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Apartment ratings on Yelp or ApartmentGuide?

I've been looking around for an apartment, and when I looked at Yelp or ApartmentGuide, it seems like all the ratings for all the apartments are horrible. I wonder if I should take them seriously (like with restaurant ratings - which are mostly accurate) or with a grain of salt. Do the people who rate tend to be the rare truly dissatisfied bunch? Or, is it kind of like the ratings for car dealerships, where everyone expects too much? It seems like my family and friends who have lived in apartments always seem to have excellent relationships with the management and don't have problems. Is it that I'm looking at the wrong apartments, or is there a strong low-rating bias in reviews?

Public Comments

1. I think when it comes to apartments, people only tend to complain when they are unhappy. If you had everyone who was also very pleased with where they lived posting, it would be a different story. Also remember that a good portion of the time, the person complaining has done something wrong and is retailiating - they have been late, had lease violations, or they pay $200 a month and expect $2000 a month level of living. Also you will find ex-employees on there posting nasty things for retaliation too. I don't pay attention to either of these sites. If you want a good opinion, go to the community you want to live and walk around and talk to the residents one on one. You'll get a much better picture.