The previous review painted a pretty accurate picture of what to expect from Sahara. Let me elaborate on a few things from my short few months there.
I moved in during summer 2012 to attend UC Merced. I am a mid-twenties male.
Things I liked about Sahara
1) good location. VERY close to UC Merced CatTracks C1 line stop.
2) clean, well kept grounds.
3) good lighting at night
4) relatively affordable
5) month-to-month leases only
6) the manager will take your mail for you when you are gone on a trip
7) plenty of parking
Thinks I DISliked about Sahara:
1) THE MANAGER IS A COMPLETELY RUDE YOU-KNOW-WHAT! Before I moved here I read reviews from others about this place, most of them focused on how they got screwed out of their security deposit on move out. I thought to myself "those people must have been complete slobs, that won't happen to me because I will keep it clean and leave it clean." I was WRONG. I spent 2 days straight cleaning my apartment top to bottom (ceiling fan blades to bottom drawer in refrigerator), even steam cleaning the carpets and bleaching the tub. I was charged $120 of my security deposit on move out. Interestingly enough, that's just shy of the $125 that requires the manager by law to disclose an itemized statement of charges incurred at final inspection. Instead I was informed I was charged for a "Complete Cleaning" of every item on the move-out check-list, including a "garage-door remote" which is odd because this place doesn't even have garage doors. I am thankful, however, that I did not sign the "WAIVER OF RIGHT TO ITEMIZED STATEMENT" that the manager tried to coerce me to sign when I gave my 30 day notice. If I had signed that, there is no doubt my charges would have been much greater. The managers first words when I went in her office to give my 30 day notice were "be prepared to lose about half of your deposit." I was there for 70 days and it was only 1 tenant!! I cannot stress just how clean my apt was on move out.
2) The location, although convenient and centralized, has some pretty major pitfalls. First, being at the back of a relatively busy shopping center meant frequent delivery trucks driving their loud diesel engines over speed bumps and the like making for some very early morning wake up calls. Mondays were the worst, trash trucks began emptying the shopping center's dumpsters at 5am.
3) The dumpster was not big enough for the complex. It was always full, and of course always being picked over by locals (common in Merced really).
4) Hot water. The communal water heating system here means HUGE fluctuations in water temp as you are taking a shower. I was scalded regularly by the roller coaster water temp. That is assuming you got hot water of course, when I took showers around 8:30 am there was never any hot water. Of course this means you don't have to pay (monetarily) for your hot water, but you wind up paying for it in the long run in terms of comfort and convenience. If you move here, plan to take showers in the middle of the day.
5) The location was a thoroughfare for (unsavory) pedestrians to get to the liquor store, meaning you had random people walking past your porch eying your belongings regularly.
6) Landscapers. First, they show up early Tuesday mornings, so after being woken up on Monday by trash trucks at 5am, the next morning you will be woken to the sound of a leaf blower around 8am. Then, instead of using a rake and broom to REMOVE the leaves, they will instead just blow them under your wall onto your porch. Which means now the chore that your rent money was supposed to pay them to do is your chore again.
7) Wall mounted A/C. Forget trying to sit on your porch and enjoy a nice summer day, your neighbors A/C is about 5 feet making any possible conversations a shouting match.
8) Unreasonably Lease terms. The wording on the lease includes a clause that gives the Apartment Manager the ability to "up" the court. Meaning, usually if you had a discrepancy with the landlord for security deposit return or similar you could simply (and cheaply) take it to small-claims court. The wording in your lease states that you give the Manager to move any hearings to a higher court, one that allows for the use of lawyers and has a stricter standard of proof. To the tenant, this means you will be the little-league player batting against a professional in court, and the real kicker is that you agree to pay for their lawyers. I have never seen this clause in any lease I have ever seen before.
The long and short of it. Its a respectable place that I was proud to call home. Be as vigilant as the management is on move in to protect your rights for the horror you will face on move out. There are many GREAT communities within 100 yards or less that deserve to be considered. read more