I've been living here at Courts of Williamsburg for the first quarter of 2013. I will try to make this review as fair as possible, as well as mention all of the different ratings I gave the place.
Firstly, the quality of the surroundings is fantastic. I have a 2nd floor apartment that overlooks the Courtyard in the center of the complex. I'm surprised that it is NOT more expensive for one of these units. The view is great. If you are looking to move in, I would highly recommend asking for a unit
...with the courtyard view. The hedges are trimmed perfectly, the trees always look great, and the fountain gives off a soothing sound. The outside of the apartments look just a tad dated, but that sort of adds to the feel of these apartments. The surrounding area is great. The apartments are located in a small section of land smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood. When you drive off, you feel like you're leaving home, and not a parking garage. If you go for a walk you walk past houses, not worn down roads and thousands of parking spots.
Secondly, the overall value. For the price, this place is great. You would probably have to bring in 30k+ before taxes to afford to live here comfortably. Currently rent on a 1 bd 1 bth is $890/month, and the 2 bd is a little over $1000/mth. Most things are paid for (Heat, Water, Trash, etc) you only pay for Electric, and any 3rd party services like Cable, Internet, and Phone (but lets be honest who uses land line phones anymore?) This is one of the cheaper places I found and I actually like it the best out of all the complexes I visited. Unfortunately, there are not pets allowed. I would imagine you could be able to sneak by with a fish or a small animal that tends to stay in a cage, but still it's a little bit of a killer for me. I love cats :(. On the bright side, (and don't take this the wrong way) there are some stray/outdoor cats from the surrounding houses that hang out around here sometimes. When they find their way into the courtyard its fun to watch them run around and explore!
Third. Office Staff. The landlord (lady) is named Penny. She's an older woman, perfect icon of the feel of the place. (directed toward older, or more mature individuals) She's really nice, but can get a little irritated if you make a silly mistake (like forget to call ComEd to activate electric, and call Penny asking why you never got an Electric Bill - sorry...) There isn't much more to say about office staff, because Penny is the only one here, but I can say that the only 'bad' thing about the office situation is that you must mail your rent check in every month. There is no e-pay option. It takes several weeks for your rent check to get deposited by the Ownership Company which can get really annoying.
Four. Maintenance. The Maintenance guys are really nice. I live in the same building as one and her likes to throw little parties on the weekends. (just loud enough that you think it might be fun, but not loud enough for it to be annoying) Their quality of work is good, but it can take a long time for them to get you to fix certain things I had a broken dishwasher for 3 weeks before they got to me, and I had the glass windows of a cabinet break 2 weeks ago and still nothing. How cool/chill the guys are make it totally okay though. They aren't nasty about anything and are very helpful.
As for amenities, we do have 2 washers and 2 dryers for each building, however i find it cheaper, and faster to do my laundry at the laundromat about 2 miles away. It's $1.50 per wash and $1.50 per dry. At the laundromat it's $2.00 to wash, but you can get a whole load dry with just a Quarter or two. The only thing I can really complain about that sort of fits into the 'Amenities' section is that the location of the mailbox/buzzer. All of them are on the inside of the complex. This is annoying because after a person parks they have to walk around your building to the backside before they can buzz. It's a cool concept to have all of them in the courtyard because it really does look nice, but it makes no sense because parking is on the other side of the buildings.
Noise is pretty low. I don't frequently hear any of my neighbors, other than the person below me turning on the shower. The only loud things that always scare the begeezus out of me are:
1) the sound of your buzzer. It's equivalent to your cellphone on vibrate on a weird surface, but 10 times louder. I ALWAYS jump when it goes off and my heart races!
2) the sound of the back door closing. It's really loud when it slams shut, Luckily, people don't usually enter from that way.
Overall I would give this place 4/5 stars. The hallways are always super clean and smell nice, the staff does good work, and the complex also offers nice community events from time to time. The people are nice, and quite. It's a great place to just live you life.
