Anyone living at Crescent Village?
Planning to move there. How good it’s as a community? Bit concerned with the rating that I saw on Google review. The most of the complaints are about the issue of frequent fire alarm. Can anyone who is currently living here confirm this?
I’ve heard good things about crescent park and also about hearth place (a Prometheus property), which is in Santa Clara
Crescent village is good..but expensive
I have been at Crescent Village for 4 years. I moved there with my wife, kids, dog and 2 cars, it was the best option to accommodate all our needs. It has a great family community, the park and playground are great, our kids love to play with the other kids at CV, the pools are great, and neighborhood is safe (this was important to us). The fire alarms have gone off at 2 AM and stayed on for hours, our son was terrified and talked about it months after it happened, I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed for months. We assured him it wouldn’t happen again, then it happened again and again. I ended up taking a pair or scissors and broke the circuit boards in the fire alarms. Fuck those goddam fire alarms, they are so loud. It is torture. Even with all the alarms in our unit broken, we can still hear the alarms in the common areas, like hallway or from other peoples unit and it’s still too fucking loud. I understand the risk and would still make the same choice. Ants were a problem but that has been resolved and people tell me it’s common. Our cars have been broken into 3 times since we have been there but nothing was stolen because we don’t keep anything in there. The biggest loss is a since of safety. Packages are stolen from your door step. A lot of amenities and events have been cut from the budget. Movie theatre, game room, gym are all closed but it’s for renovation. If we could do over I would still choose CV because the staff was great at helping us move and kept our rent the same (granted we had to complain). A lot of problems we had (like ants, theft) seemed natural to any living community. The cost of CV was lower than other apartments in the area and had better amenities.
Thanks so much for a thorough feedback. Sorry for the experience your son had from the loud alarms in middle of the night. TBH I can’t tolerate paying up to $4k a month and having an interrupted night sleep. The issues with fire alarm, car-break and package stealing are very concerning. In general thought, for any broken car repair property should be liable for the fix. We’d probably keep it in the list, but will find out better option, if any. I’ve seen Avalon (Sunnyvale) and Hearth (Santa Clara) have impressive Google reviews compared to CV. Formers have 4.1 and 3.9 respectively, whereas CV rating is 2.9. Avalon is definitely great choice, due to its garden-style housing (compared to hotel-style CV), but price is higher no doubt.
our rent for a 2 BR was $3,250
Crescent Village is good when you compare against North Park.
Rule #1: don't live in those managed communities unless you are ready to be sucked out of every single possible dollar by them. They know how much they can raise the rent every year and believe me they will. Better to find a private landlord with who you have a good relationship. Never go to an industrial community
But, don't most of these managed community offer a lot of benefits? Things which I like (and this is what I've seen/experienced usually) 1. They're close to Public Transit 2. They're close to Groceries/Restaurants 3. Hassle free rent payments 4. Easy to get things fixed in the apartment 5. Covered Parking 6. Good Security 7. Amenities such as Swimming Pool, Movie Room, BBQ, Gym. Very helpful to host people!
I don’t think Rule #1 applies to everyone. Especially if you know how to negotiate. I’ve been able to negotiate decreases or no change in rent year over year. This is possible if you’re reasonable and show them the math. Chances are they’ll take the hit vs. two to four months of an empty apartment, especially considering all major apartment complexes have concessions for moving into their community. Also regarding private landlords, they often don’t have the money or budget to cover large repairs or problems and you end up waiting a long time for essential fixes and squabbling over petty details. Moreover most people that I know that have rented privately will never do it again because they often view the property as theirs, not yours and do not respect tenant boundaries as they should.