Quantcast

Apartment reviews: Are they Trustworthy?

Lalah

C A R A M E LL E
Joined
Apr 5, 2014
Messages
46,000
Reaction score
Reactions
282,327 15,405 8,148
287,390
Alleybux
3,310
It's so hard to find the perfect apartment/condo on a reasonable budget. I have a bad experience with moving into an apartment with all kind of problems but the reviews were decent. Now I'm thinking reviews are faked by management. How can you get honest reviews and can you trust apartment reviews? Looking for a new place to call home is not easy at all. On top of everything, I'm moving to a new city, so I'm really nervous about moving and being stuck in a lease. Sometimes it will look nice on the outside but is infested with pest or high crime or shady landlords/maintenance workers.
 

D U N K I N

Official Coco Gauff Stan Account
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
2,639
Reaction score
Reactions
27,321 753 428
29,347
Alleybux
134,116
rarely are people inclined to leave a review when they have a positive experience. So take an abundance of negative reviews with a grain of salt because the only reviews likely to be left are negative. For this reason I would also feel that a lot of positive reviews are faked or management gave them an incentive. My complex has plenty of negative reviews but I honestly have zero complaints myself. But I will say do a tour and use your intuition.

Once my dad called up to a wing stop to tell the manager how GOOD the wings were. The manager gave him his next order free because he said literally the only calls he gets are when they only have bad things to say lol.
 

KarmasMisery

It's your destiny!
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
11,070
Reaction score
Reactions
119,191 5,594 2,110
130,551
Alleybux
792
I would trust the bad reviews over the good ones. My first apartment would lower people’s rent or give us stuff if we left good reviews (aka lie about how amazing that shithole was).
 

Auntie Iyanla

Saving heaux
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Messages
17,429
Reaction score
Reactions
239,652 6,000 546
275,034
Alleybux
840,517
If you can't visit the place in person, trust the negative reviews. Sometimes positive reviews are left by property managers/staff.
 

krazyJ

On his Brohan while Gohan's GoneHan
Joined
Aug 22, 2015
Messages
8,058
Reaction score
Reactions
55,166 2,772 133
76,222
Alleybux
234,199
Whenever I read reviews I only go for the negative ones. Is the tenant (or ex tenant) upset that they have a 3 year old fridge instead of a brand new one? Or are they upset because there's an abundance of roaches and the complex keeps telling them that they'll come spray, but never does?
 
Last edited:

Bellz

$tanning myself
Joined
Nov 6, 2017
Messages
8,244
Reaction score
Reactions
68,002 3,185 2,481
69,742
Alleybux
47,003
i feel like if the only bad reviews are that management is rude, then the apartment is a winner. that's because all apartment offices are rude. if the apartment has serious issues, you know that people are going to say something about it, so if they havent, that's a good sign. i personally take infestation and crime complaints very seriously.
 

Psalm

I groan back and sometimes I do so viciously
Joined
Dec 16, 2013
Messages
34,524
Reaction score
Reactions
283,912 18,832 4,093
315,385
Alleybux
76,424
I find them to be VERY trustworthy. I had a friend whose management company PAID her to post positive reviews to offset the TRUE negative ones. Any reviews that speak on maintenance issues, roaches, rats, mold you better believe it.
 

Afrohemian

Growing and Glowing.
Joined
Jul 25, 2012
Messages
4,044
Reaction score
Reactions
17,168 847 551
17,718
Alleybux
137,429
rarely are people inclined to leave a review when they have a positive experience. So take an abundance of negative reviews with a grain of salt because the only reviews likely to be left are negative. For this reason I would also feel that a lot of positive reviews are faked or management gave them an incentive. My complex has plenty of negative reviews but I honestly have zero complaints myself. But I will say do a tour and use your intuition.

Once my dad called up to a wing stop to tell the manager how GOOD the wings were. The manager gave him his next order free because he said literally the only calls he gets are when they only have bad things to say lol.

I strongly disagree with this.

Many apartments around me give people gift cards for good reviews or advertise a month off rent. They also will delete bad reviews.

I agree some people exaggerate their situations and complain about nothing, though. Especially hotel reviews.

OP, I would look at google reviews. I feel like people are a little more honest there, don’t ask me why. Also, look for any reoccurring complaints. Maybe ask people you see around a certain apartment you like how they feel about it.
 

MistressNae

Team Owner
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
30,333
Reaction score
Reactions
366,750 7,937 4,305
415,414
Alleybux
419,790
Trust the Bad and ignore the good. Look for location, parking, pests, slow repairs and poor communication with management complaints.
 

Alsi

General Manager
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
4,372
Reaction score
Reactions
52,308 1,638 1,295
53,306
Alleybux
601,919
Like one poster mention, read the bad reviews. Pay extra attention to the ones that are specific with complaints. The one star "management is bad" nothing else are as useless as the five star "great place, nice people" reviews.
 

Diva Hilary

Life is beautiful!
Joined
Jun 18, 2011
Messages
5,956
Reaction score
Reactions
79,591 8,651 10,090
74,886
Alleybux
105,284
What I've learned over the years is as long as it's 3.5 stars out of five, it's livable and doable. Anything lower than that will be hell on earth.
 

Zaddy

ViShawn Wakanda
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
Reactions
7,636 99 25
8,015
Alleybux
13,906
Read the Google reviews and go from there. Every apt I've looked into, I read the Google reviews, visit the apt, and pay attention to the negative reviews.
 

D U N K I N

Official Coco Gauff Stan Account
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
2,639
Reaction score
Reactions
27,321 753 428
29,347
Alleybux
134,116
I strongly disagree with this.

Many apartments around me give people gift cards for good reviews or advertise a month off rent. They also will delete bad reviews.

I agree some people exaggerate their situations and complain about nothing, though. Especially hotel reviews.

OP, I would look at google reviews. I feel like people are a little more honest there, don’t ask me why. Also, look for any reoccurring complaints. Maybe ask people you see around a certain apartment you like how they feel about it.

I said that management will get tenants incentives for positive reviews. I've read plenty of fake positive reviews when I was doing my apartment hunting but like I said many people are only inclined to comment when its something negative so she should be careful about all reviews she reads.
 

tt00

Team Owner
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
25,298
Reaction score
Reactions
158,162 7,431 1,115
174,219
Alleybux
631,900
Yes just like hotel reviews , if there are too many bad ones referring to same problem then more than likely it's true.
 

cherrymoonxo

Starter
Joined
Nov 23, 2018
Messages
282
Reaction score
Reactions
2,551 41 16
2,535
Alleybux
290
I give more weight to negative reviews than positive reviews because like others have said, there are often incentive$$$ and bribes that come with positive reviews or they are posted by staff. If a reviewer only has one review and it's a 5 star for the apartment building, that's suspect.
 

Peachesforeva

Starter
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
152
Reaction score
Reactions
1,109 68 45
1,260
Alleybux
21,582
It's so hard to find the perfect apartment/condo on a reasonable budget. I have a bad experience with moving into an apartment with all kind of problems but the reviews were decent. Now I'm thinking reviews are faked by management. How can you get honest reviews and can you trust apartment reviews? Looking for a new place to call home is not easy at all. On top of everything, I'm moving to a new city, so I'm really nervous about moving and being stuck in a lease. Sometimes it will look nice on the outside but is infested with pest or high crime or shady landlords/maintenance workers.

I worked in property management... I think it can go either way honestly. We offered incentives for leaving a positive review often. Sometimes there'd be nut cases who exaggerated the fuckkk out of a negative review. Best bet is to schedule a visit and meet the property manager, assistant manager, and as many leading agents as you can. That way you will know what you're dealing with in the future should any issue arise. They'll usually kiss your ass until you've signed that lease tho, so even basing your choice off of that is tricky. I'd read into all the community policies and ask to see several units on your tour.
 

Similar Threads

News Alley

The Lounge

General Alley

Top Bottom