This item text has been erased.

58 responses total.

This response has been erased.

I have stayed in 2 complexes in Ann Arbor:  Park Place (Stadium and Pauline)
and Traver Knoll (Plymouth & Barton).

Park Place is a huge, cheaply built complex, not on the best side of town.
It does look pretty nice, but there is not much in the way of sound 
isolation between units, which is the main reason I left (although the
domestic violence upstairs wsa replaced by Beavis & Butthead and their
mom, I had already had enough).  The place is also uninsulated, so having
your own furnace is definitely expensive.  My largest heat bill (granted,
during the cold snap of '94) was about $110 for a one bedroom apt.  Even
the patio doors are single pane :(.  The management (McKinley) seems to
concentrate heavily on promotions and not on value, although the repairs,
when needed, were generally pretty prompt.

Traver Knoll, where I still am for a second year, is much better.  It's
another 20-30 year old complex, with some outdated features (there are
newer buildings as well).  It is in a much better part of town, and I can
walk to some parks on the river.  It does have air conditioning, but it
is part of the hot water system so that it has to be switched over for
summer and therefore cannot handle suprise hot days in April or May.  It
is free (part of the rent, I suppose) since they really can't meter it.  
I think that once I figure in heating (free here, my own furnace/air at
Park Place), my rent is the same for a much better place.

The Traver Knoll management gets pretty good marks, with one exception.
They post notes when there has been a break-in (2-3 in the time I've been
here), and once they changed all the locks after their office was ripped
off.  I figure that there may have been more thefts at Park Place, but
the management never told the residents.  The one problem I've had with
the management invelved losing a weeks worth of mail when I was on a 
trip and they had to fix the mailboxes.  I knew I had some bills coming, 
but one of the office staff (the other was on vacation) kept insisting
there was no way my mail could have been lost, even though she couldn't
explain why my extremely logical theory could be better than her complete
lack of another theory.  When the other lady got back and I gave my whole
story, song, and dance, she apologized.  The management did give me a week
to change apartments with no extra rent, which was nice of them.

Park Place:  D (would be better if they weren't such promotion freaks)
Traver Knoll: A-, with a little bit of a grudge left from the mail incident.

Ironwood Place Apartments.  The apartments have a good location and are fairly
well priced for their size.  The construction is the typically shoddy
Ann Arbor stuff (hard to believe people would want thin walls in *Michigan*),
but the interiors are otherwise good.  There is plenty of room.  *Lots*
of closet space.  Washer and dryer come with the apartment (yay!).  The
management is *extremely* helpful and will work quite hard to make you
happy.  Repairs are done promptly and without fuss. I am overall satisfied
with the place.  I give an A-.  Would be an A or even an A+ except for thin
outside walls.

Lake in the Woods, Ypsilanti
Very expensive, but has a lot of activities(adult and children). Great 
setting, and security gate. I don't live there any more, buying my home.
Speaking of which...I am a Realtor, call me when you are tired of paying 
someone elses mortage. office 481-0303, voice mail 708-2030

This response has been erased.

Where is Meadowbrook Village?

I had McKinley when I lived in Park Place, and didn't have any major problems
with them, I always thought that the extreme promotions they would run were
really creepy.

This response has been erased.

This response has been erased.

   I would leave M.V at the speed of light. This utility thing is absolutly
THE most idiotic thing that I have ever heard of. Run Away, Valerie ;)

This response has been erased.

when i lived on packard and fourth,the hotel glr, our landlord
was 'keystone properties'. they were ok about fixing things. sometimes
we had to lean on them, like when we wanted a washer/dryer installed, 
and when our livingroom couch started eating people. but the
maintenance guy lived next door, and he was pretty cool.
the only thing i really hated was that they rented out our parking lot
behind the house, and sometimes the rentees werent very careful
how they parked.
grade b+/a-

the other place where i lived was tradewinds apts, on the corner of
main and hoover. cheap <1 bdrm for $440 month>.
er.. that should read the only other place that had an official
landlord company.
anyway, it was 2 big white buildings up on stilts, and you parked
underneath. i thought the layout was ok, hubby said it was too dark.
since it was on stilts and the outside walls were uninsulated brick, it
was difficult to keep warm in the winter. the gas bills were ridiculous.
we didnt pay for water though. one day the main hotwater heater broke, 
and i think it took them too long to fix it. <couple days> they told
everyone to take a cold shower. they were responsive when i found
a cockroach, and immediately sprayed. they told me i'd get new carpet
when i moved in, but it didnt happen. they also didnt keep the
underneath lighted very well, and my car was broken into a few
times, as well as others. the tenants would communicate to each other
via notes tacked on the bulletinboard by the mailboxes, telling of
break-ins and what not. the landlords would remove the notes. they werent
good about keeping the laundry room functioning.
the landlords were called 'isa properties' and their office was that
party store by city hall. all in all, i'd give them a 'c'.

This response has been erased.

We'll practically be neighbors. Medford is on our daughter's route
to and from school.

  Those appear to be nice apartments, although I have never lived there, I
have always heard good things about them. Mostly seniors & professional
types. I think you'll be happy there.

This response has been erased.

I think you are being screwed by Briar Cove.  You might want to read up in
the little blue "tenant's rights" booklet you get in an apt, and see if it
is worth fighting.  I often do because I don't want companies to just be able
to get away with such shit.

This response has been erased.

You can buy burner pans at Meijers for a couple of bucks.

Burner pans, or the stovetop lying beneath them?

Hmmm....I took it to be an electric stove, and there are thin metal
pans that go under the "burners". 

This response has been erased.

We just bought new ones for ca. $3 ea. 

This response has been erased.

Or "cleaning", which landlords can't charge for either, I believe.

Fight! We'll give you moral support!

This response has been erased.

The acronym resulting from removing the "I" makes me leery as
well.

This response has been erased.

This response has been erased.

Well then - you and Jan have a new hobby now...   8^\

And McKinley Properties is the money that founded New Center.

How are they putting the "bad landlords" list together?  If they're doing it
based soley on who they get the most complaints about, I would expect to see
the biggest companies up near the top.  OTOH, if they did it as a ratio of
number of complaints to number of rental units, or something like that, a
landlord with one rental unit and an unhappy tenant would show up as having
100% of their tenants complaining, which also wouldn't be a good comparison.

This response has been erased.

Move in.  Make the best of it.  Enjoy the loft and living
near downtown.  You'd be hard pressed to find a perfect
"home", whether that be an apartment with a landlord or
a home with ownership responsibilities.

But if your landlord does start giving you grief just
imagine what it would be like living with mom.  That
out to bring some perspective to the problem. ;-)

(Mom here means everymom not Valerie's specific mom.)

This response has been erased.

Who's your current landlord?

This response has been erased.

I lived for ten years in a property managed by the Formidable Group,
Woods of Earhart apartments, and thought they were wonderful 
landlords.  

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss