The Cottages of College Station — Local services in College Station

Let me start off by saying that the new management seems on top of things, and trying to make things more fun

Maintenance is usually on top of things and helpful, but we've had our electricity going out for over a month and requested it get permanently fixed multiple times. They come out, they reset the breaker, they move on. One bathroom has no electricity and we have no wifi almost constantly from this (which is NOT okay when you're a student with online classes and work). We've called, we've gone up to the office, I've even asked maintenance when they were here for something else and it hasn't had a permanent fix yet (even though maintenance told me there was a big problem and quite a few things loose!). My mom's biggest concern: an electrical fire happening from constant electrical issues and being told there are electrical problems...Not ok

Events are held pretty often and they send out texts for everything now to keep residents up to date (anyone can come to events though). There's usually free food and alcohol at all of the events, which goes along well with the party reputation of the Cottages (also the reason I've had to park half a mile from my house, even though I live next to a parking lot).

Probably one of the most upsetting things about the new management is that they lifted the ban on alcohol in the pool area and they're giving it away now. At the beginning of the year there was an ambulance here all the time taking someone to the hospital because everyone got drunk and rowdy and started fighting.

Now that they're serving alcohol during events, people are drinking more than they should, to the point where there was a girl blacked out in front of my house, with no one helping her. I called the front office while the crawfish boil was still happening and no one answered (she ended up getting helped home from passerbys while I was trying to get ahold of someone).

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that their security is subpart for what the complex needs. People follow each other in, the gates are open most of the time, and as hard as the night security works and as great as they are, one guy cannot possibly give the complex the coverage it needs and there have been multiple break-ins to cars and houses.

Overall, the only people I know living here next year are people that like the amenities and free food/alcohol, or new people. Everyone else is moving somewhere else, myself included.

Now for things that happened during my time here before new management... I don't hold any of these things against the cottages with the new management, but they may still happen and are worth listing:

When I moved in, the house the filthy. There was painters tape on everything, the couch (furnished) was torn up from the previous renters dog, nothing was even somewhat cleaned, there were cups, sharpies, cigarette butts, ping pong balls, fishing hooks, etc throughout the house .. it was a disaster and NOT fit to move into.

They don't roommate match based on what you fill out... they didn't even check if people had or were allergic to pets, they just put them in houses in order of lease signing (I was originally put in a pet unfriendly house, my roommate was put with someone allergic to her cat).

After a lot of arguing, they put me in another house. While much cleaner, this one was infested with ants and took weeks to get rid of all of them (exterminator on staff, so he comes to the complex every day for anything that needs to be done. Not really friendly, and was rude (told us we were overreacting and "you can't get rid of spiders") when we wanted the porch sprayed for spiders because 4 large (palm of my hand size), aggressive spiders were living there. Then complained he'd already had to come 3 times to spray for ants (again, they were everywhere. My sheets didn't even look white...).

After all this, we found mice in the house this winter, and so did our neighbors.

While there was more that happened, new management has really fixed the other things and I don't feel it's fair to mention what I know...

A MUST READ IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING LIVING HERE: RUN away from this place! Be afraid…be VERY afraid. If we could give negative stars, we would.

As with so many other reviews, we concur noting the management is completely useless! They’re all warm and friendly to get you in the door…then it begins. The student front office staff is great. Maintenance response is horrid. Corporate Mgmt. staff is exponentially worse. Upon moving in / out….you better take pictures and video to protect yourself (good practice anyhow). They will try and hit you with fees. Lots of fees. $100 to clean carpets. $75 fee to clean a toilet (after having done so & voluntarily vacating final three months of the lease) and literally rinse (not clean) out a tub. They erroneously tried to charge $75 for one bag of trash (1) left in the apartment (until we repeatedly asked for photo evidence - only then it was acknowledged as a “mistake”) and also attempted to charge for expired renters insurance. We had to highlight three times!…the valid proof of insurance previously forwarded, for them to finally acknowledge the same. Another “mistake.” Other presumptive charges prevail and you have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to dispute. Waste of time and energy. Bad mojo.

If you don’t ask questions and challenge them, you will pay for it. Life simply needs not be this difficult.

Since, we’ve noted that Madison Babb left a Google review stating how much she loves living there and how excellent the management is….uh HELLO!?!?!….she IS part of the management team! As “Business Administrator” and “Accounts Manager” she must have even acknowledged her own review on behalf of the complex. Seriously!?!? How many other employees do they have writing “glowing” reviews of how excellent the management is? Another reviewer Taylor L says how she’s lived there two years, loves it and how great the management is…yet four months earlier she left a review for another local apt. complex, Z Islander saying essentially the same thing! Com’on people. Really? Such a joke. They must be paying people to write reviews, including their own employees…hey, want a bonus…?

Consider yourself warned.

The shooting at the pool was the straw that made the decision for us. The security environment is terrible. Gates are never closed as they claim. Take notice of the other reviews regarding cars stolen and vandalized….dirty units and apartments in disrepair…etc…etc…etc. Read for yourself. Ghetto.

Their system failure caused a deletion of our credit card that had been set on auto pay for nearly a year. Madison Babb (who literally refuses to talk on the phone) is refusing to remove nearly $150 in bogus late fees…that was caused because of THEIR acknowledged system failure!…and is now threatening to send to collections…when we were told repeatedly (three times) by other staff to not worry about the late fees. Yeah right. Today we documented 14…yes 14…calls to the office…during normal business hours!… to try and pay legitimate, undisputed final charges yet no one would pick up the phone or return the message left for them. Update: they won…we paid the bogus $140 in late fees just to be rid of them. I wanted to fight back on principle but I’m too busy and it’s not worth the energy… We’re confident they bank on that mindset…quite literally. Next up, a BBB complaint. This is only the 3rd review I’ve ever written. It takes a bit to really piss me off the way these people did.

If you chose to rent from them, consider yourself warned of what they’re about. Document everything…all calls, conversations, emails, dates, who you spoke with as you’re going to need it…probably to defend yourself if or when you take them to court for disingenuous business practices.

Lease at your own risk and peril. Don’t just take our word for it, read the warnings of others on here...and oh yeah, have a look on BBB also. Painfully obvious. Best of luck. (...if you made it this far & found this review helpful, please hit the Like - thumbs-up button. Lets hold them...

PLEASE READ I highly value customer reviews and because I had a good - not great- experience at The Cottages, I want to give them a thorough review. I lived here for two years (2018-2020), in the same house. The OVERALL rating is an average of individual categories. Hope this helps!

OVERALL: 3 stars

The price - 4 stars Are there cheaper places to live? Of course. Do those cheaper places offer all these amenities in one spot? Not many do. As long as you get along with your roommates, the price is worth everything that comes with The Cottages.

The Unit - 4 stars I lived in a 3X3 house. My room was very clean at move in, but my roommates had a few carpet stains and holes in their walls that eventually got fixed.

Personal safety - 2 stars 1 courtesy officer on site lived towards the back of the complex, and city police patrolled through the complex throughout the day and night. A security patrol company was also hired to walk around the complex at night, (Cherokee Security I believe?), and one of the guys was beyond creepy. We would look me up and down when I walked my dog or load up my car. Hope he got fired. Also, those front gates? Anyone can get in because the combination code never changes and everyone has it. Plus, it’s so easy to follow a car in.

The only big issue we had was when someone WITH A KEY tried to unlock our doors at night. I know this because I always always lock and deadbolt each door before bed, and when I woke up the next morning both of the key locks were unlocked and yet my roommate was still upstairs sleeping. ALWAYS DEADBOLT YOUR DOORS!!! The office came the next day to install new locks on our doors, god bless them.

Another neighbor who did not ever deadbolt her doors also had a security issue when two “security officers” came into her house early one morning (around 1am), yelling to see if anyone was inside. When she came out of her room, wondering what the heck was going on, they made up some lame excuse why they came in and left immediately. They got fired the next day when she called in to complain. Both of these incidents were in 2019, so hopefully the personnel who had keys and felt the need to break in are long gone.

Internet - 1 star SLOWEST INTERNET OF MY LIFE. It’s the 21st century (and now a pandemic). Let’s get this fixed please.

Office Staff - 1 star Turn over rate for office personnel is HIGH. If a worker is AMAZING, he or she usually leaves after 6 months to get a better job… leaving residents with new staff that have no clue what they are doing. Often times no one even answers the phone or is sent straight to voicemail (even during office hours!) Caleb and Lindsey were great though. Also, the office staff CONSTANTLY make house visits with no good explanation as to why. I am not going to lock my dog up all day because they want to come in for 10 minutes a month to check on god knows what.

Billing - 3 stars All of the bills (rent, water, trash, electric) are payed through 1 online system which is WONDERFUL. Super easy, however, many many times my roommate and I got charged for furniture or electric fees that were not our responsibly. If we caught it and called the office (and if they answered), the office personnel would fix it that day or the next. Also, our average electric bill for the 3X3 when 3 people lived there was about $45 for each person.

Amenities - 4 stars Pool is very nice, but not heavily regulate who could use the pool, so come Spring the pool was a MADHOUSE and cops got called all the time to kick people out. My biggest gripe on the fitness rooms is that there are not wipes and sanitizer in each room to clean off equipment so everything is pretty gross. Loved the study rooms and free printing. The printer is very slow though.

Maintenance personnel - 5 stars LOVED the maintenance guys! They are so friendly, and do a very good job.

Dog park - 3 stars This complex is super dog friendly, so there are tons of dogs that use the park. Students rarely picked up their dogs...