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How much truth is there to these apt complex review sites? I'm talking about apartmentreviews.net AND apartmentratings.com. I'm starting to look around at apt complexes in my city because I want to remain living here, but I was rather shocked to read many bad reviews about virtually everyplace I thought was pretty good. The main things everyone talked badly about was the complex management, which all the places have been under new mangement at some point (even the newer apt complexes). The next biggest issue were the horrendous parking, cars being towed, & bad tenants. I guess there's some truth to what people say if enough people say it.
I live in what I consider to be the best city in my county & I had no idea it was this bad in my own city. (I live in a house now by the way.)
What do you guys think & what other apt review sites are there out there?
I don't have any experience with these particular sites but I think when reading any reviews it's important to remember that (at least in my experience) the majority of people who take time to write reviews on particularly things like hotels, vacation rentals, home rentals, etc. tend to be more those who had complaints rather than those who had no problems. It's human nature to dwell on the negative!
STT is right, people are more likely to leave negative reviews than take the time to write a positive one.
Also realize that some apartment complexes (including the one I just moved out of) will write blatantly fake reviews to boost their own ratings. If the overall rating is 30%, and there are 5 star one-liner reviews posted one per day for a couple of weeks.... those are likely fake.
People may hesitate to post a negative review for fear of being evicted. And some landlords are not above bribing people to leave a positive rating.
But they can still be very valuable. Look and see what common issues are reported. Do they affect you? Did someone give a poor review due to commute time (that doesn't apply to anyone else)? Does the majority of the reviews mention crime/bugs/etc?
Poor parking isn't necessarily a given in every complex, but it's likely, especially if the complex does not have assigned parking. It was a nightmare finding a spot at my last place - and every few months, they would close huge sections of the lot to do maintenance, which meant it was even more difficult.
Is it possible for you to go to the complex (multiple times, at different days/times) and talk to some of the people, and get their impressions of the complex? That might give you valuable insight that the review sites do not have.
I've found apartmentratings.com to be pretty accurate (never used apartmentreviews.net). As was mentioned though, you just have to be wary of fake reviews, make sure that several of the reviews were actually made recently, and don't really judge it if there are only a couple reviews on there.
In general, I've found that anything over 50% means it's pretty good.
Thanks for the comments guys. OK GoPhils, I'm glad you can give me that insight about the over 50% rule. Yes, it's something how people will remember & talk about 1 bad review out of the other 20+ reviews about a certain place.
some of these sites really suck......they make an apartment complex here (very large) look to be something very nice and quiet. well...........they're half right. people know its all college kids renting for the school year so they break in no matter what and nothing is seemingly done.........ever.
If there are only a few reviews, you can't assume they mean anything, they could be positive reviews placed by the people who work their, or unfairly negative because of one or two disgruntled people.
If there are numerous reviews, that provides a better yardstick, but still more often then not those with negative things to say are more inclined to post then those who are happy there. If most of the reviews are very positive that is a very good sign that you have found a good complex. And I have found a few of the later.
Reviews on those sites are nearly useless. Every complex I have ever lived in has terrible reviews on those sorts of websites. I will readily admit that some of them were pretty bad - back when I was a student and we couldn't afford better. The one we live in now is really nice, has fantastic amenities, good pricing, a great location, an office staff that I leave wanting to hug instead of wanting to punch... yet the reviews are just as bad as the old places in the ghetto and leave me wondering how someone could have such an opposite experience to my own. Happy residents rarely leave reviews, but malcontents will paste the same horrible review to many sites, often full of blatant lies. I noticed at previous complexes that there was a coorelation between recent eviction and the appearance of a new hyper-negative review on the sites. So I think that they are often posted as retaliation, not out of a legitimate desire to guide other renters to good properties.
The other problem is that they tend to hang on to reviews for a really long time - long enough for a complex to change owners and even names several times. The page for the last complex we left was still full of complaints about a horrible witch of a property manager who had been replaced several years previous - and all of the problems that she caused left with her, such as maintainence requests that just disappeared and were never fulfilled, rude attitude to residents (but never to prospects of course), etc. If you read those reviews today, it would make sense to not even take a look at that complex, but it would be misleading. Of course the opposite is also true - you never know when a good management team will be replaced by a bunch of human roadblocks with a wannabe Napoleon at the helm. But if they only keep recent reviews, they wind up with just one or two reviews and that's not very helpful either.
If possible - do your research personally. I like to make an appointment with a leasing agent to see a unit, then arrive about a half hour early so I have an excuse to hang out in the lobby while I "wait for my husband to arrive". That way I can see how the office staff interacts with current residents who come in while I am waiting. If they are rude to them, they will be rude to me, too - once I sign on the dotted line. Drive through the complex at night to see what kind of vibe it has. I like a quiet complex, but I don't like it to be deserted - I want to see people outside jogging, walking dogs, that sort of thing.
Talk to residents if possible, ask them about their own units - if there is anything that bugs them that wasn't obvious until they had lived there awhile. We once had a kitchen with no pantry or any place for a garbage can, so it had to sit on the dining room side of the kitchen wall and I had to keep dry foods in the cabinets - encroaching on space for glasses, dishes, pots, & pans. That same place had no closet in the living space at all, only the bedrooms - so there was no place to keep the vacuum cleaner. So it sat out in full view. Ugh. These were of course problems that should have been obvious to me when they showed the unit but I wasn't thinking of those sorts of issues at the time. We once lived in a place where the exterior maintainence was let go to the point that there were literally trees growing out of the gutters - red flag! Here in FL, I make it a point to ask about their AC. Is it efficient at cooling in the depths of summer? Can it get enough moisture out of the air to prevent issues with mold & mildew? Is your electric bill reasonable for the amount of cooling it puts out? Have they had any unresolved pest issues? Parking problems once everyone is home for the night? How quickly have maintainence requests been fulfilled? Did they do it right or has it been a recurring fight for months with no resolution in sight? That sort of thing. You'll be amazed what sort of gossip someone walking a dog will happily pass on to you.
apartmentreviews.net has a bunch of reviews written under one of my email accounts. I didn't write them. I've never lived in the apartments, let alone the state for a few of them. I've sent many emails to the "contact us" form, the reviews were never removed.
Why in the world would someone hijack an e-mail address to write a review for an apartment? Not saying it didn't happen, but that's pretty weird.
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