Tenant Reviews for 8282 Cambridge St

I will try to be moderately in depth with my review (or at least beyond "this place sux!!"). Some of the stuff from the very beginning I have slightly forgotten, but I will try to give my own experience, while addressing some of the concerns other posts have made. I have lived here with my girlfriend since the end of May 2013, to now. This is the first apartment my girlfriend and I have ever rented. A tl;dr will be at the bottom. Parking: Parking loops all the way around the outside perimeter of the complex, with three areas cutting into the complex on all sides (except for the front), allowing closer parking for people in the middle.I cannot vouch for the amount of parking on the other two sides, but where I park (the side that connects to the exit), I can almost always find parking close. Only if I try and park after 9pm will I have to park along the outer perimeter, rather than on the 'peninsula' (for lack of better words) cutting into the complex. Even still, this only adds 100-150 ft to my walk. Not really a big deal. Some of the parking is on slightly uneven ground (where the pavement has cracked), but nothing that prevents it from being an acceptable parking spot. Just before we moved in, they put in 3 big camera 'trees'; that is, a structure with a bunch of cameras pointing in all directions). There is 1 on each side of the complex. The only issue I have had in the parking lot is that once someone bumped into the back side of my car, leaving a bit of a large dent. Other than that, I have not had any issue with safety/unsavory characters lurking about/etc. There is no covered parking, or garage parking on the area, so take that as you will. Noise: I share border with the person directly next to me, and the person directly above me (I am on the first level). The people above me: I can occasionally here what sounds like a dog running around. The sound only happens once every couple of weeks, and only for like 10 minutes. Other than that, I don't here a peep out of them. The guy next to me I hear considerably more, but still not all that much. Once or twice a week, I here him playing a violin at 8-10pm. It is rather faint, and can only here it when the TV is off. You can also here people right outside your door, so if he has guests entering or leaving, I can here them then. I don't know if I am giving off the right impression here, but noise really isn't that much of an issue from my direct neighbors. Certainly not paper walls (unless my neighbors just happen to be really quiet all the time. If I am next to a window, and people walk by while talking, I can here them, but that too is not too common. Not too many people walking by at any given point. Early into our stay, someone a building over had a dog they would always leave on the patio, so it would continuously bark for hours straight, which was most bothersome. But I guess eventually someone complained, because the dog stopped. Grounds: Not really anything special to look at. The walking paths in between the buildings are rather narrow (really only meant for a single person at a time). In a couple areas (especially at some corners), the pavement dips down, so if it rains, those spots always flood up. For the most part, bushes seem trimmed mostly (could be a bit tighter). I dont really have too much to talk about here. Office staff: Before I begin on this part, a relevant piece of information about myself. I am a long haired, long bearded (a bit of dirt, and I might be able to pass as homeless) college student. I am the perfect person for management to be mean to, or disrespect as my opinion won't really hold as much weight as someone who seems more "professional" or is older. With that in mind, I will begin. Throughout the process to find the apartment, sign the papers, that type of stuff, we were dealing with the woman Verna. As expected, she was nice to us (that is the beginning of the common complaint "they are nice until you sign"). We got the deal that made first month's rent only $199, or so. She informed us that since we were moving in at the end of the month, that the deal would only be for the the 4 days till the end of the month, and suggested if we could to wait until a day or two before June to move in, so the deal would apply to June instead. Ultimately, she saved us a bit of money there. So we signed all of our papers and such, and went on our way. So beyond this, I only ever went into the office to 1) Pick up a package, 2) put money on the laundry card, or 3) report a maintenance problem. Ill expand more on the maintenance in a bit, but for the other two occasions, nearly every time I went in there, whoever was working at the officeless desk would say hi to me, even if I was just slinking around the corner to fill up the card. On several occasions, multiple workers would say hello to me. What I am getting at here is that they were always very friendly to me. My girlfriend also never had a problem with them. The only bothersome thing about the office building is that there is a pool table in the middle, but do to its proximity to the offices, I don't think it is actually meant to be used. Not a big deal then. I guess there is the possibility that they are dirty racists, and are nice to me because I am white, but I do not think that this is the case. Maintenance: I think they gave us a number to call if we had maintenance problems, but I never liked calling, so I would just go into the office and give my request to whoever was working at the time. They would write it down, do something with it, and I would leave, and without fail that day, or the next day, the maintenance guy would come out. We only had to call upon maintenance for the first month or so. The fan in the kitchen above the stove stopped working, the kitchen light was being rather flickery, and in the bathroom, something from some appliance in the ceiling started to leak. The only one he wasn't able to fix was the kitchen light (when you turn it on, you sometimes have to jiggle it a couple times till it comes on). I think fixing this would require a lot of work though, so I suppose its understandable that he couldn't do it. The guy himself was quite nice. I don't know if he was fluent in english, but he greeted us with a smile. So yeah, overall favorable. Laundry facility: I didn't use this that much (my girlfriend did the laundry), but I had to venture in there occasionally. Its not a sparkling area for sure, but it is very average looking. 8 washers, 8 dryers (sometimes one will be down, but it gets fixed eventually). Washer and dryer take about 30 minutes and 45-75 minutes, respectively. Stuff always smells right afterword, so thats peachy. General location: you are located rather near a Kroger (no more than a couple miles I think). Beyond that, there is a small shopping center less than a mile off with a couple of food places and a gas station. The area certainly isn't a pristine location, but I and/or my girlfriend will walk to that shopping center at night with no issues with the surrounding people. Obviously my homeless looking self, no one will bother with, but my girlfriend is a short white girl, so even her walking by herself she hasn't had any issues. Do be warned: all the roads surrounding the complex are crappy, all broken and whatnot. And during rodeo time, reliant traffic can clog up the area. So that kinda sucks. The Apartment: The piece you were actually looking for. We are in a 1 bed/1 bath plus den (like 800 square feet for $925 with the $50 upgrade package). We have the faux wood flooring, and the updated appliances. It does have a fireplace in the living room, that allegedly works, but I never tried it. We use the den as a computer room for me. The living room is large enough that we can have our couch fold out to be a bed and still have room to walk about it, and for the tv. The dining 'room' (really just a slight extension from the living room, not a separate room). We don't have a table, but it seems large enough for one. The den is an ok size (fits a large desk, and 2 book shelves with room to spare. No door separating it from the rest of the apartment, just a large whole in the wall. The patio links onto the den. Nothing particularly special here. I suppose you could have chairs out if you wanted, but with the fence around it being rather high, sitting down you could not see anything. The kitchen is a bit small. Since the place does not come with a microwave built in anywhere, you have to bring your own which takes up much needed work space. I sometimes have trouble finding room for stuff if I am cooking something big. Fridge does not have an ice maker in it, which is a bit of a bummer, but the freezer and fridge are both of moderately adequate size. Stove is electric, sink is a single sided sink, and dishwasher is a dishwasher. Right outside the kitchen area is the smoke detector, which I know works, as every time I cook something on the stove that produces a lot of gas (like steak), it will go off multiple times. There is a little towel closet right outside the bathroom door, that holds all of our extra stuff. Has built in shelves and has dimensions something like 2ftx3ft. The bathroom is where the majority of my complaints about this place come from. Since the ceilings in the apartment are not that high (especially in the bathrooms), whenever I am in the shower, I am slightly taller than where the water comes out (I am somewhere around 5'11). This is a bit bothersome when I am trying to zone out in the shower. The other complaint is the toilet. It clogs up so much, even if you aren't trying to flush that much down. So make sure to have a good plunger. Also, the water pressure in the shower kinda sucks, so you will definitely have to replace the shower head with a high flow one to fix the problem. There is the faux wood flooring in all the rooms except for the bedroom. The bedroom has carpet. The bedroom is a good size and has a ceiling fan. However its main selling point is the two walk in closets. Particularly useful if you are living with a woman. One is slightly larger than the other, but even in the smaller one I can fit a 5ft tall dresser and all of my clothes. Bugs: I am not particularly the cleanest person. If you look under my computer desk, it is just covered in crumbs, and are sink usually has dishes in it. The first couple of months we had some bugs (roaches, some centipedes). But they all eventually went away when we cleaned up slightly. All apartments have roaches, but you have to be trying pretty hard to have them show up here. For the past 6 months, we have been virtually bug free. Final thoughts on stuff I hadn't touched on: Another complaint we had about this place is a lack of fitness center. They offer you 10% some local gym, but I am already too lazy, so having to travel somewhere to work out is a no go. There is a pool. I never used the pool, but I didn't see anyone die in it. So there is that. There are also chairs set out, and a little park-style grill for general use. Also never used that. I saw some complaints about the smell of the water. I have noticed a scent to the water every now and then, but it is faint, and very temporary, probably smell it twice a month. Other than that, it smells and tastes like normal water. A slight inconvenience,but nothing that would actually significantly affect your experience. Every few months, they would cut the water for a few hours, but they would always give a few days notice before hand. In the unit, there are some little details that are messed up (such as where the flooring meets the wall, or a couple of wall outlets seem slightly unscrewed, the faux granite tops are chipped in some places. If you have a keen eye for detail, then this place will probably bother you. Our water bill for two people is between $30-50 per month, and is paid at the same time as the rent. I have not really noticed any dog poop outside, but I don't really look for it. The price per square footage is bad, but I don't know how it compares to the immediate surroundings, so it might actually be properly priced. If you are thinking about moving here, there are quite a few complexes a stone's throw away, so you can research that. The faux would flooring is a bit delicate, so if you slide something across it, you can rip up a portion of it (this has happened underneath the couch). So that is a bother. Truthfully, I don't know if there was a huge management change or something, but I don't really understand where a lot of the big complaints come from. tl;dr: Cons- no in unit washer/dryer -shower head too low. -toilet clogs -pricy for the size -little details here and there messed up. -No fitness center -Water smells bad (infrequently) Pros- Nice staff -accpetable parking -low noise convenient location -no bugs -good layout of unit -double closets I wouldn't feel like I was screwing someone over if I told them to live here, but once my lease is up, im out, mainly because of the lack of fitness center, the price, and the washer/dryer in unit. There are certainly many apartments better than this place, but that is not to say this one is particularly awful. I feel like 3/5 is a proper rating. I will edit this once I move out and talk about that process. EDIT: Related story to moving out: My lease is up in about 20 days from when I am writing this, but the place we were going to move into had some issues, and I needed an extension on my lease. I went into the office, and they allowed me to extend my lease for a month (though at a slightly raised price, as expected). I dont know if this is common practice at apartment complexes, but it saved me from being forced into moving to an apartment that was no longer suitable, and gave me some time to find a new place. Im still moving out of harvest hill, but it further goes into my previous statement on how I wouldn't feel bad if I told someone to live here.

I moved in these apartments a couple months ago. I try to keep to myself, don't like to complain and follow the procedures provided by management. I called and asked when rent would be late and was told by a staff member after the fourth it would be considered late without giving me any other information. When I went into the office to pay on the fourth, the staff member told me with an attitude she gave me specific directions over the phone to drop it in the drop box before the office opens on the fourth and now I would be charged late fees because it was stated in my contract. It was very irritating because I called to get the correct information to avoid late fees only to be given false information by the staff and charged late fees regardless. If she had given me the correct information in the first place then I would have followed the procedures to avoid paying late fees and for her to lie to my face about giving me directions and giving me an attitude was unprofessional. I understand that I should have reviewed my contract instead of just listening to the staff member but that just shows how shady that staff members are because they failed to mention certain details so they could charge me late fees. I never had any troubles with my previous apartment complex and this is the first time I have had to deal with shady management. Obviously, I cannot ask the staff for basic information about the apartment. There is also a roach problem, parking is terrible, the washing machines puts holes in your clothes, cars will take up two to three parking spaces or park on the line, at an angle or in a towing zone even though the apartments claim they will tow you but they never do, walls are paper thin so I can hear everything and they will change the gate code without giving you the code leaving you stranded outside the gate. I was okay with dealing with all these issues but the shady management was the last straw. I cannot wait for my lease to be up and move out as soon as possible.

Initially, I thought this would be a good place to live. The rent is relatively cheap, it's fairly close to the train tracks and its close to the highway. I WISH that I would have looked more closely when I signed my lease. In my opinion, the apartments are old and poorly maintained. It seems to me that they put new fixtures and paint on badly maintained apartments. The outside look is atrocious and the inside is not much better in my opinion. Wires randomly run outside and around apartments. The sidewalks flood often and it seems that very few people pick up after their dog so you are constantly dodging dog poop. VERY IMPORTANT: In the year I lived at Harvest Hill, I saw multiple cars broken into, INCLUDING my own. After some cars were broken into recently, they brought in mobile video cameras stations. My car was parked in view of this camera when it was broken into and I was then told that the cameras did not capture video of the thief. My car was one of three broken into that night.

Harvest HIll is a well-maintained older apartment complex located very close to the medical center. The rent is competitive and the office staff is friendly and helpful. Maintenance requests are handled promptly and courteously. Great place to live!

I just moved to this apartment for ten days, and cannot believe that I have to write my second-time negative comment about this apartment. The manger said that the special offer is $199 for the first month, but in fact it is not true. I moved to this apartment on July 20th and paid $199. When I asked how much for my August rent, she replied that I have to pay $720 (a full rent) for August. In other words, the special offer (i.e., $199) is not for a month, just 12 days for me. According to their logic, even though I moved to this apartment on July 25th, I also have to pay $199 and this time, it is $199 only for six days. When I discussed this question with the manager, I don't know why she always said that the special offer is just for one month, rather than two months. Are 12 days equal to one month? If it is true that the special offer is $199 for one month, I just have to pay the rent from August 20 to August 31, about $288, not $720. I write this comment, because I don't want other people to be cheated by their untrueful promotion.