Before anyone decides to bash this review, let me clarify a few items. First, I have personal experience with repairing older homes and cars. I also understand how new homes are supposed to be built and what the building codes are in most cities. Second, my travels have taken me from the east coast on out west to Arizona. So I have seen light to heavy traffic, good areas and bad areas, and my share of great places.

Location:
Yes there are a lot of good shops and stores within a few miles of Mallard Crossing. However, traffic around here is horrible enough that those few miles can easily take a half-hour or more to travel. And, average time from here to I-71 is at best 10 minutes. If you happen to work in central or west Cincinnati I-275 is absolutely at a stand-still when coming back this way during peak hours.

Exterior:
The grounds and building look pretty good from a distance. But, most of the corridors between buildings are not cleaned. It??s not uncommon to see lots of stains and cigarette butts all over the place. I have been told the maintenance staff cleans these areas, although you will never be able to notice what little difference that would make.

Garages:
Having a garage is a very nice feature when living in an apartment. The down side of that is there are so many garages that often the openers will jump channels (frequency drift). When this happens some else has just opened/closed your garage door. I don??t consider the garages secure at all, but more of a place to hide a vehicle during the storms.

The Buildings:
For newer construction, these places are built very poorly. Insulation is minimal, which leads to a lot of noise and high electric bills. Please note that I am not at all talking about noise as in music or parties, but just noise from everyday items like vacuums or garbage disposals. Also, in the winter the hot water takes a good several minutes before it is even slightly warm at the tap.

Inside:
I don??t know where to begin. Yes all the carpets are cheap, installed with minimal padding (but there is something under the carpet), and poorly installed. It is rental property so that does not come as a real big surprise.

None of the door jambs are plumb and square, so there are uneven gaps around every door. This is so bad to the point that you can see straight into bedrooms and bathrooms. The doors also rattle every time the furnace/AC turns on during the night.

The windows and sliding door are also not the highest quality. There is a lot of air movement across both (read higher electric bill). So, don??t believe the energy efficient hype.

Water pressure inside of the apartments/homes in minimal. While this might sound like something trivial, just remember the laundry will take much longer if the water pressure is low.

Light and appliance switches are also wired at random. The placement and order of switches in most of the rooms is random. This doesn??t sound like a big deal, but the over sink light and garbage disposal can be easily confused.

With regards to painting, the motto seems to be ??paint-it-over?? rather than ??clean-it-up??. This applies to the walls, heating/AC vents, and insides of kitchen and bath cabinets. Also, the painter is horrible so overspray is on the floors everywhere there is not carpet.

Bathrooms:
Not all of the fixtures are cheap quality. The tubs are metal and the tile is real (I have seen places use fake tile panels). The flooring is very cheap, so it stains and damages easily. The faucet cartridges are not installed properly so sometimes the handle on one turns left and the handle on the other turns right. There are also a lot of leaks from the cheap PVC plumbing. But the real problem is the lack of GFCI outlets in the bathrooms. I would not recommend using a hair dryer or any electric appliance without a GFCI if you are within four feet of water.

Kitchen:
All the appliances are cheap, again not a surprise. The worst is the refrigerator, because the shelves are so weak you won??t be able to store too much in there before something bends or breaks. The dishwasher and disposal are extremely noisy but they do work pretty well. The stove is not bad, but the microwave is extremely cheap.

Like the bathroom, the kitchen has a cheap floor. This time 12x12 linoleum tiles to be exact. Lots of tiles are chipped, cracked, stained, painted over, etc.

Tenants:
When I first got here it looked pretty good. Now, it is starting to look trashy. I am beginning to like the double door locks on my entry doors because of the ??new clientele??. It would not surprise me if Village Green made some buildings subsidized housing. But then again, maybe that comes with Cincinnati''

Maintenance Staff:
Despite what others might say, these guys are pretty good. But, they seem to do the ??fix it so it works?? method more than the ??fix it once the right way?? method. This is likely an upper level decision somewhere'

Office Staff:
I have had my share of problems with the office staff. Been lied to and mislead on more than one occasion. But, they don??t seem to think too much of that (Cincinnati thing'). The upside is they rarely seem to hold grudges and usually act nice in person or on the phone.

Overall:
If you read this entire review, congrats. Now ask the question is this place worth the money each month' When I ask myself that question, the answer is very simple: NO. I would honestly not recommend this place to anyone.

User Responses
From: midge8	Date: 06/23/2006
Get a grip and go buy a house. Sounds like no matter what apartment community you live in, you will not be happy.
From: atoJP	Date: 07/24/2006
Wow I am not sure where to start with this review. Let me first say that I have lived in 5 different apartments, and Mallard Crossing is the BEST apartment I have ever lived in. I cannot disagree more with the stuff this guy is saying. I like the other response, just go and buy a freaking house. You ever see Mallard Crossing advertise, maybe in one place, but thats it. That is because people are on waiting lists to get in here, I know we were. As soon as someone moves out a new tennant moves in. If my wife and I were not building a house we would never move from here. Now onto the ignorance of Mr. I know everything about houses. If you know ANYTHING about apartments and have lived in them, then you know they are not built as good as a home. Any apartment you live in you are going to have higher electric bills, due to poor insulation. But to be honest I have had cheaper electric bills living here. That is because I have no leaks, and if I do, maintenance has always fixed any problem I have had. I am not sure if I should even respond to the carpet comment. Let me explain this to you. There are different grades of carpeting, and one is called APARTMENT GRADE, that is what they put in APARTMENTS. What do you expect? We have no problems with our carpet, it seems laid just fine and looked great when we moved in and still does. Now, I have a garage as well, which is a awesome perk to living here. Never ONCE have I seen nor experienced someone else opening my garage or another persons. I am starting to think this review is from another apartment community who is JEALOUS. Lastly, the management staff have been doing but great to me and my wife. Never have we had an issue. But it seems like you have issues probably with everyone because you think you know everything. The staff here have went out of their way to assist us, and any requests for maintenance have been completed same or next day. I hope if you have read this person's idotic review, that you do not believe any of it. But if for some reason you do and want to talk to a REAL resident, email me at atoputt@yahoo.com and I will gladly give you any information you want. Have a great day!
From: cintol	Date: 08/09/2006
i agree with some thoughts disagree with others i have come home to find my garage door open on several occasions the staff reprogrammed my remote and that seems to have solved the problem. i do feel our 2nd floor lake view apartment is a lil pricey but i have not found another apartment community that has the spacious floor plans that Mallard Crossing has. The bathrooms are over sized the grounds well kept. My wife and I stay here until we buy a home ..as we look to buy a home in the area we find ourselves having a hard time finding one that has the spacious closets and bathrooms that we are used to ..Happy trails
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/25/2007
Well once more sound's like someone is not happy, sorry but all that is NOT true and this is a very nice place to live! I agree if you don't like Apartment's move out and find a house! I've lived in a few apartment's and I can tell you this place is great, if you think this place is bad you should go look at other's!! Office staff, Maint -- never had any problem's. And nothing is cheep in this area, but you could not ask for an better area to live, want cheep? Move to Downtown!! You will get cheep and get what you pay for too!!
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/10/2007
I could not agree more. I would never recommend anyone to move to Mallard Crossing. It is an overpriced dump!

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