Van Metre Woodland Park (Reston, Herndon: apartments, lease, credit)

[Uhaul Is My Friend]

Since we now have a townhome reserved in this complex, I would love to know what you all think of the place if you live there or have in the past.

Also, what options do I have for high speed internet since MDU is the only cable option? A split T1 for that many residents is unacceptable in my opinion, especially when you work from home and need reliable connectivity and bandwidth.

[Samara11]

Originally Posted by Uhaul Is My Friend

Since we now have a townhome reserved in this complex, I would love to know what you all think of the place if you live there or have in the past.

Also, what options do I have for high speed internet since MDU is the only cable option? A split T1 for that many residents is unacceptable in my opinion, especially when you work from home and need reliable connectivity and bandwidth.

I haven't lived in Van Metre, but used to rent in Bryson which is across the street I believe. They also had an exclusive service provider contract with this crappy ISP called "Sofast". Their internet service sucked and was expensive too. They finally got out of that contract this year by paying those people to get out (finally).

Anyways, if Van Metre has an exclusive contract with this MDU cable, you will not have access to other providers. I dont know how their service would be, but I think it probably would be as horrible as what we got from Sofast.

Your only other option is to get one of those wireless connect cards from AT&T or Verizon especially if you'll be working from home a lot. When i used to live in Bryson, I had to pay that awful ISP extra money to get a static IP, as otherwise my VPN connection wouldn't work (I worked from home once a week). It was not a good experience .

[Samara11]

I just found this website when i googled the complex name and I'm horrified, have you put any money down yet? Please take a look at it before moving in.
Van Metre Companies, Van Metre Woodland Park, Van Metre Woodland Park Apartments, Woodland Park Herndon VA

[Uhaul Is My Friend]

The problem is EVERY complex has a horror story. Go to ApartmentRatings.com and you will see what I am talking about. From the looks of it, you would never want to rent from ANY complex. Trust me, I have made myself sick reading all the bad reviews of every complex in the area. There have been a few threads on this forum where people have loved this complex so I figured it can not be all bad. When we called, they said they are finishing up their contract with Cox (MDU evidently bundles services and repackages) and we will be getting Verizon FiOS by the end of the year. I hope it is not all lies.

[Samara11]

I guess thats true and visitor parking is definitely an issue all over NoVA, its not exclusive to this complex. As long as you have good internet access, you should be pretty okay. Bryson, where I used to live, has Cox now and people are happy with it. They have also said that Verizon FIOS is coming by the end of the year. Apparently Verizon is working on laying out FIOS cables in this area. Even then if you're actually getting Cox, you should not have any problems..... its not too bad

You will also have Harris Teeter across the street, in Woodland Park Crossing Plaza with Starbucks, Quiznos, Bubbles, Moby Dick, Panera Bread, LA Boxing, etc. Its a nice plaza and you also have Clocktower shopping plaza nearby. Good luck with your move

[Caladium]

Hey, congratulations on getting a place! Don't worry too much about those apartment rating sites, they often aren't reliable. Losers get a bug up their but against some complex or another and try to smear them. A lot of times the real problem has nothing to do with the apartment (a girl dumps a guy and he just wants to lash out at something). Or it has to do with some gripe related to somebody trying to break a rule and getting caught.

[cville<>centerville]

I took over someone's lease there when I first moved here before I was settled. The Internet was incredibly fast, faster than I've had before or since, however that may have been a result of how it was divided up amongst my neighbors or perhaps I was just lucky. I did, however clock literally 21MBytes (bytes, not bits!) down once.

Other than that... what a freaking rat trap. The whole place is maintained by this carnie type family that they give a townhome to to work there. The walls are so thin I could literally hear my neighbors pee (not the flush.. but the actual urine stream hitting the water). I lived there in 2006, at that point it was only 5 years old, and it was falling apart. The vinyl tile in the kitchen was coming up (literally it one day stuck to my shoe and pulled off). For the 1300/month for a one bedroom that I was paying, I expected a little better maintenance. I lived near the trash compactor, and often times it would become so full that you couldn't even walk up to it. At that point, people would just toss their trash as far as they could. It looked like something out of Slumdog Millionaire. Once a trucker abandoned their trailer in the parking lot, and it stayed there for two-three weeks until they removed it.

My girlfriend lives at the Bryson across the street, and while it isn't great, its better than Woodland park. My internet/cable situation couldn't touch the shady contract that horrible developer stuck Bryson residents with. Living at both of these places has really given me perspective about what to look out for in the future.

One other thing. When I moved in, there were paint stains on the bathroom floor which had obviously been there since construction. I attempted to scrub them off, but couldn't. About 10 months after I left, some collection agency called me and informed me that I owed $500 for it. I told them I wouldn't pay as it was extortion, and then went to Van Metre to complain. They simply didn't care and didn't even bother to work with me. I was so upset about being strong armed and having no recourse that I refused to pay. Of course that resulted in them hitting my credit really bad. I've dealt with these sleazy sorts of people before with every residence I had in college, but that was to be expected. I incorrectly assumed that once I moved to a professional area, companies wouldn't behave that way. Fool me once.... How's THAT for a first post

[Uhaul Is My Friend]

Hmmm, well it looks like we have to make the best of it either way now. Since my fiancee works for the government we did not have to pay any fees or deposits, but they do have our first month's rent already. OUCH! I guess it is good I am extremely OCD and thorough as it may help me some with this community it seems. (I make a list of EVERY single thing wrong with the place and attach it to my lease, then take pictures. I also take pictures upon exiting so there is less chance a complex tries to peg me with incidentals that do not exist. Yea, can you tell I have been jerked around in the past?

Worse case, I guess it will be just like living in student housing for another year. It could be worse, I guess. *tries to see the bright side*

[ScranBarre]

Don't base your potential future living experiences upon the nay-saying of one or two individuals though. I nearly overlooked Archstone Charter Oak here in Reston because EVERYONE on the Internet slammed it mercilessly, and yet here I am over three weeks later VERY happy to be living here!

[cville<>centerville]

I wasn't trying to put them in a bad mood, just hoping to steer them clear of the place in the hope of avoiding a bad situation.