What do you all make of apartment rating websites? (Pasadena: apartment complex, rentals) - Los Angeles - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

ZenMaster2008 · 02-23-2009, 06:35 PM

I'm apartment hunting and I found some apartment rating/review websites. My take on them is that they are horrible sources to go by. Most only have a few reviews on them over the past few years and of course they hated the place. No one who loves their apartment goes online to rave about it. It's the one's with bad experiences who go on to talk about it. It's bad for business for the one's with a few bad reviews. What do you all make of these things? I tend to think a place might be decent if they have very few reviews.

We are trying to find a new place in Pasadena, within walking distance to old-town and some of the extremely prices places that we thought were awesome get horrible reviews. If anyone can recommend anything within a mile or so of old town I'm open to suggestions here also

SandyCo · 02-23-2009, 06:45 PM

I always figure that no news is good news!

I'm skeptical as well when people claim that their security deposits are never refunded. Maybe there was a legitimate reason? However, if someone mentions bugs and a noisy complex, I'm more likely to pay attention to those kinds of complaints.

drshang · 02-23-2009, 08:27 PM

Same. If multiple people mention roaches and things like that I think it's often true. Noise, I dunno, I feel like a lot of people that complain about noise are people who aren't willing to accept that apartment complexes will have some noise. Things like sirens and stuff like that tend to be accurate though. Most of the complaints seem to center around unresponsive management and things like security deposits though, and I'm sure some apartments scam out of deposits but I'm also sure a reasonable percentage of people don't deserve their deposit back either.

In general take them with a grain of salt. I live in the old town area and honestly I don't think Pasadena in general is very noisy. But then again I've lived in urban environments for a while and Pasadena is, at most, "semi-urban" at least in the noise sense.

alexanderaf · 02-23-2009, 09:18 PM

I moved to a place that I thought was really nice from what I saw. I later found out online to my surprise that the place had horrible reviews! I was very cautious, but after two years of living there I had nothing but good things to say about the place.

I think restaurant reviews fall under the same problem. I've been to restaurants I thought were great! When I look them up online I find these reviews of these horrible experiences people had there??? I'm guessing people are much more motivated to post about their bad experience to 'get back' at the place. Keep in mind there is no system in place to check if these claims are outright lies. It could be someone didn't pay their rent and wanted to fight every way they could to show they were in the right.

Unfortunately when most have a good experience they do not have the same motivation to get the word out...my thoughts.

Ransomed · 02-26-2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenMaster2008

I'm apartment hunting and I found some apartment rating/review websites. My take on them is that they are horrible sources to go by. Most only have a few reviews on them over the past few years and of course they hated the place. No one who loves their apartment goes online to rave about it. It's the one's with bad experiences who go on to talk about it. It's bad for business for the one's with a few bad reviews. What do you all make of these things? I tend to think a place might be decent if they have very few reviews.

We are trying to find a new place in Pasadena, within walking distance to old-town and some of the extremely prices places that we thought were awesome get horrible reviews. If anyone can recommend anything within a mile or so of old town I'm open to suggestions here also

Overall i find them VERY helpful, oftentimes discouraging but I am oh so thankful for them. I believe that people are more likely to document bad service/ experiences ( I KNOW I AM) than a good one. We tend to take good experiences for granted but I truly think they are invaluable sources and not something to be easily shrugged off- most times you'll find people have the SAME complaint so that many people cannot be lying. I would steer clear of any apartment below a 50% rating.

I will say that an apartment I lived in while in Arizona was only given a 3/5 and I was surprised b/c the place was GREAT but one person obviously had a bone to pick and gave it bad ratings over such trivial nonsense.

cmw2133 · 02-26-2009, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenMaster2008

I'm apartment hunting and I found some apartment rating/review websites. My take on them is that they are horrible sources to go by. Most only have a few reviews on them over the past few years and of course they hated the place. No one who loves their apartment goes online to rave about it. It's the one's with bad experiences who go on to talk about it. It's bad for business for the one's with a few bad reviews. What do you all make of these things? I tend to think a place might be decent if they have very few reviews.

We are trying to find a new place in Pasadena, within walking distance to old-town and some of the extremely prices places that we thought were awesome get horrible reviews. If anyone can recommend anything within a mile or so of old town I'm open to suggestions here also

I don't find them useful. If it's objective stuff (read: vermin) correlated by multiple sources like SandyCo said, then I might find it credible, but mostly it's a litany of complaints. The way these sites describe places, you'd think 75% of all apartments are the third level of hell. That doesn't help me make a decision. I disregard anything subjective like noise, bad/unresponsive management, money issues, etc.

A more credible method might be to ask the building to provide with contact info for a current resident to get their opinion. I've never done this, but I don't see why a building wouldn't be able to do this for you, given the buyer's market in LA for rentals.

supernova8610 · 08-15-2009, 06:27 PM

I'm considering moving to Colorado Springs next year and I've been looking at apartments. From the reviews I saw on apartmentratings.com, things didn't look too good and I was getting discouraged. But thankfully I stumbled upon this thread. :-) Because I knew, of course, that those who had negative experiences were more likely to leave reviews, but seeing this thread definitely helped put a more positive spin on things. :-)

ZenMaster2008 · 08-15-2009, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova8610

I'm considering moving to Colorado Springs next year and I've been looking at apartments. From the reviews I saw on apartmentratings.com, things didn't look too good and I was getting discouraged. But thankfully I stumbled upon this thread. :-) Because I knew, of course, that those who had negative experiences were more likely to leave reviews, but seeing this thread definitely helped put a more positive spin on things. :-)

just to reassure u a bit more, the place we ended up choosing got a 38% on a rating site and in 4 months I've had zero problems. I love the place and haven't encountered anything the same as the reviews.

Naomi Manischewitz · 08-15-2009, 09:49 PM

i always read those apartment sites, but i have to tell you i think the reviews are often deflated. the average person is more likely to go to those websites to share complaints about living at whatever place, then to actually say whats great about it. nearly every place i have ever looked at on those sites get less than 50% of a positive review lol.

if you have the time i think the best idea is to figure out just on tours which apartment communities you like the most and narrow it down. then walk around the apartment complex seeing any residents who look like they would stop to talk to you to share any concerns they have. if you meet someone who is unhappy there, they are more likely (imo) to vent and would give you their 2 cents.

my biggest concerns are always:
1. hot water and powerful showers in all hours?
2. if something needs to get fixed, how long do you usually wait?

c10penny · 09-21-2012, 06:22 AM

Apartment Ratings is a joke of a website! First and foremost it's nothing more than a revenge based website that allows "anonymous" people to say whatever they wish out of anger when there are ZERO facts to back up their accusations. I have friends who have left their apartments in horrendous condition as their pets destroyed the carpet from urine and damage and when they were rightfully charged for carpet damage they went onto this website and wrote complete untruths over and over again about the place they lived. The fact that someone can damage a dwelling and then lie on a website about an apartment complex who did nothing wrong is absurd. This website has no integrity as they do not check into the accusations I also hear they charge the apartment complexes to even reply. What a joke! If you want to get a legit opinion about any business you should do it on a long standing honest site such as the Better Business Bureau the BBB actually looks into any complaint and gets to the bottom of it if a business or apartment complex has wronged someone they will document and share that information. They actually investigate and get to the truth. The do no allow dishonest people slander business falsely. If you buy into sites like this it makes you no better than the liars or the creators who do not have anyones best interest at heart. Do yourself a favor and get legit facts not "anonymous" lies. Shame on them!