Berkshire of Glen Ellyn formerly Rambletree Apartments
325 Ramblewood Drive, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
630-858-4049  WEBSITE save favorite
AVERAGE RATING
recommended by:
35%

overall rating:
2.0
3.0
2.95 Parking:
2.2
2.25 Maintenance:
2.1
2.08 Construction:
2.4
2.41 Noise:
2.3
2.28 Grounds:
2.1
2.14 Safety:
2.4
2.42 Office Staff:
< | >

Major improvement over so-called "hell-hole"

From: blackmage439
Date posted: 6/21/2007
Years at this apartment: 2007 - 2007
User Response is available. 2 responses
 
I might be able to believe how bad the situation was at this location back when it was named Rambletree. However, those issues do not seem relevant anymore. Whatever new management they have is doing a great deal to improve the grounds (supposedly shelling out a few million helps). I just recently took a short tour of the grounds and an apartment (Maple floor plan), and I must say, this place deserves 4/5 stars. I will try to address as many points as I can think of here.

Exterior Grounds

The grounds are extremely well maintained; not just around the pool and leasing office. The grass is well groomed. Bushes and plants seem well maintained. Parking lots are well designed, painted well, and mostly free of any sort of potholes. Besides a few sporadic cigarette butts (which are to be expected anywhere...), the grounds were devoid of trash and litter. I could not identify any pet feces, or any roaming pets for that matter. The exterior of the buildings are well maintained as well. They look nice; simple and plain maybe, but nice. There were no signs of loitering, rude, noisy, or immature people on the campus. It seems there is a strong minority populace (no offense to anyone: just stating facts), but as I said, there is no evidence of suspicious activity.

Apartment Building Interior

I viewed a recently renovated apartment, so I can not currently voice my opinion on the older ones. Upon walking into the building, there was a strange kind of food-like smell in the air. With all the cooking that goes on in an apartment complex, this was not surprising, though. It wasn't overpowering or anything, just interesting. The elevator was recently renovated, and supposedly, all of them will be shortly. The laundry facilities are in each separate building, with I'm guessing about half a dozen washers and dryers in each, and possibly at least one room per level. I was told they're even adding more washers.

Apartment

The floor plan I viewed was a recently renovated Maple. I must say, it was one of the nicest apartments I have ever seen in my life. The carpet was brand new, and the tile in the kitchen & bathroom looked brand new as well. The walls were repainted, nicely. The kitchen was ergonomically designed with brand new appliances on top of it! The bathroom was very clean; no odd spots or stains anywhere. There was not a sign of a single bug or creepy-crawly thing anywhere. The carpet did look freshly vacuumed, however, I checked in each corner: no bugs. As to the supposed "paper-thin walls": I could not hear a peep from anywhere else in the complex from the room, not even in while in the hallways.

Utilities

Included utilities are heat, gas, and trash pickup. Water is charged based on usage; ONLY charged up to $20 per month, no more. Electricity is the responsibility of the tenants.

Amenities

The apartment I surveyed contained a refrigerator, bathtub/shower, garbage disposal, and dishwasher. It had what I guess is called radiant heat, and a wall-mounted air conditioner. Although it was mounted in the closet of the bedroom (which I thought was odd at first), there were vents in the walls for circulating the air.

Other Notes

The leasing consultant I toured with, Marina, claimed the following: Parking is first-come, first-served, and is therefore not an issue. Only abandoned vehicles will be towed. A pest extermination service cleanses the grounds at least monthly, if not weekly.

Aside from the noise level (which was the same), this complex was a drastic improvement from the last apartment I surveyed: Wheaton Court. Compared to Berkshires, that place was a complete dump. The landlord didn't even bother cleaning the apartment before showing it. I won't go into details here. See my review of Wheaton Court for the disappointing details.

I will be updating this review as new developments arise. Note: I gave a "3" for the maintenance because obviously I have no experiences with them yet.

Recommended: YES
Overall Rating
4 out of 5
Parking:
4 of 5
Maintenance:
3 of 5
Construction: 4 of 5
Noise:
5 of 5
Grounds: 4 of 5
Safety: 4 of 5
Office Staff:
4 of 5
I'm the author!
Lived here?


User Responses

From: pinerapid243 Date: 08/26/2007
*First and foremost, when looking to rent, always ask to see the apartment itself, because the model is not where you will be living. *Second, always look at reviews, because people that already live here, know things that the leasing ladies won't tell you until after you sign the lease and have already moved all your things. * I moved in a couple months ago, and the ladies at the leasing center, Sarah Farster - who is young, and very disoriented with what is important, Oh she just happens to be the manager, and property manager, she could care less about community residents because she gets a paycheck every week. LISTEN UP, BECAUSE THIS IS THE ONE TIME TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SCAM AT THE FACILITY. * Sarah is the one who will generally come of as the nicest, and Madina- if you catch her on a good day, she may seem to be nice as well. Karen- which is the money collector, just takes messages and maybe if there is enough people to complain she might actually tell someone. And last but not least Kelly, she is not the brightest crayon in the box. * I can't tell you my experiences in depth with the staff, otherwise a retaliation might occur. But I can tell you that what you pay for, is a lie. For example, standard living conditions include if you use a toilet in the United States, and no we are not in Mexico one is taught to whip your butt, and flush toilet paper down the toilet, well when I had my toilet plugged Karen and Madina said that we are not allowed to use toilet paper in the toilet, there explanation was that the pressure in the water cannot handle it. *Oh also, don't expect the staff to be considerate of your needs. If you expect to sleep in on the weekends or week days for that matter, they won't tell you that at 6:30 am someone is going to come to fix the roof, and they won't tell you to be careful during a storm because the roof isn't finished. * Oh and here's the best part, apparently there are 2 other locations and suppose to be the nicest one! *The funniest part of all of this is, the apartment complex has all this money for other things like building the environmental, but instead of fixing what should be priority - like people's air conditioning, wholes is the wall that might have mold spores, or putting in buzzers when you walk in, plants are more important. * And here some more, the reason why there are no garbage cans outside anywher, is because the ladies at the office can't decide on a proper design, it's just a garbage can, it's where you throw stuff away. Who cares if it's pretty, it's not going to smell pretty!!! * I am moving out shortly, and if I were you I'd look somewhere else. They can't even keep up with the code, especially the elevator, your suppose to get elevators inspected every 6 months otherwise it's against the law. Well, this complex hasn't gotten the elevator checked since 2003. Again, not considerate, living standards are not up to par, if you can afford this living and don't care about the crappy-ness, then go ahead and be my guest. I am all about giving people second chances and I realize that not everyday is a good day, and I have tried to give the staff the benefit of the doubt but there comes a point when you say, "YOU SCREW ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU, YOU SCREW ME TWICE SHAME ON ME." Shame on me, I didn't know what I was getting into, everything looked so good on a frontal basis, but it doesn't matter because I am stuck, if you break a lease it goes on your credit unless you have a good lawyer. I know I wrote a lot, but that's because I am trying to save some of you from making a terrible mistake.
From: Anonymous Date: 05/14/2008
Yes, and your complete and utter lack of grammatical ability makes you a trustworthy source? Go back to 'Da Hood, you moron.
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