Mac 4460 — Attraction in Houston

TLDR: The Vue is a great deal - just try to only live with people you know!

My experience has honestly been a pretty pleasant one (been living here now since August 2018). My biggest and only real complaints are with the residents themselves. But, for the price, the proximity to campus, the fact the apartments are fully furnished, the complex supplies free wifi (although a little slow), all bills are included (mostly included - I get the occasional electricity/water bill for around 20 bucks - which anyone who has ever had their own place knows that $20 is NOTHING for a bill containing electricity AND water), you get a full kitchen with updated appliances, the A/C and heat is controlled by the residents, and the laundry is in-unit - you'd have a really hard time finding a better deal!

Pros: Despite what people say, I have had nothing but extremely pleasant experiences with the staff (this includes the folks in the office, the repairmen, and - yes - even the manager Charles). I have had lots of issues with roommates and Charles handled them all promptly, politely, and in such a way that pretty much all issues I had were cleared up overnight. The first few months we had the roommates from H*LL. Now, almost 9 months later? The house is quiet after midnight, people keep to themselves and respect each other's property, and they stopped lighting fireworks in the living room (yes - they lit fireworks on multiple occasions.)

Despite what people say, the apartments are still pretty reasonably priced. Like I mentioned, the apartment comes with a LOT. Wifi, fully-furnished, full kitchen, a balcony, walk-in closets, etc ( you can re-read my intro paragraph if you forgot everything I mentioned). My girlfriend and I share a room and then we share the apartment with three other people (two now, they kicked out one of our roommates for being intentionally destructive to the property). My girlfriend and I each pay about $400 a month. We get our own bathroom, desk, and walk-in closet in addition to all the shared amenities. Take into account that I can get to any one of my classes at UH with a 15 minute walk? $840 is a STEAL.

Excellent mail service. Never lost a package and the process for picking up your stuff is always simple. Plus, the front office staff is really nice! They seem like the types of people who will only catch an attitude if you give them a REASON to catch an attitude. The staff in the office is largely comprised of people in their early 20's and they are extremely professional! But, hey. A 21 year old can only keep a smile on their face through so much abuse. (Again, never seen their bad side, I am only making assumptions about what I have seen in other reviews).

Cons: THE RESIDENTS. Go figure, most of the residents are immature, destructive, and can't handle their alcohol - they are college kids. The residents keep the hallways a mess despite the staff cleaning the hallways multiple times a day EVERY day. As I mentioned before, the manager doesn't tolerate destructive nonsense and he will hold people to their lease. You wanna blast your music at 3am? You wanna break things? You wanna let your dog poop in the hallways? You better be ready to accept the risk of eviction.

Most of the luxury amenities are broken or out of order. Since I moved in, the pool has been closed. The gym equipment doesn't work either (or most of it - I don't work out, so this doesn't bother me in the slightest... also, because I don't work out, I don't know how MUCH of the equipment doesn't work - gym might be slightly functional). The worst one for me is the computer lab. The computers all work, but the printer has been out of yellow ink for months now. I even offered to buy a cartridge and replace it myself, but they wouldn't let me - I guess they were worried I would break it.

If you are sharing a room with someone, you might not have a lot of space. My girlfriend and I share one of the cheaper rooms and, as a result, we are SUPER cramped. There are better options for sharing a room where you'll...

If anyone is planning on living at the Vue. . . please reconsider. I signed a lease with the Vue with my guarantors last year. Living at the Vue was nice for about five months; however, last semester I began to see why this apt complex had so many negative reviews. The one star reviews from previous residents are 100% true. * anyone who gave this complex more than 4 stars. . . either 1. hasn't lived there long enough write an accurate review. 2. has been either bribed. 3. Is a staff or office worker. The manager once told me they pay residents to write good reviews.

Reasons to reconsider signing a lease with the Vue:

You can find CHEAPER housing that’s CLOSE to campus somewhere else. The Vue will entice you with low prices and special discounts, like they did to me and my parents. However, those special discounts don't come without compromise. Such as being lied to about rent prices, unexpected maintenance charges and damaged utilities. It sounds nice, but the Vue does not uphold their end of the deal. *if you're going to UH, sign up for the UH FB housing page, and you'll find amazing deals and prices for students. The staff was nice to me at first; however, when I had issues with my roommates, who were black, the staff began showing extreme racial bias behavior towards me. (I notice the Vue is extremely bias towards TSU students). The assistant manager, who now fired for breaking residents cars, showed extreme bias towards black residents. When I'd go into the office, she and the other office workers would roll their eyes and at me or they'd make rude remarks. Their behavior was unprofessional. It's NOT safe. The issue with the Vue, is not that it's located in the 3rd ward, but is that management allows residents to exude ghetto and criminal behavior towards other residents. Apparently the Vue doesn't take their applications seriously, because there's a lot of residents who shouldn't have been allowed to sign a lease due to legal background checks. There were car breakins on occasion, and I heard a girl got pistol whipped in the garage parking lot on premise! No security! These issues were caused by the RESIDENTS who lived at the Vue! I actually got physically THREATENED by my two roommates! Their behavior was illegal as stated in the lease, not to mention their nasty attitudes! They ganged up on me in the hallway one night and threatened me, no joke! They should have been evicted on the spot, but the assistant manager proceeded to act as if nothing happened, and excused their behavior, because they were black. I Also heard gunshots on occasion. The security officers, which were never on premise, showed inappropriate behavior towards residents. Fights would often break out at ridiculous times, such as 2am in the morning. Very noisy and disruptive, not a good apartment for students who are serious about studying.

Summery, I was hoping to renew my lease, but the Vue has proven to be not only unsafe but ridiculously expensive. You can find better housing somewhere else.

**UPDATE: Other reviewers have mentioned that Vue has updated their living conditions. . .that's a JOKE! I've heard from other residents who have lived here within this past semester 2019! They say IT'S GOTTEN WORSE! Also there's a UH student column written 2018 (You can search on the UH web page) They mentioned the Vue has LEGAL issues with their apt. and that they're unfit to even be an apartment complex. . .not to mention the Vue IS NOT AFFILIATED with UH.

Quick note** I knew when moving into the Vue that it wasn't going to be a high-end living apartment, and I knew the area. . . that's NOT THE PROBLEM. . .the issues with signing a lease at the Vue is that they ALLOW illegal activity to go on in their complexes. Yes, I understand it's a college apartment and that there always be issues. . . but the issues with Vue wasn't that simple. . .they NEVER upheld their end of the lease which is ILLEGAL!!!! No that's no okay! They're a student complex. . .college student's shouldn't have to deal w/complex...

First off, if you're looking for a place for the amentites, this is not the place. The gym equipment was and is always broken. It was broken since the school year began. It's always a mess and the water jug is never filled and for the management not to be able to upkeep such a small thing, no wonder their whole complex is a disaster. The water jug is only important since the apartment complex has no water fountains and nowhere to fill up your bottle for working out.

Aside from the gym, the pool which is always empty, well you can see why. I guess they clean it for when they're trying to get people to sign leases because THE WHOLE ENTIRE THING WAS COVERED IN ALGAE. The stairwells are always disgusting as well and filled with trash and food remains. I know this is something the management can't control but if maybe they provided trashcans throughout the complex, students wouldn't throw their stuff everywhere. Students will always find the most convenient way to do things and if the Vue on Macgregor wants a nice complex they should give students the resources to do so. The dog poop in the stairwell is something entirely the students responsibilities but none the less, it's disgusting and their efforts to clean it up is just sad. The trash room some weeks would spill out the door and smell up the floor. I wish I had pictures but it smelt so bad I couldn't get close enough to take one.

Now to the unit itself. The apartments are nice and really spacious. Maintenance was ran by a really nice man but only ONE man. In my apartment there was a problem with our fridge that took the entire fall semester to fix. Also when last year as an incentive to fill units, management offered a free PS4 or TV when 4 people filled a unit. Having done so and choosing a PS4, it was NEVER given to us. After bugging and bugging management for the entire fall semester and excuse after excuse, we ended up getting a TV. It's really sad when management can't even keep their side of the deal and just walk all over students because they know you'll give in. The whole management team as a whole never seemed willing to assist students and wanted to get you out of their hairs as fast as possible. When we finally settled on getting a TV they went through all this BS making it seem like we would just give up and not want to get the TV. Saying come sign this paper, you can't pick up the TV someone must bring it, all roommates must consent, just a lot of BS. Aside from the fridge, maintanence was fine. If you're look for a place for just the apartment itself, basically a place to sleep, I do recommend this place because it gets that job done. For months there were only visitor parking on the first floor and like 5 spots tops. They finally added 7th guest parking but those spots barely suffice. They claim they won't add more spots to leave spots for residents but trust me, if they made the whole top floor parking for guests, there would still be plenty of spots for residents.

To top this off, on each floor there are 2 reserved spots by the door for people who pay for it. One night it was late and my friend didn't feel like looking for parking and pulled in. These spots, at the time, were only marked by numbers on the ground. Honestly something anyone could overlook. Knowing that the apartment complex likes to do messed up things, the next day someone came and hung up a reserved parking sign at the spot that said you'd be towed. Having been parked there PRIOR to the sign being hung up, the complex had MY FRIEND TOWED. That's right! After towing him, my friend didn't return to his car until the next day finding it to be towed. He went to talk to management and they acted like they were concerned for two minutes. He asked them to pay some money or call the tow company to lower the rates for this situation was absolutely ridiculous. It was a Friday so they were pretty much like we'll help Monday but he couldn't wait and get charged more, so he ended up paying it and they never said anything. So yeah, there...