The Hadley Apartments — Attraction in Mercer Island

Here's the thing...there's a lot of unhappy residents in the building. I've lived here about two months and I've met a lot of them. They are all unhappy with the old management company, Legacy.

BUT(!!!) there is a new management company and I personally know they are phenomenal because the new manager, Megan, was the manager at my last building. When my old building sold and she left, I was so annoyed by the new management that I asked her where she went. If she ever leaves here I will probably leave too, she's just that good. She genuinely cares about the building and it's residents because she is also a resident! Since I've gotten to know Megan I can tell you that she is just as high maintenance as me (and I'm what you might call a "nightmare resident", I complain about EVERYTHING!) so she sees the area that need improvements and she is taking the steps to make them happen. Management changes are always messy and always take a few months to get right, doing that in the middle of COVID adds a whole other level of complications. I think the whole staff has done a phenomenal job. My move in process had a few hiccups but they were all sorted quickly and reasonably. My dishwasher broke and I had a brand new one 48 hours later (didn't have to go through the nonsense of trying to "fix" it multiple times, which I appreciate since I work from home and any disruption in the middle of the day is not good). There's been an issue with the garbage backing up when the maintenance staff is off on the weekends and it makes the 2nd floor stink and they are taking reasonable and proactive steps to combat this. There's also a little patch of grass out back that we let the dogs run around on and there's a dog poop bin there which is super convenient!

The island is quiet and peaceful. There are two grocery stores in walking distance, several parks, so many places to walk your dog, a wine bar across the street, TWO(!) Starbucks that you could throw a rock and hit, running trails, tons of street parking, police that actually come if you call them (not that you ever need to), super fast access to 90, and a thousand other things that make me happy to live here.

The apartments have high level finishes, excellent water pressure (I actually had to reduce mine!), smart layouts, and high end appliances. There's tons of parking and storage (for a reasonable fee, cheapest storage in Seattle though) and the amenities are small but well done. The public grills actually get hot enough to cook steak properly, the view from the roof is stunning, and the lounge has every cooking appliance you could dream of. There's also a business center, movie theatre(huge screen!), and gym that I have not used because of COVID but all look really well equipped.

Believe me, I'm the hardest person in the world to please. I complain about everything. If I can enjoy living here, then you are going to love it here. My only genuine complaint is that there aren't very many entrances to the building(but there are a lot of exits), I really wish the side doors were fobbed so we could enter through them. And they removed the garbage cans in the garage which I find rude but oh well, its 20 more steps to walk my garage to the trash chute from the garage so...

I am so in love with this place! It was an 9 day process for me from the in-person tour until moving day - all during Thanksgiving week, in the middle of a second/third wave of pandemic!

I am super thankful to Chris and Megan too for making it all happen. They were welcoming from the beginning and I knew I wanted to make this home. Getting my lease processed had its hiccups - Experian had me as someone who died in 1915! Super long story - but Chris was on it to make the necessary phone calls, to troubleshoot with tech department, and to work with the software as well! There were hurdles on my end with coordinating the moving day but Chris was very supportive and gave his full attention. I was also able to see his interactions with residents as he was processing my lease. He is attentive and quick to respond to others as well. It gave me a glimpse of how I would be treated as a resident and it gave me confidence that I was making the right decision to be here. From a maintenance point of view, the toilet tank wasn't filling up and the kitchen faucet wasn't running. However, maintenance staff got to it really quickly in between elevator runs as I was moving my stuff.

The unit itself is beautiful! There's plenty of storage and the appliances are top notch. I am very happy with the lay out. The building is centrally located and everything is within walking distance. If there's ever a snow day, we'd manage okay! The common areas are well maintained and it's a quiet place. I'm really looking forward to my stay here. And if you're hesitating, or a major second guesser like myself, I suggest jumping on this opportunity. There's so many...

Update: Things have improved drastically over the last few months. Megan, the property manager, has done her best to make things right and has paid special attention to make sure we weren't billed incorrectly. It's been great living here for the last few months, but I'm not updating to above 3 stars yet because of the terrible experience over our first few months. Will continue to evaluate the situation as more months pass and we potentially renew our lease (would have never even considered renewing a few months back, so truly a sign that things are looking up!)

Original review: Worst property managers I've experienced. Cannot get a response from them. They ignore e-mails and phone calls, don't wear masks when communicating in person (I've had to request multiple times that the leasing agent puts on a mask), and don't follow through when they say they will do something. I've been overcharged on parking for 3 months now. It takes me several e-mails and calls to get it fixed and I plead with them to fix the system to not make the change the next month. But it continues to happen. They also mislead on costs to rent. The leasing agent told me average utilities come out to $70-80 per month, but our bill has been ~$260 for the each of the last 2 months. They bill according to the total building's usage and divide charges across the units, while the lease says they bill based off sub-metering of individual usage (I confirmed this with the management team). This is deceptive at best and illegal at worst. There are many other issues as well, but you can read my Yelp review for the full...