I lived at Potomac Vista for over three years. Over all I have no complaints with the staff, at least until the end. My neighbors left a lot to be desired, particularly those who never seemed to understand the quiet hours that were outlined in the lease.

It was only when I left did problems emerge. I discovered several instances of water damage in the apartment. The first one I reported long before I left and the maintenance staff came and "fixed" it. Fixing equated to caulking the cracks in the baseboard, painting over the water stains in the wall and applying a foam sealant to the exterior of the apartment far above where rain water ever collected. In essence a visual patch that did not address the real problem. I feel for the next tenant in there, I would bet that the leaks are all still there.

Another issue that I discovered around the time I left was that I was being charged a rent that was noticeably higher than what was being advertised for the floor plan I had. The rent I paid was over the high end of the range bracket, and my apartment was nearly at the bottom of the hill and on the ground floor. Though I see now that they don't offer a range bracket any more, what I paid is still over $100 more than the low end they do advertise.

Over the last six months or so of my time at PV, some issues with the shuttle service they hype and advertise profusely came up. The bus has three runs to Pentagon City Metro, it is very nice and quite convenient. However, there are only 14 seats and more often than not there are close to or over 20 people who use it. That leaves a lot of people standing in the event of an accident. When those of who ride the shuttle brought that safety issue up with the management, their response was to send a condescending letter more appropriate in language for chastising small children than addressing adults that made it quite clear that if we kept complaining, they would take the shuttle service away.

Riding with that many of my fellow residents at PV for such a long time, I got to hear a lot about the place from different view points. It seems a common theme amongst that sample that no one was particularly impressed with the complex, most people were disappointed to say the least at the handling of the bus issue by the management, and over time, people who had lived at PV the longest all eagerly sought alternatives.

PV has its pluses, it is one of the few places that has a decent pet policy. Washers, dryers, dishwashers in the unit was definitely nice. There was plenty of parking.

In the end, I would not recommend the place to others. At best, it would be a very guarded recommendation with full disclosure of all the issues I had with it and those I heard about from other residents. If you need a place to stay while looking for something better, or a house to buy, then maybe. But as "home"' No.

Oh, and in the next apartment complex up the street towards Route 1, there was a murder in 2008. Something else to keep in mind.

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