Those of you who live/have lived in an apartment complex...

Can you please google some of them, with the apartment name and city, and click on any links from www.apartmentratings.com? I haven't seen anything on there rated over about 40 percent, and nearly all the comments are things like 'I almost died!' or 'It took 17 months to fix my tub from overflowing!'

I want to know if the places I'm looking at are really the death traps the reviews on there seem to say, and the only way to know is to see if you guys have had similar experiences to what people are saying on there about the places you've lived.

I really hope that makes sense.

 

Of all the places I've lived, only one of them is reviewed.

And it gets rightfully savaged.

 

Have used that site but don't put a lot of stock into it. Almost always negative, and makes me wonder how whiny/demanding some people are.

 

F_H, those places sound like parties compared to this review of a place I visited today that I actually really really really liked. Then again, it was 1 p.m.

And

 

I last lived in an apartment 7 years ago. Just looked to see what they were saying about the place. 3 out of the 9 that posted comments recommended it (33%). Most of the comments were about some aspects of the place falling into a slight state of disrepair since I moved out. In some parts of the country I don't know how many people know about a site like this or that would take the time to post about a positive experience. For instance I know with the one I used to live in, 9 people posted comments out of the 100-150 units there are in the complex. So its a sample size of less than 10%.

 

The place I lived in my new town had comments like those and they were true. I ripped that place a new on that site. Great site that I found out about through SportsJournalists.com.

 

If you're concerned about the safety of the neighborhood, go to the police station and ask for a printout of the crime reports for your street (or cross street) for the last few months. They'll either do it for free or charge $10-$15, but its a good way of knowing how safe the neighborhood is.

 

I didn't know you could do that, EStreet. I was just going to ask our news side if they could help.

 

I did it about 12 years ago when I moved into an apartment. I wasn't sure about the neighborhood and went to the station and asked if I could get the police reports on the street for the last x months. 99% of it was for motor vehicle issues (speeding, not stopping at the stop sign, parking illegally, etc.).

 

Plus, safety seems to be the nuclear option after the landlord didn't come running when a tenant plugs up a toilet at 3 a.m.

 

The last one I lived at actually got a 66% rating (only a handful of people had rated it). It was a decent place.