I'll start on a positive note, but please take heed - there aren't many. The maintenance crew is awesome. Always friendly, and they'll always wave when they see you drive by. Fast, efficient, and done right the first time.
I've lived in Gateway for about three years now and it's been on a steep decline since October of '07. Our rent started at $1100 a month, a little pricey, but I was ok with it since it appeared to be a well-kept community. Fast forward to now and our rent has gone up to $1300 a month (way too high for what I'm about to tell you).
We (my roommate and I) recently found out from discussions both with our neighbors and local law enforcement that since October (it's now January) there have been 9 car break-ins and 2 apartment break-ins. The complex did not bother to mention any of this to us until I personally made it my job to hassle the REGIONAL property manager about the issue and do something. I can tell you from previous experience in property management that a "rent-a-cop" costs little to nothing in comparison to what G.V. is pulling in monthly for rent. Why don't they get a roving security guard to ride around in his little flashing CR-V for a few months to scare off whatever punks are running around in the dead of night shopping for car parts in the parking lot' To make matters worse, the only action they took was a notice that was posted for a whole whopping two days listing "vandalism" as the cause for concern... No, get it right, we're being outright robbed like sitting ducks. Why not just send some mail to each tenant, as that would be more discreet while still practicing good business habits for potential renters' You'll do that one day after the rent was due to let us know it was late, oh, and charge a $60 fee for it.
That's not to mention the fact that there was a stray cat issue. The cats were pointed out two years ago and nothing was done until the cats were so rampant that it was causing flea infestations around 3 of the buildings due to them having litters of kittens under the stairs of the buildings. The fleas were bad enough that simply walking into the building you'd end up looking like you'd been covered in pepper.
Lets not forget to mention the revolving door of management staff that comes through Gateway. I've had a new property manager for every year I've renewed the lease. Don't bother getting comfortable with the staff... they won't be here long. Unfortunately it's also becoming painfully clear that the management can't run the property to even Home Properties own satisfaction - an employee is suspected of stealing rent. If they can't even manage to secure the safety of the tenants from their own employees, what makes anyone think they'll secure the safety of the tenants from each other'
After all the issues we've had in the past few months, I decided it would be fair to ask to be let out of our lease early. I felt it was only fair considering that by this point I'm afraid that when I go to where my car was parked I'll be missing a window and a stereo, or that I'll come home to an empty apartment because someone took a day to clean me out of all my hard earned stuff while I was working. I explained everything that's happened and the Regional manager apparently hadn't done her homework. She didn't know there was as much crime as there was, and obviously had not bothered to research the reports as she did not know the crimes were NOT random. Apparently they not only lack the foresight responsibility to run a property fairly, but also lack compassion when their dereliction of duty has caused a severe dip in the faith we as tenants have in Home Properties running this property the way it should be run - taking up for the TENANTS who PAY THEIR BILLS EVERY MONTH!!! Way to back us up guys!

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