Vista Denver — Attraction in Denver

I lived here for 2.5 years & it was fine. Not amazing but not terrible. Work orders were completed w/in a reasonable amount of time & I was lucky to have positive relationships with my roommates (which is really the make-or-break element to whether renting by the bedroom approach to housing will work for you).

Pros: -private bathroom w/ new furniture already there -a leasing team that generally seems to care about their residents (although I don't know the Four Star Realty team too well as I moved out only a month after they took over management - they did help me end my lease early so that was appreciated, shoutout to Morgan & Alex for being cool about that) -location (especially if you're a DU student)

Cons: -The main problem with this community is that it's pretty much always been overpriced for the complete lack of amenities it offers. Back when Cardinal was in charge, they at least tried to make up for this with a consistent schedule of resident events that were not only fun but also promoted a sense of community but as far as I saw in the month-ish before I left, the new company is not doing those at all anymore. We used to have a gym when I first moved in but ownership made the truly baffling decision to remove all the equipment & turn that space into a business center which created a situation where, besides the patios (which are admittedly nice to hang out on especially at dawn/sunset) & club house, the ONLY amenity this place has is a free black & white printer which is just ridiculous when you're paying over a thousand dollars per month (BEFORE utilities which is a whole other negative aspect but I'll get there). -Ownership is just out of touch when it comes to investing in the community. I worked for Cardinal here for 1.5 of the 2.5 years I lived here & while that was generally enjoyable, it was frustrating getting constant pressure to lease the building up when we were more expensive than the competitors while arguably offering less as a whole compared to them. I remember at one point, our first Community Manager Blake (we went through several while I was there) led the entire team around the building telling us all these cool things we were gonna do to upgrade the amenities (a cabana style situation on the 8th floor patio with hammocks & wood flooring & a PS5 for the club house just as examples - I was also constantly trying to convince ownership to get a hot tub &/or sauna which would've really leveled the place up) & then a year passed and not a single thing was done. It's a bit of a tough pill to swallow if you're facing away from the mountains because you're literally just staring out your window at people living in Modera where they have a pool, hot tub & 2 floored gym... Ownership did bring on a guy named Alex towards the end of my tenure there who really did seem like he cared & was generally just an attentive/kind individual but I don't recall any majorly substantive changes happening that would've benefited residents even after he was assigned to our community. I think another big issue with the ownership of the building is that they're simply unwilling to pay what's required to have a really solid maintenance team. Our first maintenance guy Jon left due to mistreatment by ownership & management & the next one was simply unequipped to handle his responsibilities. This building really needs 2-3 people on the team but it did seem like it was getting better when I left so who knows now. -Utilities... Conservice just sucks straight up. (They're the company that calculates utility costs every month) For a while there, I was only getting charged around $20 a month which is reasonable but then it just started getting crazy expensive. In the hottest & coldest months of the year, your utility bill for a given month can get up to $150-$200 which is just crazy & good luck trying to dispute cuz I saw a bunch of residents try & I don't recall a single one having any luck with it.

So yeah, it was fine but it'd be a lot better w/ a $800 price tag for a spot...

I have lived in Vista Apartments and have overall found it to be an adequate place to live. There are pros and there are cons to take into consideration. This is a long one but I hope it helps.

UPDATE(June 2020): Subleasing in this apartment complex is a VERY confusing and frustrating process. They will require you to pay sublease fee($400 per lease transfer) even when the contract has not begun. My recommendation is to NOT sublease unless you are absolutely sure. I regret letting the monetary incentives encourage me to stay. In the middle of the sublease process, the policies changed and hence confused me and the folks who are trying to sublease from me. Subleasing has been a serious hassle and has shown that this apartment complex is truly after making money off of students/young people. All of the pros and cons from below are still true but I thought It would be good to add this in. As a graduate student, I would recommend students not go through the sublease process with this complex.

Pros: My rent is under $1000 for a furnished apartment with a beautiful view of Denver and walking distance to DU. The furniture is good and for all of my belongings. The maintenance team has been adequate and the managers are responsive. The heat and AC(for the most part) work great and are very helpful. I also like the level of safety measures they take in this building. You must have a key fob to get into the building and the elevator along with a key to the front door(plastic key) and a metal key for your individual room. I also like the amenities in this building. The business center has been clutch when I have forgotten to print out assignments on campus. The clubhouse/patio has also been a great place to study and entertain friends. I also love my parking spot! I also really appreciate the system they use for retrieving packages and mail. It is secure and safe.

Cons: Even though there are many things I like about this place, it still has many flaws. (1) The windows don’t have screens and in the summer I had to kill many flies because of it.(2) The fridge and freezer are waaay too small(especially for 4 people). I had to buy a mini fridge to solve that problem. (3) Lighting in the apartment is subpar. The kitchen has 5 small lights on the ceiling and there is one light in the bathroom (4)if you get locked out, you need to pay $75 up front before they(the after hours team) will let you in. I was told that it was to be paid in cash but later learned card would have been acceptable. (5) The elevators can be alittle sketchy at times. I have experienced the down button not work and have get the elevator jump/skip floors on a few occasions.(6) Lastly, this is Student housing so be prepared for confusing smells from time to time in the trash/laundry room, hallways, etc. Also be prepared to see parties on the balcony at the end of spring quarter.

Overall I think this place is okay. If they did not have the promotional deal($250 gift card to renew lease), I wouldn’t have renewed but that combined with convenience persuaded me to stay. I won’t renew after next year because I want to get my own place. Honestly, I would recommend not letting the promotional deal persuade you into renewing because you don’t receive the gift card until after the renewed lease begins. If you need a cheap place to survive, this is a good option but it is no way a luxurious place I would want to live...

If you can afford to live here you should probably go somewhere else. For the price it’s not worth it. The rooms are small the common area is small. I only lived here for 8 months honest to god worst apartment experience I’ve had and I was in the military. And that’s separate from the fact that I was given a discount for a month off on my lease that I had to ask them for several times cause they forgot or something.

Biggest cons The laundry situation is really bad, my clothes and sheets were burned and melted if I used the machines on high and still weren’t dry after 3 cycles on medium. (Pictures of burnt blankets) Changed to hang drying my clothes but there’s not a lot of space so that was not the best. The laundry machines also aren’t well connected to the app so that process was also tedious if it worked.

There’s zero accessibility, if you were carrying anything good luck, it made moving in and out of this place hell.

The accessibility was also an issue for mail people frequently my packages were delayed from Amazon cause of the doors being locked. They used to have people downstairs during the day but I guess that’s too much.

The AC doesn’t work and is super loud all the time.

The key situation also is awful this place is technically pet friendly. But only if you never leave. Your key fob to open the doors use the elevators is also the garage key so you can’t give that to someone to watch an animal if you also wanna be able get back into the building or out of the building if you park in the garage. And a spare is $70.

Also the team pared me with a girl who forgot she was allergic to cats and suggested I keep my cat in my tiny ass room as if I am not paying pet rent and for a pet friendly space.

The furniture sucks it’s small and ugly and I had a broken chair when I moved in. The room will probably come dirty mine did. The bathroom sink is great at collecting dust.

Fire alarm went off frequently seemingly no reason

Pros This place is close to DU and has a free printer The staff is nice

Other stuff: The common areas around are nice kind of but I hardly used them and hardly saw people use them.

Floor to ceiling windows is not a plus in the summer especially cause the ac is terrible

Reasons to live here: You are a minimalist and or don’t have a lot of stuff and don’t plan on having stuff and you want to live by campus.

Conclusion: If you can afford to live here live somewhere else the cons far outweigh the pros. I won’t be living here ever again. You can definitely find more affordable housing around that allows pets. I think there’s probably a promotion going on for a 5⭐️ review now as they’re signing leases right now. So I wouldn’t believe unless you fall into the category of reasons to live here and the pros are the only things you’re...