My family and I have lived here for almost 3 years. We have a townhouse that's in the Barrett's Run community but is also confusingly, sometimes called "The Preserves" or "Valley Stream Townhomes." We are finally getting out of this place and hope that this review is helpful to others.

*Maintenance*

This is the second most sore point for us. Sometimes, the maintenance staff are very quick (fixes the problem in 2 days or less). But most times, the maintenance takes absolutely forever. We put in our first request to fix some minor issues and even after repeated requests, it took over 2 months for someone to come and fix the problems. Maybe there's a long list of fixes to be made and we were just on the bottom, who knows. Other requests sometimes took 3 weeks to fix. They would never get fixed without our constant calling and requesting. So if you keep on top of it, they'll eventually fix the problems. The turnover rate is just unacceptable in my opinion. On the bright side, the problems eventually got fixed.

*Staff*

This is the sorest point for us. Perhaps the long wait for maintenance requests is due to the staff being so horrible - I'm not sure. But what I do know for sure is that these people are not only not nice, but just overall UNORGANIZED. They will magically lose important letters. They will magically lose track of maintenance requests. No one communicates in that office. You can tell person A something and try to follow up with person B since person A isn't there when you call. And of course, person B will know nothing so you have to start all over. The manager is always on the phone so trying to talk to her on the phone is near impossible. So if you want to talk to the manager, you have to make time to go over there in person. They raised my rent $55 per month my first year, which I thought was a bit on the high end. The office/manager also plays favorites. I know some of my neighbors who are also my friends have gotten some nice offers. For example, my friend, who lives on the other side of the development has almost the same townhouse as we do. And one year, their rent went up $20 less than mine did. Also, they got some discount because they chummied up to the manager about living in western Pennsylvania. It feels unfair. And when I confronted the manager about the evidence I had about her playing favorites, she shrugged it off, was very rude, and gave me an ultimatum: accept it or move out.

*Pet Policy*

They allow most pets to live here with a pet deposit. There's a decent amount of greenery and romping space. I've never had a problem with violent dogs or anything like that. But I have had problems with the pet owners. One lady just lets her cats out to roam around the neighborhood. This is rather disturbing to my dog who will strain at the leash to chase after these cats. This not only endangers my dog, but also the cats themselves! Yet, after several kind requests, this lady still feels free to let her cats out on the loose. These cats feel free to climb up to our balcony and claw at the door too, which is annoying. One of my neighbors will not, for the life of her, pick up after her dog! I try to be mindful of where I step, but it's still disgusting to see the poop everywhere. I wish people would just pick up after their dogs so that all of us can enjoy walking around without having to worry about stepping in anything. There's another neighbor who walks around with his dog without a leash. Delaware law says that dogs must be on leash unless the dog is under reasonable control of the owner. This dog will come running after my little dog and terrorize her. I don't consider this "reasonable control." These examples are pretty representative of the contact I've had with the people in the neighborhood in the development.

*More on neighbors...*

On the particular street we live on, there are lots of kids. They'll always be playing football or baseball and often block the street. This is fine - all it means is a sloooww drive in and out to be careful of the kids. The not-so-fine part is how careless the kids are and how they won't fess up to damage they sometimes do. The side mirror of my car has practically be broken off due to the kids playing rough football and baseball. Footballs always hit the cars and one of these days, they're going to do some serious damage. One time, when they were playing baseball, the ball hit on of our neighbors windows and cracked it completely. None of them did anything but run away lest they get blamed. I reported this but I'm not sure if anything came of it. And the parents don't seem to care which makes it near impossible to resolve anything personally.

*Noise*

Maybe it's just the specific street we live on but our neighbors love to blast their rap music in their cars. But it's only while they're driving along our street so it's not a long time that we're subjected to their music tastes. The walls aren't that thin but occasionally, we'll hear our neighbors' stereo blasting or dogs barking.

*Grounds*

The grounds are pretty decent. It's nice to have a well-kept lawn, which is mowed a lot during the summer. And they make an effort to pull the weeds every now and then. During the winter, they're a bit sloppy and slow with the snow removal. If you're parked in your space in front of your townhouse, you get snowed in which is a pain.

*Safety*

The lighting is non-existant on my street. There are street lamps but they're never on! So it's very dark at night. The walk from my car to the front door is very short so I don't feel unsafe. But there are a lot of trees and shrubbery where I feel like someone could hide and jump you. The sex offender list shows that a couple of guys who have molested children, raped women, or committed theft-related crimes live not too far away. There's an elementary school near the townhouse and apartment complex here so in terms of real near vicinity, it's "safe."

*Construction*

I pay at least $150 for my gas and electricity bills every month, which I feel like is a lot. There are lots of windows (which is great), but it lends itself to poor insulation. There are some cracks in the foundation of the townhouse... which is a bit worrisome. The fixtures and appliances are a little bit below average. We've had to replace our refrigerator twice. But generally, the layout is nice. It's cozy and comfortable feeling. Speaking of bills, you have to pay for your own electricity, gas, trash, and water. Honestly, I've never heard of rentals that don't come with trash and water included but oh well.

*Parking*

Parking has never been an issue. There are spots in front of the townhouses that are for your cars only. Driving by the rental offices places me next to the Barrett Run apartment buildings and there appears to be ample parking but I can't be for sure since I don't live in those apartments.

*Overall*

All in all, this place is a comfortable place to live in if you can deal with lousy pet owners for neighbors, an even more lousy, defensive staff who can't communicate with each other let alone be courteous to the residents, above average rent increases, poop to step in on the lawns, and an above average wait for maintenance fixes.

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