Avalon Trace Apartments

I've lived in Avalon Trace for three years. I've had good and bad experiences with the complex. I would say overall good, but the bad experiences (although few) are not minor so I had to drop my stars down to 3.



Pros:

-great price,

-great location (I'm a student at A&T and my son is a student at Erwin Montessori, and both are less than a 5 minute drive from my apartment complex),

-prompt, friendly, and reliable maintenance team (I LOVE Danny and Russ!! They usually respond to work orders within 24 hours and they know everybody on the property. I never see them slacking. They get the job done! I doubt I'll find another maintenance team as dedicated and reliable as them if I move),

-quiet neighborhood (although it's a low-income community, there is very little crime in the complex and very little drama. My neighbors are either foreigners who do not speak much english, older students who are living off-campus, and senior citizens. I have a few younger neighbors who have small families, maybe 1 or 2. The worst that I've experienced consists of the younger people loitering outside their apartment in the late hours of the evening during summer months, but management put a stop to that),

-abundant parking and no passes needed,

-latest property manager seems to care about making improvements to the community (but it seems like her hands are tied by the property owners and she is unable to make all the changes she wants)





Cons:

-no curb appeal (the buildings look horrible when you drive up, but inside the apartments look very nice),

-constant change in management (in the three years I've been here, we've had three property managers and countless assistant property managers),

-no real incentive to be a long-standing resident (every year when it's time to renew my lease they try to jack up my rent by a ridiculous amount, e.g. $40-$50, and I have to fight the rate increase since I've never paid late, and I don't cause any problems),

-BUGS (it's an old property and even though my neighbors and I keep very clean houses, we still see bugs. The apartment complex has a contract with a local pest control company who comes out every Monday, but they do not visit every apartment. You have to request a visit from the exterminators. I think they need to have the exterminators visit EVERY apartment once a week and spray for at least 2 months to eliminate the problem, not just give temporary fixes!),

-children damaged my property ($2000 worth of damage to my car by my neighbor's children who used it as a drum set, and although I notified the property they did very little to help resolve the issue. In fact, I don't think they did anything that they told me they would do because I never received any of the notices they said they would send out to the residents whose children were involved and there does not seem to have been any repercussions for the incident.)



So overall, there were a few issues here, but only a few. Unfortunately, the last two issues are not minor issues and had a large impact on my overall rating. I could have given this place 4 stars, but the bugs and the damage to my personal property by my neighbors caused the complex to lose another star.

Yes, the rent is very affordable, but avoid this place if at all possible!!! The property manager is unprofessional, ignorant, temperamental, uncooperative, and unhelpful. I ve had issues with her refusing to give me information to which all tenants are entitled, and charging me fees without notifying me - until many months later - and other tenants have had problems getting things fixed in timely manner. Also, the company that owns this apartment complex regularly does things that are illegal and/or unethical, like turning people in to collection agencies for fees or charges they had never been billed for and never knew about. Also, the windows are doors are very poorly insulates, so you will pay a fortune for electricity. Beware!