Ocotillo Apartments

"I've been here for a year, and it's been amazing! The staff is great! Best prices I could find for a quality apartment. Appliances are up to date, floors look great, the natural light is something I care about, and my unit is flooded with sunlight, and I love it! I live by myself, so the 1 bedroom is perfect. I'd recommend a bigger Floorplan if you're a couple, though."

"Please do not apply here unless you want to wait 6+ WEEKS on anything to be done! I don’t usually leave bad reviews but I had such a HORRIBLE experience (and when looking up reviews I noticed that many people had the same experience) that I just have to share to warn others. Me and my partner were moving from another city to Austin and had initially visited another apartment complex (Yaupon) that was beautiful and had amazing people working there, but when our move in date came closer there were not any 2 bedroom/2 baths units on the 1st floor available (1st floor was a non-negotiable for us). They had suggested we look at their sister property (Octillio) as the layouts were exactly the same but just different colors. We blindly applied to Octillo before looking at it in person (100% our mistake). It look Kristin (worst leasing agent we ever dealt with) WEEKS to get our paperwork processed and she ended up sending us a lease with the wrong information on it, when we alerted her of this she said she would revise it and never got back to us. We ended up going to Austin for a festival 2 weeks later and figured that we can look at the unit in person (up until the point we have not heard one single word from Kristin). When we toured (with another leasing agent) we were pretty unhappy with how dirty the hallways were and the layout (so different from the beautiful Yaupon but we can’t fault Octillio on this as they personally didn’t tell me that they were identical to Yaupon). We ended up touring another unit within the complex and decided we would ask if we can get the unit switched. The leasing agent let us know that they would need manager approval and would get back to us on Monday (we toured on Saturday). Another TWO weeks go by and no word from anyone, not from Kristin or the leasing agent we toured with. A few days after that two week mark we get a lease email of the wrong unit, and then phone calls for days in a row saying “oh! We can switch your unit now!”. So you’re seriously telling me that your manager took WEEKS to approve this and you expected us to wait around with no plan hoping you guys would magically give us a call to give us any update LOL. I wouldn’t mind the long process if you guys had the decency to give us updates so that we were in the loop. At this point we already applied to another apartment as we are moving from a different city and could not risk not having a place to live as the date was getting closer and closer. We ended up asking for our deposit back because of the extensive leasing process and lack of communication throughout. Kristin again said she needed manager approval (fine, that make sense) so we waited and after THREE weeks of no follow up I called her and she emailed me back ONE HOUR later to tell me that her manager said no. Very funny that neither her or her manager had the balls to give me a call to inform me that they would not give the deposit back. Keep in mind that throughout this process I did not once get aggressive, raise my voice or curse them out (even though LORD knows I wanted to) so I am unsure why they were so scared to call me back. Worst experience I have ever had. Kristin- you need to find another job that you can do because making simple calls and following up must be too hard for you."

"There is no parking at Ocotillo. Starting last year they implemented a new parking system requiring us to have a parking sticker on our vehicles. I have yet to see our parking policy enforced a year later. I was recently in contact with the office about a specific parking issue happening at my building and was told by the office one tenant that lives here has FIVE vehicles when I came to her with this issue. There is a motorcycle that has been parked parallel to the curb in the 3rd spot right out of front of my building and has been left there for over a month now so that the owner of the motorcycle can pull his jeep behind the motorcycle and save himself a spot every day. People who want to have a reserved parking spot pay an extra $45/mo and he’s figured out how to get a saved spot every day for free. The office is aware of this and still has yet to take any action to free up the parking spot for other tenants in our building. A vehicle is abandoned after 48 hours but it’s okay to ocotillo management it’s sat there since November unmoved. I parked my car behind the motorcycle one day and was left a note threatening that he’d tow me. I went to management about this issue and they assured me he could tow me away for blocking his vehicle in and couldn’t offer any solutions to not having anywhere to park at the place I’ve called home for four years now. If you’re interested in living here, your groceries delivered even though HEB is across the street because it’s highly likely you’ll have to lug your groceries or child across the entire parking lot to get to your unit."

"Viewed the apartments amenities 07/29 Unenthusiastic leasing agent, didn’t have listed prices or details even though I called ahead of time and gave my interests. The apartments are extremely unkept, dirty hallways lined with trash bins and bags. The pool was closed for “maintenance” yet nothing was being done… and sign also says closed on mondays… not having access to a pool especially on a weekend day in the middle of summer is a red flag. The gym is horrific, equipment thrown everywhere, towels on the floor, rusted machines. Clubhouse was disgusting, dirt and hair all over the floors, towels and swim trunks left out. For the price of these apartments they should hold a better standard to where people are living."

"This neighborhood has very nice floor plans and some even come with a very large porch. I was here for about 2 years and was problem free. Anita the new manager is completely awesome! This is actually the best neighborhood I’ve lived in Austin. My move in and move out went as smooth as possible. I’d recommend Ocotillo to anyone moving to the Austin area! Based off seeing the last reviews I just wanted to emphasize that I didn’t have any problems with the front office or management. They’re always understanding and easy going. 5/5 stars from me!"