La Costa — Local services in Plano

TL;DR: This place is old and it shows. Find someplace better that will treat you better. TERRIBLE management.

The office staff: The leasing agents are friendly, but pretty incompetent and I've had issues with them since day 1 of move-in. If it's not something they can do right away, chances are that you'll be back a week later asking again. Pray you never have to speak with the property manager, Allie MacDonald. I had the misfortune of meeting with her after one of her leasing agents severely screwed up paperwork. I understand mistakes happen, but Allie was extremely rude, hostile, and unprofessional to me. I left that meeting feeling personally attacked.

Maintenance guys: Work orders get done in a timely fashion and usually get done right. One to two days for routine stuff, and they always left a note after completing the work.

The building and 1\1 (650 sq ft) apartment floor plan: The only positive I have to say here is that the attached garages are nice. Everything else about the unit is lackluster and outdated. The insulation is nonexistent (expect HIGH energy bills), a few of my windows are cracked, and the HVAC unit needs replacing. The interior (cabinetry, counter-tops, trim, etc) looks, and is, cheap. The long, stretched rectangle layout makes the unit feel small and claustrophobic, and you lose a lot of space for a walkway through each room as a result. The patio is extremely narrow.

My building has foundation issues. Cracks along the walls and ceiling everywhere (the most recent ceiling crack brought down quite a bit of paint\dry wall with it). The bedroom\patio door got completely jammed inside the door frame at one point.

They repainted the buildings about a year ago to the vomit green color... not sure why. The bad part is that they also repainted the trim work around the garage to a dark, dark brown, which makes it extremely difficult to see at night while backing into the garage. It's even a pain during the day if that side of the building is in shadow (there are no motion-sensing lights in the garages).

Safety: There have been "safety" notices stuck to my door about 3 or 4 times a year warning about car break-ins and includes safety tips like:

1. don't leave valuable stuff in your car if you don't park in your garage.
2. Safety tips for walking to and from your car (again, if you don't use your garage).
3. Report suspicious activity around the community utilities (which also noted theft advisories and policy changes regarding said community gym\pool). I always used my garage, so I didn't experience any car break-ins, and I never once used the community gym\pool, but the constant notices surely don't inspire confidence in the surrounding area, do they?

Fire lanes: Management doesn't bother enforcing parking rules concerning fire lanes. There's a sort of "driveway" between the fire lane and garage doors. These "driveways" vary from 5 feet to 10 feet or more. The longer ones can fit most small to midsize sedans without issue. Problem is that there a lot of inconsiderable people who will park in front of their garage with no regards to how far their vehicle extends over and past the fire lane. The result ends up taking up a lot of space and makes vehicle access through the complex difficult and annoying. Not to mention it's a FIRE LANE... you know, a law that has something to do with preventing fire hazards and such, but who cares, right? Management sure doesn't.

Noise: My building is alongside the road. Road noise is terrible. Noise from neighboring units is fine, but that entirely depends on who you get as neighbors.

Grounds: Muddy in a lot of areas.

Conclusion: This place simply is not worth the price. Yes, everything in Plano is expensive and is only increasing in cost, but do yourself a favor and find a nicer place that will treat you better. There's plenty of...

Updated on 11/22/2024

When i moved to this apartment, there were many flaws and i saw several negative feedback. But based on how one of the agents managed to take care of most of the issues, i decided to give 4 stsrs.

I moved out of this apartment last month and now i see what they really do to their tenants. Misty (leasing manager) is so rude after you move out. They will never give you your deposit back. I reported some of the issues when move in through email. Even sfter providing her all the email proof, she still decided to charge me $1160 just for kitchen counter top and bath stub stains. Yet they were there when i moved in.

These people are so good at giving reasons and they will never accept it no matter what.

I regret for leasing in this property. Will never ever return to this property, under any circumstance.

Please DO NOT EVER RENT OUT THIS PROPERTY.

READ THIS IF YOU WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS APARTMENT.

I gave it 4 stars coz there are cons that I cannot give it a 5. If not some of the pros I've listed below, I would simply give it a 2 star.

Firstly I wanna say that I saw plenty of reviews about cars being towed, the leasing manager is not good, the leasing staff is not good, garbage, and many other issues I've not mentioned below. I honestly have not seen them and I never needed to talk to the leasing manager. Why would I? I don't report to her or work for La Costa. If my apartment is in good shape, why would I bother the leasing staff?

Pros: Good amount of place outside for kids to play. They are not dedicated play areas, yet good for families to watch kids playing with bikes, scooters, etc Every unit has a garage and a small space outside the garage. Some space fits a sedan and some don't. Every building has only 2 floors. Most of the 2 bedroom 2nd floor units are built on top of the garage. So no problems if kids play around. Most importantly, Mikayla at the leasing office was so helpful and awesome. I've never met a leasing agent so helpful to me. I thought it was only until I signed my lease agreement. But no, she's still the same. La Costa should not lose employees like Mikayla. You guys still survive coz of employees like her still work here. Amazon locker, which is great. Trash is taken care of without delays or days being skipped. Moat important, the background verification they do is awesome. I'm a software QA Architect, so I know it. It's not easy to get into this property if you're a bad boy/girl. But if you get into it, I'm sure you're in a safer place than most other apartments. But not 100% guaranteed. Good pricing and many more.

Now let's see the Cons: Even though 2 BR units are 1060+ sqft, this number includes the garage. A sedan or a mid-size SUV would fit in, still the garage will be full. You cannot even open the doors fully when inside. Bedrooms and baths are smaller in size. I don't know maybe coz all my previous apartments had large ones. Master BR is good but the other is still smaller. The worst thing I've ever seen in my life is, that some of the units, including mine, have uneven flooring 🤣. Trust me, I'm serious. You can see waves on the floor sliding from one point to the other end. But I got used to it in a couple of weeks. Finally when I moved in, there were issues with the kitchen appliances. But I'm glad, everything was taken care of by Mikayla. She personally took extra effort to resolve all these issues, which is why I gave 4 stars.

Anyways all these are based on my 2 weeks of stay. I'll update this reviews if anything...

This was not the first choice of apartment that I really wanted to be in but I was 8 months pregnant when the father of my kids signed the lease to the office. I had no choice but to stay but let me tell you this , when I moved in and he showed me the unit I was shock how dirty every corner of the unit , not even the blinds or under the sink were clean, at the top of the cabinets were filed of dust accumulated I don’t know how long and I was able to climbed and cleaned four of them when I was 8 months pregnant. For two years living here I got flooded three times ( one was coming from the toilet upstairs the water was pouring out of garage ceiling , kitchen, bathroom and part of my bedroom and none of the office people was there to check but the rude bald maintenance heavy set guy who couldn’t barely answer questions and acted as if he owns the damn place yes damn because I have deal so much crap from rudeness of the heavy set lady in the office who couldn’t barely get up to be nice to all the tenants I don’t care if you’re manager or whoever the hell you are but you are just someone working in this place to be rude and act as if you own the damn place because if it’s not for the tenants you all would have never a job that couldn’t barely take care of maintenance and responding the concerns. Bugs are crawling all over the place and it took them forever to send the pest control. Carpet have been replaced after the overflowing toilet upstairs and gutter leaking that was pouring inside the bedroom door which carpet was soaked for days and days and none of the office people check that but took 8 days for them to send someone to cut the nasty carpet and replaced with the old nasty carpet and just lay it without securing and I have all photos for all of that ! Mold was accumulated and I had to clean it because this people don’t care but taking rent. I have all the photos and I will upload them all! I never liked this apartment to begin with and I was just staying here because I was pregnant and those people in the office they need to stay away from their tenants personal business because someone in this complex crossing that boundaries of minding our business especially if tenants are married and have kids ! Your job is for just making sure the place is livable and you don’t have any business yo get involved to tenants personal business especially if you are married and stop flirting with tenants just to continue renting the place despite they are married and you are married! I will upload the videos that bugs were crawling around the unit and I will upload all the water that was pouring all over the unit and none of these women in the office cared the tenants are going through but minding their personal business and getting involved to tenants...