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Old 01-28-2010, 11:17 AM
 
28 posts, read 168,976 times
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I was wondering if anyone here has ever had a good experience with an apartment complex that gets very bad reviews on apartmentratings.com.

That site scares me to rent almost anywhere.
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Old 01-28-2010, 11:26 AM
 
Location: Planet Earth
1,084 posts, read 3,274,211 times
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Take those with a huge grain of salt. People generally only review things online when they have a negative experience. If you have a great experience you just keep on enjoying it and don't go on a rampage to tell the world about it. There's some saying about if you have a bad experience you tell 20 people and if you have a good one you tell 1 person.

I lived in a place for 2 years that got a 32% on that website and I loved it.

I'd use websites like that only as a first step.
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Old 01-28-2010, 07:07 PM
 
Location: Revere, MA
294 posts, read 1,103,910 times
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Actually, I have seen plenty of good reviews on there as well. I always use this site when looking for an apartment, and I have found it to be pretty accurate so far. I mean, sometimes people's complaints there may consist of the cost of their bills or snow plowing, etc. You have to ask yourself if these are things that you can live with. As opposed to problems of more serious matters such as infestations, management cooperation, safety, etc.
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Old 01-29-2010, 07:56 AM
 
2,709 posts, read 6,288,159 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jebv View Post
I was wondering if anyone here has ever had a good experience with an apartment complex that gets very bad reviews on apartmentratings.com.

That site scares me to rent almost anywhere.
Yep. My apartment complex has a 3.6 rating (out of 5). I guess that actually, that's not that bad. Only 60% of the respondants would recommend it. But I have lived here for over 5 years, and I'm extremely happy in most respects.
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Old 01-29-2010, 11:42 AM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
2,637 posts, read 12,588,778 times
Reputation: 3630
It's important to actually read the reviews. Most of the really bad reviews of the places around here that I found quite livable were clearly written by total whack-a-doodles. Many times the really good reviews sound like they were written by office staff. The truth is usually somewhere in between and most places have a handful of reviews that seem to have been written by normal balanced tenants who describe the good and the bad, and those are the ones that I take the most seriously. The percentage assigned to the complex is usually pretty meaningless as it skews easily when there aren't that many total reviews.

Another problem is how old some of the reviews are. When the property has changed hands three times since the review was written it is likely that their complaints about office staff, maintenance, etc. may no longer apply.
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Old 01-30-2010, 09:26 PM
 
Location: Northern Virginia
4,489 posts, read 10,898,650 times
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I love my current apartment, but apartmentratings has a miserable score. The problem is that reviews never expire, so the ones from 3+ years ago before it was renovated are awful and bring it down. The current ones are still only so-so, but I attribute that to the whole "no one says anything good, just bad stuff" phenomenon described above.

Most of the complaints I've seen for my place are stupid, too. "The light colored carpet gets dirty too easily" and "the kitchen cabinets are made of cheap materials" are pretty dumb things to complain about, imo. The rest of the poor comments revolve around management. I've had nothing but wonderful experiences with the people in charge here, so I tend to believe that the complainers were rude and crabby people, who received similar responses.
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Old 01-31-2010, 02:06 PM
 
8,411 posts, read 39,162,521 times
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Me too! It had good ratings and then in the years I have been here it went down. I know that some people got evicted because of the paper on the door and then a bad review went up. Hmmm...

And they also said that the office staff was rude. Uhhhh....Well the "rude" office lady remembered my name from meeting me once and always smiles at me. I have had problems here in the sense I had to have a repair done and I had a semi-noisy tenant. My new neighbors I can't hear a peep out of even when a bunch of friends come over.

I also saw a roaches infestation thing. Well I called the health department and the do not have record of any infestation in the building. Its an old building so I know they are here but its so big the regular spray man & keeping it clean has been working to have them not show up in my unit so far. I never saw dead ones in the halls or anywhere.

I also noticed there is an apt with a similar name that seems more ghetto in a different area. One of the reviews said my building was dirty but they sweep everyday and buff the marble twice a week? ALong with all the wipe down of the doors etc. They do monthly visual sweeps of the building too looking for any major issues. And one of the roach complaints was paired with a water pipe breaking...Which..uh..thats just what happens. You will see a bug in a city buliding (in my experience) usually the week before a pipe breaks. That is probably the only cool thing about roaches. LOL

And then the dumbest complaint of all: the building is old....

It is VERY obvious this is an old building. Its a prewar building and old houses and building have special issues like repairs taking extra time to do right and water breaks. If you can't handle that..don't move into an old building. There is NO WAY on earth these apartments would be the price they are if this building was new. The main lobby floor is all art deco marble and sculpted plaster with some 30 foot mirrors!

The sour reviews on my building I think are from evictions and being mad at the rent hike that was high last year too. But utilities went up in the area so I knew it was going to happen.

I picked this building based on the info of being at a friends apartment here. And it seems a lot of people do that here. Our new neighbors are friends with some people on some upper floors too. I also picked it based on my call to the health department.(and obviously location and price)
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Old 01-31-2010, 03:00 PM
 
4,796 posts, read 22,833,498 times
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I've certainly lived in a few apartments that have negative reviews.

One place that I lived at happily for six years has negative comments like: "The lightbulbs constantly need to be changed!"

I always 'weed out' comments from clearly immature unreasonable reviewers whose comments reflect that they expect luxury living for budget prices and a LL that is a combination of mom and dad and a hotel concierge.

I also screen out comments that are about the 'innateness' of the apartment--things like the size of the unit, the location of the property, the cost of the rent, etc.. I.e., things that are clearly obvious to any renter before they sign the lease. In my opinion, online reviews should only be about things a prospective tenant wouldn't know if the review weren't written.
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Old 01-31-2010, 06:00 PM
 
1,465 posts, read 5,129,484 times
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I think any review that attacks the office staff is just a vendetta because they were evicted. People get mad when they are evicted and they think it is the manager's fault.

If the complaint was too noisy because of a train or gets too hot because of lack of air conditioning or something like that, I tend to believe it.
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Old 02-02-2010, 06:44 PM
 
4,921 posts, read 7,654,104 times
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You had better take those reviews very seriously. Most people won't take the time to write a review unless they are motivated to do so. That is why you see so few good reviews. People that have been treated badly by a rental are highly motivated and usually in a negative manner. You do have to be a little analytical and sort out the lunatic reports. However, and at the very least, "where there's smoke, there's fire."

If you are concerned about an apartment complex take the time to learn who it is that owns it. Find out what other rental properties they own and check those. If you find consistent negative reviews you can assume that anything they own or manage will be just as bad.

Final word, never trust a landlord.
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