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Does apartment living just suck?

I'm moving out this fall (for college) and I just put a deposit on an apartment that I want to reserve so I can look at it before I decide to rent. Then I went on to an apartment ratings site and found out the place had horrible ratings from people who lived there. Mind you, this apartment will be about 1400 a month to rent. I started to panic and decided to look at ratings for other apartments in the area. To my surprise, nearly ALL except the extremely expensive ones were rated horribly. Why is this? Does all apartment living just suck? Why is every single apartment I am looking at in a wealthy upscale area have horrible ratings from angry tenants? How can I know how an apartment will be before I live there? Should I trust this online rating system? Help me, fellow apartment dwellers! For instance - I see noise complaints on EVERY SINGLE complaint at every complex!

Public Comments

1. As a property manager I often look at these sites to see what tenants think of the property. I find that often, the only comments I find are from people who weren't happy with something, or didn't get an answer they wanted. If you find a recurring theme in the posts, there may be some validity to it. If you find sporatic complaints about the property I wouldn't panic. It's probably not the majority opinion.
2. You need to have a bit of patience for apartment living, that goes for nearly anywhere in the world. The thing about these sites though, is that people who are happy rarely comment on them. The only people who say anything are not happy, and usually have some kind of grudge as well. College apartments are going to be a bit worse, but again...this is part of renting. The best thing you can do is get to know your neighbors, so you can talk to them on a personal level if they are being too loud. Also, don't expect too much out of management. I've dealt with a lot of people who think that getting someone out of an apartment is easy-peasy, and that the landlord can do it on a whim with little more than another resident's complaint. Evictions are not easy in any state, especially for noise. So you want to get in good with the neighbors and try to deal directly with them in these matters.
3. People don't really get on those sights to gush about how great life is... only when something is wrong do they speak up. But yes apt living still does suck imagine it as one big house w LOADS of relatives running around night and day.
4. take a tour at 3 or 4 in the afternoon to see what the other tenants are complaining about. it doesn't cost to look.
5. The only thing these sites are good for are so angry tenants who didn't get their way can have a place to moan and complain at. People who were made to follow the lease or people who didn't pay and either had to pay late charges or were kicked out.People who couldn't run over management and got their bluffs called. That is why you see so many complaints because people don't want to follow the rules and throw childish tantrums because of it.