Pros: Neighborhood, Holden, school system, safe area, nice landscaping and Catherine, the leasing…read morespecialist.
Cons: Weak management, dated apartments, trash compactor breaks often, animal waste everywhere. Halstead has potential to be "great " however, the apartments are dated. Cabinets in kitchen and bathrooms faded, scratches, never touched up or aligned since when it first opened up as the Reserve. Porches have lots of storage/trash even though it's prohibited. Most apartments still have the original rugs! The rugs are sparse and dirty. The replacement rugs are cheap and show wear within a year. There is paint splashes everywhere the counter, cabinets, floor and rug from when the painters come in after a tenant leaves. If you happen to bump into the wall, your clothes will also be covered in paint from the numerous coats on them over the years. You can't have your own ceiling fan they make you rent one from them for $15 a month which is totally insane. These are these fans are antiquated. In terms of management, The manager, Malik, is weak. He doesn't seem to enforce policies mentioned in the lease. He appears "unphased" by anything so you feel as though he doesn't care. For instance, during a snowstorm an email goes out when you need to move your car by and the time they're going to plow. What happens is many don't move their car and the plowing is difficult for the company. This leaves piles of snow in spaces that should be used for parking. If you're going to put out a memo that your car will be towed then tow the car after the first instance, people will move their cars then!! Catherine the leasing specialist, however, is friendly and so pleasant to work with. Unfortunately, tenants and anyone who walks through the property does not pick up pet waste. There was poop everywhere even right next to the place where you deposit the waste. The poop situation is concerning there. The hall rugs need replacing, the doors need repainting where you come in and go out of the building. Halstead lacks upkeep inside and within the building itself. The screens are thread bare. I heard that if a dishwasher, washing machine needs replacing that they pull one form storage. The management company refuses to buy any new appliances!! Don't be fooled by the "outside". If they took some money and fixed up the inside of the apartments to look as nice as the outside it might be worth the price of the rent. They do the bare minimum, actually not even the bare minimum when new tenants are coming in. The management team didn't even do a walkthrough before I moved in. I would suggest that the management team go and walk the grounds regularly. Take note at who's got junk and trash on their porches. Walk through empty units and have a maintenance department or an outside company come in and redo the cabinets the floors, the rugs, make it look nice for what they're charging. They raise the rent each year by at least $100 yet, nothing has changed in the unit. The price should actually be less for the lack of any maintenance other than what the tenant does. Lots of pot smoking going on in the parking lot and on the grounds for a non-smoking complex. There are lots of brand new complexes going up in the area to compete. For a one bedroom starting around $2400 and nothing included, unless you're set on living in Holden, you should keep shopping.
