Sterling Town Center — Attraction in Raleigh

This is by far the worst apartment complex I have ever lived in and I could not in good conscience recommend it to anyone. I am counting down the days until my lease ends. I'll explain why:

By far the biggest issue with this place is the leasing office and management, or complete lack thereof. They will never answer the phone, reply to emails and the leasing office is constantly closed or manned by only one person and you'll have a 30-45 minute wait to talk to them. I do feel incredibly bad for that one leasing office employee because she is constantly swamped with complaints and work and the complex has not hired her help.

Maintenance wise.... they have ONE maintenance employee (apparently they all quit in June) and he's backed up with dozens and dozens of issues. Maintenance requests take months to fix if they're ever fixed at all (read the other reviews on here about similar issues). I had to place the same request three times because the leasing office would mark it as completed a few days after submitting it online even though no one ever fixed any issues or contacted me. The only way to handle maintenance issues is to call the corporate headquarters in Florida and file a complaint, then magically your issue is resolved inside of a few days.

I saw in another review about the issues with the pool and it is a HUGE problem. As a person who lives by myself I simply do not feel safe using the pool. I think the other reviewer said it best when they said that the private apartment complex pool has become the public pool for every neighborhood in the area. By noon on weekends there will be 50+ people at the pool, none of them live here, and they're really aggressive and will block the entrances and exits of the pool with chairs to prevent residents from entering. I tried to use the pool 3 weeks ago and RPD showed up and made everyone leave the pool, regardless if you live here, because of how insane and loud it got. On weekends the pool will have enormous parties by people who scale the fence to gain access that go on until 1-2 in the morning blasting hispanic music and it's impossible to sleep.

Other misc issues: there's Walmart shopping carts EVERYWHERE. This is a recent issue due to large families (ie: there's one apartment in our building with 10+ people living in it) who move and do not own personal vehicles. These shopping carts also coincided with an increase in crime in the complex. Cars are broken in to weekly, there was a carjacking last week, the elevators are being constantly vandalized (someone thinks it's funny to pee on the floor of the elevator on a weekly basis causing horrendous smells in the summer heat). And good luck finding parking, especially if you live at the large building by the pool. When there's 50+ nonresidents using the pool then you'll quickly find parking is impossible (handicap spots are always taken by the same cars who do not have placards and park illegally) and double parking is common place on weekends. Lastly: while we do have a "package room" in the leasing office with secured lockers for packages, the entire floor of the package room is littered with hundreds of packages and I've had my packages stolen 4 times in the last 3 months.

As I said in the start of this long review, I can NOT WAIT to move out. If you read this heed it as a warning and DO NOT LIVE HERE. You will regret it every single day. And the great irony is I'm sure the leasing office will reply to this review with something like, "We're so sorry you're not happy here. Please reach out to us because we would like to fix these issues". How are we suppose to reach out when you don't answer the phones or emails and the leasing office is closed pretty much 24/7?!?!?!? DON'T...

Had such an amazing time living here. My neighbors were always friendly, staff was always kind, inviting, and informative. Of course, every apartment complex has its positives and negatives. Positives: the walls must be soundproof or something! I never heard the neighbors that lived around me. The amenities are nice and new, the washer and dryer is probably the nicest I’ve had in an apartment. Recently, the apartment complex did maintenance on shower, sink, and light fixtures to make sure that we were being efficient on water/electricity usage which also brought costs of electric and water down! (It was entirely free as well). More positives include a beautiful pool area that is always being used for community gatherings (although right now with covid this is on pause). I never had the chance to attend any but I would see social events from time to time taking place which I thought was really cool! Besides community gatherings, their leasing office has Starbucks coffee! It’s amazing. Before I was able to get my own coffee maker I would go down to the office before school and just pick up a delicious free coffee that was prepared instantly. Another great feature is the package delivery service. I never had to worry about whether or not the office was open in order to receive my package, they have the LuxerOne package system which allows your package to be dropped off in a locker box where it stays lock safe until you’re ready to pick it up. You receive message alerts and notifications via email and text as well. Maintenance responds in a timely manner and always resolves any issues at hand. Another thing I love is the valet trash, of course this is something that is billed at the end of the month but hey... if you have to pay for it anyway I’m all for the valet trash. Last positive notes include having Walmart as your backyard, shopping centers across the road, close to 540, while also being only 18 minutes away from downtown & 7 minutes away from Wake Tech.

Negatives: the most frustrating thing was most likely the noise and raucous that would happen outside in the apartment complex parking lot. There have been multiple incidents where it’s about 3-4 o’clock a.m (after bars shutdown) on weekends and there is a fight breaking out in the parking lot. It’s so loud and literally wakes up so many people. Cops get called and it gets resolved, still annoying. This is obviously hard for the apartment complex to control however since no staff member operates that late at night (understandably). Other negatives would include the fact that the gym isn’t as equipped as I think it could be and sometimes the equipment isn’t fully functioning-but you still have everything you need to get a good workout. If you’re an avid gym go-er and enjoy heavy lifting you will most likely need a gym membership somewhere. The fact they still have a gym is nice!

That’s all the negatives I have. I recently moved out of this apartment and man do I miss it. I moved to be closer to the NCSU campus but gosh.. Compared to living at Sterlington, my new place sucks. I think it’s a great place to live & currently regret having moved out! I miss my lovely neighbors and the space and comfort I had of my last...

This is my honest opinion and I've lived at this location close to five yrs. now. What I can say is, I've seen three different owners change things as they move along. The major complaints are the valet trash, parking and the ever increasing rent. When new ownership took over they made promises of making TCA live up to its name in luxury living. By upgrading the kitchen countertops and changing the kitchen lights. Then the promise of adding parcel lockers to eliminate missing/ lost packages. They also stated an upgrade to the fitness center with new equipment and outlook by adding a spinning room (this would eliminate the game room). Lastly upgrading the pool area to make it more spa by adding new cabanas and furniture. With all this being done an increase in rent followed. Guess you can't expect to have great things without a cost.

Its a great location because you're in the middle of everything. From 540 being right behind and 401 (Louisburg) on the opposite end you can't lose for an escape to anywhere. Capital Blvd will run you north and south to which all the eateries and some shopping is available at Triangle Mall, Poyner Shopping and Plantation Point Shopping Centers. Walmart is directly behind the apartments along with Target, Old Navy and 5 Below. BJ's is across Capital Blvd along with Burlington Coat Factory and Life Time Fitness.

But what is more important here is whether this is a good place to live, correct? Well... as stated earlier, those are the main issues and I can get picky but I've been fortunate not to have other issues like some of my neighbors. Those issues have been about the office staff, packages being missing, owners not curbing their dogs, the increase in bugs due to construction next door or noisy neighbors who don't respect others. I tend to have a good standing relationship with the new staff and usually get great compliance from them.

Someone asked if this is next to the "hood" or a high crime area? One thing you must know, if you live in a city such as Raleigh, you're going to be in a crime area. More crime takes place in other places than some so with that said, this is not a high crime area. Do children have a place to play? Depending upon age, there is a very small kiddie park across from the dog park but if you go to Spring Forest Road Park there's a big enough park for the kids to play at and adults can get their walk/run as well.

I hope my post will give you some insight as to what's here and about. Some of the changes that's currently going on I truly hope it'll end sooner than later but the last question would be, will I be renewing my lease when its time? I don't know. That depends upon whether my lease become too rich for me to pay. There are other apartments in very close proximity that are either more expensive or less offering more amenities, the same or less. So one has to pick their poison in which they can live without sacrificing expense. With that said...

Happy hunting...