Should I believe this apartment rating site?

[Gothic Dazrael]

An apartment rating site (www.apartmentratings.com) I read a bad review from. Shuold I believe it, or no? :confused: My mom's moving to the place on Wed.

[Wanted]

I went there to look up reviews of the apartment I've lived at for 3 years now... some of the reviews are old and therefore moot, but I suppose you can trust some of the newer ones. Just keep in mind that pretty much every review there has a bias.

[Zeonic Freak]

I am going to love this thread, seeing how the main reason is that my dad has been building apartments for over 20 years, and the fact that i worked at one particular place for over a year with him just not too long ago.

Heres a review i can gladly explain:
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/NC-Raleigh-Apartments-at-Oberlin-Court-554607.html

My apartment has had many construction flaws. The most serious is that whenever it rains, I can count on water dripping from the ceiling. I've complained several times but with few improvements and lack of proper response from the staff.First, the main reason why the apartment has leaks and cracks in the building is the fact that the building started to settle about when the framing was finished. My dad who was the supernintendent at the job even told the Project Manager and others who were involved with the design of the place how the building will settle seeing how its built next too the parking garage (which over time, the door opening from the garage to the apartment floor lowered a couple of inches) and warned them over and over about the problem before and after the building was finished.

Secondly, after the apartments were finished, theres only so much the mantinence people on the job can do, and they have had to repatch the areas over and over, but they know good and well its not going to do much.

Other things that annoy me are:
- cheap old-fashioned thermostat.
- dirty parking garage.
- threatful flyers distributed about things .that will happen if we disturb the peace.
- they're too cheap to set up auto-payment of rent.Answer #1: As long as the thermostat works, why worry.
Answer #2: Ok, i wanna say i broke my back and the other labors sweeping the garage, and its a 3 day job from every corner on all 5 floors. And say if we were to clean the garage, where are you going to park? All 5 levels are 3/4 of the parking at that place, and there isnt anyother place to relocate them seeing how im guessing they started Phase 2 of the area.
Answer #3: Thats up to the managment of the place, and since one of head people left back in late of 2005, im sure they got a meaner battleaxe to run the place (first lady was cool, we had a BBQ at her house a few months before she moved).
Answer#4: So is it that hard for you to walk to the back way of the clubhouse and stick your payment in the box? Theres 3 elevators in there, fastest way to get there and pay your cash.

Apperenly, a one bed one bath there cost about 800 a month, just getting a price out there, and its high seeing how its on a major road where there are idiots who run over stop signs and hit trees (which both are true when i worked there).

Well, bottom line, people complain, and people like my dad do thier best to not let these mistakes happen. But you can only do so much...

[The Wolverine]

Hmm... I was reading reviews for my apartment complex, and I happen to agree with most of them (the negative ones, anyway). There's nothing positive about this place and the management (or lack of) is the worst I've ever dealt with.

So I'd say you can trust the reviews you read fairly well.

[veemonjosh]

I was hoping they would have a review of the apartment complex I used to live in, but they unfortunately don't.

God, that place was so terrible. Once a month, our sinks would overflow with crap from the toilets upstairs. On top of that, my bedroom had a mold stain on the ceiling that just grew bigger and bigger each year. We also kept getting latino neighbors move in upstairs, just to be arrested a week later, and then a new latino family would move in, in an endless cycle. Also, the landlord who ran the place got arrested for drug possession or some form of adultery (it was never clear which one it was).

Good times, good times....

[Stuckey]

According to the reviews I live in a complex that has murder, rampant theft, has 10 sex-offenders within a mile and is "the major link of the Mexican underground railroad". Oh and the prior landlord was apparently a bigot.

1.4 rating. Awesome.

[Stuckey]

Also, the landlord who ran the place got arrested for drug possession or some form of adultery (it was never clear which one it was).

Good times, good times....

It wasn't adultery, that's for sure.

[Weatherman]

Only the malcontents really comment much. Be warned about any new apartment building, the comapnies putting alot of these thigns up don't seme to care too much about spending on quality or doing much maitenence, so buyer beware. And I do mean the landlords, not the contractors workign on impossible schedules.

Also, I hope she got an apartment at least 4 levels above ground. Ground floors tend to get alot of bugs.

[mookie75]

Well, my apartment complex only had 6 comments and all of them were negative. However, my brother and I have never hand any problem with this place, so in our case this site doesn't offer a very accurate view. A few of the comments complained about our new manager, but we just got a free carpet cleaning out of her. I went down to the office a couple weeks ago just to see if the complex had a cleaner we could borrow, and she said, "No, but since you guys just signed a new lease recently I can have our cleaning people come in and do it for you." It was a pretty sweet deal. Not only did I not have to go through the trouble and expense of acquiring a carpet cleaner, but I also didn't have to do it myself! Win-win! :D

Anyway, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to use this site to steer your toward a complex that has all good comments (if such a place exists), but just because a handful of people have a bad experience doesn't mean everyone will. As many of us are all too aware: the internet is a popular place for whiny people to go in order to vent their oftentimes unjustified feelings of adversity and persecution.