Pros:
I paid $399 a month in rent and got my own bedroom and bath in a 4 bedroom apartment. The apartment included a washer and dryer, living room, and kitchen which was shared with other roomates. The kitchen had a dishwasher, microwave, oven, stove, and refrigerator. All the appliances were new. The $399 price included cable TV, high speed internet access, and water. You had to pay separately for electricity and your own phone line. The apartments were less than two years old when I moved in and had new furniture and appliances.

In the apartment community we had a swimming pool(open only during the summers), hot tub(year round), a basketball court(ice rink during the winters), exercise facilities, pool table, table tennis, a small computer center, and a movie theater.

Whenever I had a maintenance request they responded within 24 hours most of the time. I never had problems with roaches or mice. I did occasionally see some spiders, but not that often. Overall East Lansing has low crime rates so I felt pretty safe there and to my knowledge there was no major crime in the area. The police came by periodically and patrolled the area.

Cons:
If you move into a shared unit and do not already have a roomate with whom you plan to live with then be forewarned. They will likely assign someone else and it is a toss in the air as to who you will get. My roomate left the kitchen and common areas a mess and he burned the food he was cooking setting off the smoke detectors. He ended up disconnecting the smoke detectors meaning if we had a real fire, we would have been in trouble.

Then there is the issue of the utility bill. This apartment complex advertises that they offer individual leases meaning that you are not responsible if your roomate does not pay the money he owes on his lease for his bedroom. However, this does not apply to the utility bill. My roomate did not pay his share and apartment complex management would not do anything to him. He would plead poverty as his excuse for not paying, yet somehow he could afford to drive a BMW, pay his tuition, and his rent. I could have sued him but collecting a court judgment can be difficult so I knew this would just be a waste of time and money.

My roomate ulimately moved out but I decided to leave as well because I was afraid they would assign another bad roomate to the unit and I did not want to take the risk of committing to another lease.

Bottom line:
Great place to live at an excellent price, but beware if you let them assign you a roomate. There will not be much you can do if you have a problem with him.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates