We loved the location of Morning Run and we loved the on-site property managers, Joyce and Staci. Both of those ladies work SO HARD for their tenants, but their hands are often times tied by their parent company which is really too bad. The maintence guys were both nice and obviously overworked too - for a location as large as Morning Run is, it was shocking to see that there is only 4 employees there (2 in office, 2 maintenance), but they really did give it their all and for that, our review has little to do with the on site staff, but rather their parent company, Coast Property Management.
We lived there during the exterior renovations and had nothing but issues with that - we had our unit entered several times under a "blanket notice" (which is illegal in Washington State) as well as had our door installed incorrectly, and our daughters crib filled with nails when they changed the exterior power meters. Our unit was the only unit that had repeated power failures in our building after the updates to the power boxes, which resulted in loss on our end and again more flexibility... I had people come into my apartment multiple times unannounced after having our daughter, one of those times I had no idea men were in my home and came out of my bedroom in just a bra. The multiple, unannounced entrances was awkward, frustrating, rude, and excessive. The "blanket notice" was from October 2018 to January 2019, but they were entering unannounced all the way into April. Our apartment was left unsecure more than once, be it with windows or doors left unlocked, and at one point our back door was only held in with a couple nails - we do not know how long it was like that because they did it during the week I was in the hospital having our daughter in the end of January. We also during this time could not use our deck storage because the construction company was using it (on our dime) or our back patio, so all our storage was in the spare room, making that room unusable from October until June when we finally were given the new keys to the storage unit (8 months of the 12 month lease).
Once the exterior renovations ended, the management company bumped our rent up 8.5% with only 10 days to respond, despite us not having full use of our rented space for 8 months and being super flexible with their renovations. When I inquired to the upper management I was basically told Seattle is increasing in rent therefore they must compete, in Monroe. I asked for a credit for our time, space, privacy, and money lost due to their renovations and the management company blatantly ignored my request and proceeded in upping our rent. We had no choice but to sign, we couldnt afford to move and we couldnt afford the month to month rent.
It's bad business to ignore the customers who pay their bills in full, on time, every single month. The apartments aren't worth the $1,820/month the company wants. It's still the same interior as was installed in 1980, the interiors have damages from the 30+ years of wear and tear caused by all the families who cycle through, and yet you're expecting top dollar from the tenants who supported you through the exterior renovations, who paid full rent for loss of rented space, who put up with illegal entries into the unit and dealt with countless issues surrounding the construction, such as coming home to my babies crib full of nails and screws? Wow, that really blew me away.
Monroe is where I grew up, I expected the small town atmosphere and friendly treatment. Joyce and Staci have that feel to them, but like I said their hands are tied and it's sad that their parent company puts a shadow of darkness over the complex.
It's obvious the parent company is only interested in money, no matter how much it effects the community they are in. And that's really too bad and sad to see.
Thank you to Joyce, Staci, and the maintence crew for always advocating the best you can for your tenants, for your honestly and for being real and relatable, if it had been just you guys I know we would have stayed a lot longer; we love how you run Morning Run when it doesnt involve the parent company, and we wish all the best to you Joyce and Staci.
Coast, start treating your tenants better so you don't have such a high turn over rate. Charging a little less to keep good families would benefit you so much more than charging top dollar for sub-par units and pushing good families out. read more