Willow Crossing Apartments

I’m disappointed in the professionalism of the staff at Willow Crossing. We don’t even live in the community, but I had such a negative experience.
To start, after our scheduled appointment, my hubbie and I were very impressed with the renovated two bedroom «Magnolia.» We thought it was lovely, especially for the price. Since we were scheduled to see a few more apartments that day, we said «thank you» to the staff and said «we’d be in touch.» After seeing the other apartments, we decided we liked the «Magnolia» the best and wanted to move forward with the apartment. I emailed Sandy, and she never emailed me back. Finally a few days later, my hubbie called the office and spoke with someone else to schedule another appointment to fill out all the preliminary paperwork. We go in, fill out all the papers, even pay for the background check, etc. We weren’t able to sign a lease because we were waiting for an animal friendly apartment. Mind you, we went in April looking for the end of June, so we had time to spare. TWO WEEKS after we filled out all the paperwork, we still hadn’t heard from Sandy about an animal friendly apartment. I emailed her to check in. Nothing. Another week went by, I emailed her again. Nothing. We called. we sat on hold for one hour.
If this is how unresponsive and unprofessional the staff is BEFORE we even move in, I cannot imagine what it would have been like once we already moved in.

im not sure with the negative is about but I think this a great place to live. I have never had a problem. The office has always been courteous and pleasant to me. I just love my apartment and the community. Hallways are always clean. Maintenance is very good as well. I personally think this is a great place to live.

Where do I begin? If I could give them ZERO stars I would. It took me a while to decide to write a review because just thinking about this money hungry company, brings back bad memories and anger.
I was a resident there for 4 years. When I first moved in, the ladies at the office were so nice and curteous. I never had a problem. I was able to pay my rent online for FREE unless I used a credit card, then there would be a $ 5 fee. They did monthly $ 200 rent credit raffles if you paid your rent early by a certain date. There was a yearly party for the residents, a monthly flyer with calendar was distributed to all residents as well. Then they sold the company and hired new staff which were decent, but not nearly as great as the original staff.
They decided to remodel the hallways and build a new office with a SMALLER gym and SMALLER pool. The playground is a joke. It was always overcrowded. And the residents had to pay for all of their projects. With no updates to those ghetto windows where the cold air creeps in during the winter and the screen fell off of mine when my toddler touched it! Thank God he didn’t fall out the window! I had to keep it closed ever since.
I had a non working dish washer and the electric stove burners always lost contact and stopped working while i was cooking. My heaters smelled like mold. Me and my kids were always getting sick and now that we moved, we haven’t gotten sick at all. My 2 yr old was wheezing and had to use a nebulizer and this winter he did not have to use it. So there goes $ 200 I had to pay for a nebulizer he only used a few times.
There’s a bug problem during spring and summer. These little black bugs come out of nowhere. I could smell everyone’s food coming from underneath our door. Especially burned curry. That’s the worse smell.
I was told because the floors were concrete, you can’t really hear the people that live above you. That’s a lie!
The washers and dryers were often out of service and the machine would take my money and when I called I was promised a refund that I never received.
After the remodelling, we had to pay for water, gas to heat up that water, trash, sewer, pest control. All of this was covered in our rent the first 2 years I lived there. And this utility bill was $ 100 a month.
There is only one water tank per building so they divide it up I don’t know how. But I’m sure they overcharged everyone. Plus this company that charged us for these utilities also charged us a fee every month so you’ll have to pay someone to charge you for utilities. Ridiculous. And when you move out, this same company charges you a move out fee.
My apartment was outdated. The carpets were never washed by Willow crossing. I had to pay to get them washed and my carpet was not new when I moved in. It had only been washed so who knows for how many years that carpet was there but it was old and raggedy! It only looked nice for 2 weeks after washing it because it was so old!
When I moved out they sent me to collections right away and charged me $ 200 because they claimed there was «pet urine» stains on the carpet. I did not own any pets, if you have small children, you know they spill juice and food. Besides that, I’m allergic to animal fur so that wouldn’t even be possible. They claimed that they had to seal the concrete underneath the carpet because of pet urine stains. I insisted I never had a pet and the snobby office woman said «well maybe you invited people over that had pets». And I also said I recorded a video of the apartment after cleaning and paying and she said «Well maybe you recorded that video before you moved it, it won’t match the pictures we took»
Really? How would she assume such thing? She had a ridiculous answer for every dispute I made.
They said they would email me pictures of said damages and they never did. Go figure. I painted before I left and they charged $ 100 for drawings on 2 walls when there was a drawing on ONE wall and I painted over it. But they will find any little excuse to charge you because that’s what they do. They’re greedy and I do not recommend anyone live there. We wanted to move a year sooner but it was difficult to find a rental within the area for my child to stay in the same school.
But know that they will send you to collections 2 days after you move out and will charge you for things that aren’t even your fault. Especially if you lived there before they bought the company because their policies are to lift the carpet and check the floor underneath with every move out but when I moved in, that policy obviously did not exist as I had to use an old but washed carpet. And they don’t care about what I had to say, they said I’m responsible and that’s it.
The only thing left for them to charge the tenants for is for snow removal and landscaping. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they did. Dispicable!

I have edited this review to include that we BROKE OUR LEASE to move it was so bad. Yep. I ate a $ 1,900 fee to move out 6 months early because it was so terrible.
Staff is horribly rude AFTER you’ve moved — they are ONLY pleasant throughout the initial sales process. This is BY FAR the BIGGEST PROBLEM. They LITERALLY hate their jobs and you for living there.
The staff WILL treat you in a condescending manner 100% of the time.
They DO NOT care about you or what you need.
The snow removal is JOKE. For $ 1,300 per month for a «modern» two-​bedroom I expect DECENT snow removal. They go cheap and make the maintenance guys do it.
The windows are horrible. $ 1,300 per month, I’m paying for heat, and I need to put plastic on my Windows? Seriously? Staff does not either.
Oh and they mark up their water bill.
The ONLY positive is that the place is CLEAN.
Do yourself a favor though — don’t move in here.

I have been living in Willow Crossing for 4 months now.
The reviews did bother me a little so when I came to view the community I kept all of them in mind and asked questions.
For me, none of them have turned out to be an issue.
I asked about how utility charges worked. It was explained to me that I pay for my electric directly to ComEd based on metered usage and the other
utilities are payable to the management company based on my apartment size and how many occupants there are.
Since I am the only occupant and I regularly travel I knew in advance that my electric would be based on my own usage but
trash, water, sewage, gas etc. would be payable whether I was here or not. I inquired as to what those costs would be and factored them
into what the total running costs of my apartment would be before I moved in. I still found it reasonable.
Nothing was hidden from me before I moved in. And, yes, you pay for gas even
though the apartment is all electric. Previous reviewers may not have considered how the hot water in their taps got heated.
Yes, you pay for laundry. It’s $ 1.50 for a wash and $ 1.50 if you choose to dry. The local laundry is $ 1 a pound (weight of laundry) with a $ 10 dollar minimum under 10 pounds.
For me at least, it is more economical to use the building facilities than the local laundry. That may be different for someone with more laundry to do but I can’t judge that.
The previous place I lived it was $ 2 ot wash and $ 2 to dry so I don’t see anything very unreasonable in that.
I would have to say, also, that my apartment is generally quite warm. I really only have had to turn on the heaters very occasionally
morning or evening this winter (granted it has been relatively mild) and do so more out of comfort than any real necessity so my electric bill is generally low.
That’s it for fees.
As for fines, I have not witnessed any but I hope there are fines for dog fouling and I wish they were more strictly enforced.
Fouling is an issue. I have seen a number of owners scooping up after their dogs but obviously there are many who don’t judging by the amount of fouling
in the grassed areas.
As for the office staff, they have always been friendly, professional, open and responsive. I have had very little in the way of maintenance requests but any I did have
were put right usually the next business day. The staff don’t even complain about the amount of packages that they have to taken in for residents even during peak Black Friday.
In terms of noise, my own apartment backs onto the interstate and, yes, that is noisy.
If I were to change something it would be to pick an apartment where the road noise was not a factor. There are plenty of buildings in Willow Crossing where road noise
would not be a factor so try to get one of those if it would be an issue for you.
As for neighbors, yes, on occasion I can hear moving furniture upstairs etc. but nothing much more that I would expect from apartment living. For the most part I don’t hear much from either side or opposite.
I did notice initially that roads were in need of repair. Since that time the main entrance has been resurfaced.
I would hope that will continue in other areas off the main entrance later in the year.
When I moved in to my apartment there was a smell of Asian food. This triggered a memory of a review about the smell of neighbors cooking.
I got a gap in an extractor sealed which maintenance did quickly (whether that was the issue or not) and then put a couple of plug in air fresheners in the apartment.
That fixed it. The air fresheners ran out while I was away over the holidays but when I returned there has still not been a recurrence.
If there had been issues in the past, they seem to have been rectified now but I do say «If» because I generally take into account that axes are ground on the internet and
since there are 100s of apartments here, in my opinion, any major issues would be resulting in a lot more negativity than the 6 bad /​2 good that are on this site at the time of writing. IT seems they may have been individual issues rather than problems in general.
So, all in all, I am quite happy here and have no regrets about moving in to Willow Crossing. Hope all the above helps someone looking for a recent insight.

It has been one year since I moved out of this shit hole. To celebrate it, I’m going to write a Unilocal review to warn myself and other people never getting into this kind of mess again.
In one word, it’s a trap.
It hooks renters with their slightly lower price than market average. Then after you moving in, you will find there are so many fines, fees waiting for you. Generally, the management will use so many shameless ways to collect money from you.
So don’t sign the contract so quick just because it’s cheap. Take a look at of others’ reviews first. Otherwise you will suffer the same pain as the other people posted on their reviews.

Well, this has been a review that I have been waiting to write for a long time. Had you asked me 3 years ago to write a review when I first moved here, I would have given it 5 stars hands down. But after a few management changes (now Steadfast Management), this place really took a turn for the worse. All of the negative reviews I have read are dead on. I lived here for over 3 years, and I can say that the current management does not care about the people that live there, only new people moving in and making more money.
Some of the apartments are newly renovated, yes. They do have a lot of «perks» (dog park, lake, 2 pools, workout room), but it still isn’t worth the price. The workout room is tiny, and can get very busy. The parking lot has turned into a pothole mess that they don’t bother to replace. They charge you for EVERYTHING (additional underground parking, all of your utilities, laundry is $ 3/​load). I didn’t used to pay for my utilities except electrical. Then they made everyone pay for the water, trash, gas (even though everything is electrical?), not to mention the fun $ 5 processing fee every month. It is all split between everyone/​building depending on your apartment size and how many people you have living there. It ended up being an extra $ 55/​mo. Every renovation they made within the past few years was so cheaply done that it doesn’t even look good anymore.
They steadily increased rent every year. I tried to sit down with the manager and negotiate at one point since I had been there for so long and prove myself to be a good renter, but they refused to return my calls or meet with me. I saw him standing in his office when I came in person doing nothing but he was «unable to speak with me». Poor management. This year they jacked it up a nice extra $ 45/​mo, so I left. I lived in the same apartment with no improvements to my individual place… why am I paying so much more?! WAY too pricey for what it is. The management is terrible about returning voicemails (don’t even bother to leave one). The people working in the office had bad attitudes repeatedly. They didn’t even confirm with me that they got my move-​out notice.
Maintenance was hit or miss. Sometimes they came quickly and fixed everything fine. Other times I had to call over and over again. My garbage disposal never worked correctly (I couldn’t even grind a few peels… what’s the point on having one then?).
Oh, and they don’t let you know what your next year’s rent will be until EXACTLY 2 months before you would need to move out (you need to give a 2 months notice to move out without additional charges), so beware. You could get stuck there or with extra fees to stay a little longer.
Needless to say, the original management was amazing and truly cared about their renters and the community they lived in. They gave rent discounts for paying early, got to know you by name, etc. I will NEVER rent from a Steadfast Management property ever again after this experience. Every person I ran into that lived there as long as me or longer felt the same way and said they would be moving out as well. Treat your renters like this is their actual living space instead of a dump and people may want to stay.
BEWARE — they will charge you for move out fees, old utility bills, etc. and send it to collections right away! I gave them my forwarding address and they NEVER sent a bill there, or even tried to contact me via email/​phone. The collection company even verified that they sent the bill to the OLD address that I moved out of. These people will nickle and dime you for EVERYTHING.

I have been living here for almost a year. The people in the office are extremely unprofessional, rude, and unhumanistic. Do yourself a favor look elsewhere.

DO NOT MOVE HERE!!! And do NOT be fooled by the magnificent pictures, this place does not even RESEMBLE the photoshopped pictures they post online.
I have lived here for the last 7 months with my fiancé and our new born baby. Every. Single. Night. The entire apartment smells absolutely repulsive from neighbors cooking. We all have to sit in the only room that does not smell ungodly for hours until the smell dies down. Not to mention the hallway is enough to make someone completely pass out. They do not have air or heat in the halls or entrance. So the halls and elevator are about 100 degrees in the summer and 0 degrees in the winter. I should not be able to see my breath inside a building. So there’s that, mixed with your everyday toilet never working, dishwasher never working, sink leaking all over the kitchen floor, the maintenance men should just move in with us.
Then there’s the front office. When you come here to look at an apartment you will not meet a nicer more informative group of people. Then you move in. First off, forget calling the office for anything, they will NOT pick up the phone. Ever. Never in my life have I been more mistreated and talked down to by a group of «professionals». If you need anything at all from these people, they will all gather & surround you in the office and all tell you the same thing, «it’s not their problem». In a very attacking manor. Their customer service is beyond horrendous and upsetting.
I can not wait to move out.

There are so many negative things that can be said about this place hence, the one star rating. When we first moved in it was under a different management company. The older ladies that worked in the leasing office had things under control. About two months of living here started to notice the smell of standing water. That smell turned out to be infestation of MOLD. this covered our bathroom ceiling, in our bedroom closet, along the window and patio door. This really upset us seeing as how this is a threat to our health. After going to complain about it we were inconvenienced to having a crew of different people every day for about a week come in only to cut out a piece of the drywall to «look for the source of moisture causing the mold». Of course the source was not found and the solution that the provided was repainting the walls over the mold. This resulted in it coming back in about one and a half weeks. During the time that they were working we were forced to pile all of our furniture and belongings in the living room and literally live out of this one room. The mold was so bad that we had to throw away our bathroom towels, curtains, and other accessories, as well as our ENTIRE bedroom set. Keep in mind this bedroom set was not even one year old. There goes $ 3,000+ down the drain. I have encountered several other tenants who also complained about the mold, pet waste, garbage in the halls ect. This is a place where there is potential due to the neighborhood, but all you will encounter are incompetent, unorganized, lying workers in the office. The manager, Jose, has to be the busiest man in the world because he will dodge you like no other. Never return calls and this is the only person in the world in a meeting every single day, according to his «assistant». I cant tell you how many times I have had to play hopscotch damn near to get to my car in order to keep from stepping in the dog waste. There are so many people that let their dogs relieve themselves right in the front of the doors in the building I lived in, especially in the winter. Also be prepared to learn your neighbors schedule. The walls are that thin. everyday expect a typed note from one of your marvelous neighbors complaining about how nasty and trifling the other neighbors are. Although I have to agree with them on some of that because who want to pay elk grove rental prices to feel like your living in the projects? Also not even one week after moving out expect a bill from the collection agency stating you owe for new carpet. No one from the apartment complex will mention it to you let alone notify you prior to a collection agency. Mind you we never had any pets, no kids, no company, and no shoes were worn in the apartment but you expect me to pay a bill over 600 $ for «soiled carpet»! Overall, this was a horrible place to stay. nothing is worst then paying your money and being ignored by the office staff that do not care enough about your health to find a real solution to the mold epidemic. Save your money and stay away!

We lived there for two years and it was one of the worst decisions we’ve made. In addition to the rents, there are gas (for cooking), electricity (heating and cooling), and water (allocated based on total water charges for the building). Last month we barely used the water (since we were moving and were staying at our current place most of the time), yet they still charged us $ 30. If you think you are getting great service and comfortable living environment now that you are paying that much of money, you are SO WRONG. You can hear everything, even when the elevator is running. The staff there are just rude and incapable of «property management». The hallway always smells like weird. We moved out last last month, and we just got a bill saying we owe them $ 350, including over $ 300 «insufficient notice fees». WE PAID EVERYTHING ON TIME!!! They didn’t even mention our security deposit. We’ve paid every penny on time for two years and now we have to worry about getting our deposit back + paying some nonsense fees! If you are thinking about moving in, please re-​consider. Two years ago before we moved in, we did some online research and saw some bad comments about this apartment, but we were thinking «this will probably never happen to us». Also the lady showing us around looks very nice and kind, so we moved in. The attitude turned 180 degrees once we moved in. Overall my experience: paying 5 start rents but getting 1 start service and living environment + getting charged ridiculous fees when moving out + worrying about getting your deposit back (after you’ve paid all those bills diligently for years).

I have been living here for about 4 months now. I really don’t have many complaints about this property. I have enjoyed my time here over the summer, into fall. We’ll see how their snow removal is come winter. Anyway, I’m in a 5 or 6 story building. Yea, I hear some noise but nothing I don’t expect from living in an apartment building. I have found a few bugs nothing out of the ordinary. Called Jessica in management, the next day, pest guy from orkin was there setting up traps and spraying. Bug free since. I had an issue with my hot water pressure so I Called Jessica again. Boom, maintenance out the next day, it was fixed. The only complaint I have is that there should be a place to load your laundry card in every laundry room. Instead of going to the main office every time. And it should accept credit cards not just cash.
I’ve never had a problem finding parking when I get home. My neighbors all seem to be polite and friendly. The location is great for jumping on 290. It’s pet friendly with a nice little dog park. This is a great place to live. Quiet, peaceful, and just relaxing.

I am a resident for 4 years and faced 3 managements since then.
This is the worst team ever, the dumb, dumber .
I wish i can say something nice that’s the some of the maintenance guys, friendlier than the bunch of craps sitting in the office.
My problem with them started earlier.
Whenever i stop by for sty for package or other issues there is one lady who’s very forgetful and fussy she ignores you and helps the person behind you no matter how long u stand there. it happened to me twice and when i left i said thank you for helping me out.
The second was they called a police for me when i dropped the check for rent and they treated to charge me late fee 10% for 1 day missing. are you kidding me we used to drop of the 4^th of every month.
They are so money hungry and you won’t hear anything pleasant from them.
I argued and blamed them for not being honest and disrespectful with old tenants, the staff lady told me Get out or will call police. Police came over and questioned me and left because the office lady told them she fears for her life what a drama.
The officer told me the office ladies always call them and makes a local police busy per day. Dumb bitches police can do nothing, sue us at civil court or Hire security.
Don’t rent any apartments here if you having any issues they will call police for you treating you for nothing.
What i told them was not right because they lied to me after agreed to renew my contract for same as last year and set up appointment with me for lease sign date.
One day before appt i received a call and said they needed to increase the rent i know you don’t like this so its your choice to stay here or move out. very unpleasant voice to hear .
The Steadfast management in Elk grove village is the worst and no wonder they don’t know how to communicate with people and handle any issues.
Please be aware they will treat you like a criminal and will ask money whenever you ask something. i pay $ 1250 for 2 bedrooms with a spider at home and dogs poo outside no place to walk. if you are moving in please re consider it.

Where do I begin? First off, I am lucky that I live in the two story buildings cause I can’t imagine how much worse it can be over in the 8 story buildings. First, you can hear everything. I feel like I know my upstairs neighbor’s schedule. I can hear when he sits in the kitchen and slides out the chair. I know when he goes out onto the patio. I can hear when he opens closet doors. I know when he puts down the toilet lids and takes showers. And across the hall, I can hear the neighbor’s tv when I have mine off.
There are bugs and ants everywhere. I don’t like laying on the floor because you will see a silverfish running right by you. Can’t go walking outside because there is dog poop everywhere.
Another thing is a safety issue for me. There is no lock on the patio screen door and maintenance said that they can’t install them either. So being at home alone with my daughter all night is a big concern with me.
They also charge way too much for water by splitting it up between the whole building. And when it’s summertime and the pool gets filled, expect your bill to be over the top. Last month I was out of town for 3 weeks and my husband was gone for two weeks and our water bill was $ 108. Why in the world should I have to pay for other people’s water usage? We travel at least two weeks every month, but our water bill is always $ 70 or over. .
I would never recommend this place to anyone. People are moving out left and right. The only nice thing that I can say is that the maintenance workers are extremely nice and friendly and are very quick to show if there is a problem. But friendly maintenance workers are not a reason to live here. Please stay away.
UPDATE 10÷21÷14: We recently moved out and received a phone call from a collection agency saying that we owe $ 265 for water and pet urine floor sealing. I told them that we haven’t received a bill or anything from Willow Crossing and they said we were sent to collections on Aug 17, two days after we moved out! They sure didn’t waste anytime trying to get their money. I paid for the water over the phone but told them I wasn’t paying for the pet urine because WE DON’T OWN ANY PETS. I tried calling the office to talk to them and tell them that I shouldn’t be charged with that because we have never owned any pets ever but I just keep getting the run around. I even wrote on the walk through sheet when we first moved in that there were stains all over the carpet so I know it wasn’t new when we moved in. We just happened to be the unfortunate ones that were in there last before they decided that the place finally needed new carpet. Save your credit score and don’t move in because as soon as you move out the collection agency will be the first one to call you.