called twice and complained but I doubt I will get a call back. I've previously called about stuff and never got a call back. read more

I have lived here for over ten years and am now searching for a new place to live. In the time I have been here I have seen this place deteriorate faster each year. Management is non responsive and quite often unreachable. The apartments are poorly cared for and very noisy. Kitchens are old. The stove in mine has a burner that doesn't work. My toilet has been running for over a year after having made numerous requests to have it fixed. What was once a nice place to live is now miserable. Top dollar rent for bottom class service. read more

I hope I could put in zero star, but apparently 1 star is minimum, so there u go. Very snobbish and rude staff. The management team is basically sitting in silo pretending to the god. Whenever calling them regarding some issue, whether a regular maintenance or a special inquiry, their response is always I will get back to u and then nothing happens for weeks until some lazy staff call me to check. Even when u do get them on the phone, they always try to hang up the phone as quickly as possible. They keep on saying something like I am busy blah blah, I will be on vacation blah blah. WTF?!! Come on, do your job and be professional!! I cannot think of anything good about this particular estate company, like a scam, avoid if u can. Of course, this does not mean the apartment complex itself and the belmont neighborhood is not good. In the contrary, I would highly rate the neighborhood. However, the estate company itself deserves big fat thumb down!!! read more

Hill Estates are in a great location. The buildings are tired and old. The grounds are kept up OK but there are a lot of geese and you know what that brings. Of course, the management has no control over that. I moved into my apartment without the opportunity to inspect it. Although the floors had been refinished and the walls painted, the inside of every cabinet and drawer was dirty and completely disgusting. I called the agent (twice) and it took almost 6 hours for someone to show up. Of course I had cleaned almost everything by then. I showed him the dirty paper towels from cleaning up and all he kept saying was "It's clean." I showed him one drawer that had not been cleaned yet and he said "It's clean." When I complained to management, I was told that my standards were too high. I am also missing one window screen which I called about 2 weeks ago. No one has bothered to either give me the screen, put it in, or even contact me about it. I'm stuck here for a year but doubt very much that I will renew my lease. The rents here are pretty high and I do not feel as though I am getting my money's worth. read more