Prairie Crest Apartments

"I lived in a studio apartment for 4 years. My rent was originally $899 (including parking space) and went up to $1,115 by my last year with a lease renewal of $1,270 or something in that ballpark. The apartment itself wasn't bad. Vaulted ceilings and balcony access were a big plus, and, I found it kind of fun to see how I could get the most out of the small space. After purchasing a cabinet bed, I felt more comfortable inviting friends over and even hosted some dinner parties. Neighbors were quiet, for the most part, until a quiet neighbor moved out and and the new one would invite a friend over to scream at a computer past quiet hours on a Thursday. I'm not really sure what that was about. I guess one not-mentioned downside of the apartment is its closeness to the freeway, where the noise made a stark difference once the lockdowns ended. You'll definitely hear high-speed traffic well into the night if you like to open windows. During the pandemic, the quietness was pretty nice, but that's likely to not return. One additional downside is that the water is HARD, which will be important later. As you can see, the rent increase was significant over the years, with another big jump right before I moved out. With every year, the lease renewal would give excuses like 'the water bill went up by 15%' (So is that justification for increasing the overall rent by 15%? Did all other expenses increase by 15%?) and made false promises of 'never again raising rent by this much' which gradually left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that a business has to make money, which I'm not opposed to, but false promises and hiding the truth isn't a good way treat your customers, especially if this is your best attempt at convincing a customer to sign for another year. One final annoyance which I want to corroborate from other reviews is the move-out procedure. I unfortunately can't share how much of the deposit I got back, but I will say that the property management is very keen on making the apartment 'perfect' before the next tenant move-in. Despite this apparent eagerness, they don't want to share their internal move-out checklist and they refuse to do the official move-out inspection with you present. Instead, after some pestering, I was able to do an 'informal' move-out inspection with the property manager. Here's some fun things to watch out for: 1. Scuff marks are pretty standard; just use some magic erasers to buff them out, right? Well, it's not just visible scuff marks that matter here. Ever lean something against a wall like a foldable table which doesn't appear to leave a mark against the wall? Well the property manager came in, laid down on the floor and started swinging a flashlight around to find these phantom scuff marks invisible to the eye under normal lighting conditions. Not only that, but the abrasive from a magic eraser will actually make the walls sparkle if an intense light is flashed on it. 2. No 'food residue' is allowed. This includes food stains IN the dishwasher, any odd-places in fridge/freezer (you better take out every shelf and fixture), all cabinets, drip pans on the stove (hack: use oven cleaner for this in a plastic bag, but handle with gloves, eye protection, ventilation and extreme caution please), stove electric coils (hack: you can rub tin foil on the coils), the oven (oven cleaner with all precautions again please), and the microwave. 3. Hard water will build up deposits on the shower walls and various fixtures. I routinely squeegeed the shower walls which gave the appearance of the walls being smooth and clean, but nope, the property manager swiped his hand over the walls and said it was 'rough' and suggested that 'elbow grease' was the way to clear it. That elbow grease was hours of intense labor to make the walls smooth to touch and left someone helping me move out absolutely wiped-out in the middle of us, well, moving. The management's handling of move-out is what really drops my score for this complex. If they weren't so cagey and nickle-and-dimey, I would probably give them a 4 or a 5."

"Had a wonderful experience with management, property staff, and the application process! I applied for a studio or one-bedroom apartment, and there was a studio availability where I got a tour the very next day. The property managers were incredibly helpful, energetic, and supportive and would highly recommend the apartment for their efficiency and process in getting my application through. The rent included underground parking, spacious living spaces, and many amenities."

"Prairie Crest Apartments may have been the most professional, helpful, and encouraging housing experience I've ever encountered. I worked with two staff members, Kia and Ian, who I've come to hold the upmost respect for. Great experience, and an even better place to live!"

"We have lived at Prairie Crest for a couple of weeks now. We moved in with only a brief virtual walkthrough but we have been happy with our choice! Ian, the property manager, has been a delight to work with and has been ready to help us with anything! The room, and the whole complex, seem to be kept up really well. The carpets are probably the nicest carpets we have seen in an apartment and we love the massive closets. We do live right above the garage and sometimes that wakes us up early in the morning and the walls are easy to mark up but not easy to clean. We had a suitcase scuff up a wall and as we were trying to wipe it off, the paint came along with it. Besides that, we would recommend this complex to anyone and we look forward to our time here."

"I lived in this complex for 3 years and I've never had the same problems a lot of people seem to have had with management. I always found the manager to be responsive and maintenance to be fast. The unit itself is a bit on the older side as far as fixtures are concerned, but I loved my loft when I lived here. Walls are a little but thin, but it's apartment living and I've come to expect a little noise, generally it wasn't an issue. My only big issue when I lived here was the fact it allowed smoking in the units and mine would stink of smoke. However as of this year I saw they're going smoke free in the units. Given the location I found the one bedroom loft to be an excellent value, also the pet rent was fairly reasonable. When I moved out I got about 80% of my deposit back, which I was ok with. They did charge me about $200 for "food residue" and to replace the drip trays on the stove, which I didn't find too excessive since I only spent a few hours cleaning before I moved out. Honestly don't let the low reviews scare you away, this is a perfectly good place to live."