University View

Kaylyn Branton

I lived at The View (tower 2) for 2 years during college. After graduating, I am moving to the Silver Spring area and have essentially become a real estate agent of the DC area just searching for apartments. Most complexes do not return calls/emails, have damaged/infested apartments and limited amenities for their cost. I have to say my experience with The View was amazing - every phone call was answered, there was always an employee at one of the front desks, every maintenance call was addressed with 2-3days for non-urgent situations, there's a gym, pool, parking, we've never had any security issues and it's fully furnished in a reasonable price range. I regret moving.

shu qin

(I have a double in tower 1) The Good - Pretty solid amenities. They give u a tv, a decent kitchen, and a laundry machine. Theres study rooms around and the gyms exist too. Theres nothing missing on that front. - Im even in tower 1, which should be older, and everything in there is relatively modern. - I remember when I wanted to live here, there were complaints about maintenance, and I gotta say, completely different experience. When u sent a ticket in, they would respond within 2-3 days and they did work pretty quick. For more serious issues (like water damage ill talk more about it later), u could call the front desk and they would come up within 24 hrs. I gotta say thanks to the maintenance staff, felt bad for having them come so many times. - Shuttle system is really convenient. Just be aware most shuttles don’t run during the day on the weekends The Bad - I really wish they had some kind of bin in the trash room for recycling. it would be really convenient for a bin for plastics glass aluminum bottles cans and containers to be there, and then we can put boxes on the floor. - I mean the price is expensive no shock. Tho to be fair housing around here is expensive in general. Tho I completely get that its def really high for students paying in-state, since for my room you almost pay as much as their tuition, which sounds crazy. Expect a 40-60$ utility monthly with the 15$ allowance already applied - There are paperwork mistakes sometimes, you can email them and theyll resolve it. Their email/call communications were pretty good. - Its never really quiet since its near route 1. But I generally havent had noise issues with other residents - I understand due to timing/staff constraints it wouldve been tricky to check, but when I first moved into this apartment, it was GROSS. This was a complaint a couple of others I know have. The floors were so dirty, if you walked across them in socks for like an hour the bottoms would be black, and the floors were sticky. I guess the previous residents didn’t clean the floors. Fridge needed to be cleaned. If you are coming in expecting a cleaned and ready to live in apartment, be prepared to be dissapointed. Bring cleaning supplies! - Both me and my roommate had water issues. Mine was relatively minor, but room checks really shouldve noticed a puddle behind a toilet coated in mold. My problem was fixed quick and easy. My roommate had water leaking under the laminate floor panels. Luckily no serious water damage, but when you stepped on the flooring water would seep up between the cracks with some kind of dissolved adhesive. To give them credit maintenance did good, the process of fixing it, the communications throughout, no problem. Main complaint, whoever does these room checks + cleans at the end of the year dropped the ball. It was visibly obvious there was a problem due to dried adhesive marks all over her floor when we first moved in even when dry, as well as a prevalent musty smell that hung around for a month or so. Eventually everything was resolved. Otherwise, we had some water shutdowns early in the year but part of that was construction, since several apartment complexes had the same issue. As of now, havent had a water issue for a couple of months now. We had one wifi outage, resolved within 48-72 hours, and the wifi itself is pretty fast. I do not know how they handle student conflict. Find a roomate, even if its not a friend, and discuss about rules and habits. In summary, I considered the bulk of my experience here pretty positive, so I to renewed. It’s just all the bad stuff at the beginning of the year that definitely puts a bitter taste in my mouth. Essentially, pretty good, but could be done better.

Graham Soofer

Lived in a 2x2. Room is good size, comes with desk, bed, draws (under bed). Very fast wifi. Good closet space. Bathrooms are quite nice and spacious, fan as well. Good ceiling light in kitchen, one small very yellow light in common room (it’s terrible, I put up light strips but still not bright enough) , same in dinning area but kitchen light suffices for that. Dryer doesn’t dry that well (usually have to run it 2 times). All the other appliances are fine though the oven takes a longer than preferred time to heat up compared to other ovens. Utilities were about $30-40 a month. Gyms are nice, the one at view 2 is 24 hrs. Floor 4 on view 1 has pool table, ping pong table, vending machines, and 8 person foosball. Haven’t used the pool much but it’s 3 feet deep, there’s also propane fire pits and grills outside. Parking is expensive, $120/month, can be hard to find a spot sometimes tbh. A bus comes right up to the front and goes through campus; so that’s nice. Staff are all very nice from security to front desk to management. Maintenance orders are usually very quick to get responded to. Only complaint is my one side of the closet door kept falling off the runner and management hasn’t put in a new one, just quick fixes. Overall I really liked living here but they keep increasing the rent to extreme rates which is absurd. So…yea

Steve

I’ve had experiences with various student apartment rentals in college park. In my opinion the view is the worse so far. Even though the view appears to be competitive in terms of rent, they will nickel and dime you for so many other expenses. The cost for utilities every month just adds up. Also at the end of year they will gouge you for expenses that should qualify as normal wear and tear. They tried to charge us for dust that was on the floor saying it would require significant cleaning. Give me a break! Call them and they will remove some of the charges but others such as marks on the wall they will say require a full painting of the room. Are you telling me that a mark on the wall is not considered to be normal wear and tear? It’s ridiculous. My son stayed at another apartment rental and had similar marks and was not charged at all. Save yourself some money and headache and look elsewhere.