I have lived at Sun Praire for a year and a half. The good thing about SP is your heat/water/trash is paid.

The third floors have valuted ceilings and that makes the apartment seem bigger. I would not recommend living on any floor but third, because when I was on second floor I could hear neighbors walking, jumping, running water, vacume, stereo, etc. I did not hear this on third floor.

The maintance staff has been very poor and slow to fix things. They often ignore requests. The people in our building have made several request to get our broken windows in the hall way fixed. We have been asking them to fix this for 6 months, and they don't. The screens are ripped, the windows broken and bugs filled the hallways. After our 4th request, they just came and nailed the windows shut (I am sure this is a violation of fire code) and did not even order new screens. When you place a maintance request, the staff usually seems annoyed you are asking them to do something. In the last couple of month, they have hired a new guy and he is pretty nice about helping, but other then him, they were not very nice to work with.

The land scaping is not maintained very well, as there are usually bushes overgrown, broken sprinker systems, trash and toys/bikes in the yard, broken glass in the parking lot.

Some of the neighbors are kind of low-class. There are a several playgrounds and pools on on the property and they are usually kept up pretty nice. However, there are a lot of parents that do not supervise the children. If you want to live somewhere quiet, do not live across from the playground. From my expeince, the kids would fight and scream and be loud for hours without supervision. You may find this anywhere you go, but it will give you a big headache if you are right below the play equipment.

There are a lot of reasons you might not want to live here. However, it is in a nice neighborhood of West Des Moines, you will save money from not paying heat and water. The actual apartment you live in will be pretty nice. I have nice oak cabinets and woodwork in mine with a big kitchen and a large deck.

If you do not have a lot of money and want to be in West Des Moines, and not pay heat/water, it might work for you. It has been a good starting place, but if you could afford just a little more each month, it would be worth it for you to use that money and live somewhere else. I would say Sun Praire is a starting place to live, and not your mid-point or final destination.

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