The Remington Apartments — Local services in Wichita

THE GOOD: 1- Apartments are nice looking inside and out & rooms are good sized! 2- Very nice features such as big closets, a fireplace, outside storage closet, nice appliances in the kitchen like the microwave above the stove, dishwasher, garbage disposal & ice maker, washer & dryer hookups, patios, & I really like that the kitchen wall facing the living room has the rectangle space cut out, it makes the apartment seem a lot more open. 3- The pool is well maintained & very nice 4- Landscaping is up to date & well maintained 6- Maintenance staff gets to your work orders in a very timely manner. They also have 24/7 emergency maintenance workers on call.

BAD: 1- They advertise their "gated community" while I've lived in my apartment for 2 years & the gate has worked 1 maybeeeee 2 full months out of those 2 years. The rest of the time it just stays open day & night. There's been 2 times when the gate was closed during the day & would not open with its motion sensors & cars were lined up around the block inside the complex because it wouldn't open, which is so dangerous, if they had an emergency or anything like that. Maintenance had to come out & struggle to get it working again while all the cars waited, trapped. The gate of all things should work, since I'm sure that's a main reason why these apartments are so expensive because it's supposed to be more secure, and high class looking.. 2- Mailboxes were broken into during the time I lived here. 3- The parking lot is HORRIBLE. No where near enough parking spots for all the buildings & apartments. So if you work 2nd or 3rd shift & get home late be prepared to park on the opposite side of the complex & walk to your building, which realllly sucks in the winter btw. The only time you get a break and can park close, for me at least, is on the weekends cause it's mostly college kids living here, so they go out on the weekends, so you can park closer. Due to such limited parking people park their cars like idiots, parking sideways in spots, with their car directly on the middle of the line, parking in handicapped spots with no sticker or license for that, people park in front of the dumpsters. My boyfriends car has been hit twice due to people that don't know how to park & his friend that was over visiting had his car hit as well. When I asked the office about any video surveillance in the parking lots, they said only around the mailboxes, but that we could "just call our insurance" of course we would call insurance but wouldn't you want to know who hit your car? The curves in the apartment are so small that 2 cars going opposite directions cannot fit at the same time, so someone has to pull over & let the other car go through or they would scrape each other, or the cars parked on the sides of the curves. 4- I've had to call in noise complaints on my upstairs neighbors several times, being so loud at midnight, screaming and slamming doors, at all hours of the night, and they tell you when you move in that you can have 3 noise complaints called on you before you have to move apartments or get evicted, I believe, but I find that hard to believe when nothing has been done about my upstairs neighbors. 5- I lived in the bottom floor apartment and the bugs that come in are unreal. Brown recluses have been in our apt since we moved in, we've called for the exterminator that they offer, to come & spray many times, told the office worker what rooms we were noticing the spider problem in, & when the pest control comes, I've been home while they literally came in & sprayed the living room & kitchen, & didn't even touch bedrooms that we asked them too. So don't count on pest control to fix your bug issues. 5- If you plan on living here more than one year, plan on your rent going up! I'm not sure if it's the same rate for everyone but our rent went up $30 when we resigned. We were paying $860 including our water bill, for our 2 bedroom. You could make a house payment with that...

Bait and switch pricing. High utilities. Poor parking.

I have lived at Remington 1.5 years.

The largest drawback is the rent increase upon lease renewal. Rent will increase a minimum of 4% at each lease renewal. That is 4% every 6 months, or every year, depending on how often lease is renewed. A 4% increase on $800 rent is $32.00 each month. Keep this absurd bait and switch pricing in mind if you plan to stay more than a year and you are comparing with other nearby properties. They do not negotiate the rent increases and are glad to point out that it is cheaper than moving. Rent seems competitive until you have been around paying on-time for a while and find yourself paying considerably more than you expected. They will also bill you around $20 each month for a pet, and $20+ for "water and trash." Pet rent may begin at $15, but it will increase upon renewal.

Parking can be a real issue in some areas, especially after 7pm. Plan to walk a bit to your door from your car, especially during the school year.

Utilities can be shockingly high for a small modern apartment building. Heat, hot water, and AC are electric. Plan on $120-$150 for one person (more if more people live there and are using hot water and appliances). Landlord replaces the AC filters every 6 months, but AC condensers are filthy, which likely contributes to the high electric rates in summer. Windows are low quality and drafty, which is likely the main cause of high utilities.

Maintenance is adequate. Grounds are kept clean and manicured. The only service call I have had is a broken toilet which was reported on a Friday and repaired after two complaint calls the following Tuesday.

They advertise a gated community due to the high crime rates in the area. The gates rarely work. I would estimate they have operated properly for maybe 15 days of the 18 months I have lived there (that's a generous estimate). When they do operate, they often trap vehicles in the parking lot, or prevent entry to residents, which is a major frustration.

Tenant turnover is high. I have had three neighbors above me in 18 months. This complex is near a university so many tenants are college age and only stay for a semester. They generally choose decent people to live here, but college age neighbors DO make noise when the bars close and drunks coming and going at 2AM is part of the experience in the area. The master bedroom is positioned near common areas and you will be awoken on weekends.

I would not recommend this complex to anyone planning to stay over...

I have lived here for six months so far. I have always liked this part of town because it seemed quiet compared to other parts of town and safer. However, I have noticed in the last several months and influx of houseless people. I’m not concerned that they are near where I live From a safety standpoint; I am more concerned about their well-being and how they might get kicked out by authorities, which can also cause trouble amongst them. The apartment itself is spacious with nice carpet. Parking is decent. Nice laundromat; OK gym. I do very much like two of the girls who work in the office Olivia and Dana. Always super helpful always understanding and very knowledgeable. Most packaged deliveries are made into the office, which is nice for safety reasons. However, I did have my AT&T modem delivered to the wrong address, which is not the apartments fault, but it was stolen from that apartment address or taken by the person who lives there. A couple negatives that I wish could be fixed would be how terribly difficult it is to open the windows in my apartment although it could just be a dirt problem as my corner facing apartment gets a lot of dirt on the outside. The foam sealant on the edges of doors are almost nonexistent and a lot of light and dirt in and heat and air conditioning it escape. Definitely an easy fix though. Maintenance guys are very prompt. Never had an issue with them , my bathroom did have a leak from the ceiling, I live on the first floor, and the maintenance guy said it was just a leak from above and now I have the flooring peeling up from the floor, but maintenance said don’t worry about it. Another one of my issues with the apartment is that after I moved in and started looking more closely at everything, there were lots of little things that were in disrepair and extremely dirty, like the little nook and crannies of the apartment that apparently didn’t get cleaned before I moved in, but I’ll be cleaning those so I hopefully get my entire deposit back when I do eventually move. Overall, I do like living here. I don’t hear any of my neighbors making any noises except for the frat boys who live right above me. I’m trying to be empathetic, however, and letting it go again overall I do like the place quite a bit and will be...