Malden Square Apartments — Local services in Malden

BEWARE FUTURE RESIDENTS!!!!

I went on a building tour expressing my interest on a 2 BR apartment. The agent only showed us one apartment. I have visited numerous apartment complexes on my house hounting journey, and this is the only place I only visited one unit, but it was okay.

After that visit, I asked for some information as I was interested in the unit, the agent (whose name I think is Michael, he never introduced himself) said he would send it to me via email in “the next 20 minutes”.

Never received anything.

As I was obviously interested in the unit I tried to reach out to get my questions answered. The agent never gave us any email address, telephone or even business card (he said he did not have any)...very weird.

After two days I called to the number on the webpage and surprise! The number directs you to a call center, where is impossible to talk to a leasing agent and all you can do is to leave a message and pray to be called...

After leaving my message, nobody called me.

After four days waiting I decided to call again and get the agent’s email to see if he would answer my questions that way...guess what.. they gave me A FAKE EMAIL.

The next morning I called to get guidance on how to record a formal complaint...by then, 5 days passed, nobody called me or emailed me and the unit I was interested was taken down from the webpage. Surprise again! They do not know how to record a complain, they told me to “find the construction website and start from there”. Unbelievable.

The lack of professionalism of these agents and this place amazes me, in every single other place I visited I had the agent’s telephone and email, I have been sent floorplans, quotes, follow up emails...in Halstead they just show you the apartment and after that, it is all on you, don’t ask questions, nobody will be there for you, nobody will help you, just apply online and make your payments.

I thought the JOB of a leasing agent is to work closely with prospect residents and help ease the process but looks like something really sketchy is going on here...

I am just glad I didnt put the deposit down, even if I wanted to cancel it I would never be able as nobody is there to help or talk to you.

If this is how they deal with prospects I do not want to imagine how they deal with residents...

PLEASE, please, future residents, ALWAYS work with agents that are willing to help. At the end of the day, an apartment lease is a big financial decision that will lock you on a (minimum) 12 month contract, and your life can become extremely difficult if nobody listens to your concerns.

...That is basically their job and the reason of...

The amenities are very nice which makes this building very appealing. The rent was decently priced for the area and the amenities. They do allow dogs so that was also a plus. Pool is on the small side for the size of the building in my opinion. How many people actually virtual golf? Plus its kind of a small room for that and could have been utilized in a better way in my opinion. The real issue here is management. They do as little as possible to help you in any situation. For example, I dropped my keys down the elevator shaft, completely my fault a stupid accident. I called management on a Friday morning, this happened Thursday late evening. Jennifer said she was so sorry, she will let maintenance know and get back to me if they can be retrieved otherwise the elevator people have to come out and I would be charged $1,000 for that call. Supposedly maintenance couldn't get the keys and I wasn't paying $1K. Jennifer offered NO additional solution, like a spare key to use for the weekend or to purchase an additional set of keys. I think it was Friday and she just didn't want to bother. My husband called on Monday and got us a spare key but no fob to get in the main doors, so a little useless. We went on our honeymoon and came back and the keys from the elevator shaft were in our mailbox. I asked the maintenance guy we had previously had interactions with (Very nice Italian guy) He said they were very easy to get no one told them they were there. He must have seen me trying to fish them out and found out the situation. SOME customer service would have been better than NONE. Parking is a terror. They claim they have no way to enforce parking, yet you have to pay for your parking spot and they can't do anything if someone lets a friend in that parks in your spot, now you have to take up someone else's spot. Makes no sense. Then they put up nasty messages in the elevators and common areas about these situations. I guarantee if they tow one car it will solve the problem for everyone, but everyone knows there are no consequences and the only people that get screwed are those paying for the spots. They used to have 24/hr security which was an amenity when I signed my lease but after the third month I never saw another security person there after 6pm. Jennifer lives in the building so you often see her around enjoying amenities but does little to help anyone but herself. They sent our deposit back, with money missing and no...

Edit: Look at Tristan's generic response below. He tries to write this to all the bad reviews but never really tries to resolve them in person when the problem was there.

This property is horribly run and simply reflects down to leasing office. As a PROSPECTIVE tenant, I was looking to rent an apartment somewhere close to the Orange line. I came to the property around noon and NOT ONE PERSON in the leasing office was available! I had to wait nearly one hour until a man named Tristan opened the door for me.

Upon me letting me in, he did not even bother making eye contact and did not welcome me. Highly unprofessional leasing office. He asked what I wanted disgruntledly and condescendingly. I told him I was looking for an open unit any time between now and September. He was busy watching his phone during the FIFA World Cup and spoke to me while staring at his phone. He ignored most of my questions about the property and when I asked him what the average cost of a unit was, he even made an indirect racial remark referring to me as "you people".

Honestly, at that point I left the property and never looked back twice. If I were to be treated like this before renting a unit, I could not imagine how much worse it will be when living here!

I am now living at Exchange Street Apartments where I am treated with respect and dignity.

Not sure who to contact about this regarding Halstead Malden but this place is obviously poorly run and if the owners of this property are reading this, your leasing office are going to be the reason why you lose business to other apartments that are quickly popping up around here. You ought to survey people after their visit to this property or even to people that are renting here to give you unbiased opinions regarding your leasing office.

If you need clarification regarding my review, please look at other people's reviews including the ones on Yelp about this property. This place needs a Human Resources training/seminar regarding how to communicate with people and it all starts with the Leasing Office. Avoid this place at all costs!

Last bit of advice is if you are still considering, take a look at this property and Exchange Street. Compare how you were treated there versus how you were treated at Exchange Street and you will easily be able to make the decision...