An honest review from someone who lived at this complex for four years, but moved out within the last two.
Initially, this place seems great. It definitely has some stunning features. I don't want to claim that this place is all negative; but the negative definitely outweighs the positive.
Positives:
- Pool is very nice. It's kept very clean and gets great sun! Wonderful if you want to lay out. The grill is very nice, but it's not cleaned very often. When it was first built it was very nice, but it's kind of run-down now.
- The gym is nice and updated. It used to be very old. But they have a nice variety of equipment. Not the best I've seen, but definitely decent.
- The location is pretty great. Bus line runs right in front of the complex. Right next to an actual gym and shopping complex. Further away from campus, so it's quieter. Easy access to Woodland. Great view of the mountains, fairly unobstructed. The view used to be better before they started building The Cannery. This view may deteriorate if they expand. That being said, I got some wonderful shots of the sunset from here. Great location for families.
- Decently fast maintenance.
Neutral:
- The maintenance lady... I will say, she's very good at her job. Really on top of things and a hard worker. However, she always made me feel uncomfortable. Just got a really judgemental vibe from her. She interacts well with the older members of the community, but she doesn't seem crazy about college students. Also would drop some borderline creepy comments now and again. She also just stares at you. This can make you feel incredibly uncomfortable. This may just be my perspective, though. Like I said, despite this she's a great worker. However it's unusual for there to only be one real maintenance person. This may have changed, as I saw one other person frequently as the years went on.
Negatives:
- This place is incredibly pricey. I would not recommend this location for students. The place isn't particularly student friendly (maybe more grad-student friendly), and everything about this place is expensive. The rent is super high, and they keep raising it by a considerable amount every year. Much better places to rent in terms of price-range. Some places are nicer for cheaper, too.
- PG&E will be through the roof. I was shocked to see how my friends' bills compared to mine. My bill was consistently 2-3x more expensive, even compared to larger apartments. I don't know why this is, other than perhaps outdated infrastructure and poor insulation. I seldom had an energy bill below $100. Even when trying to cut back.
- If you live on the first floor, you're going to have roaches. Like no matter what. Again, this is likely because of the poor insulation. There was an absurd number of cockroaches. Again, other friends who lived on the first floor at other complexes rarely/never saw a cockroach. I could expect them every week, if not every day. Pretty disgusting. Even traps only worked so far. I live on the first floor elsewhere and I have yet to deal with roaches. In comparison, I had a roach problem the first night at SS.
- Speaking of pests, there are also mice. While renovating one apartment, all the mice rushed to mine. I had to kill 3 mice within a few weeks.
- Some room shapes are kind of awkward.
- Walls are pretty thin, although inconsistently. You can definitely hear people walking upstairs. Even if they aren't particularly heavy. This happens everywhere, but it seemed particularly bad here.
- If you live in the backlot you will see some sketchy people. It's right next to a park and it gets a lot of sketch people at night.
- They change staff fairly frequently (except for maintenance). During my time here it seems like we rotated through 4 different managers. Some have been nice, others haven't. One make an unnecessarily rude comment about my financial situation. This made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and I have yet to experience this at other complexes.
- Updated features are largely cosmetic. It seems like the materials used were cheap but looked expensive. This gives them an excuse to hike up rates.
- AC breaks semi-frequently. Had it break twice (same apartment) during different summers. Both times it was 106+ during the daytime.
- The place seems less interested in customer satisfaction and more into making a profit. It seems like they used the cheapest materials, and it shows. They may be warm and caring initially, but this stops once you sign.
I have since moved elsewhere, and I believe for the better. The longer I lived at SS, the more uncomfortable I became. Since moving I have save a ton of money and honestly feel like SS was ripping me off.
This place seems better for families than college students. Not very college student friendly and very expensive without really being worth it. read more