Dear Prospective Renter,

Here is an honest and detailed review that hopefully will help you make your decision. I took time to write it because I believe it is important to have all the information before you make a year-long commitment. I look at reviews when searching for apartments and often find then uninformative (don't live here: it sucks!). So here it goes:

This is my second year living in this community. First year, while it was still under Avalon ownership, I would have recommended it in a heartbeat. It was great! The staff was nice and helpful and went out of their way to make your life at Avalon easier and enjoyable. Especially the maintenance staff was amazing: always responsive, always stopped to chat to you, and you could see them working around all the time.

Then Avalon was sold. We re-signed the lease for another year, but I wish we DID NOT and we are planning on moving out as soon as it expires. We thought that maybe things would get better since few months after the transition. Well, they got worse. The staff is RUDE: every request seems like a great pain for them to do anything about and you usually have to ask many times (and sometimes to no avail: I have been complaining about a barking dog but nothing has been done, even though in the lease it clearly states that your animals are supposed to be quiet, this one has been braking past 2 months 7-9 am and in the afternoon). Also, if you live in an apartment facing the river, it gets loud, especially in the summer, because there is a bar right across the river that a lot of bikers fancy.

I very rarely see the maintenance staff doing anything. They are unhelpful and tell you to fix some things yourself that Avalon would have helped with.

They got rid off all the things that made this small community a pleasure to live in:
- a free video rental covered by monthly activity ($45! - I really wonder where it goes now because we still pay it... into the pockets of the owners'''),
- plant and animal service (if you went away for a day or 2-weeks, they watered your plants and watched animals). Now I have to pay someone to do it.
- community activities (see the fee above). Now, if there are any (and I think there were two), they are announced a day before or take place at the time that a lot people can't make it or are very boring/don t cost the owner anything (tag sale''').

In addition, the very small gym is not maintained at all. Things break all the time. There are only 2 treadmills and they have been broken for last 2 months. There is a note on them that says that parts have been ordered: maybe they are producing the parts themselves' We had to sign up for a gym outside of the community, which adds to the rent, which is already expensive and without all those bonuses: ridiculous.

So, although Ardenwood looks nice and is small, I would NOT recommend it given the price and in comparison to Avalon. You can find something comparable cheaper or something a lot better at the same price. As I said, we're moving somewhere cheaper.
I hope that you find a nice place to live in, good luck!

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates