Timbercreek Apartments — Local services in Austin

Now that my company has offered us all permanent teleworking positions, I had the opportunity to visit several cities and stay with friends to evaluate potential new homes. One of the places I visited was Timbercreek Apartments in Austin. Austin is fantastic. 5 stars for Austin.

After my one week visit, my personal experience there led me to the conclusion that I would never consider renting at Timbercreek as it is now and here is why:

1. The noise. You can and will hear every step your upstairs neighbor takes, even barefooted. If they are wearing shoes, it sounds like an troop invasion.

RECIPROCALLY - and this is important - your neighbors will hear every sound YOU make, i.e. the normal sounds of living and complain to the management about you. The friend I was visiting says the complaint culture is rampant at Timbercreek and she feels like she can't even listen to regular-volume music at noon on a Saturday without someone calling in a complaint.

I realize wall-to-wall carpet is a relic from the 70's, but without it, hearing everything your neighbor (and their poor confined dog) does all day (and unfortunately all night) is an issue. Be aware of that.

It is even more stressful to feel like you CAN NOT make a sound, even in the middle of the day, without having complaints filed against you. Management does not evaluate the complaint for reasonableness. If someone complains, it goes "against" you - no matter if the complaint was reasonable or not. At the very least, everyone should have to comply with the noise ordinance in Austin, which allows humans to play music, or run their blender, or do any number of noise-making activities between the hours of 7 am and 10:30 pm. It's an apartment complex, not a library.

2. The laundry facilities. Onsite laundry facilities are a big selling point to renters. They should be working. Tiny capacity machines, very expensive per load, not nearly enough of them, and when my friend took me on a tour of the complex, I saw that many of the machines were out of order. She said that having several to many machines out of order at the same time was almost always the situation. This is a common ongoing long-standing complaint against Timbercreek and you will see it in other reviews.

3. Lack of timely repair work. During my stay at Timbercreek, I asked about the responsiveness of management to repair work requests and her answer was "minimally to just-barely responsive." (This is another frequent complaint you will see reflected in many reviews.) She went months without her AC working and was told there had to be a certain number of days in a row over 90 degrees before that repair request gets moved up the list. The temperature of your apartment is a personal choice and I'm sorry, but if it's 80 degrees outside, I want my AC on. 80 degree days start in March in Austin and don't end until 9 months later in November.

4. Frequent water shut offs. The water gets shut off for hours for various repair work astonishingly often. They do give notice in advance of the shut-offs, but still - having no water for hours at a time is REALLY inconvenient. Getting notified doesn't really mitigate the inconvenience of not being able to wash your hands or take a shower.

Here are the positives:

1. Well located. Absolutely awesome location.
2. The pool is nice.
3. Management plans little food events - stop by for a slice of pizza, a taco or some other tasty snack. Very thoughtful.
4. The maintenance staff is very nice and hard-working. Unfortunately, they do not control the work flow or prioritize the repair work, management does. There are also too few staff to keep up with the repairs, hence the long wait times.
5. Lots of complaints about roaches, but I did not see one anywhere that week, and my friend says this has not been a problem for her.

Austin is wonderful. The Bouldin Creek area is amazing. Good luck with your apartment search. If Timbercreek management addresses the noise/laundry/maintenence/water issues this apartment complex could be a very viable choice...

Finally moved out. Can say confidently the only positive about this place was the Maintenace staff. Much better options in the area at a similar price point but without the mold, bugs, and out of unit laundry that will never work.

Seeing slight improvements since new management has taken over. Still mold & bug issues though.

HOPE YOU DON'T MIND ROACHES, HOMELESS, CAR BREAK INS & NO WORKING LAUNDRY MACHINES.

Was genuinely curious as to who would give this place anywhere near 5 stars. Look at the other reviews these "people" have given. All 5 stars, same businesses in Austin, and clearly fake accounts.

Maintenance staff is incredible, that's my ONLY positive note here

Haven’t had running water since noon today. Was told it’d be back on by 5pm tomorrow?!?! Also, dryers have been broken for a week and a half. “No ETA on repairs”.

Update- 24 hrs later and now they are “unsure” of when the water problem will be resolved. Couldn’t go into the office today bc I can’t shower. Unbelievable. Also, went to the other laundry unit only to find out there are a total of 4 working dryers in this entire complex right now. Have had non stop pest problems in a spotless apartment as well. Spend the extra money and live elsewhere.

We are looking into moving into a unit away from the water, from what pest control has told us the building is just old and you are going to get bugs if you're on the water here. Josh has been helpful but upper management is pushing back on waiving or transfer fee despite well documented bug issues. The decision is yet to be made but I get the impression we will not be having that fee waived. Will happily delete this if that changes.

2/15 update: None of the laundry rooms are working. Have 2 wet loads of laundry but no way to dry them. Either I have horrible timing or these machines do not work over half of the time.

3/4 update Apartment ownership is switching hands. Still having bug issues but the previous owners declined our request to move apartments to hopefully get a bug free unit without paying a transfer fee. On the bright side Josh is still working with us to solve the problem. We’re hopeful that the new management will see we’ve been dealing with this since we moved in and do the right thing .

3/10 Car was broken into and about $1500 in belongings gone. Almost postive it's due to the growing number of homeless in the area. Laundry room is yet again down. 1 piece of equipment in the gym is working (AC in there also out) Still no answer from management on our bug situation. Don’t think this place could be a worse experience if they were actively trying to torment my girlfriend and I.

3/14 At this point all you can do is laugh. Paid for laundry and machine doesn’t start up. Switched to machine next to it and paid. ALSO DIDN'T WORK. Anyone who’s given this place more than 3 stars is a bot.

3/25 Workout room still has one working treadmill and half the dryers still aren’t working . Been ghosted by management about possibly switching apartments . Par for the course.

3/27 Dryer towards back of the complex did not turn off when it was supposed to. Got back from a 2 1/2 hr walk to find a nice portion of my clothes scolding hot and shrunk, surprised the laundry room didn’t go up in flames. Another nice chunk of change down the drain ! These 5 stars have to be farmed reviews to bury the real reviews.

5/13 Took a bit of a break on the updates as I think everyone should get the point by now. But things have not gotten better. Today I paid for 3 dryers before finding one that worked. I've requested repairs on one of them at least twice now. At least put a sign on it until it's fixed so people aren't just throwing money away.

7/9 update Things have improved greatly since the new management has taken over. Still having a lot of small issues such as broken machines in laundry room and ice maker has been broken for weeks. Seeing the...

Pros The complex's walkability score/location is definitely great. It is super close to the LadyBird Hike and Bike trail, South Congress, walking distance to downtown, and super convenient during ACL, etc.) when I was living there, the prices were reasonable for the location plenty of guest parking the pool area has a very nice view of DT Austin; another pool pro is that it tends to be a very social pool (great to meet your neighbors)... I guess this can be a con if you are looking for a more quiet area though.

Cons the apartment buildings are notably very old and several of the wooden walkways and porches were even coming apart when I lived there. They did work on replacing some, but it seemed like it still needed lots of work by the time I left a year ago. most units get very little overall natural light, which is unfortunate... it kind of is depressing inside of the units as a result of this... especially if you are an artist that wants to paint indoors without having to use several lamps to see what you are working on. When I lived there, there were a lot of dog owners that would disregard the city's dog leash ordinance and have their dogs off leash and several residents would not pick up after their dogs, which was very frustrating (not sure if they have gotten better with this since I left) The laundry room was alright... but the washers constantly smell gross and are full of dog hair. It is very likely that you will get cockroaches and ants in your apartment, especially if you live close to the creek that runs behind the complex. I personally did not use my porch very much because of all the assortment of bugs by the creek area. the pool sometimes got pretty overcrowded with people and pretty nasty and oily very quick. This is especially true during the Fourth of July (since the view of the fireworks is decent from here and there seems to be all sorts of people from outside the complex that come over for it). Personal con: I personally am not a huge fan of Roscoe management in general. I have heard from one person that they are trying to improve their overall image/stereotype, but there is reason you are getting a reasonably priced unit. I have recently noticed that when I am looking for a good deal for a new apartment/condo/home to rent around town, their properties always tend to pop up as a deal that seems "too good to be true"... and I get excited but then quickly realize it is a unit being leased by Roscoe Management and I then realize I would rather look somewhere else. I personally consider them sort of like the "Walmart" of apartment management teams in Austin... and they seem to be taking over management of several places... and I am not a huge fan of Walmart. So basically, this complex is great if you are in a time of your life that you need to be on a budget and have very low apartment expectations. If you are looking for more comfortable living or an upgrade in your life, I suggest to look somewhere else. Nowadays you can find a much better apartment in town with same great location and a similar competitive price that has had many more upgrades done and a better management company. Who knows though... maybe they have improved since I left a year ago (I left in late 2018). But that was my personal experience. I personally no longer think their prices justify their location or condition of...