At this time last year we rented an older house in the Paseo area of Oklahoma City. The landlords for that property found themselves in a foreclosure situation and we were in desperate need of a new place to live that would accept our large dog. Money for deposits, move in fees, etc was scare at the time as we were not intending to move at all that year. We looked at several apartments and finally happened upon Wilshire Village.
The exterior 'remodel' had not started at that point (mid-April 2008) so the siding was in poor shape, to say the least. However, they could get us into a 2 bedroom unit by the beginning of May, with our pet and with a move in special to keep costs down. That was wonderful, until our original leasing agent was fired or quit. We still are not sure what happened to her. She was actually helpful, while she lasted. We were promised one of the 'upgraded' units with the wood flooring, ceramic tile, fresh paint and new carpet. We were told they were working on a contract for new windows and were building a fitness center. They were right about the fresh paint in the unit at least. It was so fresh that every interior and exterior door was painted shut. There was a door on our patio that I presume was a storage unit - we were never able to open that door, because of the ample fresh paint, so I'm not entirely sure where that door led. The fitness center, perhaps'
Thankfully we were VERY through on our walk through and noted the location of every tiny spot on the 'new' carpet, including the large brownish-black stains in the living room. We used the front and back of the walk through sheet and attached two extra pieces of paper to list everything. We were unhappy with the state of the unit, but at that point it was a roof over our heads. I don't think we realized how bad it could be. Of course we had issues with our electric bill ($400 one month -- twice what the electric ran in July in our 104 year old rental property!) due to the ancient windows and poor insulated walls. One of the two air conditioning units attached to our apartment actually ended up with ice on the hose that summer. Maintenance came by after calling at least once per day for a week, chipped of the ice, dumped in more coolant and declared it fixed.
Our major issue with our 2 bed, 2 bath townhouse type unit was the second bath. When we moved in, we noted on the walk through that water would not run through the faucet or shower head in the master bath. The toilet would flush, the sink ran but nothing through the shower. You could turn the knobs and hear water running through the pipes, but nothing came out. When maintenance showed up three days after we moved in to clear the garbage disposal of the caulk and paint chips that had been washed down it, we were told they had to order a part and that they would be back in a few days. We let a week passed, we called the office. We were told they needed to order the part that had supposedly been ordered the week before. This went on for the entire term of our six month lease.
When my husband took our required 30-days notice into the office at the end of our fifth month there, they asked why we didn't want to sign another lease. He then informed them of the long list of issues we had experienced from day one.
-The day we went to sign the lease was when we were informed our leasing agent no longer worked for the property.
-As we were signing the paper work, we questioned the monthly rent of $639 per month as that was quite different from the $570 per month on our paperwork. After much whispering between the leasing agent in front of us and a person that I can only assume was a manager, they said that the rent had changed since we originally came in two weeks before. Of course a small increase, say $20 or so, would have been some what more acceptable, but $70' We refused to sign the lease document and there was more quiet conversation. The leasing agent finally came back and said they would honor the price listed on our original paperwork, but only for a 6-month term, not the 12-month we had previously agreed upon.(I am very, very thankful now that they would only let us have a 6-month lease, considering all the problems we had!)
-They only had one key available for the unit and one mailbox key. We were promised more that never appeared.
-The promised upgrades to the unit we had previously looked at and signed paperwork on did not happen, with the exception of the paint.
-The leasing agent did not bother to walk through the unit with us, she was too busy.
-We were there from May to October and were never able to use the pool as the opening hours kept changing and along with the gate required a key or not. We gave up on that eventually and swam at a friend's house when the mood struck.
-The shower in the master bedroom, that extra full bath we were supposed to be paying more each month for did not work the entire term of our lease. When we asked if they would consider discounting the rent even $10 per month due to the fact that our 2 bath unit was actually functioning as 1 and a half bath, they laughed at us and said that we should be thankful they agreed to let us pay the $570 rent we were originally promised! The story as to why it couldn't be fixed changed every time we asked.
-The little gated area in front of our front door was falling apart. We fixed the latch on the gate ourselves at least once a month.
-The on site security, as I have seen mentioned in other reviews, would frequently spend the evening napping in their car.
-The mailboxes had clearly been broken into at some point. We didn't actually need a key to open our box. Just press on the lower left hand corner, it'll pop right open!
The two good things I can say about the particular unit or building we lived in: 1) we had neighbors on one side of unit the entire time we were there. They were lovely people and I would not mind living next to them again. 2) Since our particular building was half vacant for our entire lease, we did not have much of an issue with parking one of our vehicles towards the front of the building and the second in front of our garage.
We never actually used the garage to park the car, as the door from the garage into the house was another that was painted shut. I did not have a problem with walking around the building to our front door if it was still light out. There were few sidewalks in our part of the complex and no speed bumps to stop the drivers that seemed to want nothing more than to make it into the Nascar circuit, or perhaps become a stunt driver.
The day my husband did the move out walk through (this time a leasing agent graced him with their presence!) was a joke. First they said there would be a deduction on our deposit for the pet stains. He informed them that those stains were on the move-in walk through, if they'd care to look at it. The leasing agent glanced at the sheet that was with her and didn't say a word. Repeat the above scenario for the rest of the walk through, everything they wanted to deduct was on our move in checklist. The leasing agent made NO notes of anything that was discussed. She did take pictures of the shower that did not work that we spent several hours cleaning the black mold out of before we packed up and moved. At this point, I'm honestly not sure why we bothered, but I do know between our scrubbing and the trouble we went to renting a steamer, the apartment was probably cleaner when we left than when we moved in. She asked if we would finish out our lease if they could get the shower fixed. They were told that in no way would we re-sign a lease, as we DID finish out our 6 month lease, even if they fixed the shower and left the rent at the overpriced $570 per month they wanted.
We moved into our new apartment and waited three weeks without hearing anything about the refundable portion of our deposits from Wilshire Village. We called and sent a certified letter at that point requesting the status of our deposits, as we did not want to lose them due to inaction on our part.
They finally called us 29 days after we moved out to inform us that of the refundable portion of the deposit, $400, we were going to get back $160 of it. We asked for a list of deductions. They included: Steam cleaning the carpets for the pet stains that were there when we moved in. Cleaning black mold out of the shower that the leasing agent took photos of in a sparkling clean state. Replacing a light switch and electric outlet cover that were never in the unit. Repainting the edges of the doors and molding that were painted shut. Repairing the tops of the windows, flashing I believe it is called, that was also listed on our move in sheet. With the exception of one $25 deduction we just did not care about at that point (There was apparently an odd smell in our roommates bedroom. We don't know what that was about, but we took that up with the roommate) all of the things they wanted to charge us for were on our move in walk through and were things discussed with the leasing agent present at the move out walk through.
They finally located the 'missing' move out checklist and photos and the refundable portion of our deposit, less the $25 for the interesting roommate, was returned to us 65 days after we moved out.
All in all, while it may not have been as bad as it could have been, it certainly was not worth the money. As the title of this review states, it is a housing option of last resort only. I am very glad we were only allowed the 6 month lease and were able to move out of that complex and into a nicer apartment (still not as nice as our rental home, but we're looking!) for about $40 less per month than our 'discounted' $570 at Wilshire Village. If you have no other choice, consider a short term lease ONLY. If you still have time and resources, based upon our experience from May to October of 2008, we highly recommend you continue your search.

User Responses
From: queenpriss	Date: 05/05/2009
Anonymous YOU MUST BE ON DRUGS OR YOU WORK FOR THE COMPANY!!! These people are going to get a class action suit and sue them one day and believe me I will be right there. I got extremly sick living there because of there so called remodling and i'm still paying on the high electric bill I got from living there. I paid my rent on time and sometimes early, I kept the place clean as I could being that all that they promised never was done. So again YOU EITHER WORK FOR THE COMPANY OR ARE DOING SOME SERIOUS DRUGS!!!!!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/05/2009
I fully agree this place would be the last resort. I have a friend there that has dirt floors. I mean dirt floors, no hot water for a week. Her mother had to be housed in the hospital for several days, caused by mositure in the unit ( MOLD) the Manager there is a school girl retro old lady! I swear unprofessional, what happened to the man that was there? better then brasin street walker. Run from that dump!!
From: moreorlesslibby	Date: 05/05/2009
Our rent was also paid on time, or early, each and every month. The complaint about the rent was directly related to the fact that once it was time to sign the paperwork, the amount of the rent went up. Had we been told the $639 per month to begin with, we would have continued to look for as long as possible. I'm sorry you take such offense to the fact that other residents, be they former or current, have not had your same experience. Not all units are the same and not everyone is going to have the same experience with the office staff. However I do expect a certain value for my money and do not feel like I received value during my time at Wilshire Village. Wilshire Village was not my first apartment living experience - before the rental property, I lived in apartments and am currently living in an apartment. We've been in our current apartment for 6 months now, have 6 months left on the lease and at this point have no problem signing another 12 month lease. Previous apartment rentals have been a minimum of two years each. I am aware that I did not spend thousands of dollars on the unit I was in. However, when a leasing agent promises certain upgrades and they are not done, that is a legitimate complaint. We clearly chose not to stay at this property our whole live, as we have since moved, but thank you for pointing out that I always had that option. If you are happy there then by all means, encourage your friends and family to move onto the property. We were not happy there and chose to share what our personal experience consisted of. Please feel free to share your personal experience, good, bad or indifferent, in review of your own. That's what apartmentratings.com is for.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/05/2009
LOl..This last preview is a riot! Believe me,this is one of the last places you should rent from. There are apartments across NW Exprssway way better. The neighborhood is going downhill just like those apartments. Everyone knows the Lyrewood address anyways. If your willing to spend 570.00 or over ...get a place you don't have to be worried to open your front door day or night. the place is a mega dump. I lived there & would rather live in a tent than go back there.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/05/2009
I honestly dont know how people say all of these bad things. I never have a problem. Maybe its because I pay my rent early or at least by the 1st, I dont complain about the price of the rent, I dont complain about the staff because I have more important things to do in life than complain about every little issue. This is an apartment complex, you dont have to stay there youre whole life, so maybe the small things shouldnt matter. Its not like you went and spent $100,000 on a house! You spend a few hundred on an apartment, and you expect them to completely remodel/clean/take care of ect? This is an APARTMENT COMPLEX. If you have never lived in an apartment complex before than I give you some slack...but if you ever have lived in any apartments before I would think you would be thankful for this one. Its not that bad. I like it there. I have signed my 2nd year lease. The staff is great, the people are for the most part friendly. And if I have a SERIOUS problem (like when my pipes froze causing cold tap water to rise out of my sink and onto my carpet) they were out there within an hour to stop the problem and someone was back the next morning to shampoo my carpet so it wouldnt smell bad from the water. I think its great here. and i think people should spend less time complaining. Also THE REMODELING is going GREAT i think. It is looking a lot better around there
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/18/2009
My thoughts on renting, period. First the Owners', usually are out of State; pay little attention to those who are the caretakers; they may visit, take a look and deem, everything looks great; they don't talk to the tenants, they have no idea how long some have to wait for a problem in their unit to be taken care of; 2nd, the Maintenance Crew and their Supervisors, the men who work under the supervisors have little experience with major problems, which are many so it takes longer to get things done; the supervisors do not check the work being done causing much stress to the tenants because you have to keep putting in work orders that keep getting put off or booted out of the system. In this chaotic situation, I fail to understand why supervisors are even needed. This property is a beautiful piece of property and it is a shame to see it going downhill even with the renovation. Boarded up windows, broken windows, airconditioners robbed of their innards, overgrown shrubbrey, trash all over; filthy pool, laundry room is usually very dirty. I could go on, they know what needs to be done. Now, you probably wonder why I still live here; it is because I have hope and as I said this is beautiful property. The rent is way too high for what you have to live with and it keeps on going up regardless of the complaints. Oklahoma needs Rent Control; and more supervision from the State on out-of-town property buyers. One other thing; a well run property keeps their office personnel; the turnover here is 100%; no one stays because there are too many complaints. GET IT!! This dissertation does not apply just to Wilshire but to many properties due to non-caring people who are put into jobs they have no interest in but the ALMIGHT DOLLAR DRIVED FROM IT.

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