Esperanza Domain — Attraction in Austin

Short: Just moved out, am a little sad. Great place to live.

Long (I will hit the character limit): I lived here for about a year in the B10 floor plan and I enjoyed most of my time here. In the last 4 months, the community (specifically management) has improved so much. Most of my og disappointments with the community are now gone. The good heavily outweighs the bad. Here's my summary. Scroll for the bad and why I left.

The good: The pool is great and never seems to get that full. The gym is reasonably good for what it is. In a lot of other apartment building with valet trash, the hallways stink. That's not the case here. Management has started to host community events that are actually fun. They had a wine Wednesday, a cheese tasting and free boba! They also get a food truck to come sometimes and they're usually pretty good.

The location is absolutely fantastic. If you want to live in the domain and don't want to pay domain rents, this is for you. If you want to be able to go downtown at night or on the weekends without having to pay for uber, the train is incredibly convenient, cheap and a nice ride. Also the sound of it wasn't loud in my apartment. If you like going to Austin FC games, its close by. The location is really incredible.

The apartments are very nice inside and have lots of little details that make a big difference. The drawers have dampening so they very satisfyingly shut. I never had trouble with shower water temperature or pressure. In unit laundry is fantastic. Dishwashers that don't cause problems, large sinks and large refrigerators. If I had that size refrigerator in college, I might still be closer with some of my roomates.

The few times I had maintenance requests, the response was prompt. My utilities were cheap. Oh, and they're pet friendly.

The bad: A lot of the bad is from the first 7-8 months of living here, so may not reflect the current state of things. Management has improved significantly in the past 4-5.

Upon move in, I didnt get a welcome packet or a key to my mailbox. This was frustrating. There was a lot of necessary info in the welcome packet that I got after 7 months. I did get my parking pass.

For 2ish months during winter, fire alarms went off randomly and a sometimes between 2-4am on a weeknight. That was not fun, but seems to be fixed.

Before moving in we were told there would be frequent community meet ups. Because I moved here from far away with no friends, that was something I was looking forward to. There were no events for at least the first 6 months. This also seems to have changed recently for the better, now there are and also yoga.

Side note, I don't have a dog, so I didn't meet people at the dog park. It seems that's the best way to meet people in this city, and especially at this building.

The parking situation is sometimes not great. People drive too fast in the garage. Sometimes people sneak in behind me, which sketches me out. It's probably residents or guests, so not a huge deal, but still. There is guest parking on the other side of the building that's never full and doesn't seem to get used. I've had multiple friends stay over and park there overnight with no issues. One with an incredibly full car. This information is not well known and the few guest spots in the front are always full.

My apartment got 0 natural sunlight and sometimes people at the pool were loud.

Why I left: Money, I found a cheaper place to live in a location I like almost as much that met every quality I need. I compromised on everything I was willing to and nothing else. If the perfect apartment hadnxt shown up, I would've switched to a cheaper place at esperanza domain.

This is a great place to live if its in your budget. I've recommended it to friends and I recommend it for you too, internet review reader.

I'm surprised you read this far, and will update in the next few weeks if something funky happens with the move out and turnover process. I dont expect it to, so if you're reading this near the last week of July and this is still here, I forgot and it...

I did not renew my lease here after several years of residency. My renewal demanded that I pay even more monthly even though my exact floor plan is advertised to the public for less than what I was paying in my existing lease. If I had signed my offer, I’d be paying nearly $350 more per month than what is offered to new residents now for a far worse living experience.

My rating is a reflection of the new manager specifically. Steffany’s policies are very poor. She opted to make significant changes to operations here that do not reflect the residential experience of a “luxury” apartment community. The most significant has been near blatant disregard for maintenance. Previously, requests were actioned quickly and Angel would follow-up with you. That is gone.

I had a maintenance request since June for HVAC repair that still had not been addressed in October. This entire building has all closed hallways. Almost every single hallway HVAC system has been allowed to go into complete disrepair. The hallways are hot, the carpets are stained with pet urine/dropped food, and as a result, they smell horrendous. Under Angel, the parking garage was power washed, carpets cleaned, and trash rooms cleared. Angel proactively worked to make sure that hallway HVACs and every tankless water heater was serviced regularly to make sure residents never experienced any disruption with AC or hot water. He used his budget to convert a terrace to a cozy outdoor seating area with a fire pit. That is excellence that you, without a doubt, do NOT see here today. Anywhere that Steffany has found to cut costs, she has. Today trash cans are left overflowing and equipment is in disrepair. I’ve watched a water leak in a vacant unit down the hall spread to rot the baseboard, wall, and cause the carpet to peel. Not one person seems to care.

Part of my frustration is from living here when things were so great. After the manager change, I waited a week for maintenance to change the lock battery on my front door. Would maintenance come in a day, a week, a month? It was anyone’s guess. Dysfunctional smoke alarms used to be fixed without a second thought. Now you are “nickel-and-dimed” for everything that you need. I was informed that items like smoke alarm batteries have always been the responsibility of residents, but management actually updated their policy documents inconspicuously earlier this year. The policy documents I received at move-in are not the same as what is distributed today. This was proven when I asked the office to point me to where I could find the type of battery needed in their documentation and nobody could. If your policies change when management changes, you need to communicate those to residents transparently.

While living here, I had tenants in the units above me clog our pipes with non-flushable wipes. This resulted in human waste coming up through the toilet and flooding my bathroom. This issue alone took close to a month to get resolved, but honestly, I could deal with the unpredictable disasters. The new manager though was the last straw. Her way of “taking care of the way you live” is by increasing prices while continuing to make living here worse.

The cherry on top was when the leasing office gave two different random people touring the community a fob to unlock my apartment door while I was still a resident — with all of my belongings inside, without providing me any notice, and well before my lease end date. I don’t know how to react to the sheer negligence and incompetence of the management here.

How little respect do you have for your tenants to put their personal security and belongings at risk so carelessly? The manager couldn’t even be bothered to provide me with an apology.

Folks, if you are paying so much of your hard-earned money for a luxury living experience, you deserve to get your money’s worth. There are many better properties with better pricing and competent management all around the Domain. Please do yourself a favor and avoid residing here until there is a new...

I’ve been living in Esperanza Domain (formerly Modera Domain) for almost a year now. It’s been an excellent property, and the closest apartment building to the Red Line train station. Highly recommended for anyone who takes the train to commute downtown.

Pros:

Staff: This building was sold to Gables in the summer of 2022. The new staff- Angel, Bridget, and Kavon - are the best I’ve encountered after living in many luxury apartment buildings across the US. Their attentiveness, friendliness and genuine care toward fixing problems really sets them apart. The maintenance team are also top notch. Zach and Pete worked nonstop for months to fix a notorious problem that the building’s previous owners left, and they were always super communicative and friendly. Can’t say enough good things about the maintenance team (which you can’t say about all luxury apartments)

Location: Very close to the train station. If you’re a train commuter, definitely go with Esperanza over other options. Other apartment buildings on the other side of Burnet require crossing a very slow crosswalk, which will really add to your commute time. On the other hand, the close proximity to the mall makes Esperanza’s location great for evening walks when you aren’t as time-constrained as during a morning commute. I’d guess it’s a 10-minute walk along well-lit streets to the mall.

Safety: Very safe part of Austin. Fob access required to enter the building as well as apartments. I’ve never felt unsafe here.

Construction: It still feels like a very new building, with nice new appliances and no signs of rust, mold or any aging in the common spaces or individual apartments. Everything feels clean and new. It’s great for mental health to feel like you live in a clean and modern space.

Amenities: Excellent work-from-home spaces including a conference room, two mini-offices, a pool lounge, and lobby lounge spaces. Good communal wifi. 24-hour gym with clean towels and plenty of machines for all your workout needs. Lovely pool.

Community: The residents here seem to largely be young professionals. It’s a diverse group and everyone is quite respectful of each other.

Cons:

In the evening, freight trains run on the Red Line tracks. The train horns can be quite loud when you’re trying to sleep. I’d probably avoid renting an apartment on the eastern side of the building. West-facing apartments and those facing the pool are perfectly fine from the noise though.

This building participates in Valet Trash which is non-negotiable. It’s an extra fee for a service which doesn’t add value. I know all luxury buildings in Austin participate, but I wish they didn’t. I take the trash out myself because I don’t like having it sitting in the hallway… and the hallways become smellier and less nice to look at when everybody’s trash is sitting out all night. Also Valet Trash doesn’t pick up on Fridays or Saturdays, the two nights when you’d most likely have trash if you had a get-together. Hopefully luxury apartments in Austin stop engaging with this company.

Bottom line:

For me, the two cons are vastly outweighed by the pros. The location, modern building, and awesome staff make Esperanza Domain a no-brainer for anyone looking to work from home or commute downtown on the train. And if you drive, it’s 5-10 minutes away from Costco, H-E-B, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts and...