After living at Quail Chase for 3 years in both a 2 bedroom and a 1 bedroom apartment (both the older ones, not newly remodeled) I can say that my wife (with no children) and I are finally ready and looking forward to my move.
The kitchen in the 2 bedroom is actually smaller than in the 1 bedroom apartment. Although the cabinets are deep, we had to consolidate some kitchen stuff into our storage. And the kitchen surfaces are quite smaller too.
The community is professionally managed by BRE Communities. They have only 1 maintenance guy; and for the time being he is great. Once he leaves, whoever that 1 person will be; it's a crap shoot. I've lived here thru 3 maintenance guys and so far this one's the best. Hope he sticks around for a while.
I live in an apartment by the pool. My wife uses the Wi-Fi from the pool area frequently. I've done work from my laptop while sitting in the sauna. The phone's wireless signal reaches it too; which makes it feel like 'home'.
+ Pros
- Every unit has a garage
- A small community; about 50 units total.
- Pool/hot tub are usually free of crowds and you get to know the residents quickly
- One resident has lived here since the apartments were built: 25 years ago! That must say something about the community I guess!
- Vending machine on site has $1 bottle of sodas - cheaper than Safeway these days
- 1 year leases are rather inexpensive, where as short term leases climb up in price.
- Cons
- The non-remodeled apartments have considerable damage to the kitchen cabinets.
- Lease break policy is BRUTAL: Watch out, and make sure you don't move out before your time is up, otherwise it's expensive ~ $2-3,000!
- Garages do not have walls which separate your space from your neighbors, it's like 1 big garage that holds 5 different cars
- The 1 bedroom apartments host a lot of Intel workers, some starting families some single. Whereas the 2 bedroom apartments host mostly people starting families: Meaning lots of crying kids at all hours of the day/night!
- Pet friendly, $500 pet deposit is somewhat high
- Expensive Water/Trash bill hovers around $80-90/mo - consider this when you look at the lower cost of retn.
- If you live in an apartment near the pool, kids from nearby houses will jump the fence and make lots of noise after midnight. They'll leave if you ask them to, or the apartment manager recommends calling the police. Both of which I have done.
- Not Dish network or Direct Tv friendly, Comcast has monopoly
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