I feel compelled to write about our experiences. In short, given the market, if you are looking at the townhomes or larger apartments, you can probably find a private rental in the area from some desperate speculator much cheaper. You will likely be happier. However, this is all according to our experience and from our vantage point and is strictly categorized as our opinion; your mileage may vary. My biggest suggestion is that you do your homework.

Let me outline our experiences in detail:

We moved to VA from out-of-state. I had seen the bad reviews and asked about them; they said it was just two disgruntled tenants issuing reviews over and over, and that they were taking legal action. After my experiences, I seriously doubt it.
They were very particular doing everything by mail; they were shady about providing details about their Internet/cable service. That s probably because it doesn t work very well and, if you complain, they ll point to the terms-and-conditions that pretty much say they guarantee you no service. I had problems with paying the deposit and such via mail, and them wondering why I couldn't sign in person right then. Totally unprofessional.

My partner and I moved separately, over the course of two weeks. While telephoning to arrange key pickup (since we had to sign the lease and start renting prior to the actual move), they pretty much told me they would not release the keys to me without the other signer on the lease there. Even if he called or wrote. It took a lot of telephone wrangling, but I got through that.

When I arrived, I was greeted by the most wonderful and pleasant woman. I felt reassured that all my fears and anxieties about the place were unfounded. Of course, I found out she was from Van Metre's main office, and was the Marketing Director, filling in because all the office staff was sick at once. Seriously, our experience was downhill from there.

First, I have read here that the places seem smaller than the advertised square footage. I am certainly no expert, but I moved from a house that I owned and had built that had similar square footage (actually a little smaller), and this place did seem smaller. Perhaps it was because it was split on two levels garage, but it's noteworthy, even if it's just an impression.

We moved in over Christmas/New Year's. The dumpster was overflowing, all the way to the mailbox. I figured it was because of Christmas. It wasn't. It would overflow most every week. One of the management members who lived in the complex actually bragged to me once that should would sometimes stay up to see who brought trash and left it outside the dumpster, so that she could ticket them as if they could leave it anywhere else' It s so totally disgusting. I'm glad I worked late a lot so I could stack my trash without getting caught.

The gate never really worked. This didn't bother me personally, but a lot of people were bothered by it.

The parking situation is awful. It's true: if you have a townhome, they won't give you extra parking. They have a predatory towing company that will run through and tow anyone without a sticker. This happened to us - we had no idea that there were even stickers (the lease was vague about parking in appointed areas - we thought we were). There are really one six or eight visitor spots, indeed taken up every night. When we were towed, I complained - a lot. They actually said it was a benefit, that all the residents were delighted people were being towed. Finally, I threatened to mention to any potential customers I saw that I got towed even though I'm a resident, and let them decide how reasonable it was. The main office got involved and refunded part of the towing fee.

What was especially irritating was how wonderful they thought the fact I was towed was! They actually said it was nice that another company came in and enforced the lease rules - it made it very easy on them. It s clear that somewhere, they re checking a little box that describes what they re doing to make the place better and it requires very little effort.

During my discussion with them, the topic of dogs came up. Let me say this: they have one of the best dog policies around (which isn't saying much for the area). However, they started griping to me (we had dogs) about people who don't clean up (I do). The same lady who stalked people and their trash talked about waiting for people to not clean up after their dog and then wrote tickets (whatever happened to a friendly reminder first'). I mentioned I always do, unless my dog is sick (to be delicate). She then explained, "I don't care if you have to take that bag and dig the dirt out from under the pile and pick leaves!" Um...OK'

Mind you, other rules would be broken with no consequence. For example: the barbeque rule (can't have them) was broken all the time. Why' I suspect because the lady who lived there had one. Satellite dishes' All over the place. I don't have a problem with these things, but it was clear they went Gestapo on enforcing the easy stuff.

Once while living there they staged surprise "upgrades" to the units. Pretty much they left notice that they were going into all the units the next day. No choice. If you had animals, they'd better be restrained (as if one can easily arrange that in less than 24 hours). Their upgrade' A magnet. With our "community captain's" email address (that they never answered, by the way). Which could have been left on our door. Which was stupid. It was such a transparent excuse for inspecting people s apartments for violations such as pets, etc. Most everyone I talked to complained about it for weeks. Seriously, they can't get trash picked up properly from the dumpster with a good frequency, but they have time to inspect apartments with a thin veil of an excuse.

We constantly had trouble with mail (delivered to the wrong units). Not their fault directly, but when I asked that they complain to the post office with the residents (to lend weight to the complaint), they laughed at me - literally.

We had a few maintenance problems: mostly the filters not being cleaned or replaced. The maintenance staff always responded within 24 hours (except for one time), but even they admitted most of the problems could be prevented by routine upkeep. They admitted they cannot do anything until something breaks and someone complains. It is odd that, in one year, we would have to call maintenance five times - mostly when the temperature changed, because the heater/air-conditioner would suddenly not work.

Back to the pet policy. They do have the most liberal (in terms of size) dog policy. Their pet rent (outrageous idea anyway) is on par with other places. However, they do not keep the dog stations stocked. When I mentioned this (during the aforementioned dog discussion), they said, "It is a courtesy . I asked what my pet rent was for' They responded for "expenses related to upkeep due to pets. Mind you, she had just mentioned how they could never pay enough groundskeepers to clean up after the pets.

What was amusing about the staff was how downright mean they were. I, too, experienced the before-you-move-in-they're wonderful bit. The lady who helped me the night I pulled into town was awesome (but didn't work there). After that' No return calls. Rude staff. They would leave early. Deny packages were delivered (because they didn't feel like going back to find them - seriously). About the only time they were nice is if we were walking our dogs and they were showing a potential tenant. We had greyhounds: big, majestic dogs, and I guess it looked kinda cool that they d say hello. It was comical.

When I moved out, they kept our entire pet deposit. While I find it objectionable, an automatic half-forfeit it is stated in the lease. So, after paying hundreds in "pet rent" and hundreds in pet deposit, what did they do' Decided our carpet needed to be replaced (not unreasonable), and that the entire cost would be taken out of our regular deposit, after forfeiting the other half of our pet deposit for...' So we essentially paid an entire pet deposit, "pet rent" , plus the cost of replacing the carpet. Mind you, they agreed our place was in perfect shape except for that. This was all "legal" according to the lease. Legal, but highly unethical, in my opinion.

We had to break our lease just a few months early (we had a 15-month lease). When I talked to them at leasing time, they said to break the lease just requires sixty days' notice and the two months' rent. Just like that. What they didn't mention was that the sixty days' notice is in the form of sixty days' rent payment. In other words, you pay a two-month cancellation penalty and then sixty days' rent. I don 't object per se, but buyer-beware. It also took some threats of the "main office" to get them to do my walk-through and to take my keys early (I was MOVING), even after I paid them.

Overall, not a good experience. But there were some nice things:
Some people complain about hearing their neighbors and excessive noise. We never experienced that. The only "interference" from neighbors that we experienced was if the one-bedroom below us left the heat cranked up (which he did a lot), we would roast, but that's life in an apartment. I also asked our neighbors if they ever heard our birds or our home theater, and they did not.


They allowed our birds, and didn't count them toward the "two pets" rule (we have two dogs, too). They DO have the best dog policy (at least, when we rented) of all the corporate places in the area.

The walking trails, especially between the apartment complex and the next complex over are really, really nice.

I did not experience any crime or see any drug issues (not that I am an expert). One person posted a flyer that they'd had a break-in, but I don t know that that in and of itself is exceptional.

I, too, am skeptical of all the good reviews. I talked to many neighbors who were dissatisfied. The best I got from some were, "I guess it's kind of OK". Certainly no one who raved about it - and we're friendly types, talked to a lot of people.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/08/2009
It sounds like an overall lack of professionalism! I should know I live there now! What a horrible management team!
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/18/2009
I know that they ended up releasing a person or two from employment, perhaps cleaning house? As a result - we've never experience any problems that weren't taken care of right away. There are certainly "one offs" every where you go, but this is definitely one of the nicer communities... but everyone knows that you can't please everyone.

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