I was surprised to see all the bad reviews about this place. Although it is not paradise in heaven, as some renters wish it would be. I had a great time living here; that is why I took the time to write this review. Besides the place itself the location is not bad, the grocery store is right across the street; I could walk 3 minutes to get ice-cream, rent a movie at the redbox, eat pizza, Chinese or Mexican in the same complex across the street, or walk a bit further and enjoy a peaceful afternoon by the lake.

When I moved in this was the best place in orange county to live in for a bit less than 400 difference when moving from Aliso Viejo comparing 2bd 2ba W/D garage and pets, the only down side for me at the time was the electric stove but I got used to it pretty quickly and honestly I think electric is much safer for kids and forgetful people.

Staff: I don t know about the new people but the current two managers that have been there since I moved in are just awesome people.
If you see any bad comments about them in this site it s probably because you didn t treat them right either. Hello' What do you expect! Don t go in there complaining about what needs to get fixed or bad behavior on your next door neighbor. Just drop a note or give them a quick phone call and they are very responsive within a day of your call. Also please don t go in the office complaining about the trees or the bushes not being irrigated properly, or about some kid who attacked the bushes with a stick.
One thing to remember, do not be late on the rent they will charge you $50. Ouch!

Maintenance: The maintenance guys are very friendly and helpful, they keep the place in great shape and I mean it, there are lots of people with pets messing up the grass but it always looks good and the sidewalks are clean even after people missing the trash cans. I ve seen a guy that walks around picking up stuff other leave where it doesn t belong.
One thing I don t understand though is the overkill to paint the red parking zones almost every two weeks but that was ok with me.
The pools are always clean unless there were excessive winds the day before which you do get once a year or so.

Parking: there was almost always parking before 8pm, but after you would have to look around some more if not there is street parking in the perimeter. A little 2 minute walking never hurt any one. They are strict about keeping your garage open space as long as you can fit a vehicle. So don t count on poker nights in the garage. (I remember there were a couple guys doing that a while ago with couches and a table, but I don t think it lasted too long) they do inspections once a year or so. Garages are roomy; mine had a large shelve at the end where I could store lots of stuff.

Fitness room: Good equipment, air conditioned, polar available on some machines
Pool: You can do a party there pool vip key is required. 3 good splashing pools gradual height deepest is about 5ft. I think, if you are there during the week except summer vacation you can get lots of laps all by yourself. There is a Jacuzzi by the side of each pool.

Neighbors: All my neighbors were exceptional, never had a problem, well let me rephrase that, there used to be a hispanic man downstairs who had no idea his subwoofer was louder upstairs than downstairs where he lived, so instead of kicking the floor or hitting it with my broom like some of us do (yes you are probably one of those if you are reading this so don t do that its annoying both of you.), I came down one time and explained this to him, and that was the end of it. Just got to ask nicely. I told him with all due respect I had a kid and his music would wake her up and he totally understood. If things get out of hand you can always call the cops. But a note on their door if you don t like confrontation may also work.

Schools: I think all levels are available around here, except for university.
Recycling: They recently added green large containers for recycling.
Privacy: The rooms are isolated very well, I never heard my neighbors talking or working-out unless the door was open. There are no gates. So don t be walking your dog at midnight use common sense.
Wild life: I ve spotted some raccoons but nothing like coyotes, bobcats or such.
Ants where not a problem in the 3 yrs I lived there I saw only like 5 of them.
TV reception: All rancho has bad reception so cable will be you best bet since satellite is very dependant on the position your balcony is facing. That probably affects 40% of the apartments. I had an external UHF Phillips antenna and was able to get about 20 of the new digital channels for free
Kids: Playgrounds are great, lots of kids to play with for little ones my daughter learned how to go down the slide at this place she is almost 3 now. There are lots of other parks around you can also go with huge playgrounds.

Older Kids: 2 Skate parks are near 12 minute drive lake forest and Antonio.

The lake is really nice to walk or walk your dog or go jogging even with strollers, that s the picture you see at 8am when doing work commute.

Trabuco canyon is near by; I used to ride my bike there from time to time definitely a windy road so unless you know what you are doing don t go there.

Why am I moving out' Well not my decision, my wife wanted to move closer to her family.

And last: Don t believe all the bad reviews people are saying about this being a bad unsafe place, I left my car open unlocked several times and is still there, with my cell phone inside. Also my wife left her car door open in the morning one day and it was still the same way when we came back from the beach later at night. I never saw anybody doing anything dangerous. People living there range from all races ages and sexes.

Villa la paz I will miss you!!!!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/02/2009
This is clearly written by the office staff in an attempt to make them look good. No one would take that much time to write a review. The office staff is horrid. Even if you are polite and ask nicely it can take years to get things fixed. Yes years. To whomever wrote this fake review. I have lieved here for 9 years so I know your full of it.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/02/2009
That's funny exactly what I was thinking, CLEARLY WRITTEN BY AN EMPLOYEE, which you are not supposed to do on this web-site. Ask the local sheriff's about Villa La Paz, they even have a nick name for the place. Whom ever wrote the review from WNG is also taking on a huge liability by stating it's safe to leave your car door unlocked with a cell phone in it. Who does that anywhere now a days? This review was most likely written by the Management Western National Group Marketing Department who has never lived there and maybe never been to the property. I live in Rancho near Villa La Paz and almost every time I go to the market I see people taking the shopping carts from the market to Villa La Paz or beer j-walking to the property so that's the type of people that live there. Also why would the property have such bad reviews from REAL residents if it's such a great place? The Garage portion of the review is hilarious as well, what resident cares about garage inspections and knows when they are? And the cable affecting 40% of the apartments, what? I would challenge any random resident to be able to write a report on Villa La Paz and know this much about a property. Nice try Western National but please, no one is buying this and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Why don't you clean up Villa La Paz so it can be the fantasy property you wrote about above? Then why don't you park your car there for a few days unlocked with your cell phone in it and we will see what happens.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/02/2009
I actually am a staff member at VLP and can guarantee that none of us wrote the above review. I moved the resident out and he asked where he could go to write something. I told him about this site but let him know about the negative reviews. It's nice to see that he actually wrote a review as I thought he'd forget. Not everyone who lives/d at VLP has had a bad expirience. If you want to say everything is horrible, that's fine, but don't automatically think that another's good expirience is the VLP staff fabricating a story. Take the time to email him personally if you don't believe it, as I see he put his email address. Call WNG and ask if we have an employee by his name....you won't find one. I honestly wish we could make everyone happy, but unfortunately we can't.
From: famliyGuy25	Date: 07/03/2009
To: Anonymous, You cracked me up!! That made my day I didn??t get a laugh today until I read this. I??ll take the fact you think my knowledge is coming from being an employee as a compliment. I guess I would consider my self lucky based on all the bad things that happened to you living here I am really sorry, here is a hug for you {{{[[[sqeeze]]]}}} by the tone of your posts you could use it. I am the author of the original post, obviously never thought of going back to this site if it wasn??t for the fact that it was still on my screen since last time I used my laptop I happened to hit refresh and saw there were 4 comments for it. Which leads me to think perhaps the people who are writing the bad comments have too much free time to keep coming here or perhaps it??s a former angry employee in an act of jealousy or a competitor?? But either way may I inquire; does ones opinion make any relevant impact upon real facts when the true identity of who may be posting is hidden? I doubt it, since any one can come here and lie at free will, id be recommending if anyone is looking for a place to live: DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Make that decision for yourself based on your best judgment go there whatever complex it is, take a look walk around come back at night go knock in the garages to see if anyone is living inside. If you are concerned about security call the cops get a full report but everything I stated on my previous post is real. No I am no employee of villa la paz, and If I am, go ahead and fire me right now! You can call the cops and have me arrested for posting here. I am a computer engineer in mission I used to live in apartment building 47 across one of the pools, since you raised the question about standards, I completely understand your position and agree with you, that is why everyone who??s intentions are renting an apartment should first take a good look and see if it meets their standards and requirements. Driving 15-30 minutes to find parking sounds insane to me when you could walk for 10 the most instead. Don??t try to burst my bubble, I did enjoy living here I feel like I need an apology for being called a liar. I mentioned Wild life because in lake forest my friends neighbor??s shiatsu dog got eaten by a coyote at night, so I was always looking for coyotes but never saw or heard one, you usually know if there are any around when there is a full moon, I never heard anything. Wow, never heard of people living in garages, but now that you mention it I do remember a guy had a really nice garage with a TV and a loveseat, but that didn??t last long before someone jealous neighbor called the office to complain and was taken away. The 3 years I walked my dog around and rode my bike around I didn??t see that happening I did see few garages filled up with stuff but I doubt someone even if they got kicked out by their spouse could live in a garage it dangerous there are spiders it??s dark and damn hot too. LOL you have a great imagination. And just the fact that an employee of the complex told you this, and now you are blackmailing him tells me what quality of personality I am responding to. Illegal??s? there are currently 40,107,014 in the US, If you can??t deal with it, my recommendation is moving to Italy or France but then you may not find a job there. And I also recommend making a lot of home made meals while you live in the US. I don??t know who you are what you look like sex age or color but with all due respect I may say: If you live your entire life looking for the negative things that is what you will get. But in contrast if you make the best of what you have and can afford, you will in fact live a happy life. It may be low standards but it works for me. I hope you have a nice life in your new apartment cheers! (And please stop coming here to opaque positive feedback) Yes I know it??s hard to believe that there is one really good review when there are a lot of bad ones that seems to be the case for many things doesn??t it? Oh and let me add that if you ever see the Mormon guys that walk around in suits from time to time be nice to them, they are really helpful people specially when you are moving out. (No I am not Mormon either.) I can??t really address all the points in question that is not my job either, just know that you are not alone in this world and life is always changing everything is a test for you to learn and if you stay in the positive side, good things happen. A 10 minute walk from your car may prevent you from a hart attack; going up or down the stairs keeps your legs from cramping while you sit at work all day (like I do), etc... This will be my last post; I encourage everyone here to take their time finding a place and be your own best judge.
From: vlpsucks	Date: 07/07/2009
Which "Anonymous" are you addressing? Do you not realize that each anonymous post on this board is from a different person? Funny how you take offense to your honesty being doubted then insult those who (understandably)doubt you. You post two long, detailed comments but when someone else posts just one they have too much time on their hands? How does that work? And who is being blackmailed and by whom? That's a very odd, confusing statement. Why are you recommending that someone move to Europe? That makes no sense and is not an appropriate discussion for this board. And why are you giving fitness advice to people? Your post makes very little sense. I also noticed that the grammar and sentence structure is decidedly different in each of your comments above, which makes me doubt they were even written by the same person. The first post was organized and well thought out,the second was rambling, difficult to follow, and just...weird. I have to admit, I'm inclined to agree with the other responses...the "glowing" report above is fake.
From: latinflower76	Date: 08/21/2009
WNG sucks major butt...so now I know that even is RSM and down here in Central OC where they have properties...that they suck!
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/21/2009
That has got to be a staff member who gave this review. The garages are not roomy. You can't have a car bigger than a compact in order for one to fit in and the staff do inspections of garages like every other month. The staff isn't friendly and act like it's a hard chore to answer questions or to do a repair order. I don't know how you can be rude or unfriendly asking one of the office people to do a repair order when it's their job. They also never mention how this community is allowed 100 units to be public housing which may explain some of the shady people that have you wondering how did they afford this place and it will also explain why there like three and four families in some of the two bedroom apartments. Bogus reviewer, I bet you're not walking around at night by yourself, because it's creepy. The cops are here all the time in marked and unmarked cars. Some guy was making meth in his apartment a few months ago and you'd thought that a family had been murdered by all the police and fire trucks. They had some HazMat people suited up for that incident and there were police detectives in suits and in SUVs. Speaking of, both the fire department (2 trucks) and the police have been here tonight. The police was also here earlier today, and I saw them about two or three days ago here as well. I don't mean the police strolling through on a courtesy check making sure all is well in the neighborhood. I mean the police was here talking to people like an investigation tonight and they came for someone earlier. There are a bunch of small kids running around. Sometimes, they travel in packs on bikes like they not living in an apartment complex. It makes the community look ghetto with a group of 7 or 8 kids, and sometimes more, riding on bikes. I still don't understand why these people are letting their small kids, like as young as four or five, wonder through a 500 unit apartment complex without any adult supervision. These are the people who will put on a show once the kid is kidnapped or assaulted as if they were the ideal parents. Why are there people living here with large dogs? It's as if management looks the other way. This complex is in a nice neighborhood with good schools, but I promise there is a lot of ghetto behavior that goes on here. This is one of those communities that appear nice until you move in.
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/04/2009
This review was written by Kristen in the Marketing Department. She is really ugly with caked-on makeup and funky teeth.

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