I lived at Northampton Apartments from September 2002 until March 2003. I rented a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment on the top floor for $925.00 monthly. These are the pros and cons that I dealt with while living there.

The Pros:

1) The apartment I had was very spacious.

2) Northampton Apartments are conveniently located by the beltway. You can get to it in no time. I was stationed at Fort Meade and I could get there within 5 - 10 minutes depending on traffic.

3) They waive the deposit for military personnel.


The Cons:

1) The apartments are overpriced. They're actually a ripoff. I paid $925 for a ONE bedroom apartment and that was WITH the military discount. If you couple that with the fact that you pay for ALL utilities, you're easily looking at about $1200 - $1500 monthly for a ONE bedroom apartment. When I questioned management, they gave me the run of the mill "market rate" jargon. For those rates, you can go and live in a MUCH better and more safe environment. Speaking of safety, this brings me to my next point...

2) There is NOTHING safe about the premises. I've actually WITNESSED auto break ins. This happens quite frequently. I've seen cars with broken windows or flattened tires or the trunks were broken into. And these were all cars that were in perfect shape maybe two or three days beforehand. I was lucky enough to never have this happen to me, but I still didn't feel safe at all.

3) The maintenance crew gets paid for nothing. I had my washing machine break down while I was washing clothes. It wouldn't drain, so I called the front office and I didn't hear a peep from them for at least a month. After about a week, I was on calling them everyday until they finally. But don't be late with any kind of rent or utility biil or they will be at your door THE VERY NEXT DAY. I know this because I was late on my $12 water bill once. But when it's time to fix something, there's no one to be found.

4) The office staff wasn't very professional. When I was there, there were 3 0r 4 females working there and only 1 of them proved to be competent. The other 3 were a bunch of "homegirls" who were only there for the check. When I reported the break in that I witnessed, one of the ladies in the office told me: "Did you call the police' Well, what do you want me to do then'". I wanted her to get some security around the apartment complex, but she couldn't be so bothered. They're VERY nice to you at first, but once you sign that lease, you're nothing more than an afterthought.

5) Parking is a nightmare. Forget about parking anywhere near your apartment if you come home after sundown. You can expect to be parking about three or four buildings away from where you live if you show up after 6pm.

6) The trash guys pick up the garbage when they get good and ready. Don't expect for the dumpsters to be emptied on a regular basis, because it simply will not happen.

7) The lighting is dim. The street lights may as well be turned off. The environment actually promotes vandalizm and theft because it's so dark. The hallway lights that led to my apartment were often busted or blown. I had no trouble with it because I'm a 6'6" 296lb black guy. But someone of average size might find these type of surroundings somewhat intimidating.



There you have it folks. Those are the major pros and cons to living at Northampton Apartments. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not it's worth moving into based on my experiences. In all honesty, I couldn't recommend these apartments to anyone unless I was trying to play a REALLY cruel prank on them. You can live in a much better and safer environment for less money. But if you feel like the convenience is worth the risk, then you might be in luck.

PS: The previous reviewer advises a negative reviewer to just "get over it". But I get the feeling that if this person had experienced an auto break-in/theft or had her washing machine sit with the same water in it because maintenance would'nt come to their house for a month, they wouldn't be so quick to tell people to get over it. And the people that are complaining probably would leave if they could, but the cost to break the lease is outrageous. Things aren't always as cut and dry as the previous reviewer is attempting to make them seem.

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