I originally wrote a review last year before we moved in. I prefaced my review saying that I hadn't actually lived there, but my experience with the staff thus far had been rewarding.

After living here for almost a year, I have a much better perspective of the complex. I've read many of the negative reviews, and most of them are exaggerated while some of them are flat out false. Is this complex perfect' Absolutely not. Is it horrendous' No.

Positives: The staff is very friendly. Kimberly, Miah, and Cara do a really good job of tending to your needs as a tenant. The grounds are clean and presentable, and there is ample parking. The renovated apartments are nice, and the appliances are new. The fitness center, though small, is adequate and effective. The pool is nice, and overall the neighborhood feels safe. There are at least two howard county police officers that live on site.

Negatives: The price. When we moved in, it was a good deal at 965, but the increase to our second year would be $170 per month making our rent $1135. That's just ridiculous. I know they're offering specials to new residents, but you would think they would do more to keep the ones they have. When I talked to them about the price increase, I was brushed off. They said there are 6 people on the waiting list, and seemed to not care. Hey, it is what it is. That's business I suppose, so I'm not taking it personal. We have a ground floor apartment which has some perks, but mostly it has problems. The windows aren't energy efficient, and in the winter we couldn't keep our apartment heated. The windows and the sliding doors were drafty and our BGE bill was generally over $200 in the winter. Our highest bill was $241 in February. They run on electric heat pumps which I hate to begin with. The fact that we were on the ground floor didn't help matters. However, when the warm weather rolled around, it's been beneficial. Our bill now is generally less than $125, and the apartment stay pretty cool.

We've had issues with mice pretty much the entire time we've been there. We know where they were coming in from. Behind the water heater in the utility closet, there's a small hole that the maintenence people couldn't get to without removing the water tank. So, we put traps in front of the door so they couldn't get out into the apartment. It was effective, but it was annoying to have to clean up mice stuck to the sticky traps (sometimes they were still alive). I've been there since September and have cleaned up at least 6 mice. Hopefully when we move out, they'll move the water tank and patch the wall, if not, you may want to avoid apartment 516.

Overall: Personally, I felt the positives outweighed the negatives. There are certain thing you're going to have to deal with when you live in an apartment. All apartments are going to have some car break-ins. Solution: lock your doors. I don't think any of the break-ins reported were caused by broken windows or anything like that. Most of them were just people leaving their doors unlocked. Management was fair and allowed us to terminate our lease early without penalty. We just had to give 60 days notice.

If this is in your price range, and you like the location, I say go for it. If you're looking for something more budget friendly, this probably isn't the place for you. But remember, you get what you pay for. Columbia is generally a pricy place to live.

User Responses
From: inches17	Date: 12/04/2009
I truly appreciate your review!
From: the_scarecrow3	Date: 12/04/2009
Not a problem, glad I can help.

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