Marquis at Ladera Vista

I am a current resident and have been here for over a year and a half. I have to say this is my favorite apartment I’ve ever lived in. It’s extremely quiet and peaceful. People around are nice. The office staff and maintenance are responsive and friendly as well. We have had to have maintenance fix a number of things but they always handle things in a timely fashion. I never hear my neighbors. The size of the apartment for the cost is great ! We love having so many restaurants around and good grocery stores ! We plan to live here until we move out of Austin or move into a house.

We moved in to Ladera Vista sight unseen and were very happy with the process. After more than two years, it was a great experience living at Ladera Vista. The apartments are very well insulated. This reduces utilities fees, and we never heard neighbors. It was hard to believe how quiet it is. Neighbors were friendly. The location is close enough to Research and Mopac to be convenient, but far enough away to feel as though we were living in a semi-​residential area. Charles and the maintenance staff did a great job with repairs and were friendly and professional. The courtyard was a great place to walk and relax. A job took us away so we moved. Our great experience at Ladera Vista encouraged us to find a CWS complex in our new city. No apartment is perfect — this was close.

The apt management used to be great. Items fixed in a timely manner. Now you have to bring your own paper to the pc center to print something. It is constantly of line, or unavailable internet access. The pool and Jacuzzi have been closed more than open this year. They redid the dog park by dumping six inches of untreated bark mulch on the ground. It is now infested with ticks and fleas. The new management is not picky who they rent to, consequently, the dog park is loaded with piles of dog feces. Seems the new neighbors with the big dogs don’t believe they need tho clean up after their animals.
It was a quaint private nice apt village. This summer the one exterior gate has worked only 17 days out of the last 90. .Yet we pay premium rent for a safe and gated community. They can replant the flower beds but not fix the gate. Two years ago the rains practically washed away our inner crushed granite walking path. It still had not been raked even or washed out areas replenished with stone. Rent just jumped up 22:/: with all these out standing work orders. We lived her two years, and are leaving. It is all show and no substance. Be careful renting apts that face the inner trail. Ant bed hell. You can never get rid of them. Spraying every month helps to lessen them. My friend gave up and moved. Some apts are still empty.

We thought transitioning from living in a large house to an apartment would be a challenge but it has been wonderful. We have lived here almost 2 years and we think Ladera Vista is an ideal place. The setting is beautiful as are the apartments. Maintenance needs are addressed quickly and efficiently and the staff is very friendly, helpful and available to assist in any way they can. I would definitely recommend Ladera Vista to anyone considering renting an apartment.

Possibly the worst customer service provided by a management office I’ve ever encountered. The first person made it clear she was at lunch after waiting approximately ten minutes with not even a hello. I was told someone would be with me shortly… waited another 10 minutes and finally left. Very poor service!!!

The first few weeks, when I originally moved in, I was treated like a prince. Well, all that changed by the end of the first year. My second year at this apartment was horrible. I could go into so many details but basically they never fixed recurring issues, and made me feel like I was a burden. The head of maintenance was usually grumpy, and the managers get switched out every few months. I believe that this location is used as a training complex, and unfortunately that doesn’t help keep quality consistent.
I regret my 5-​star review that I had written 2 years ago (which has now been deleted). I’m replacing it with this 1-​star because my overall experience was an absolute nightmare. It’s too bad because it didn’t need to be that way.

I absolutely love this place though we are staying here until we find a house the people here are awesome. So far its been 100% worth it! It is absolutely gorgeous here, the staff is nice and the tenants are great! Hopefully it continues to be this great! Thank you Marquis!

My Wife and I have lived in Marquis for over 3 years now. We first toured the complex October 2007. I remember it because I’d already been on property and toured it. We were shown the model apartment in building 8 I think. I just remember the Ashley furniture and view it had facing the sun. Stephanie who has since moved on to manage another location was great. My Wife and I were looking to leave another complex 3 miles north that was getting to hood for my good. So we settled on Marquis and moved in 4 months later.
At the time of move I began bringing things on my own as my Wife was out of town. My Wife returns and we pack up for that weekend with the help of my Brother-​in-​Law and his family. Now frankly if you’re still reading you make your own opinion on what I’m about to say I don’t care. We get there and I realize as much of North Austin is predominately white (anglo). I don’t care because my money spends like everyone else. Being one of few people of color around here especially during that time I wondered about the following situation. Anyway we pull up to the building and stop the truck. I don’t know who this woman is but while we’re unloading she comes up. In her tanned orange splendor she says where are you going? Excuse me, no hello or anything? She repeats herself and said where are you going, which apartment are you moving too? What the hell… lady you’ve not even spoken. You haven’t introduced yourself and have the audacity to question where I’m going. My Brother was about to answer when I told him don’t just ignore her. The lady walks off cursing. So we got settled in and had no issues until summer 08. The guy living below us had a Harley and jeez did he love it. He’d let us know by cranking it loudly at 8 am saturday/​sunday mornings. I’m laughing now because at the time I wanted to clothesline him off his bike. I proactively talked to the leasing office, asked them to address the situation. It was the first time I’d saw some favoritism or the «culture» between certain tenants and employees. What I was told by the manager during that time (her name escapes me) was it would be handled. It never was and thankfully the guy moved out 2 months later. Since then I’ve a few more incidents while living here. One in particular being the boyfriend/​husband of the extremely tanned lady. I kept hearing noises when I was trying to sleep at night of water running. I even got up to see where it was coming from. I knew there was a spout right under my bedroom window and when I’d go down to look there was no one in sight. Finally one day I went down the opposite stairwell and came around. There he was water full blast watering «their» plants. I called the current mgr about this and her res pone was uhhh I don’t believe that’s the building water it’s ours. I told her we’d seen a difference in our water usage and I’m sure that was the reason. Sure enough she says just hold on I’ll check. She calls maintenance and the Gardner and guess what I’m right. Myself and the everyone in my building is paying for this. Understand this wasn’t 2 plants, more like 50(no exaggeration). Also this guy was watering on nearly a nightly basis for months because of the dry weather. Anyway the spout was turned off/​locked. The mgr did give me a water pot as a peace offering (still got it). The next incident this gentleman and his «paramour» who sill have a garage under us began doing body work on his car. Apparently they had wrecked it somehow and he decided he’s going to do the repair. I kept telling my Wife I was smelling chemicals but couldn’t figure out where it was from. One day I get sick at work and come home early. What do I find but the guy beer in hand buffing and sanding his front fender. Then I see him spray painting it and I’m like what the hell. Look this isn’t auto-​shop 101 it’s an apartment complex. I call leasing and speak with the current mgr. I ask her if she had an issue would me changing my oil. No she immediately replied, that’s not allowed here on property. I say so we can’t do any car repairs at all as I understand it? She says nope none at all. I said well my neighbor is doing bodywork under my apartment and the fumes are coming through the garage into my bedroom. She more frustrated over my tactic in asking her about the policy than concerned about my issue. She says she «couldn’t believe someone could be doing that on property». I tell her oh but they are and some of your staff just passed by and looked dead at the guy. And yes I even recorded it on tape. Nothing going on since then until 2 weeks ago. We got new neighbors who have a real obsession with door slamming. I asked them 3x nicely and even wrote them a thank you note for listening to our concerns. Still they ignored our request. I called the mgr and it has decreased dramatically. I do thank her for that. We’ve been here through community break ins and vandalism. We love the area though. Most people here are fine. Not sure if we’ll renew this year.

I have to update this after living here for about 18 mos. They have no loyalty to current residents. When it is time to renew your lease the rent is going up by leaps and bounds – far outstripping other economic factors. If you live here, they do not take that into consideration at all – in fact it almost seems to work against you. The friendly and helpful employees have gone and the manager is all but surly. I haven’t personally experienced maintenance problems, but I know others have. I feel like we are nickel and dimed to death. The storage closet ourside my apartment clearly belongs with it (most others are located on the patio, but I have the small patio) but I have to pay extra to use it.
I still love the location, the dog park, and the complex in general, but the management is just making it miserable to live here. The parts I like are why it gets a 2 rather than a 1.

The community at Ladera Vista is fantastic. Let me just say you want to move here. I came from a community that had pretty much nothing going for it so any change would have been extremely positive. I set out reviewing apartments in person about 6 months before the lease at my prior place was up. I wanted to make sure wherever I went I didn’t find the same things I was experiencing again.
3 months before moving I found Ladera Vista (LV). From the moment I walked in I felt this place was different. I was greeted by an over-​the-​top friendly staff that really took the time to show me the grounds, apartments and gave me a complete picture of what they had to offer. They could easily discounted me since I was so far out from my lease ending but they didn’t. I was impressed and they quickly moved to the top of my list. I looked at several other places around North Austin but I just kept coming back to LV. They had everything I wanted and I kept getting positive feedback from friends and acquaintances that had either lived here or knew someone that did. About 2 months before moving I got a call from Amy, the community director, just to check in and see how things were going and to let me know «how much they would love for me to be a part of their community». Seriously? Who does that? No one. This was just one of the factors that makes this place great and made my decision to move here very easy.
I was able to do all my lease signing online with spending a very limited amount of time in the office having to finalize everything. Not that I would have minded as the office staff, Mila and Kristen in particular, are nothing short of wonderful. They answered my bazillion questions on both the phone and over email. They were prompt and courteous in their responses.
About the rent charges… the total amount I pay was a bit more than what I was paying before but I found it was worth the extra cost for the attached garage, updated interior and great view. When I moved from my old place they tried to keep me by increasing the rent by almost $ 200 a month from what it was when I had moved in 2 years prior. Ridiculous for what it was. I’m paying $ 100 more at LV than what the rent was scheduled to increase to if I had renewed at the old apartment. But what I found out quickly was my electricity bill was reduced by almost $ 100 a month… the difference I am paying. This is due to the apartment being so well insulated and with proper door and window fittings in place. So far I’ve rarely run my air conditioner as the fans do a great job keeping the place cool. So bottom line is my cost of living did not increase at all.
When I first moved in the carpets had been shampooed and the interior looked almost like I was the first one to live there. I had several odds and ends that needed to be fixed. All very minor. The maintenance staff were quick to respond and had everything fixed before I knew it. They don’t triage issues here and make you wait for a repair. It seems that everything is important to them and are in and out in a matter of hours. Couldn’t ask for more.
Now, no place is perfect. There are a couple of things that I have experienced but just chalk it up to apartment life. When I first moved in I never heard a peep from either of my two neighbors, especially the upstairs neighbor outside of a toilet flushing here and there. However, I think someone that smokes recently moved in upstairs as you can hear when they open and close the sliding glass door to the balcony. It’s quite loud. You can also hear some walking around above you when you have shut down everything down in your place and it’s quiet. But in the grand scheme of things these are minor. There’s just too much that is great about LV that I know I’ll never be thinking «I can’t wait to get out of this place» like I did at my prior apartment.
I have a daughter and LV is super kid-​friendly. Her room, as do all rooms in the place, have great natural light. There are lots of kids walking around the little greenbelt trail in between the complex. She loves it here and has told me «Daddy…I don’t want you to ever move». This is the final stepping stone until I purchase a house again but I know that I can take my time before taking that leap as I’m satisfied with where I’m at now.

Until leasing from CWS Apartments property, «The Marquis at Ladera Vista» I had not lived in an apartment since college. I was filled with dread at the prospect of apartment life, but my wife and I were looking to simplify our lives and pay down some debt before buying another house. We looked at several properties, but ultimately settled on The Marquis at Ladera Vista (MALV).
We chose MALV for several reasons: The rent was competitive as were the lease term options, we had the option of a surety or a deposit, the staff was genuinely nice and fun, and the proerty itself was nicely kept, quiet, gated, and has a running trail, a huge wooded courtyard, pool & hot tub, workout facility and business center. We never had any issues in our 15 month stay, and were consistently impressed by the timely responses to our every question by the friendly staff. After move out, we forgot to transfer the electric back to them and got a big bill from Austin Energy. Kristin at MALV was so helpful and quickly sent an email to Austin Energy customer service stating that MALV would take care of the charges for the period after our move out date.
This is an awesome apartment community with an awesome staff, and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone, even if you have pets and kids.

One unique practice of CWS properties (the company that manages this property) regarding deposits is a «Sure Deposit,» in which the resident is offered the choice between paying a refundable deposit of $ 150 or purchasing a non-​refundable surety bond for a lower amount. They offered me this option when I lived at Marquis at Caprock Canyon, a sister property, and I took it, not understanding this alternative in its entirety.
This surety bond holds the resident responsible for paying damages that can far exceed the $ 150 deposit (if memory serves correct, I believe there is a $ 500 ceiling on this). In other words, you decide whether to pay an upfront amount of cash, or hold on to that money at the risk of greater loss in the future. It’s up to you. Fortunately, I left my unit spotless and had no outstanding charges, but in the event I didn’t, I would have had to reimburse the bonding company rather than CWS. Either way, you don’t get the price of the bond back, which isn’t that much less than the actual deposit.
This is an awesome arrangement for property managers, because they don’t have to haggle with tenants over deductions; they just submit their expenses to the bonding company and get paid. Unfortunately for tenants, they can no longer deal directly with CWS if they don’t agree with the charges.
The legality of this practice is unclear — in some states such as California, landlord-​tenant law dictates that all security deposits be refundable, but Texas landlord-​tenant law, which tends to favor landlords’ rights, might be different.
If you can, try to pay the security deposit in its entirety so that you can challenge any disputed deductions with the landlord directly. Please see the following article for more details:

I can’t say enough good about them! By every standard with which you would measure an apartment community, they excel. The staff is the friendliest you will ever, ever talk to. I don’t know if they got lucky, or if they made that a top priority in hiring them, but they’re not like people at other places. Everybody is professional, like they are long term employees that have a stake in the business. Have I emphasized this enough yet?
Because of a school change for my daughter, I have to move a few miles away and it was more convenient to move at the end of my lease. However, I like the company that runs it so much, I stuck with them and I’m going to another one of their complexes, Caprock Canyon. The transition was a little confusing at first, but with all of their help, the timing, the expense, etc. was perfect. And each employee has worked at multiple complexes so they know each other and really like each other.

I’ve lived at the Marquis at Ladera Vista for more than two years. It’s really a great place to live. The apartments are nice and well maintained. The property is beautiful with great walking trails and a mini-​park area. The property also has a very nice gym, pool, hot tube and business office. Like another reviewer wrote, this place is very pet-​friendly. They even have a small dog park to accommodate the four-​legged residents.
For me, one of the things that make one apartment community more attractive than another is the treatment you receive from the staff. At the Marquis at Ladera Vista, the staff is fantastic. They actually care about the residents and do a lot of little things to make this place feel like a home. And the maintenance staff is top-​notch. I’ve never had to wait more than 24 hours to have any issue taken care of — no matter how big or small.
Overall, I think this is a great place to live.

We lived here for about two years and overall it was a pretty nice place for an apartment.
This is a very pet-​friendly place and if you have well-​behaved dogs, the walking paths in the central mini-​greenbelt are wonderful. There’s a little pool, nice hottub, volleyball court, small gym and a «social room» that can be reserved by residents for special. There are also numerous outtdoor grills and picnic tables for use by the residents.
The maintenance folks were very responsive and helpful. The office staff were also quite nice. We moved out a couple months before our lease was out, but they found a new tenant and released us early without extra fees.