The Good:
1) The complex is small - I like that. It isn't "student housing," but I assume they cater to TCU students--which is odd; if you can afford TCU, you can probably afford a better apartment.
2) It's a great location, near the park, the zoo, the university, the freeway, a couple grocery stores, gas stations, whatever, it's all pretty close.
3) It's cheap (or it was.) It didn't take long for them to raise the rent beyond what I felt it was worth. Utilities are included, so one check covers it all (except your internet,) so it's pretty easy (and nice not to sweat about your electrical bill in the summer). Speaking of, who uses checks? I'd never owned a checkbook in my life, I had to get one just to pay rent here.
The Bad:
1) Disorganized Office. I moved for school from out of state, it was a 4 day drive. I called several times over the trip to confirm my arrival, they assured me everything was ready.
When I finally pulled up, the office staff didn't seem to know I was coming, the apartment was not ready, had not been cleaned, and they didn't have a set of keys for me. I went to Starbucks to give them the afternoon to get it together, and while they did finally provide me with keys, the apartment was not cleaned and the bottom of the bathtub was worn completely through, so I wasn't able to shower at home for the first week. They eventually did get the tub fixed and the carpets "cleaned", but seriously? To be fair, I spoke to the manager about pro-rating the rent from the day the apartment was USEABLE, as opposed to my original move-in date, and they agreed, which was nice--but I would have preferred to have simply been able to move into a clean apartment with a working shower as agreed after driving across the country.
Next difficulty, renewal. The staff kept getting replaced, so I never spoke with the same person twice, nobody seemed to know what was going on, getting my lease renewed took EIGHT MONTHS. I should have taken the hint and moved out then, but I liked being close to school and wasn't prepared to move at the time. Then when I finally did move out, I left a forwarding address and was told I'd be sent a final bill after they finished flipping the apartment.
I never received that final bill, but a year later, I DID receive a notice that I'd been sent to collections. I contacted the collector, "What's this for? I don't owe anybody anything..." I'd forgotten all about McCart. The collector sent me the bill, I saw that the charges were legit, paid immediately, and figured I was finally done with these people.
Fast forward ANOTHER YEAR AFTER THAT, and McCart is now claiming they were never paid, and I'm having trouble getting into my next lease.
It's now been 2 YEARS since I moved out, and I'm still trying to get my account with them closed. I've had to reach back out to the debt collector for help, ironically.
2) It's OLD. The pictures look nice enough; I'd sure like to know which units those are from, because it sure doesn't look like what I toured and it DEFINITELY doesn't look like what I rented. The carpets are old & stained, the linoleum is old, sticky and gross no matter how many times I cleaned. The bathtub is old and cracked (I finally got them to come fix the tub, but they do that cheap "refinishing" spray that doesn't hold up very well. The bottom of the tub had cracked out again by the time I moved out, and I'm a skinny person.) The stopper/drain in the sink was rusted out, so half the water leaked into the cupboard under the sink. I reported the problem numerous times to the staff, with video of the water pouring into the cupboard, but nothing was ever done about it (I guess the only thing you could do is replace the sink, and they clearly weren't going to do that.) The laundry room is not secure, so random people from outside the complex come to do laundry there (I guess it's cheaper than your average laundromat?). Management put a sign on the door "for apartment residents only,) but there's no lock or key-card access, so homeless people just kept wandering in. The machines are regularly out of order, so don't wait until you need clean clothes to do laundry--chances are you'll be out of luck for a couple days.
3) Security. There isn't any. No gate, no guard and no cameras on the individual buildings. I had meth heads knock on my door several times asking for rides or money, and packages regularly went missing. I'm honestly surprised I never had a break-in.
Final verdict: If you just need a place to crash or are a student with no car, then whatever--this is fine. But unless you have a really good reason for needing to be in that area, I wouldn't recommend this complex. read more
