*WARNING* I am going to write a lot so make sure you have time to read this entirely.

I finally have some time to waste so I actually took the time to register on this worthless site to let people know about these apartments. I say this site is worthless because every place I visited (in real life, then researched on here) I saw the EXACT same posts from different users "OMG, MANAGEMENT SUCKS" or "OMG SO MANY FINES" or "DON'T MOVE HERE!!! THEY WANT YOUR MONEY!!!!" Well no ---- they want your money, it's a BUSINESS! If you don't want to pay a business to live somewhere, then I guess you'll be stuck living on the streets.

First off here's some background information about who is writing this review. I'm a 23 year old male, just graduated and am just starting out on my own. I lived in a town home before w/ 2 other roommates and this is my first place that I've ever lived in by myself. Through the company I just started working for; I was recommended to use "Igloo Hunters" (Great apartment locating service. Look into them if you're planning on moving to Austin, it's free for you to use and they did a great job.) and they took me to several locations. Since I needed to pick a place out that day, I ended up choosing San Paloma because of the location, amenities, the apartment price (preferred employer discount), the actual apartment layout, and of course the friendly/pretty staff (I'm a young guy out of college, can you blame me'). So I sign my lease go back home to my parents house and randomly one day I'm bored and search the internet for my new home. I see apartmentratings.com as one of the top sites in the search and a rating for San Paloma at like 32% so immediately I thought "WTF" and clicked it to see what was up. I started reading reviews that no kidding made me start to freak out a little inside. After reading like 30 reviews of people getting shot, people scared to walk around late at night, trash everywhere, bugs, etc. I literally felt sick to my stomach, like I was going to throw up. I'm serious, I was freaked out because I come from a very nice/wealthy area north of Dallas and have never had to experience "ghetto" living conditions, I rented this place because I felt that it was a nice area and I'd be safe! I showed my parents and they grew kind of concerned too but mentioned that they didn't notice any of that when we toured the entire property both with the leasing agent and by ourselves... So I kind of just accepted my fate because I had already signed the lease. I just started praying that I would get lucky and not get mugged/murdered/eaten by bugs so that I could move out when the lease was over.

Fast forward a couple of days: My 2 roommates who I mentioned earlier also moved back to our hometown near Dallas who (like me) recently just graduated from college and were looking for apartments. They started earlier than I did at work so they already moved into apartments and told me they really liked their places. I visited both of them and they weren't lying, they were great places. Safe, quiet, clean, very nice inside, etc. They asked me about my place and I had to tell them that more than likely they shouldn't come visit until I move to a new place because the nice place I thought I was moving into was apparently a ghetto drug lair inhabited by low-lifes and thugs. They laughed and were like "why the hell would you sign a lease to a place like that' You have a good job, surely you could afford to live somewhere nicer." and I explained that on apartmentratings.com everyone said it was a trashy place. Both of them laughed (I met them separately, they both had the same responses.) and immediately said "Oh dude, I read the same things. Everyone complaining about this and that and how to never move here. If you think about it, there are a ton of people living in these places that are happy and don't write reviews. The only people who are probably going to take the time to write a review is someone who is pissed off. Personally I like my place, but I have better things to do than get on a dumb website and write a review. I wouldn't be worried." Two different people said the exact same thing when I met them both separately, I felt a lot better.

Fast forward to move in date: I was an idiot and forgot to get a cashiers check/money order for my rent and since I got there so late, I didn't have time to get to a bank and make it back to the office in time, I tried but was 15 minutes late and they had all left already... I was kinda pissed that they couldn't wait for 15 minutes, but hey I can't blame them, if I were them I would have left too, I was late, my bad. I get there the next morning and fill out the paperwork, get my key and am warmly welcomed by the lovely staff. Nice! So now comes the scariest part of my move-in, actually getting to see my apartment... This was it! I get to my building and walk up one flight of stairs to the hallway before my apartment. Near my door was a scantily clad woman wearing a leopard skin bra and leather pants... Odd... She asked me if I was looking for a good time for 100 dollars, I kindly refused her offer to which she responded by moving on to my dad. My mom was pissed. So I tell the hooker to go home or go somewhere else, she threatens me and tells me that she knows where I live. I shrug it off because she's probably so high that she won't even remember talking to me, she probably got the drugs from next door... I was wrong, I open the door and I'll be damned! The freaking apartmentratings.com reviewers were right! Inside my one bedroom apartment were 27 gang members dealing drugs on top of a dead body! Roaches and maggots had infested my new home and there were holes in the ceiling, mold, and water dripping from leaky pipes. They looked at me for a second but then continued what they were doing before. So I started moving my stuff in and there were a couple of thugs with kind hearts, they helped me move my stuff in. So once I moved in completely I had to ask them to continue their party elsewhere because I was tired. A couple of them got mad as they were heading out and got into a shoving match. One pulled out a gun and started waving it in the air and then the 26 others pulled their guns out! One thing leads to another and all of a sudden my apartment became a war zone! Bullets were flying everywhere, my parents and I hid under my bed. We came out and there were 27 bodies in my living room, bullet holes everywhere. "This really sucks" I said. My father agreed and decided we should go get maintenance. 3 days later the maintenance guys FINALLY show up. The staff was rude to me too, those girls just kept telling me that there was a shovel near the pool and the shallow grave amenity isn't going to fill itself. I didn't want to shovel bodies though, I had more important things to do, like sleep and play videogames so I had to just step over the pile of bodies until maintenance finally showed up. They stole half of my stuff while I was watching them clean up. When I asked them what was going on, they simply said "I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE! SAN PALOMA!"
Ever since then, I have been completely miserable. It's cold in here because I have no glass door anymore... It was lost in the gun battle. I do however have plenty of drugs to keep me entertained since the dealers are all dead. I would not recommend this place ever! They get mad when you pay your rent late and you have to pay a fine if you do!!! How does that make sense!'!'!'!!! I rate this place 1/2 a star, I would rate a 0 if I could but it's not possible. Screw you San Paloma, you advertise well but the actual place you deliver is garbage.

Now on to the real review because hopefully you're smart enough to realize that I was being sarcastic. If you couldn't figure that out, then I imagine I'll be seeing one of your uneducated slob reviews in the near future if I ever even log on to this stupid site again.

When I moved in I had no problems, got all of my stuff in and took note of the little things I noticed in my place that weren't perfect so that I wouldn't be charged upon move out. Little things like patched holes in the wall, small holes in the ceiling perhaps where a tv or additional lights were installed, tiny burn marks in the carpet etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. As far as since moving in, I honestly can't write much. I leave in the morning and come home in the afternoon. On weekends I go out downtown and come home at 2-3AM and haven't once felt like I was in danger. I feel safe here and am quite pleased with my place. Oh and I needed some small things taken care of when I moved in and it took 1 business day for them to take care of it. He didn't even steal anything, I was elated. Also all of the leasing agents are still just as nice as ever and do what they can to help me or answer questions whenever I have them. They are all really cool. Only things I can confirm about the complaints I've noticed is that one of the access gates appears to be broken, it is open right now. But honestly, is an access gate going to prevent a crime from happening' Perhaps it will delay it, but if someone REALLY wants to get in, unless there is a guard at the gate, the gate doesn't do anything... Think about it, just follow the car that has access into the complex, I did it a million times while in college trying to get to a party. My only complaint that I have is that the ceiling is fairly thin. I can hear when my neighbor stomps around above me, but whatever, I'm in an apartment, other people live here too.

Now I finally get to do what I have been waiting to do for months now, address the complainers: For those with the complaints about the fines. Good God people, if you seriously are going to complain about the fines, then at least explain the background information behind it. Those fines are in place so that this place DOESN'T look the way how you describe this place in your reviews! You should pay fines if you live like a slob and can't follow rules, what do you think traffic tickets are for' This is THEIR property, NOT YOURS, they can charge whatever the hell they want because WE ARE RENTING, from THEM. If the fines were pointless and just for the purpose of additional revenue, I'd understand, but they aren't, they all make sense. If there wasn't a monetary punishment attached to breaking the rules, no one would abide to them because a slap on the wrist does nothing. Also, if you can't pay your rent on the first or second (they give you two days) of the month, then don't live here, live somewhere else or get a better job. Sorry to sound like a d**k, but to those people who are scraping by, what the hell are you doing living here if you can't afford to pay rent' What are you blowing your money on' I could go wait tables and in 1-2 weeks have enough to pay for rent and bills, that s what a lot of people did in college. Go ahead and say you have kids, go ahead and say you have car payments, insurance, whatever. SO DO I (minus the kids). I too have all sorts of real world payments for the first time of my life but you know what I did before I signed my lease' I figured out my budget and in that budget I included more expenses than I even expected so that I know I could safely afford to live here and not stretch my budget thin. If you seriously moved here simply because this is the max you could afford, you're an idiot. I can afford something quite easily that cost 3-400 more but I chose not to because it's stupid to stretch yourself thin, but I guess logic escapes the majority of the people complaining here because they can't follow rules and/or pay rent on time.

To those who took the time to read this, you re probably considering renting here. Don t take my word or anyone else s word here. Come look at this place for yourself and seriously don t limit yourself to what they show you, go all around the complex. See if this will work for you and your budget. Honestly, this place is perfect for me, but then again I am not one coming in with ridiculous expectations either Remember, I just came from college and have been living off of ramen noodles and tap water so that I could afford to buy beer so my living expectations aren t set incredibly high. As far as I m concerned, I m very proud that this is the first place I ve ever got by myself, my apartment is very nice, and I am happy with the staff/apt complex. Just remember treat others how you want to be treated and you should see some good results with the staff. Or you could always just be a prick, if you choose the latter I ll be looking forward to reading your review on here.

User Responses
From: adcannon	Date: 05/12/2008
This is possibly the best review I've read on this entire site. Thanks for the laughs!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/05/2009
This is a great review. Want to have sex?

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