Marquis at Great Hills

I’ve lived in this apartment complex for about six months now.
The apartment is in a great area and is very convenient for many things. The community is gated but we just had a series of car break ins.
The quality of the apartment itself is fair. They had recently done upgrades (faux stainless steel appliances, restrained the cabinets and added granite counter tops) to the apartment I am renting. Through their upgrades, they must have had a very tight deadline, as they painted over the door hinges — which leads to squeaky doors, the paint job on the doors are mediocre at best. There are several signs of previous repairs throughout my apartment that appear to have been done by someone who was less than qualified for the job or someone in a rush.
The floors/​ceiling in my apartment are very thin. The very day I moved in, the resident below took something to the ceiling multiple times (very 80s) to let me know I was being loud. Throughout the first few weeks the banging on the ceiling was constant. I literally feel like I’m walking on egg shells and try to walk light to night disturb who/​whatever is below me. The resident above me on the 3^rd floor wakes me every morning around 5 AM. It sounds like they are just walking but goes to show how thin the ceilings and floors are.
The good things: the location is convenient, maintenance changes your light bulbs and air filters as you please, the pool looks nice but I have not utilized it, the gym looks nicer than most apartments but I have not utilized it either.

When moving to Austin last year, my partner and I toured nearly a dozen communities across the city before deciding on Marquis at Great Hills. In general, I would rate the community ⁴⁄₅ — I would absolutely recommend living here but there are a few things left to be desired.
In more detail — Our Leasing Professional, Katie, was wonderful — she was new to the industry but was a sweetheart and did her best to answer all of our (many!) questions. The leasing process was smooth though the move in process was something of a train wreck — we were bounced between staff members and told conflicting information several times, leaving us with a lot of undue stress (for instance — I had to send income information three separate times in different formats due to being told the wrong info by uniformed/​ill-​trained staff members).
Since move in, our apartment has been absolutely wonderful. We have a walk-​off patio that we love and our home is the perfect size and layout for us!
The positives —
Great maintenance team (issues fixed within 24 hours every time, no matter how minor!)
Outstanding pool/​amenities
Kind leasing professionals
PERFECT apartment
The negatives —
–First and foremost — the community has been in a constant state of renovation since we moved in. We weren’t warned about this (beyond being told that we would have a new roof) and it’s been frustrating to constantly be moving our cars, stepping on nails, ducking under ladders, listening to hammering at all hours, finding trash on our patio, etc. The improvements are noticeable and we’re excited to see the finished product, but it’s been exceptionally annoying to live in a construction site for the last 10 months.
–The location isn’t great for someone new to Austin. It’s convenient for basic shopping and getting to the major thoroughfares but I often feel that we’re living a bit too far from civilization.
–The office staff, while always professional and kind, seem to never quite know what they’re doing. Questions go unanswered, calls go unreturned, and getting our renewed lease took four separate efforts.
–The worst thing, aside from the ongoing construction, is the never-​ending stream of poorly written emails from the office. We get at least four per week (usually in very condescending and rude tones) telling us what not to do in the community or what new maintenance project is beginning to inconvenience us. The office bombards us with these emails even for things that don’t impact us and sends them out with such frequency that I’ve received upwards of 20 per month every month. Whoever writes these emails also seems to be sorely lacking in their English education and desperately needs to discover both spell-​check and a basic primer on grammar.
All in all — I couldn’t be happier to live at the Marquis at Great Hills. If we’d had proper warning before move in about the construction and if the office could get it together in regards to communication, I would truly have no complaints — and those are awfully minor things to be bothered by in the scheme of your future home.

This is a stunning CWS Property. The pool, hot tub, common areas are beautifully landscaped and maintain. Every friend that I’ve taken down to the pool has had the second response, «WOW! It’s like you’re living at a resort.» I can’t say enough about the office staff & maintenance team. They have been very responsive to my every request. This is my second CWS property. When I found out my employer was moving me from Raleigh to Austin I sat down with a CWS representative I had come to know I’m NC and he found me my perfect new home in TX. When it comes to apartment living what makes or breaks a community is the staff. Everyone at CWS in two different states have made me want to stick with the caring, professionals I’ve found here.

The office treats you as if this is their home not yours. They are inconsiderate of when they schedule contractors, (Workers on site with leaf blowers at 6:30 am on Saturday.) The only one who is worth anything is Alisha, the manager. Other than that, the maintenance staff is sub par, requiring actual contractors to come fix the stuff they screwed up. Overall if you want to pay a shitload of money to a community that does not value your residency, move here.

My roommate and I were on a time crunch to move into a new apartment and only got to tour Marquis at Great Hills, so I was worried it wouldn’t meet my standards. I’ve lived here for almost a year now and love it.
The management team is great and any time something needs to be repaired in our apartment, the team comes out on the same day to fix it. We’re a decently sized apartment community, but management knows my name and apartment number which is always a plus, and shows they care about their residents.
If you plan on frequenting the pool often, I highly recommend this complex. Most of my friends end up coming to our pool on the weekends because it’s large and very aesthetically pleasing. It’s great for lounging or for parties.
They just implemented visitor parking and have gotten very strict on no parking in regular spots without a permit. I haven’t been affected by this at all, and wasn’t affected prior to the permits. I’ve never had a problem finding parking, nor have any of my guests.
We also have a decently sized dog park which is a lot nicer than most communities. Our apartment is a pretty big size too so you can walk your dog around the complex.
The location is fantastic; we are literally in the Arboretum and can access multiple grocery stores and other shopping centers in less than 5 minutes.
The only reason I didn’t give the Marquis 5 stars is because there aren’t any close access to running trails or areas to walk your dog. However, there are a couple that are 10 min away so it might not be a make or break situation for some people.

The community & the management team are awesome, but the parking situation is completely unacceptable, and even though they tell you they are working on the problem, nothing has been done about it & we’ve lived here for 2 years, with the same understanding of potential action when it comes time to renew the lease. 70% of the time you cannot get a parking space anywhere near your building. If you have groceries, or anything that you have to haul to your vehicle on a daily basis, you will be dragging it for a half block or more, just because there isn’t any assigned parking anywhere in this huge community. Many people double-​park their cars either because they are blind, or just plain inconsiderate of others. There aren’t enough average-​sized parking spaces for the number of vehicles that park here. Who knows how many of these vehicles belong to lease holders. Unless you drive a small clown car that will fit next to a double-​parked car, expect to get multiple dings in your car doors. If they would address this parking issue, I’d give it a great review.

I’ve lived at Marquis for over a year now. It’s probably the nicest apartment I’ve been in, well ever. I’m in an upgraded unit, so I have granite counter tops, which is pretty much the best thing ever. The appliances are pretty sexy too.
Marquis boats the second nicest pool I’ve been to in Austin. Oh, and the hot tub looks like a kiddie pool. The grounds are very well maintained: lots of trees and nice landscaping. Maintenance is same day. Once, my door handle fell off, locking me outside. Everyone was done for the day but maintenance fixed it within the hour!
The apartments are very much so up north, which depending on your ATX location snobbery, can make or break it for you. It’s very close to the Domain and you can walk to a Target, Sprouts, Whole foods and NXNW, which is nice.
But overall, it’s very generic in these parts, tons of chain restaurants etc. You won’t get the ATX vibe at all, but who doesn’t just want to go to P.F. Chang’s or Panera every once in a while? Plus, it’s just convenient to be nestled in suburbia sometimes. Need a toilet plunger? Target is just a stone’s throw away.
There isn’t a neighborhood to walk in, but there is a tiny gym. The gym is nothing to boast about: they don’t really clean the gym very often, so you can see everyone’s sweat impression on the machines. Yuck.
Oh, we just got a dog park! That has been really useful when I don’t feel like driving 20 min. to Town Lake.
My only REAL complaint is it’s very pricey. The deposits were more than I’m used to seeing, especially the pet deposit. Also, they have ridiculous small charges that add up such as a $ 10 monthly pet rent and a $ 5 admin. fee just to process your rent. So yeah, they nickel and dime your ass.
I have enjoyed living here but I can no longer afford the rent. If you work up north and have a decent job, I would recommend it!
UPDATE: O.k., so I moved out and want to update Unilocalers. Beware of the rent increases! They WILL raise your rent anywhere from $ 80-​$ 250. So, if you plan on moving here, be sure to budget $ 200+ for the next year. They charged me $ 200 for damage to the carpet and $ 20 to clean the oven. Apartments always manage to screw you over on deposits and there is no recourse for the renter. The only people who can afford to live here are families who can’t afford to buy a house. It’s a tough economy. My new place has far younger and friendlier neighbours. I’ll miss my granite counter tops but I won’t miss living in a generic and expensive complex.

One unique practice of CWS properties (the company that manages this property) regarding deposits is a «Sure Deposit,» in which the resident is offered the choice between paying a refundable deposit of $ 150 or purchasing a non-​refundable surety bond for a lower amount. They offered me this option when I lived at Marquis at Caprock Canyon, a sister property, and I took it, not understanding this alternative in its entirety.
This surety bond holds the resident responsible for paying damages that can far exceed the $ 150 deposit (if memory serves correct, I believe there is a $ 500 ceiling on this). In other words, you decide whether to pay an upfront amount of cash, or hold on to that money at the risk of greater loss in the future. It’s up to you. Fortunately, I left my unit spotless and had no outstanding charges, but in the event I didn’t, I would have had to reimburse the bonding company rather than CWS. Either way, you don’t get the price of the bond back, which isn’t that much less than the actual deposit.
This is an awesome arrangement for property managers, because they don’t have to haggle with tenants over deductions; they just submit their expenses to the bonding company and get paid. Unfortunately for tenants, they can no longer deal directly with CWS if they don’t agree with the charges.
The legality of this practice is unclear — in some states such as California, landlord-​tenant law dictates that all security deposits be refundable, but Texas landlord-​tenant law, which tends to favor landlords’ rights, might be different.
If you can, try to pay the security deposit in its entirety so that you can challenge any disputed deductions with the landlord directly. Please see the following article for more details: