I just found this site and am surprised at how negative most of the reviews are. I've been here for 10 months so far and have enjoyed it. Yes, I do have some gripes, but overall they have been minor.

I’ll start off with my complaints:

The worst problem I would say is that my hot water heater pilot light has gone out twice. Maintenance staff says it may be from high winds we had and since the heater is in the closet on the balcony, a draft may have blown it out. Getting ready for work in the AM, taking a shower, and having it go completely cold is not fun. They came and fixed it while I was at work. The second time was in the evening and maintenance came within 1-2 hours to fix the problem.

We have only had one snow this season, but they didn't prepare and it took them 1 or 2 days to finally lay down some salt/sand. The snow took over a week to melt and during that time we had huge sheets of slick ice in front of our building that we had to walk on to get to the steps. It seemed like a law suite waiting to happen.

There are two trash compactors on the development. I only need to take mine out about once a week and about every other time I go, the trash is piled up all over the sidewalk in a huge pile. There also seems to be a lot of idiots that place garbage or other recyclables in the newspaper containers. Can’t they read'

The pools are nice. The gyms are okay. There are two and you are only permitted to use the one closest to your building. I didn't know this when I first moved here and my key didn't work. I ended up going to the far gym and would find the door unlocked. They replaced my key so I could use the closer gym, but I found the farther one had more equipment. Your key is coded to only work at your assigned gym.

There is the nice pool table you’ll see when you move here. The problem is, you’ll most likely never use it because it’s only available during office hours which is until 6 or 5pm. They should have that open to residents until late in the night so you could actually go play some pool with your friends. I also wish they had more social activities here because it’s so hard to meet anyone. Everyone just stays in their apartments.

What I enjoy about this place:
I'm on the fourth floor which is the highest. I get vaulted ceilings and I rarely ever hear anyone. It may have been a pain to move into, but it pays off. I rarely ever hear my neighbors and if I do, it is so muffled and faint. I’m probably also lucky to have quiet neighbors. Plus, my apartment faces route 7, so I get the ambient road noise. If you are offered an apt facing the road, don't think that is a bad thing. I was leery about facing the highway at first, but am very happy with it. You get used to the road noise and with the doors/windows shut you don't hear it much. At night when it's quiet, you can hear it, but it's not loud and it helps block out other sounds. The only down side is that the hospital is across the street and every once in a while you have the ambulances drive by with sirens blasting. I have been woken up by that less than 5 times in the past 10 months. Another benefit to facing the highway is privacy. I have a nice eastern view, so you can city and airport lights at night (remember, I’m on the 4th floor and have a much better view than if you’re on the 1st floor). You also won’t have a building a hundred feet in front of yours. Every morning I get to see a beautiful sunrise and the natural light fills the apartment all day making it very bright. This also helps warm my apartment in the winter by opening the blinds all day. In the summer, I just have to keep the blinds partially closed to keep it cooler. People have complained on here of slamming doors. The doors close themselves, just like at most apartment communities. I have the courtesy and other people should as well, to stop the door right before the slams. I especially do this late at night/early mornings. If my hands are full with groceries or whatever, then I may not be able to, but that’s during the day.

When I shopped around for an apartment almost a year ago, I found that Summit Lansdowne did have the best bang for the buck. There are a few income restriction complexes in the area that are nice and cheaper, but it sucks when you make just outside the limit. I found that the places I looked at in Ashburn were the same price, but I liked this location better. In Leesburg, there are some cheaper, but they are in the ghetto part of Leesburg. The further east you go, the higher the prices were. I looked in Sterling and Reston, but they were higher. It is expensive, but it is expensive all over northern VA!! Now, I just checked out the prices listed for our apartments and it looks like it may have gone up because the smallest 1 bdrm apartments start at $1000 when it used to be just less than $900 last spring when I shopped around. When my lease expires in June, I’ll see how much they increase my rent. If it’s much I may leave, if not I’ll probably stay.

People complain about parking. I have never had a problem ever. I do have an end building and there are parking lots that extend beyond the buildings, so that may be the reason. I have never seen every space filled up and by my building one of the lots is probably only 2/3 full at most. Those people that complain probably don’t have enough spaces right outside their stairwell. They just need to walk down further. Walking is good for you and another 50-100’ won’t hurt you. I have heard of people having their cars towed in front of their garages. That is screwed up because they are supposed to be able to park any car there regardless if they have a permit or not (that’s what management told me when I was choosing an apt.). There has been a boat parked in one lot, not sure if it’s finally been removed, but that was against the rules put in the contract. I asked about it and management said it will be towed, but it remained for months. Right outside the gated area where they do not tow, there are trucks, a RV trailer, damaged cars, and they have been there for a long time.

I’ve never had a problem with the mail and deliveries. It is so convenient for the office to sign for packages since deliveries are almost always made while I’m at work.

People have complained so much about the management. I have never had a problem, but I do see how some people say they are like “Valley girls”. There is one however, I don’t recall her name, but she is older than the rest (most seem to be in late 20s) and she is ALWAYS so helpful and sweet. She seems more mature and not the valley girl type. The couple times I had to deal with maintenance, I was happy and had no problems at all.

So, overall I am very happy here. To sum it up, I like how quiet it is, the vaulted ceilings, spacious apartment, haven’t had problems with management. There is so much negativity on this site, but that’s probably because a lot of the people that are satisfied don’t have the urge to get their word out unlike those that are unhappy who want spread the word. I’m just trying to get my honest opinion on here. I didn’t see this site when I was shopping around. If I did, it probably would have given me second thoughts about moving here or pretty much any where. It seems like it can be helpful while doing research, but you’ll probably notice that with just about every single apartment community, people just complain on here. There are going to be unhappy people just about every where, so you just have to take it with a grain of salt.

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