Since choosing a place of residence is a BIG deal, this will be a thorough review.
I lived in the Loft building aka Building E for a 15 month lease. It's the apartments above the restaurants and retail. We chose the lofts because of the high ceilings and urban style. We don't like the "standard" apartment feel. Though I would still vouch for the Lofts as a whole, we did not like our particular unit based on the fact our patio was directly above all the commercial AC units (very loud constant machinery sounds) and we were also directly above the back of the restaurant with smells of food, stored trash and workers taking smoke breaks. The unit was occupied when we first did our tour so I wasn't able to notice these things up front.
Regarding my move-in; management assured me the unit would be professionally cleaned (and carpets would be steam cleaned if they weren't replaced). I re-vacuumed the carpet and the canister was FULL of debris. I found kid rubber hair ties, a folded bandaid, and some colored stains on the carpet (the likes of play-dough or skittles candy). Needless to say, it was not steam cleaned and that was a disappointment.
Additionally, when they repainted the apartment they did a sloppy job. Paint spray, droplets, and brush strokes on way more places than I would have liked - on the cheap linoleum (that should have been replaced) and laminate coated cabinetry in the bathroom's, and laminate flooring in the living room. Also, one of the toilet seats should have been replaced since there were urine stains underneath that wouldn't come off, so we ended up buying a new toilet seat ourselves. These were just some of my issues with the apartment, not counting the cheap fixtures (easy to fall off towel hangers), drawers that don't work right, etc.
When I filled out the automated survey sent to me regarding my move in experience, I was respectfully honest about my disappointment. The property manager Matt (who is no longer at this location) apologized, offering me a complimentary professional cleaning of the apartment and steaming of my carpets, but I was fully moved in by this time since it was a month after move in and I declined. I countered by asking for rent credit instead and never heard back.
Moving on to how we are billed for water which is through a third party and not the water company itself. The first three months my bill was about $55 for a household of 2 adults. All of a sudden it jumped to $175. Sure that they read our meter wrong, I called the billing company and they insisted there had to be a leak for it to be so high. They were so certain that the mistake could never be on their end. If there is a leak substantial enough to triple our bill I would have surely noticed. There was no leak. We also know the sound of toilet water running which they suggested could be the reason, but that was not happening to us. Since I was getting no where with the billing company, I reached out to management, who reached out to the company. Their "meet in the middle" resolution was lowering our bill by $75, so it ended up being $100. Thereafter my bill was $85 which I knew was still outrageous. I've talked to many friends in apartments and homes who average $30 a month.
Onto the positive notes:
I loved the general location of where we lived. Being furthest north of Franklin which meant we were only 20 minutes from downtown Nashville. I was also 20 min from Radnor Lake or Percy Warner for my daily exercise/hikes. I also liked being close to the freeway and Costco, for shopping and gas (less than 5 minutes). This is the most strategic location within all of Franklin, in my opinion.
I can't say the same for the non-loft buildings but our unit had a solid sound barrier. The walls were far from thin. We were on the second level and we barely heard the people above us or next to us. Occasionally we heard foot steps and water flushing through the pipes, but very rare. The real test, is the fact that my husband is in music and had his own studio set-up in our second bedroom. Surprisingly, we never received one noise complaint but he of course was conscientious about "after hour" noise. Still, I was surprised.
For the most part, we had no pest issues until the last month we lived there, oddly enough. One adult sized roach happened to sneak into our apartment, and that had never happened in 14 months! I rarely if ever encountered spiders, ants, beetles, etc.
Lastly, A BIG SHOUT OUT TO MIKE, the maintenance guy. He was always personable, kind, respectful and a hard worker. He was quick to respond and I never once felt like my requests were ignored or delayed, and that was a big deal to me.
Overall, I have mixed emotions about my time there, but feel like had I had a different unit, I would have been much happier. read more
