MAA Katy Trail — Local services in Dallas

My issue with this place isn't necessarily with the staff, although my apartment had issues when I moved in. It's MAA. This is my second MAA property and it will be my last. I should have paid attention to the reviews before I moved in. The freight elevator (which is also a passenger elevator) is frequently down. Recently, it was down for more than two weeks so I thought that meant I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but it went out again. It was up and running for a few days, and then out again. It's past the point of ridiculous. All you'll hear is "we'll contact the vendor". The second elevator should have FOB access but this security feature has never worked, so anyone can get onto the second elevator. The floor plan I have is 1/1 at 747 square feet. I wish I had seen the floor plan before leased, but they only show the model. It has no windows. The bedroom and living room have doors to a Juliette balcony, which is just bars against the doors, so it's not usable. It's very dark inside. There's little closet space and storage, the bedroom is small for a queen size bed, and the bathroom vanity is very small. If you look at this floor plan, I would not suggest you take it with two people. I am one person and the bathroom drives me nuts. There's also no linen closet. The toilette runs despite numerous work orders. The bathroom lighting is horrible. The master bedroom closet is small. The property spent money to paint the hallways and put down the new carpet - I think they picked the cheapest and ugliest paint and carpet they could find. It feels like an assisted living facility inside. The apartments are older, despite having stainless steel appliances and granite countertops, they are very dated for the price. The ice maker freezes over constantly. The light fixtures are old. The ventilation is bad. In the winter, when the heat is on, my living room is fine, the bathroom is hot, and the bedroom is cold. The gym is small. I used it once and it was so stuffy, I did not go back. The package room is a joke. It's a closet and anyone can take your package once inside the closet. All of this with a starting price of $1850. What a joke. The pros (there are some). The location is great. Access to Katy Trail is right outside. The McKinney Avenue Trolly is one block away and it takes you down to the Arts District. It's not right off 75 so you're slightly removed from the homeless population, but they are still around you. Be careful walking the trail because there have been instances where homeless people approach you. None of that has anything to do with MAA or the property. Dallas's homeless population is exploding and many were pushed from downtown. One of the largest pockets is right at 75 and Lemmon. The 7-11 is not safe. In the immediate area, cars are broken into frequently, even having a garage at the property. Having Gloria's onsite seems like a benefit, but a portion of the first-level parking garage is theirs, and people going to Gloria's often block access for residents to get through the gate to park. The valet attendants ignore the one-way signs in the garage, almost causing me to get into an accident with them on more than a few occasions. People double park outside of Gloria's, so it's not always easy getting into the garage area. Having Gloria's onsite is more of a hassle than a benefit. The demographic is very young, and there have been instances of drunk people coming home late at night and being very loud, but it has been rare. The neighbors are actually very nice, and I think people tend to go out to party rather than party at home since there are so many bars in the area. I've never had an issue with noise, so that's been a huge plus. With all of that, I will definitely not be renewing my lease. Despite the draw of the location, I do not use the trail enough, nor do I drink enough or shop enough to make the location worth the price, the elevator issues, the floor plan, the car break-ins, and the meh overall feeling of...

Had to move closer to Dallas for a job I took in downtown. We were in a pinch and happened to find this place. The apartment on its own is pretty basic. The living rooms are nice, bathrooms are a bit dated, and the bedrooms are basic. You are directly in the flight path for Love field so opening your windows can be a quite loud. It’s a fairly small community, and decent amenities. You are nearby west village and can walk to the magnolia. Gloria’s is below the building and you get a discount if you live here.

As for the actual unit. Everything is pretty basic. The layout is nice, but the appliances and style are a little outdated. The kitchen and living room are great, but the bathrooms are fairly unattractive. We had quite a few issues with our toilet and maintenance was always quick to fix any issues we had.

Now for the cons.

-You live in the flight path to love field so you will have constant noise from the air traffic. This didn’t bother me too terribly much until I opened our windows. You can hear it more at night when the city ambience calms down.

-The parking is a nightmare and this is the main reason for the three stars. The upper level parking garage is shared with Gloria’s and you can’t park in half of the spots until after 11. Valet also puts a sign up for residents to go to one side, and valet to go to another since it’s a one way, but people are too inept to follow this which causes backup onto the street. Speaking of the street, Uber always stops there for restaurant patrons and this causes some near accidents often.

What really bugged me the most about parking is that we paid for a reserved spot which is clearly marked, but every single weekend if I didn’t get home before 8, someone will have stolen my spot. Now this being an apartment complex, you would think they would love to tow here, however it is nearly impossible to get anyone towed. Every time we would call, the courtesy officer or the office would say to call the tow company, which the tow company would just say they can’t tow unless someone from the office approves. This baffled me because apartments are more tow happy than city run parking lots downtown and they refuse to tow. EXCEPT for the time that I had my car sitting in the parking lot for a few weeks waiting for the car to be towed by the company I was donating the car to. I had worked out a deal with the former manager and had a guest pass on the car, but management changed and my car was towed not long after. Now the office was VERY accommodating for this and I really did appreciate that. However this was more frustrating not because they towed my car, but that they refuse to tow non residents who park in paid reserved spots.

One night, I was coming home around 8:30 and someone was in my spot, and the upper lot was completely full. I went to the basement level to find that one completely full as well and there is no street parking to get in here. I had to wait until I saw someone leave to park which is ridiculous when I pay for a spot.

In the future, I hope the apartments work out a deal with the tow company to actually tow vehicles who park in valet before the allowed hours and to tow those that steal spots. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want a cut of the towing like most apartments have worked out with tow companies.

Living above a restaurant, you’re bound to find a bug or two, so just keep clean and it won’t be an issue. They do prompt pest control is you have an issue as well. This wasn’t a large issue for me at all, but I know it could be if we left food around. I never saw any bugs until the very end of my stay here. And it was only one.

Overall, my stay here was just average. Nothing special and no major hassles. The office was always quick to respond, unit was nice, and it was a...

I would give them 2.5 stars if I could. This is the most middle of the line “luxury living” apartment you can find. This is not the worst place you can live and far from the best but undoubtedly it is great bang for your buck.

TLDR: it is definitely livable and can be enjoyable but the flaws are definitely there so just know that going into your lease.

Pros: Location: right off of the Katy trail and next to so many great restaurants. If you have a pet the location is honestly top notch. Also if you like Stars, Mavs, or Concerts the AAC is a short walk away with a few good bars and restaurants to make pit stops at along the way Price: the place isn’t “cheap” but I would say it is very reasonable. Our rent did increase quite sizably YoY but that might not be unique to the property Pool area: being in the sun is not my thing but the pool is very nice and the area surrounding was always kept fairly clean. It could get busy at times and people would leave a mess but most people tended to care for this area

Cons: Management: idk if any property management team is great so maybe we should all stop hoping for such but they simply don’t seem to care. That being said MAA corporate does seem to care so if you do decide to live here and have issues just call the office in Tennessee (HQ) and they magically get stuff done. Management refused to update residents on fire alarm issues and left us constantly evacuating and never knowing why. They are rarely in the office and good luck getting ahold of them. Another pro tip is if you do need the front office just click the extension option for interested new resident surprisingly they always have a representative for that but rarely if ever answer if you select to call as a current resident

Cleanliness: the common areas such as the gym, hallways, garage, elevators, and resident lounge (really the front desk) are never clean. You will frequently find trash, dog waste, and bugs. The trash room is also extremely gross. This usually led to residents living near those trash rooms noticing more and more bugs in their units.

Elevators: good luck finding a place with working elevators apparently these machines break everywhere but dang are these ones bad. I’ve been trapped in the service elevator at this property more than a handful of times and frustratingly management will rarely let you know they are broken until someone gets stuck despite being aware that certain buttons or features are broken. Also I always notice that most elevators have a last serviced certificate in them but the two here don’t. I’m sure that is fine just kinda weird when they are always broken and seem to be the only ones I have ever noticed without having such certificates displayed.

Cold weather: This is ultimately why we moved. When it gets below freezing just expect there to be at least one pipe burst, multiple evacuations for the fire alarm going off, etc. I know all apartments are plagued by this but at this complex we routinely any time it got below 32 knew we were in for a game of is it our apartment or our neighbors who is getting flooded. It became too stressful to wonder if it was our turn to lose all of our belongings.

It is always easier to write about the cons more than the pros. We happily lived here for the three years we were here but ultimately once we could afford a bit nicer it was an easy decision to leave. If you want luxury but maybe downtown luxury is not your budget this place is perfect. If you are fortunate enough to able to splurge a bit then I would probably look to live elsewhere and truly enjoy...