Fieldstone at Glenwood Crossing — Local services in Woodlawn

Literally the most bizarre experience I have ever encountered. This will be long, but I promise it will save you from a lot of hassle down the road. You can see my full review on their Facebook page. (google only lets me type so many characters unfortunately).

If you are a person who actually reads your contracts and protects yourself from being taken advantage of, they will avoid renting to you. Where do I even start?

The renovated apartments are very nice. But don't let that fool you. The property manager is extremely unpleasant and will avoid dealing with things directly. In the beginning, I only dealt with her Leasing Consultants Kate and Emma. Both are very sweet and helpful, but also very young. It's clear they are the face of the complex and deal with problems while Sabrina hangs in the back and claims she isn't there.

I ran into an issue in the beginning due to lack of communication and canceled my application, but Emma came to the rescue and got things back on track. So we continued with the process and all was okay. Then I got the lease...in an email. They insist you sign your lease electronically even though there is no way for you to get a copy until you physically go in and you have no keys in hand etc. This makes it very easy for them to adjust your lease in the meantime before giving you a copy. Not saying they would, by why risk it? I also had several questions about the lease about things never mentioned to me. So I decided to call and inquire about it, and it was like I was the first person to ever ask questions about a lease. I was confronted with short and snooty answers. The lease clearly states that tenant's water bills are not by usage, but by how many people reside in each unit. Since I was told it was by usage I, of course, asked about it. I spoke to both Kate and another girl in the office over the phone and they swore up and down it was by usage. When I stated the contract did not say so, they responded back "well the contract is wrong". Ooookay...so could you change the contract to say that? They tell me no. I inquired about a few other things on the contract and got the same ridiculous responses. At that point, I told them I wanted to come in on moving day to sign the contract so that I could talk to them face to face. They refused at first saying Sabrina, the property manager, required all contracts electronically, but finally said they would make an exception.

Two days before move in they called me to tell me I could pick up my keys a day early at 4:45 pm, but no earlier because they were still renovating it and were waiting for the countertops to come in that day. That concerned me a bit, but I was excited to come in early. When I went in to get my key and sign the lease Kate was clearly wanting to get out of there since the office closed at 5. But I had questions about the lease as I had told them. I felt extremely rushed and uncomfortable as I could feel that she was clearly annoyed when I asked. She then hands me a contractor key and says they are doing me a favor by letting me move in early but the locks were not switched over yet and wouldn't be for another 4 days. Oookay? So you are doing me a favor by not having my keys ready by move-in day? She then proceeds to tell me I would be charged an extra $50 that day for picking up my key early. Really? Why wouldn't that be mentioned when they called me? At this point I tell her to forget it I will just pick up my "contractor" key the next day (my original move-in day) and sign the lease then. She was clearly relieved and started closing up the office as I exited. This was sooo super bizarre that I questioned even going in the next day to move in. But I had already hired movers and set up duke energy to come out and I hoped they were just having a bad day. Wrong. I went in the next day and it was just as ridiculous...(It gets way worse...please check their Facebook page for the full story...

This review is based on our time at Fieldstone from July 2018, finishing Aug 2019. We were in a non-renovated apartment on the 3rd floor of one of the buildings on the outskirts, next to the park. If work hadn't moved us out of the area, we would have happily stayed there for at least another year.

Overall, my wife and I enjoyed our time at Fieldstone at Glenwood Crossing. Emma was our primary contact and was kind and professional through the application process, and our time there. Through the year we did have numerous issues with the apartment between some mold in the bathrooms, wasp intrusions, and AC issues, but most of these were addressed reasonably quickly by the maintenance team. There is an online portal to use for making requests and it works fairly well.

The location of the complex is good, being positioned directly next to a large, beautiful, walking park, and with quick access to major highways headed North and West. The airport is roughly 35-40 minutes away, and downtown Cincinnati only about 20-25 minutes out. Parking can be rather tight as others have mentioned, especially in the evening, but we did choose to spend the additional $100/mo. for a guaranteed parking spot and rarely had issues with our second car.

The grounds are moderately well kept, though there are issues with dog owners not cleaning up after their pets, as others have mentioned. There is a mediocre Kroger and a few shops within walking distance, good for quick supplies. The exterior stairwells up to the apartments are rather rough looking, but the apartments themselves were nice enough. Importantly, the windows of the apartment closed fairly tightly and didn't let in much cold air during the winter. The weight room is decent, as is the pool, though it can get rather crowded with kids.

A number of complaints have revolved around noise issues, but we rarely experienced those; this could be because of the position of our apartment. The worst experience has been a neighbors dog that howls when it's left alone on the weekends, we can lightly hear it in our apartment.

I'm not disputing many of the issues others have stated, though some of them are understandable in a large apartment community and some are issues with other tenants, not necessarily the complex/management. Overall, we had a largely positive experience, walking in the nearby park on multiple times per week.

One note: technically living in the Village of Woodlawn, you will be subject to a...

Bad and inconsistent management! I got 0 deposit back because of the inconsistent communication between staffs.

They required you to submit vacant form two months ago, which I unfortunately missed and only submit one month plus some days.

Once I noticed I needed to submit the vacant form I called them immediately to see if I would need to pay extra rent as penalty. The staff told me I DON'T NEED TO, IT IS FINE.

Right before I moved out, I called the same staff and confirmed. She again said I DONT NEED TO PAY EXTRA RENT.

One month after I moved out, first I received the bill of my deposit, seems right. Then they send me another one deducting all my deposit for extra rent to fulfill the 60 day vacant period.

Clearly they couldn't rent out the unit and decided to charge me. I called the office, the Assistant Property Manager told me THAT STAFF NO LONGER WORKS HERE. (excuse me?) and whatever that staff said to me doesn't count. It is my fault per lease requirement. She is just rude. I was like ok, but you didn't even get my move-out date correct, I should have gotten some money back based on my calculation. Then she ran her calculations with me, which is incorrect but she insisted she is right. Come on, I have a master degree in statistics. Because the amount is not a lot, I was tired of arguing with her. So I let it go. At the end of the day, it cost me my full deposit just bc they don't train their staff well.

Here is my honest review after living there for one year: Pros: safe neighborhood, close to groceries stores.

Cons: uneven floor: with my apt flooring you can clearly feel the uphill and downhill when walking in your unit. I suffered a lot from the unleveled floor bc I worked from home and it was very bad posture for my body. awful parking: there are not enough parking spots, I always have to park very far away if I come home after like 8 pm, which is not even late. stupid way to throw away your trash. There is ONLY ONE dumpster by the leasing office in the whole apartment complex. Can you even believe it? you either have to put your trash in your car and drive there OR walk like 5 mins to with your trash. UNBELIEVABLE!

STAY AWAY...