Tom Fleming
Google
I just moved in a week ago, so maybe things will get better, but in my experience so far, a 3-star rating is appropriate.
Pros: The apartment is in a great location with a lot of things to do. It has great amenities, including specifically purposed lounges, a lot of machines in its gym (although it would be better if it had more free weights and a hex bar), and a fabulous roof top, and the furnishings and hardware are all new and attractive.
The reasons for my 3-star review then are due to my nightmare of a move-in, the many little nuisances of the apartment design, and the lack of helpfulness from the leasing team.
First, the move-in. They only accept cashier's check. They informed me of this in advance, but forgot about it until 3:30pm on a Saturday, when all banks are closed. I called them to ask if I could pay in any other way so I could get my key and move in that day. They would not budge. Thankfully, I would have been able to extend a couple of days with my former apartment, but what if I had not had a place to stay? Greystar (the management company) was implicitly telling me "we don't care if you don't have a place to live". Very welcoming. I did end up moving in that day, but only after driving to a local bank in a Walmart in Landover Hills, Maryland, opening a checking account, and making a cash advance from my main bank into that account so they would be able to write a cashier's check for me. It was a very stressful day.
Second, there are a lot of design flaws around the apartment that add minor unpleasantness to my life, but add up. I will list a few of them. The hall closet has wire shelves that are great for storing things, but make it difficult to hang any coats. In the bathroom, there is no hand towel rack and the shower towel rod is positioned directly behind the shower door. In the bedroom, the sliding door is frosted, with no curtains, so that light comes in in the morning. In the kitchen, I cannot rearrange the shelves in the refrigerator because one of the doors does not come out far enough to remove and reinstall them. The placement of the stove/oven makes it so that there are two narrow sets of cabinets on either side that you can barely fit anything into--it would have been better to just have installed it a little to the left or right so that there would be a functional set of cabinets where one could actually store a lot of stuff. The sink is huge, which is great if you need to do a lot of dishes, but is mostly annoying, as it causes me to use more dish soap, and the water pressure from the kitchen faucet is weak, which makes it take longer to fill up the sink or refill my water tank. Finally, I must lift the bottom rack of the dishwasher when pulling it out or its wheels will get stuck in a gap between the tracks inside the dishwasher and the inside of the door (where it sits when you pull it out).
There are also irritating design aspects to the building. For one, the building is huge and to get from the East Tower (where I live) to the West Tower, you have to use about 3 different stair sets in the process and walk down a long, undecorated corridor that is reminiscent of the back hallways of 1990s mall. In addition to having to take multiple stair sets to get down to the ground floor, there is no way to open the doors to the stair set for the East Tower from the outside. It is a very pro-elevator facility, which is unfortunate for getting one’s steps in.
Lastly, my experiences with leasing have left something to be desired. When moving in, my leasing agent wrote the wrong address on my welcome letter and, even more confusingly, quoted a total for my move-in amount that was over $1,000 more than I actually had to pay. I had to call to get one of the other leasing agents to amend it. Also, when I went to ask the leasing office about having maintenance fix some of the nuisances I listed above, they treated me like I was the weird one and were completely unhelpful.
I wish I hadn't felt the need to give this review, but I felt it was eye-opening enough to share with prospective tenants.