I agree with every bad thing said about Archstone, except for one reviewer who said that noise between floors is bad. We didn't have any problems with noise around or above us, but we were probably lucky to not have a huge extended family living above us in the two years we lived at Archstone.
Archstone is a total dump. Everything in the apartments, except with the very few that have been updated, is very old and cheap, and falling apart. All the appliances are very old, and the carpet HAD to be at least 5 years old. I forced them to replace the linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom before I moved in, because it was disgusting. The kitchen cabinets are old and crappy, and hideously 70's-style ugly. Everywhere that can rot, will rot. The floor and carpet around our water heater is black and contanstly wet, the wood cabinets in both the bathroom and kitchen show water damage and warping, and even the caulk in the bathroom turned black despite all my OCD efforts to clean and bleach it. Nothing is "finished" in the apartment either---they use cheap flat white paint, and none of the windows even have frames.
The outside of the apartment is just as bad. They probably cut the grass a total of 3 times the whole summer, and they NEVER trimmed the bushes--it looked like a jungle out there. There was always trash everywhere, and I called the main office TWICE to call someone about removing a dead squirrel from the playground area so my small dog didn't eat it, and no one ever picked it up! I saw two small girls poking it with a stick, and throwing Archstone mints (available in the main office) at it as well. All of the benches, trash cans and handrails all over the apartment complex needed to be replaced, as they were rotting and rusting, but that never happened. For the two year that we lived there, the hot tub/whirlpool NEVER worked. Every summer we got a notice saying they were fixing it. When they deign to do some work on the buildings, the construction people they hire are so unprofessional as to leave HUGE nails, roofing tiles, and wood all over the place, including on my third floor deck.
The "security" is a joke--the guy just rides around the parking lot like a gangster on his cell phone, and never gets out of his car.
The pet policy is ridiculous--if you have one pet and live there a year, you will pay $600 in pet rent. And that never stops. So hypothetically speaking, I would have paid $1200 for living there two years with my one dog...as if my dog could possibly cause that much damage to their disgusting carpet''
The *only* genuinely good thing about Archstone is the location, and believe me, it's the only thing keeping the prices up. Our 1 bed with den apartment rent went up $300, despite being repeat renters, so we decided we might as well BUY.
I hate Archstone, and I am very glad I had the ability to buy a home.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/04/2007
You could have not said this any better. Ditto on everything. I didn't have a pet while living at Archstone but I wouldn't be surprised they had that policy. I used to live at the Courts of Devon in Kentlands and coming to Archstone was such a downer. My boyfriend and I saved up our money like no tomorrow to be able to buy... now happily in Clarksburg. PS: the only good thing I would say about Archstone is this one maintenance fellow... James I think his name was... was the only person who gave us good customer service.

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