Agora at South Main Apartments 1500 Newell Avenue, Walnut Creek, CA 94596

"7/31/23 Update: Still five stars! I have zero complaints about the apartment. The location is (still) fantastic, the amenities are (still) great, and I never hear my neighbors which is a huge plus for me. Since COVID the leasing staff is no longer on site, but the entire community is super grateful for Cedric, myself included. Cedric is always so pleasant and does a great job at mitigating all/any maintenance requests timely and thoroughly. He's super professional and goes above and beyond for the residents here. Overall, the community is still great and a large part of that is because of the care and oversight by Cedric. With respect to the leasing office staff, Virginia is amazing and super helpful despite not being on site. Incredible maintenance... Justin is the absolute best. Had an issue recently with a light bulb and he fixed it within a couple of hours. I love living here and can’t speak highly enough of the staff, apartment, location, and community! Just overall awesome."

"Cedric always goes above and beyond. Essex is lucky to have him."

"Cedric, the consistent in-person presence and manager of all things related to resident needs and maintenance, is the reason we enjoy living at the Agora! He goes above and beyond to build relationships, respond to requests big or small, and goes out of his way to anticipate how he can be helpful."

"I have been a resident of Agora for several years now, and my experience has been consistently excellent. From the moment I moved in, I was greeted by a community of friendly and helpful neighbors. The staff at Agora has been particularly outstanding, and I would like to extend a special thanks to Cedric. He consistently goes above and beyond to assist residents and ensure their needs are met. Whenever I've had a service request or needed assistance with any matter, Cedric has promptly and efficiently addressed the issue. His dedication and willingness to help are truly commendable. I am grateful for his exceptional customer service and genuine care for the residents. Agora is truly a wonderful place to live, and Cedric's contributions have greatly enhanced my experience here."

"We've lived here for a few months and it's been an absolute NIGHTMARE. If you're considering living here, know that you're paying $5,000/month for a sizeable townhome-style apartment that is filled with cheap appliances that fall apart (stove that rattles and barely offers a flame to boil water on) and swarms of insects (we've had pest control spray the property to no avail - we're also VERY clean people), and it's serviced by the worst leasing office / community manager we've ever had, Racquel Astronomo. Racquel takes a minimum of ONE WEEK to respond to an email. Racquel NEVER answers the phone. Racquel is NEVER at the leasing office. Racquel hardly exists from our understanding. Essex, the property management company, is also the worst we've ever experienced. They have a call center that "triages" you to the leasing office every time you call. They claim to "leave messages" that never get responded to. Recently, we tried to get ahead of our lease renewal and reached out to her by email and phone numerous times, unsurprisingly, to no avail. So I showed up to the leasing office to meet with her in person, where she a) doesn't greet me until I speak up or knock on the door, even though I'm blatantly standing there waiting for her and she can see me, b) brushes me off when I ask for 5 minutes of time to discuss lease renewal, saying that she's "busy", c) tells me she'll email me, and then takes over 2 weeks to do so. And here's the best part: when she FINALLY reaches out, and I start to ask for better lease terms -- you know, within reason, because we're quiet, clean, non-disruptive tenants -- she ghosts us! As a landlord with any wits whatsoever, why WOULDN'T you want a clean, non-disruptive, respectful tenant that PAYS to stay?! Well, because Essex is a clearly greedy property trust that doesn't care about people. They're in the business of hooking you into a lease, then cranking up the rent at the end of your lease term -- even though they might have given you a massive one-off concession initially -- in hopes that the hassle of moving will you from doing so... all for a little extra revenue per month. And it doesn't end there. We decided to move out because of how awful this place has been, so we sent our 30 day notice to vacate, which was responded to in 4 days (LOL). I've been trying to schedule a move out inspection since then (11+ days), but Racquel and Essex won't respond and we're moving out in 1 day. UNREAL! Essex is a horrible management company. Racquel is the worst property manager we've ever worked with. Agora is NOT worth the money. THERE ARE BETTER PLACES TO LIVE IN WALNUT CREEK! P.S. I will echo that Justin, the maintenance manager, is fantastic. He's the ONLY gem in this phony illusion of a luxury apartment complex."