Apartments (Raleigh, Cary: apartment complex, leasing, countertops)

[Sugar Magnolia]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me because I'm getting really frustrated. I've been searching apartments down there for about 3 months now and I can't come up with anything that will work for us. By work, I mean something with reasonable rent and amenities (washer/dryer hook-up), but it would appear that all of the apartments I have found are roach infested and people only have really horrible things to say about them. (I've been reading reviews on another forum for apartments in the area). So, my question is, are there any nice apartments down there. We would prefer something quiet away from college students and gangs, and roaches. Is that too much to ask for? We don't care about schools because we have no children, nor do we care about trains and planes make noise, we are used to that, and we could care less if the office staff is nice because we don't plan to need to talk to them often. Should be within an hour of RTP though. Can anyone help me? PM me if necessary, I want the truth. If we have to we will just rent a house/townhouse, but I kinda wanted a complex with a fitness center. Oh well.

Thanks in advance.

[Serendipity11]

Hey Sugar ...

Looks like we are in the same boat then. I am looking for rents as well. I have been using the apartment book removed.

They all look great from there though. I am really worried about rents after what you just said!!

We are moving to the Raleigh area (my bf and I) at the end of August.

I hope someone can help us both out. I guess you are a step ahead by hearing the bad reviews. But boy am I worried. If I see a roach I would be outta there in a heart beat!!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Maybe we are looking for rentals that are in the low range, I'm not sure. What do rental apartments usually go for down there? Up here we are paying about $1100 for a 3 bed townhouse. We want to keep it as cheap as we can, but not sacrifice too much. I've been looking at different apartment guide type things online and rent.com and such, and the apartments look wonderful through there, however when I check on the apartment rating list (which is a list of people who have actually lived there giving their opinions on the apartments) everyone has really nasty things to say. It seems to have been about every single complex we have looked at. I just can't tell if these people are expecting too much, or if property management is really that poor down there.

When we started looking at places with all of the amenities we thought it was too good to be true (up here you don't get half of the stuff offered down there) now we are wondering if we were right.

We completely understand if someone would just tell us to get a nice place to live we would have to pay more. That is pretty much how it is up here. But people were talking badly about even the expensive places down there.

Thanks for the help guys!

[nk0171]

Keep in mind that those very people rating those apartments have probably been evicted and want to get back at those places! I would not take their rating seriously at all. We visited several apartments in north Raleigh a month ago and they were all very clean, safe and friendly.

[Bethanytedder]

My daughter Sharon lived in Autumn Winds apts for several years before she bought a house. The rent was like $750.00 a month and that was about 3 years ago. The apartment was about 900 square feet, had the washer/dryer hookups althought they did have an on site laundry facility. There was a pool, tennis court I believe and a work out room. Her apartment had the kitchen, a pantry, a laundry room, dining room, living room, and 1 bed room with a walk-in closet. She also had a balcony that had an extra storage space. Her apartment was on the third floor and without an elevator, I couldn't have lived there but I thought as far as apartment go, this was pretty nice.

[laureth]

Iam concerned that the "show apartment is not representative of the one that you actually get

[SALUKI_LOVER]

we love our apartment here at Windemere in North Raleigh by Crab Tree Mall.
PM me and I can give you more info if you'd like...washer/dryer hook up..great leasing staff....let me know

[jnj873]

Don't believe everything you read on those sites, like nk said, they are just people with an ax to grind. I was scared to death to look at apartments from reading them too, but when we came down here to actually look around, everything was 1 million times better than I expected. I live in a 2 bed 2 bath in Cary that is 765 a month, we have a gym, a pool, a "car care" area and the apartment is great, dining room, w/d hookup, 2 walk in closets, 2 storage closets. Let me know if you are interested and I can PM you the name. Thanks!

[miamiblue]

Originally Posted by laureth

Iam concerned that the "show apartment is not representative of the one that you actually get

Yes, be very concerned about this, because we ran into it a lot with the big complexes around here. They'll feed you the line that the available unit isn't completely done being cleaned and they aren't allowed to show it to you. Well, we bought this line and our apartment ended up reeking of smoke that we couldn't get rid of for months. All the complex did was say, "Oh, well I've heard that there are these candles that will help with that". Since they had already 'cleaned' the unit, that was all they were willing to do for us. My boyfriend has pretty serious allergies and he was miserable for quite some time. We went through countless air fresheners and carpet fresh, and wiped all kinds of gross nicotine residue off walls, windows and countertops for months. When we left, the place was much cleaner than it was when we moved in.

Definitely don't sign a lease without having seen the unit you will be getting. We learned that lesson the hard way! The second time around, we skipped a corporate run complex altogether and went with a private landlord. I had never lived in an apartment complex prior to my bad experience, and I will never live in another one. It is much easier to deal with an individual, especially since they don't have a 'model' to fool you with.