The price to live here isn't worth what you actually get. There is not one awful thing, but a combination of many, many annoyances (big and small) that have made our stay at Elm Creek sub par. Many of the things wouldn t be a big deal on their own, but when every little thing keeps going wrong, they compile and become irritating. Elm Creek could be a nice place to live if they didn t cut corners so much that many of the things here are of the lowest quality. It seems they spent all of the money on the lobby and don t have any funds left to have the actual apartments be worth what you re paying in rent. Everything in the apartment is the cheapest possible that they could buy, which creates a problem in that everything is constantly breaking. You get what you pay for, unless you re the tenant. We wish we knew all of this before we moved in, as we would never have signed a lease. It has been a very disappointing experience. Our last apartment had comparable rates, but it showed through in the quality of the service and the condition of our apartment. Please see the list below and take into consideration before moving in as none of these things were apparent to us before we moved in.

The doors to each wing are locked off each night. Not just the pool area, but all common areas are closed at 10 or 11PM. There are doors they close and lock, so you are locked into your wing. There are no stairs to the underground garage in four of the five wings, so good luck getting to your car if the power is out or the elevator is not working (which has happened several times). You will either have to walk around the outside of the building and enter from the garage entrance or make your way through a maze to find the only stairwell.

The patios and balconies have no lights or outlets, so don't expect to use them after dusk.

The washers and dryers are stackable and tiny. A full load is 3 towels. Expect to constantly be doing laundry since the loads you will have to do are very small and it usually takes 2 cycles to dry a load. Keep in mind, the energy cost is therefore very high.

The vertical blinds constantly fall off and need to be reattached. The windows are very drafty and let in a large amount of cold in the winter. There has actually been frost on the inside of the windows.

The amount of "welcome to the neighborhood" junk mail leads us to believe they sell your information.

The store they have downstairs seems convenient, but the service is awful. The dry cleaning is overpriced and after sending back the clothes we had dropped off twice and still having to bring them somewhere else, we stopped using it. You can only pay cash unless you give them your credit card information and allow them to keep it on file. The system they use is so outdated that they don't actually have a machine to swipe a credit card and you can't get a receipt. It sounds like it would make sense to store the number, but if you look at the procedures they use, it is concerning. If you purchase something with cash, they still write down your name and apartment number. We have seen someone s card be charged even though they paid cash.

There are many weird smells that seem to keep reoccurring. The trash chute is often left open and obviously is terrible. They put padding in the elevators when people are using them to move. They don t seem to have ever washed them because they smell like urine and they are up at least 90% of the time (which doesn t make sense since they make such a big deal about only allowing moves between 9-5 and not on Sundays). There are often bad smells in the stairwells and the garage.

The doors are very thin and you can hear everything in the hallway. There is no problem with hearing your neighbors, but if someone is having a conversation in the hallway, it is like they are standing 3 feet in front of you.

The oven cooks very uneven and doesn t work properly. Don t bother using the bottom rack because it won t cook evenly and will take almost twice as long as what is on the top rack to cook.

The shower is covered in a cheap lining made to look like real tile. It is very difficult to clean and pieces seem to crumble off when scrubbing it. The grout on the bottom by the tub is always peeling out. You can t turn the fan on in the bathroom without turning the light on.

The garbage dumpster is often overflowing and garbage piles up on the ground around it. There are only 2 recycle bins for each wing. If you recycle, good luck being able to do it here. The recycle bins are often full due to the fact that they are much to small and there aren't enough. If you place your recycling next to the bin when it's full, the staff will throw it in with the trash dumpster and it won't be recycled.

Recently, there seems to have been an increase of police activity and we have seen people be arrested. There are seemingly shadier characters moving into the building.

The office staff, for the most part, is very rude and unaccommodating. The property manager is haughty and most of the problems here seem to stem from her. Not only is she rude to residents, but also to her staff. Nothing is ever done without speaking to her, and the reason seems to be that your problem won t be fixed if it costs any money to solve. The only concern seems to be people looking at apartments. There is no apparent effort made to keep current residents happy.

The maintenance is unacceptable. The actual maintenance staff is very friendly and competent. The problem lies in management, who doesn't seem to allow them to properly repair anything if it will cost any money to fix. Expect one thing to be repaired four times and only be actually fixed if you're lucky. If a problem is escalated to the point where they will spend the money and hire a contractor, they assure you a representative from Elm Creek will be present. This is not the case, as the office staff once thought we were not home and a contractor came to our apartment alone and with a key to enter. It is obvious that they found the cheapest possible contractors, as it shows through in the work.

Think long and hard before spending your money to live here. We can't wait until our lease is up. It is unfortunate that a place in a great location with so much potential has apartments, staff and layout that are filled with problems and don't live up to the lobby. It really could be a great place to live if someone really figured out how to run a "luxury apartment community."

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