Great Hills Apartments

Horrible. I spoke to a young woman at the leasing office, one that obviously has no people or social skills except her interests at hand. After telling her the details of my needs, she realized they weren’t going to have anything for me on the dates needed and just cut me off and hung up the phone!!! And I said to myself, I am someone inquiring about leasing, in other words, offering my business, imagine if I was already a tenant complaining about an issue needing to be addressed. I am lucky this happened now, I wouldn’t be able to put up with this type of degrading customer service later…
To that woman, News Flash, you are Not the Owner of the property. You are getting paid for CUSTOMER SERVICE, NOT FOR YOUR EGO’S POWER TRIPS. If you cant handle your job, do the property a favor and QUIT!!!

Can i give less than a star???
I am writing on behalf of my girlfriend who is too nice to speak the truth. I have not given a bad review yet but this place wins
In july she signed a 6 month lease and specifically told them that she did not want to stay past that agreed upon period. 1 month before the lease ends she emails them for a termination confirmation and and gets a reply 7 days after stating that she needed to write a «written» form of notice. I told them that I was there when my girlfriend signed the lease and we specifically pointed out that we did not want to stay there when talking about the 60 day notice. They also tell us that they emailed her (not true) and left a note on the door (not true as well) and said that that was actually a courtesy notice. The most frustrating part is that the manager she originally signed with left, leaving us with a someone who tells us that only written notices are accepted…
So not only are they forcing her to stay 33 more days but also are charging over $ 200 more per month. Apparently the only solution is to move out and pay the entire or off the the collections office.
Lesson: WRITE EVERYTHING in a note. Apparently words have no substance and are

I just moved out of great hills and I miss them already. Have to say I never had a problem living there. It has to be in one of the best location, easy to get to everything. Jon the maintenance guys is on top of everything. If you have a problem or need something fix he’s there. Thanks Jon for make me and my family fill safe and happy there. You and your team our 5 stars.
The only thing I dislike about living there was and not all the time is the park can be a little crazy to find a spot. But we lived by the pool so it was understandable.

After my complaint regarding the holiday decoration email, I found out residents were sent that email because someone from corporate was visiting the premises. I guess corporate big wigs are a good enough reason to harass your residents. When I contacted the office manager, Laura, to ask her about this, she said it’s «Policy that two weeks after Christmas we email residents to have them take their decorations down» as an excuse for her unprofessional behavior. Even if this is the policy, giving the resident to 24 hours to take down their decorations or receive a lease violation is categorically unfair.
I also found out the office staff spent the whole day trying to track down exactly who I was based on my Unilocal review. Laura denies this happened, probably because she’s embarrassed that she and her staff spent their time and money doing it. They eventually did find me and have taken their retribution via leaving notices on my door for violations and fines/​fees totaling $ 350.
We’ve been given a notice to pay within 2 business days or else we will get fined upwards of $ 100/​day. Oh, I’m sorry, am I living in a budget apartment complex because I have some secret tree on which money grows? No. If I did, I would high tail it out of here like a bat out of hell. Dealing with the office staff has been nothing short of a nightmare.
It’s hard to say we weren’t singled out by the office staff, specifically the office manager, Laura. In fairness, these fees are applicable, but seeing as we just got a dog not even two weeks ago, it’s hard to feel like we aren’t being singled out for harassment by Northland/​Great Hills. I know for a fact that other residents have had dogs for years without paying such fee. Likewise, there was no apartment-​wide notification as there has been in the past.
Think I’m exaggerating? Please see the photo I attached of their letter to us, dated February 4^th, and the adoption contract, dated January 23^rd. To add insult to injury, the letter ends with, «We appreciate your assistance in keeping the community a pleasant and comfortable place to live.» Ironic considering the entire situation.
I feel deliberately targeted and unfairly treated by the office staff for my Unilocal review alone. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I was singled out for this treatment based on my last review. There is literally no other reason why I should be singled as as I’ve been nothing but a quiet, courteous resident of this apartment complex.
I’ve called the office and asked how to lodge a formal complaint against them and was told I was not allowed to have the contact information of the manager’s supervisor and that I could only speak to Laura. Oh, great, so the manager is going to reprimand herself? What a lovely chain of command. Doesn’t exactly inspire a ton of confidence in Northland if this is the way residents are expected to handle issues that involve further escalation to regional supervisors.
The lack of contact information given for the regional supervisor leads me to believe they are unwilling to be held accountable for their behavior and believe they can they can act without accountability for their actions. In addition, my calls have been ignored on more than one occasion, and Nick will only answer my calls if I dial «*67» and come up as anonymous. This staff is absolutely atrocious and needs a major overhaul.
Let this be a warning to future posters that the staff will spend their time, money and resources to do all they can to make your life miserable if you post a negative Unilocal review about them.
In closing I wouldn’t be surprised if a notice of eviction shows up after I post this review. I fully expect to incur more fines and «lease violations» for unfounded reasons because one person didn’t like my review and probably won’t like this one either.

This is the second apartment complex I’ve lived in Austin, and it is significantly better than the first.
Let’s go over the obvious, apartments suck. You put a large amount of people in a relatively dense area and there is bound to be issues.
That being said, I’ve had a better experience here than others. I’ve only dealt with John Humphries on the maintenance staff but he is top notch. Any minute issue has been dealt with promptly and professionally. Also, parking for me has never been an issue. The lots are dimly lit which can be an issue trying to properly park in between the lines and people fail oh so miserably at it (nothing new for Texans, really. After all, lines, stop signs, traffic lights, using a turn signal are inherently Harpo Marxist ideologies.) Neighbors have been pretty civil and nice. There’s always going a few bad apples, but to my dismay, I haven’t even dealt with the stereotypical arguing couple.
The complex itself is older, and it does show its age. There’s dry rot on the frame on my balcony and shows signs of typical wear and tear. For the most part though, it seems structurally sound. There’s trees everywhere in this complex and surrounding area. Which can be a blessing and curse. It’s pretty, but they’re pine trees and expect sap getting on your precious car’s paint. If I were to do it again, I would recommend ponying up the dough for a carport as cleaning sap off paint is no walk in the park. Speaking of park, the complex has a Dog Park! A really nice amenity if you’re lucky enough to be awesome and have a dog.
I have the B2 900sq ft floorplan and I feel that it is spacious enough. The kitchen is a bit cramped but that’s usual for an apartment. One thing to note is that the elevation of this complex varies, so even if you think you scored a downstairs apartment, you might still end up going up or down a flight of stairs. I also have W/​D hookups and for a short-​term rental, it was $ 500/​month cheaper than other places.
Let’s also talk about the elephant in the room. The infamous «Great Hills Murders». Being in this complex for about 5 months, I have never felt unsafe. The incidents were domestic related and you live in a major metropolitan FFS! There isn’t sketch people hanging around the parking lot drinking 40’s out of paper bags, no one asking me for change, it’s just a typical complex in the Arboretum. I felt safer here than the brand new complex that I lived in Pflugerville previously.
Also, the location is awesome. Just about 2 blocks away you have an HEB and Randalls. Along with plenty of shopping centers along 183. It takes me about 10 minutes to get to work across town.
This place is worth checking out, there might be better places out there, but there’s certainly worse.

The Pros
One of the great things about this apartment complex is the neighborhood, you are really close to 183, shopping centers (Trader Joe’s), and restaurants, and despite being this close to civilization you are surrounded by greenery which gives it a feeling of seclusion.
The maintenance crew is super awesome, they always try their best to fix the problem despite their financial limitations, (they make this place a 2 star instead of 1 star). I know you have probably read a great deal about the «crime» at this apartment complex from other reviewers but honestly it isn’t that bad. I have seen the cops once in the year that I have been living here (you have to have lived a pretty sheltered life to consider this place even remotely unsafe).
The online portal for maintenance and payments is pretty nice, allows me to submit tickets from work without having to call people.
The Apartment feels really cosy, it has a good layout and was well thought out in terms of its design and layout.
The Problems:
They are no longer taking packages at the front desk, and their mail area is super insecure.
Bugs, being this close to nature, and the buildings being as old as they are, you have to deal with ants, cockroaches, and other insects that like to get into your apartment. I had a really really terrible ant problem when I first moved in, I ended up getting traps myself and setting them up in the problem spots (they also sent out an exterminator).
The AC/​Heating, I live in a 2BR apartment and the AC/​Heating unit works great in the guest bedroom but it is clear that the units are not meant to be powerful enough to push air to the master bedroom or really even the rest of the house. They should really replace the heater and AC units (they went out all over the place when the heat wave hit).
The cabinets in the kitchen are really cheap and painted over, the shelfs easily come off their tracks and despite looking presentable they are just terribly out dated and cheap.
Gilded (covered thinly with gold leaf or gold paint) — The apartment definitely had all of it’s sore spots «covered over» The carpets were cleaned but the padding underneath was horribly stained and quickly dirt spots began to surface within 2 weeks of me moving in. The sinks had rusted cracks that were painted over (you can imagine the paint washes away leaving you with a very disgusting looking sink). All in all it feels like the apartment has been running on maintenance mode since the 90s and without the money to properly fix things the maintenance staff is just forced to push through.
For the price (1,200 for a 2br2bath) you are essentially paying for the quality of a 800 a month east austin apartment, in a nicer neighborhood. For me although this area is very nice I am not sure if it is worth 400 dollars more a month.
Update:
The apartment complex is working to update the carpets and fix the water heater, I updated my rating to a 3 because it seems some effort is being put into updating and not just repairing.
The maintenance crew is still amazing.

No F’ing stars for this place!!! Worst place ever to live the front desk and maintenance tell everyone there is nothing they can do about the fleas because of the deer and what not but it’s straight bull shit!!!‘because people on the second and third floor they don’t even have animals are suffering from flea infestation this place is by far the worst ever!!! Not to mention the 3 homicides in less than a year!!! THIS PLACE SUCKS AND IS THE WORST!!!

I’ve lived here two years and really enjoyed living here. The neighbors are great. The walls are great. I have a hard of hearing neighbor and I’ve never heard her TV :) the area is great you have a lot of shopping stores and great variety of grocery stores.
The staff is friendly and always wanting to help. Their maintenance crew gets the job done quickly. The only thing was they arrive late in the AM.
All in all I would recommend living here.

Great Hills has an exceptional team of leasing agents that have been very helpful from day one. They did a great job helping me find an apartment in my price range and that fit my time frame. The complex itself is very nice. It’s tucked away from the main street, which makes it a quiet and comfortable place to live. What the complex may lack because of it’s age, it certainly makes up for in fair price and good service.

Every time I walked into the office to ask them anything, they were very rude to me for apparently no reason at all. I was prompted with «What do you want?» by two different people when I walked in to pick up a package they held at the office.
When I moved out, they made false claims that my apartment «smelled strongly of urine» when I had a professional service come to clean the apartment a day before so they charged me.
This place is terrible. I moved out September of last year but I just remembered how awful this was so I’m trying to help someone else not make the mistake I did by moving in, that’s how bad this place is. I’m not heated from some recent issue. Don’t live here.

Wish I could give less than 1 Star. My fiancé, 3-​year-​old, and I moved in to these apartments one week ago, taking over the lease of the previous resident. During the initial paperwork, we were told by office management that we were approved, and that all they needed from us was employment verification. We provided them with those papers promptly, and moved into the apartment.
Fast forward to today, and we get a call from them saying that we moved in without approval, that we are in fact NOT approved, and that there is nothing we can do to gain approval. No cosigner, nothing. Megan at the office argued that she did not tell us that we were approved, and when we got the previous resident involved she was very rude and stated that it did not matter what she may have said two weeks prior, that we aren’t approved and we need to move out.
We just finished unpacking yesterday.
Absolutely livid at the complete and utter incompetency of the management here. We would not have moved in and wasted our time and money if we had just been told that up front.
TL;DR if you want an apartment where the management has their s*** together, and won’t f*** you over, look elswhere

I lived in these apartments for the past two years and greatly enjoyed my time there.
I always felt safe and the staff was very supportive and took care of maintenance requests in a timely manner.
The location is fantastic, it’s walking distance to three grocery stores, banks, an express shuttle that stops at UT and the arboretum itself. Bonus it’s far enough off the main road that it’s fairly quiet.
I was living on the premises during both murders and seeing how they were domestic disputes neither one affected my feeling of security at home. I was admittedly in a different nearby building though.
I’m only giving four stars because I found the gym and pool to be a bit small and this discouraged my use of both. Other than that it’s a gem.

I’m hesitant to give this review because of the influx of renters that may spoil my perfect, quiet apartment, but Great Hill Apartment deserves better than the 1 ½ stars it has.
This complex has a great location on the green belt, just far enough away from downtown to see so much nature. You can walk to grocery stores (Trader Joe’s is opening soon!), movie theaters, restaurants, etc. All the amenities are great. The staff, for us, bent over backwards to get us the apartment. The maintenance men are friendly. All the neighbors came and introduced themselves. They love animals. What more could you want?
As for the murders, if that’s what’s stopping you from renting here, you should know that the murders were domestic cases. So know the person you’re living with and don’t believe in hokey things such as ghosts, bad energy, or karma. Happy Hunting!

Run in the other direction!
I lived here for 2 years. Every time I had to deal with management, they were rude, incompetent, unorganized and often gave misleading information. It is shocking how much they lack in the customer service area. They treat residents as if they don’t want your business. So, after being loyal residents who always paid on time and were never loud, we got fed up and decided to move elsewhere.
They also raised the rent each time my lease was up, but never made necessary improvements to the complex or the apartment. There are never enough parking spots, appliances were very old and inefficient leading to high utility bills, the water gets shut off with little or no notice for «maintenance» often, the list goes on and on.
The location is great, but honestly you can get much more for your money elsewhere in the Arboretum and won’t get treated so poorly.
Oh, and it’s also apparently haunted… Look up all the murders.

Terrible Managment, no insulation in the walls ($ 100 plus elec for 500sf apartment).
Yeah and they obviously don’t screen very well. 3 murders in 5 months.

Murder in October 2013 and a double murder in February 2014? We’re moving… immediately.

Just Google «Great Hills Apartments murder»
That’s all you need to know