Matthews Reserve Apartments

Let me start out with the positive. This community has the potential to be successful given the location (1 mile from Downtown Matthews with bus stop right outside the entrance) and how beautiful and well thought out the grounds are. I love the fact that they have walkways that will take you from one end of the development to the other. In other words you do not have to walk on the grass (just in case someone forgets to pick up after their pet or if the ground is saturated after a rain storm), or through the parking lot and roadways (not safe for the kiddos). Also there are enough open flat green space where the community kids can run freely and play, which they do.
Their playground is sufficient, actually better than many apartment community playgrounds we have seen, no complaints from our kids. We went there every day and it kept them happy for a good hour. I think it’s great that it is a gated community. I would not consider it an unsafe neighborhood at all, but it is always nice to have peace of mind. Many of the people who live here have, from what I am told, lived here for many years, and overall they are very friendly. We received plenty of welcomes our first week here which we appreciated.
Ty in the front office was wonderful from start to finish, and I must say with all the back and forth I put him through, i.e. questions and concerns my husband and I had along the way, he was super patient and accommodating.
Maintenance was great and process to repair or replace things that are not working takes no more than two days.
If only our experience ended there this would have been a five start review.
Unfortunately we made the decision to move here after viewing their very nice MODEL. We assumed our apartment would look as nice. Boy were we wrong!
From the day we arrived we were met with nothing but problems, all of them minor, but collectively they left me with a feeling of disappointment and regret. We were fortunate enough to have had a new rug and refrigerator installed, and some kind of «countertop upgrade» prior to move in, but unfortunately this would not be enough to make up for what was lacking or wrong.
First thing I was struck by was how dark the place felt. Then the smell, that mildew smell you get when you live in a basement, which is exactly what it felt like in our first floor apartment. You may not consider this when viewing the model, but please keep in mind that if your apartment is not in a place that gets direct sun most of the day you will absolutely have to have the lights on in the kitchen and dining areas all day long in order to see what you are doing!
Also I was not pleased to discover my air conditioning was running upon arrival. Considering we’d had our electricity turned on the day before we moved in, all I could think about was how much of a waste this had been and that WE would have to be the ones to pay for it.
Now let’s move on to what was noticeably wrong. Bathroom cabinets were stained with some kind of black gunk. Kitchen cabinets by stove and sink scratched beyond repair, light in the closet of one of the bedrooms didn’t work, siding on one of the bathroom sinks needed to be glued down, bathtub stoppers stopped up the tub but then you couldn’t get it to drain, master bedroom window was painted shut. There was rust on one of the bathroom kitchen faucets and along the outside of the bathroom mirrors. I was told the apartment had been cleaned but there was very little evidence of this, particularly in the kitchen and pantry area. Inside one of the cabinets was some green stain. When I started using stove top grime would run down from behind the overhead fan. My veranda had a hardened mass of what looked like some kind of clear glue and could not be fully removed, not even by maintenance. When I opened the windows the window sills were FILTHY and the windows so cheap they would get stuck and if you tried to push them up any further you were afraid they’d break.
I reported my issues to the office and maintenance came out the next couple of days to address the issues. I was offered the opportunity to have cleaning crew back and I was told that if i wanted to replace bathroom faucet and some of the cabinets I could put in a request. At this point we had decided we were not staying so I told them not to bother.
Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse a CREW of three adults and several kids moved into the TWO bedroom apartment upstairs from us two days later and we would find out just how bad the building soundproofing (or lack of) was.
THANK GOD Gables Residential does have a 30 day guarantee which allows you to break your lease within 30 days at no penalty. I don’t know many management companies that will do this. We are grateful and moving BACK to our former apartment community which we loved but is a bit pricier. Lesson learned. You get what you pay for and if it ain’t broke don’t fix