Mystic Place — Attraction in Medford

My partner & I did a tour of the property around early February. We loved the location & were looking for a 6 month type lease.

We are moving starting tomorrow & the leasing agent we used, Kristen Hawkins, was absolutely fantastic with communication. So this 4* review is based on our experience so far with the apartment complex & will surely be updated as our stay progress & hopefully it can go up to 5*.

We were looking into a 1 Bedroom Apartment. It's 620sqft. So a little on the smaller side & still a bit pricey but a price we were willing to pay to rid ourselves of roommates.

We were told during our tour that a new gym was going to be put in by the time we moved in & we shall see tomorrow. I have my doubts because it didn't look like anything was started in terms of getting it set up, but hopefully I am pleasantly surprised upon moving in..

I asked about the temperature settings & they said you will have full control of the temp of the apartment. There were some reviews I was reading that said they turned the air down but no matter what the temp would go below a certain amount. Something like 72 degrees. So we will see in this apartment if they stuck by their word that A/C & Heat are actually controllable without it being locked at a certain temp.

The kitchen is a decent size & we liked the island. Makes the living area feel much larger. The one downside that we have found is there is no pantry area (at least in the 1 bedroom units). I think we have planned on using the cabinet on the floor next to the fridge as a pantry area since it looked to have half way shelf on the inside to hold like canned goods & the bottom can hold larger pantry items.

The fridge is decent size & the freezer does have an ice maker so those. The stove is electric & it's a flat top. The unit we toured had damage on the top. Kristen assured us that the complex sees this as normal, "Wear & Tear" & that those are replaced before a new tenant moves in & that wouldn't be deducted from the security deposit as it's almost impossible not to scratch & mark those.

The living room is open & feels large. One wall is concrete & the other is dry wall. I asked Kristen if we could hang a TV & she said yet as long as it's on the dry wall & not the concrete wall as they don't want to damage & fix the concrete upon a tenants move out. She also said removing a TV also won't be used against a tenant to take money from a security deposit. As long as there isn't excessive damage.

The bathroom is pretty small. The tub is okay size, There is a little tile type area in the back of the tub to place showering products. Kristen also pointed out that people like that they can actually use it to sit down & shave their legs, which I can see useful for some. The shower head looks awful if I am being honest. I will see if it's possible to install your own upon moving in. But it looked like it was a unique type setup where it couldn't be removed. I'm hoping I am wrong.

& while I am on the bathroom & showering, some other reviews I was reading were speaking of the water being cut off frequently & loss of hot water. Usually around 9am & 9pm. I am hoping that isn't the case as frequent as others have put. I believe those issues were reported 6-12 months ago when there was some heavier renovations. & some management responded outlined this & was hoping it would be mainly fixed up by this upcoming April. Again, I will see for myself & update my review accordingly.

In Building 1 (there are 3 buildings) the Washer & Dryers are on the top floor & there looked to be plenty to use. I believe it's a couple of dollars to wash & a couple of dollars to dry your clothes. So a little bit of a bummer to be going to a coin-op type washing & drying situation. But it is what it is. I have read some iffy reviews about the washer & dryers here but I will review them for myself.

One last note, their website says a $35 MAX Pet rent for 2 pets. It's actually $35 PER PET. So $70 per month for 2 pets. Kristen said the website was just redesigned & they will...

This place is honestly a joke. Don’t be fooled by the glamorous pictures or tours they give you. When touring a showroom apartment, we were pleasantly pleased with how everything worked and looked. However once moving in, cabinets were crooked, paint finishes were poorly done, and everything just looked like they slapped a band-aid on it to “fix” things for new residents. The walls are so thin between you and your neighbors that we constantly hear them from upstairs. Especially with a corner unit, I thought we got lucky with the noise levels, but you can hear children (neighbor upstairs) run across the apartment day in and day out. Forget about sleeping in on any day too. You will hear dogs whom consistently bark for over an hour everyday at 7am. As for the amenities, everything is either broken, stolen, or out of service. The gym and pool table rooms are always trashed with people leaving front doors open, allowing anyone and everyone to come in. I mean, what’s the point of locks!? The basketball and tennis court have been fenced off for over a year. Promising residents of new and upcoming amenities such as grills and sorts… wonder when the day will come. Additionally, with communal laundry, there are two washers and two dryers per floor. Not too bad right? However, it feels as though we’re living in a college dorm or something.. no one cleans after themselves, leaving dust balls and hairs everywhere. This forces us to have to travel between 5 different floors to find a washer or dryer that isn’t disgusting. The trash room too is a mess. People simply are too lazy to throw their trash down the chute, so they leave bags of trash in the room, increasing the chances of unwanted rodents and insects. If they don’t want to throw away their broken furniture themselves, they drag it to the open area where the elevators are and place it there with a “free” sign. The black gates that are fenced along the perimeter of the complex is a joke. Parts of it has been clipped off, giving just a large enough hole for people to slide in. There is completely no sense of security. Lastly, if you’re to order anything online and get it delivered, you’re out of luck unless it’s amazon. Packages will always get stolen or misplaced. The mailroom is trashed with random peoples mail (confidential government letters included). I guess this is what you get for the price. The rent is not bad, but if you search enough, you will find a better place elsewhere to reside for a couple hundred more a month.

—— Oh I forgot to add one thing too. Don’t bother with the air units in these buildings. They say they have central ac/heat, but the air conditioning barely works during the summer (only cooling the apartment down to 72-75 degrees) and although we’ve never had the heat on once this winter, we cannot control the temperature in our own apartment. While it’s 60-70 out during the spring, it’s a heatwave of 80 degrees in the apartment. How are these livable conditions for the residents?!! Update as of February 2025: With the weather getting nicer out (about 50 degrees out), the temperature inside the apartments feels like a scorching sauna!! Something needs to be done because this has to be...

2nd edit: To management's credit, the elevators have been working for around 2 months now which has made living here so much better. I'm leaving the rest of the review up since they took way longer to fix than they should've, but are not currently an issue.

Edit to the below: Both elevators were finally working for a bit but one or often both have been broken again the last couple months.

If you have limited mobility and are considering living here, please be aware there may be days when you literally can't leave/enter your home because management seems to have decided this is a viable cost cutting area and refuses to switch to a competent elevator contractor. It's a shame because the property itself is otherwise very good value for the area and the maintenance & office staff members are really nice. There are several issues with this complex that other reviews mention (cockroaches, excessive noise, random shopping carts left in hallways etc) but the one that has been the worst to deal with is the elevators. Our building has probably 600+ residents and 2 elevators, 1 of which has been marked out of service for at least 2 months and according to some residents who have been here longer, close to a year. The one "working" elevator has broken down at least ~8 times in the month we've lived here, during which time residents in a 12 story building are forced to use a crowded stairwell that is usually wet and sometimes smells of urine.

Even when it is working, during busy parts of the day people ignore management guidelines of 2 people per elevator (which to be fair is an absurd expectation for a building of this size with one working elevator) and cram in to the point where not only is socially distancing not possible during a pandemic but you're physically touching others. Around 1/5 of residents don't wear masks for whatever reason, which massively compounds the risk of simply leaving and entering your apartment.

Management has given us 5 dates that the elevator will be fixed by, only for the date to inevitably pass for which they blame the company they chose and continue to choose to service the elevators (Schindler Elevator Group). Today when the one working elevator in our building went out again, I checked out the lobbies of the other two buildings out of curiosity. Of course, the left hand elevator in each was marked out of order exactly as in our building.

In short, if you want to live somewhere managed by a company whose actions or lack thereof habitually demonstrate that it could care less about its residents' health and safety especially during a pandemic, Mystic Place is for you. If you'd rather not worry about getting COVID and giving it to your loved ones just by leaving and entering your building, I recommend...