The Estates At Cougar Mountain

I’ve lived at the Estates at Cougar Mountain, ECM, for about three years and have stayed because of my job location, and because of the apartments location. To the latter, I’d give it 5 stars and not look back. The Talus neighborhood is gorgeous and lots to do. The apartment and community itself… that’s another story.
The apartments units have recently gone through an upgrade. Stainless steel appliances are nice but the faux wood flooring is tacky. That’s about it for upgrading. What’d be nice; noise insulating/​thicker padding and a higher grade carpet, insulation windows and doors, and color schemes instead of the 1970’s mirrors on the wall.
Telling folks that the community is smoke free when residents and visitors clearly smoke on the property – not to mention the cigarette butts on the ground do give it away.
Last but never least, rent increases. I’m accustomed to and expect rent to go up… my experience has been its the world I live in. An average 20% increase I think is gouging. It’s also easy to get away with when you’re the only apartment complex in Talus… until recently.

Not sure what the guy before me truly had against this place. I currently live here and have for a year. Now I don’t know what building that gentleman lived in but the one my fiancé and I live in is wonderful and very quiet. The only excessive noise to be heard is from the front doors closing when people go in and out of their apartments seeing as they automatically close behind you when you come in or out of the door which I find a great feature when I have my hands full. Does that place get noisy with the neighbors? Yes, but it’s an apartment building what did you expect? I never hear people walking around, tvs, stereos or anything like that. Im not to sure why the guy was complaining so much when he said he lived here for two years and by the sounds of his review, lived here twice? (Lived here 5 – 6 years prior to his review?) Why move back here if the place was so bad? Anyway.
The area is gorgeous, the people are nice but also keep to themselves, the neighborhood is 95% quiet. What place is perfect unless you have your own land in the middle of perfectville. :) As for the staff, every complaint we have had (and there aren’t many) has been taken care of in a very timely matter. This is everything from issues with the apartment, to parking, to neighbors. This has been the best place I have ever lived. Now I will give the guy one thing and that is parking here sucks if you dont rent a parking space or rent an apartment in the older building that has a parking garage. So if you come home from work after 6 you will have to get creative with parking.
In a nutshell: Its an apartment complex. It has the ups and downs of ANY apartment complex… and the majority of them raise the rent every year so that shouldnt be a total shocker to most. I have lived in A LOT of apartment complexes and this one ranks in the top 3. I would recommend it to anyone. Remember, its an apartment complex… talk to the neighbors before picking an apartment and moving in. All in all, top floor, corner apartments are always the best but usually the hottest. First floor is usually the noisiest but the coolest. If you can have your apartment back up to the greenbelt, all the better for quietness. Rent a parking spot if you can otherwise you may get a little exercise… good thing is I hear exercise doesnt kill you usually. But the complex is great, kind of out of the way from the hustle and bustle of the town part… but close to shops and stores. (Gilman has EVERYTHING on it.) There in NO WalMart which I see as a plus lol. And as for the streets being bad in the winter… dont think so… they always came through and deiced the main road (Talus) No city would ever deice the streets through an apartment complex. (In case that is what the other guy was complaining about) So four stars it is cause nothing is perfect but some things come pretty close. :)

Due to a new job opportunity, my wife and I were in need of securing a second residence. After looking at countless locations in Seattle, Bellevue and the Issaquah area, both my wife and I are unable to find the right words to express the unbelievable customer service that we experienced at ECM. The customer service was not a sales script, nor was it an attempt to try to be nice, but truly, hard to find these days genuine great customer services. ECM did not try to push us in the direction of what apartments they wanted to rent as we had experienced at other locations.
I would like to recognize Chris for his patience, understanding and superb customer service, in addition he listened to what our needs were and was able to locate and deliver upon our needs. Chris is simply awesome and the experience at ECM we continue to have is wonderful. I would recommend ECM to my friends.

Lived here for two very loooong years. At the time I moved out, 5 other 2^nd floor neighbors were also moving out. That should tell you something about the noise level from the 3^rd floor tenants. I’m sure not all of these people were 600 lb mountain gorillas (except for maybe my upstairs neighbor), but it sure sounded that way from the stories told. I think the real fault was the lousy construction that made you privy to virtually ever bump, bang and grind your upstairs neighbor was engaged in. Not that the mgmt. did anything about the noise complaints, they’re job is to make money, not make tenants happy. Forget about the extreme lack of parking or road conditions when it snows since you’re above the local snow line on a +8% grade (weeeee) or the exorbitant rent which has gone up almost $ 600 from when I rented there in 5 – 6 years ago. Instead, think of how happy you’ll be when you finally move out, that alone makes it all worth while.