Renaissance Village at Shadow Lake formerly Rio Grande Ranch
AVERAGE RATING
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Above Standard
From: Criticalbutfair08Date posted: 8/11/2008
Years at this apartment: 2006 - 2008
We have lived in the property for two years and a bit and we are glad we are moving. To a certain extent because our new place is closer to our job, but to a certain extent because Rio Grande Ranch has gone down in quality for some time now.
The new name, so much better in a marketing sense, has not brought the improvements corresponding to its increase in letters.
When we moved here it was the best property we had seen out of 30 different properties throughout Houston. The properties around Shadowbriar had sold out to evacuees, but Rio Grande did not do that which was nice.
The staff at that times was great, a lot of activities offered, very enthusiastic young people. However the least nice people from the former management company carried over to the new one, being complemented by ever more rude ladies from Greystar.
We enjoyed the fact of having two pools, one with volleyball, two gas grills that had to be used with coal, since gas never worked, two gyms with occasional broken machines, a relatively safe environment, with some break-ins, often broken gates, etc. I would say the normal stuff for a community as big as this one (statistically the size of the community reduces one's chance of becoming the victim of one of the break-ins, added to living in the third floor, when thieves are usually heavy set lazy people).
In the last year however several incidents exceeded the normal amount of stuff acceptable for a community at the prices of Rio Grande. First we got a lease violation notification for a mop left on the balcony of the neighbors. Even a complaint from our side did never lead to an excuse from the office. For other issues I called the office and the manager was never available and also never returned the calls. When it came to the question if we were to stay some longer, we asked for the manager to call us with a decent offer, given that big parts of the community were empty (in our building the other three units were empty for four, two and one months before new people moved in) and given that we had been living there for so long. Also that call was never returned.
During the renovations of the office, looking to produce a brand new and shiny office, the adjacent gym has been closed, so now the rather smaller gym is clogged almost all the time. There is no estimate at all, when the construction will be ready.
Also a change to a fancy sounding E-Z gate opening system, has led to gate-card users not being able to open the gate without getting out of the car. Unannounced, dangerous change, again with no apologies from the management, till two-three days later. For security purpose the pedestrian codes were changed some months ago, with an announcement, but lately almost all gates seem to be back to the old code and that change was not announced.
Over the two years the pool has seen a stricter code of conduct being posted, but the conditions at the pool have gotten worse to a certain extent. The volleyball net from the first year is gone, the shiny, tidy pool is dirtier now than it was in the past, the stricter rules see even less enforcement than the understanding of rules in the past, etc. (Partly this has to do with the people that moved in in the last months. )
Positive changes in the last months have been an increase in outside lighting, a mediocre outside paint job, raising of the outer fence, signs to save the lifes of ducks that live at the lake.
In general I would say that the place is acceptable, hopefully getting better, but the price should be negotiated carefully, by learning what the places charge around this one and young people might want to think twice since the party-character has been blown away completely. A lot of families, no beer allowed at the pool, no volleyball, very small TVs in the gym, etc.
Superior to a lot of other places, but that rather speaks about the low level of the other places than about real quality
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