State House On Congress

Location, Location, Location is what most rant about when it comes to living at The State House! True, and Katy Baffi is who sold me on The State House! I was sold on another great place in which I had already put my deposit down on. I want to thank Katy the leasing agent for changing my mind! If it wasn’t for Katy I would not be here! I would not be enjoying life and SoCo to its fullest! Katy painted a perfect picture of SoCo and The State House — it’s all that and more!
Katy is a patient, welcoming, witty, knowledgeable women who goes above and beyond the call of duty! She patiently spent her time to show and explain to me the various apartment locations, floor plans, and touring the complex. I was shooting for a small cheaper place, but she sold me on the extra square footage which is worth it. I could not be happier with my apartment, its location, and SoCo area! She answered all questions swiftly easing any concerns.
My only complaint was that my apartment was not up-​to par when I moved in, however Katie, Austin and staff quickly corrected the issues! I am super happy to be living here!
Thanks To Katy!

I really enjoy living at the State House. I discovered it house hunting 3 years ago when I moved to Austin, and could not be more pleased. After an extensive search, I chose the State House due to it’s location/​proximity to my office, the airport, and all that Austin has to offer. Despite being in the heart of SoCo, the grounds are set back just enough, to enable the privacy needed to focus on work, and to enjoy the buzz of the city at its doorsteps. The staff is personable, attentive, and prompt… Especially Katy, who has stayed late more than once, to assist my cleaners and out of town guests, due to flight delays.

I’ve lived at Statehouse a little over a year and am moving out next month. There have been many ups and downs and unfortunately I’m not leaving on the best note.
Location — Amazing, can’t get any better if you want to live in the area.
Pool/​Hot Tub — Hot tub was broken for 90% of my time at Statehouse. The pool is great but because of the trees and shade it’s always dirty. Not completely their fault but it could be cleaned out more often.
Repairs — Sometimes happens immediately, sometimes very delayed. Depends on what the repair is.
Gym — Very small, old equipment. They haven’t refilled the paper towels/​sanitizer in months.
Apartments — Cheaply put together although at first glance look great. The handles on all the cabinets fall off and I need to tighten them about 1x/​month. For the rent, this shouldn’t happen. Also, you can hear everything! There are two dogs in the apartment above me and there is never any peace and quiet. The A/​C doesn’t circulate into my bedroom so it’s always very warm. I asked them to clean out the vents and it wasn’t any better. The halls to the apartments are always very dirty with a lot of dead and alive bugs.
Rent — NOT consistent! Your neighbor might be paying way more or way less than you for the time terms and time frame. They dropped my neighbor’s renewal notice at MY door by accident so I am witnessing this first hand. When I asked for an adjustment, they took off $ 5. Yes, only $ 5. They said they «have no control over the rent.» They wouldn’t put me in touch with anyone who did.
Side notes: They tow often and guest parking fills up on the weekends very fast. One month they lost my rent check and it was never found. Katy is GREAT and will help you with whatever she can although the issues are out of her hands.

I’ll start my review with the fact that the office staff is great. This has nothing to do with them. The 2 stars is just bc I can’t discount how great they are. If it weren’t for them, it’d be a 1.
This complex allows jj towing in– clearly they partner and give them a code, to tow the cars of their renters at the awesome fee of $ 200, given to a company with an extremely bad rap. I understand the concept of parking stickers, but I really feel as though there is a mutual relationship between the two and that bothers me a lot. Might I add there has never once been a parking issue in the complex. If people couldn’t find parking, that’s fine. But that’s in no way an issue, so it seems they are benefiting from this relationship in some other way.
Second would be the groups upkeep. The hot tub has been broken and murky the entire time I have lived here (10 months). Seems like they don’t even bother anymore. The pool area can get very crowded and its difficult to find a place in the sun.
Third is this company will consistently nickel and dime you to death. I’ve never paid rent late in my tenure here. 1 month my payment didn’t go through online and instead of a 1 time exception or warning, I received a snarky email explaining my late fees and that there was no way to reverse them. I highly doubt there is no possible way for them to remove them for a 1 time exception. I’ve rented a lot of places in my time, and I’ve always been treated with respect as long as I return respect to my landlords.
My opinion– go elsewhere! Tons of newer apartments popping up in 78 704 that are happy for your business at the same price :)

It’s hard to find a better location than the Statehouse on Congress. That’s about as far as the good goes.
In the nine months that I have lived at the Statehouse I have gotten almost nothing in return for my exorbitant rent. The apartments are mediocre, unkept and poorly built, while the management tries to nickel and dime you every chance they get. When things break (which they often do), maintenance takes their sweet time to help you, if they ever do.
The worst came this morning, though. For the past nine months I have been parking in the same exact spot without problem. Last night, though, I decided to crack my window to air out my car. I woke up to see that my car had been towed by the tow company contracted through Statehouse. From what I can tell, someone stole my parking sticker, which prompted the tow company to tow my car. Not only did the Statehouse do nothing to help me, but they then charged me to get a replacement sticker!
To top it off, after getting home from picking up my car I realized my bike seat had gotten stolen. So much for security of any kind.
I haven’t even mentioned the dog poop littered everywhere around the complex or the consistently broken amenities (don’t even try to use the hot tub or sauna).
If you don’t care about your safety or consistent hidden fees, check out the State House. I, for one, will not be renewing my lease.

I lived at Statehouse for a year and give Statehouse 3.5 stars (which rounds up to 4). It’s a solid apartment complex, and it’s cheaper than surrounding apartments. I decided not to renew, for the reasons listed out in the cons section below.
Pros:
— Location. You can walk downtown, restaurants close by, it’s hard to beat the location of South Congress. If you work downtown, you’re also spared most of the traffic on Congress, which is awesome.
— The complex is big enough so that you don’t feel like you’re right on SoCo, and if you’re in the back, you’re nustled in the woods
— Big Balconies. It’s nice. Unfortunately, I had a balcony that faced west which was so hot it made it near impossible to use in the summer. But it was a really nice big balcony.
— The apartments are pretty nice and you can tell they have been renovated. It’s definitely an older complex, but they’ve been well maintained.
— There is a lot of guest parking. Huge plus, especially given the location.
— I enjoyed the valet trash service. It was expensive, but definitely a huge plus, given how annoying it would’ve been to walk to the dumpster.
Cons:
— Parking is really terrible here. If I got home after 10 pm, I often had to park in guest parking since there was no room in the resident parking. There is a parking garage, but an assigned spot is an extra $ 60/​month, which is really steep. The parking garage was always empty too. The parking was really bad over the summer, but it got better during fall/​start of winter. I do not think they tow that often, I saw a tow truck exactly once in my year there — I would’ve preferred for them to tow more often to ensure spots for residents.
— Packages are a mess as well. You can receive a package in 3 separate places: at your door step, in a larger mailbox by the mailboxes, or in the office. The package room in the office is also really disorganized, and they don’t send you a notification when you’ve received a package there. I think this is an area they were looking to improve upon.
— Security could be improved upon. The gate is broken half the time, and was completely open for at least 3 whole months. There were several thefts in the complex, including a bike stolen off a 3^rd floor balcony.
— This isn’t reflective of Statehouse, but the fact that there is no protected left hand turn out of the complex is incredibly annoying. There is no easy way to turn left on Congress, and that gets frustrating fast.
— For a place that has such a great walkability score, the complex itself is really not pedestrian friendly. You can cut through the different buildings in the complex to get to the street, but it’d be nice if there was a side walk on the streets once you drive in past the gate.
— Maintenance requests sometimes took two or three times before someone actually came out to my room. But other times they came instantly. I think it was luck who was on call that day.
It was pretty good value for what I got, although I know they have increased the rates in the past year (they would have increased my monthly rent by ~$ 200/​month if I stayed). I decided not to resign because of the cons listed above. Statehouse is still cheaper than many other complexes in 78 704, and it is a pretty solid place. I didn’t come out of there absolutely loving the complex, but I don’t regret living there either. If you’re looking for a cheaper but still nice complex in 78 704, Statehouse is pretty reasonable.

Like other reviewers, I would recommend renting here for the location and the staff — Katy in particular would regularly go beyond the call of duty and truly understand and empathize with whatever situation I was facing. There have been a few less-​than-​ideal instances during my stay here, but things always worked themselves out without any problem.
The apartments are clean, updated, and very well located. The large size of the property makes for a kind of oasis right by the bustle of South Congress, where people have ample space to walk their dog, and just get away from it all. I think it’s a great place for anyone who wants to be close to the action, but not directly in the middle of it.

State House is a decent property. As mentioned in previous reviews, dog poop, hidden fees & dirty halls are on-​going problems but the apartment itself is fine. SoCo is a nice neighborhood and the pool is lovely (although hot tub is still out of commission…).
Katy is by far the best staff member. Always lovely and accommodating — helps out however she can. She’s the only person who gives me time-​frames about maintenance work!

*Editing this after moving somewhere else*
This was the first one bedroom I moved to. Built in 1999 (build dates are stamped into toilet lids). Gated community, pool, and about 16 buildings.
I picked it because it seemed within my price range, and looked pretty nice. Granite counters, wood floor bathrooms, big closet, spacious balcony, «downtown». Turns out, the counters are particle board with veneer, which peeled up within a few months, and the bathroom floor was vinyl laminate, which did its share of peeling. When I moved in, my hot water flow was weak at best, and when I finally complained, I found out I had pipe blockage since day one. I was confused how that one missed inspection.
The Good:
Balcony
location
responsive staff
fast work order completion
great customer service
attractive front office crew
AC
Great shower & bathtub. You can change the temperature and water pressure separately.
big hot water heater… I miss those long showers
The Bad:
**They took bribes from Time Warner Cable not to offer Google Fiber**
Once I found this out, I started looking for other places immediately. Absolutely ridiculous.
1) Mandatory valet trash — You could only use the trash bags they supplied. These were tiny, weak bags from the valet trash company. And the front office was constantly out of supply on these. I was told at move-​in I’d be getting a roll every month, but you have to remember to get it yourself, and more often than not, they’d tear off a few bags from the one roll they had left. Then you walk through the breezeways to see trash in front of every apartment at night, and some during the day who forgot to put the trash out until too late. This attracts bugs.
2) Bugs. Lots of insects. — My balcony out back faced «the green belt», aka someone’s backyard with trees in between us, which meant there were tons of tree-​nesting flying insects. The outside light was mounted *directly next to the doorframe*, with the lightswitch on the inside. This meant in the summer, you were sure to attract a cloud of flies right in front of your door, and when you tried to sneak back in, you brought at least half on them with you. Plenty of water bugs too. These ones can hide in corners and come out hours later. I got used to inspecting the door areas after opening them.
3) Thin walls and ceilings. You can hear your neighbors doing pretty much what you’d expect them to do. You can hear car music. You can hear bands playing in the neighborhood. I had a Roomba that regularly vacuumed the carpet. After a month, my downstairs neighbor asked if I was «using machinery or power tools during the day».
4) Not the smartest neighbors. This was almost titled Front Gate Always Broken, but once they reviewed the tapes, they found out the gate always broke because people were trying to drive quickly through the gate before it closed, and hitting it with their cars. Also, so many security update emails from management about people leaving stuff on their front ground floor balconies and having that stuff get stolen. Or leaving valuables in their cars. So many of these geniuses must have complained, so the office brought in police officers to explain the art of locking your valuables, with plenty of free pizza to lure in the correct audience. Also, plenty of barking dogs, and plenty of neighbors who don’t pick up after their dogs.
5) Not enough parking. If you want to park near your building, get there early. One time I got back from IKEA too late to park anywhere near my unit, and I had to do a lot of walking with those flat-​pack boxes. I got a good workout, I guess. You can pay extra for covered parking in the garage, which I would recommend. At the place I’m at now, there’s no free parking, but also there’s no uncovered parking.
6) Trigger happy smoke detectors. I used to cook with a towel nearby to fan the smoke detectors. I’d have to open all the windows. Those things must have been really old and dirty, or just set to absurd sensitivity. Everyone’s smoke detectors would go off pretty frequently. The place I live now actually has smaller units, (but was built in 2013), and I have not set off the smoke detector once. My cooking skills are unchanged.
7) Automatic rent deduction had a service fee. The place I’m at now offers free rent deduction from my checking account.
8) Inconsistent package handling. Sometimes I’d get a package notification in my mailbox. I think once I got an email. About 50% of the time, the package is on the right shelf in the package room (in the office). The rest of the time, happy hunting through the piles of packages. The staff knew the problem. They encourage you to help yourself and find it in the piles. They blame the carrier services. The carrier services blame them. My new apartment doesn’t have any such problems.
9) Expect to bottom out every time you exit the driveway. This one is actually kind of funny. If you stand at the bottom on the driveway, more than half bottom out.

Lived here for 3 years and finally could not bring myself to renew for a fourth year.
There are many pros to living here…
— Can’t beat the location! Close to bars and shopping
— Pool is probably the nicest in Austin
— Workout facility is clean
— Units themselves are clean and classy
— Minor maintenance issues are addressed quickly
Cons…
— Parking is a joke. If you come home after 8pm on a weeknight you will be stuck parking on the rooftop. Also have many dings/​scratches in my doors from careless neighbors swinging their doors open on slanted parking spots.
— Security — Complex exit gate is almost always open so people drive in that way. Also, walk-​through gates are frequently propped open with rocks on weekends.
— Pool is extremely busy on weekends with people coming from off the street or students from UT. It’s «cool», but when you’re spending $ 2,000+ a month on rent it would be nice to have a little more exclusivity.
— Floors/​walls are paper thin. I could hear my neighbor above me pee every morning.
— Dog poop is a big issue if you live near the pool areas, the smell is terrible.
— Stuck using TWC for TV/​Internet (maybe Google Fiber will be there eventually)
— Non-​residents use the workout facility more often than residents
After the 3 years the cons outweighed the pros for me. Maybe I’m just getting to a point where I expect more exclusivity with the amenities that I am paying for and want more reliability /​responsible management.
This was a great place to live during my first 3 years in Austin. Gave me the opportunity to have easy access to the city and meet people at the pool.

I’ve only been living here for about a month, but of all of the places I’ve lived (which is a lot), this is by far my favorite!
Staff:
The staff is great. I moved here after living out of state for a little while and everyone who worked here was very helpful and resourceful. Special thanks to Katy! She seems to be one of the more knowledgeable staff members. She not only answered my questions when I was away, but also almost daily for about a week after I moved in. I had a ton of random questions and she always answered them or would follow up if she needed to.
Location:
Driving out of the apartment and immediately seeing the Capitol building and downtown is amazing. Plus, there are tons of restaurants within walking distance or an easy cab ride or walk to downtown.
Pool:
Nice area, but the pool itself could be cleaner.
Fitness Center:
Is always very clean, weights are properly stacked, and equipment is new. It’s never really busy either, which is pretty nice.
Apartment unit:
Up to date and overall lovely. I had new carpet when I moved in and the walls seemed freshly painted. I had a brand new refrigerator, too! Pretty spacious for the location.
Cost:
A bit costly, but you know that going in. It’s a convenient location and market rates everywhere in Austin are on the rise.

I’m about to renew my lease for my 10^th year here at State House. And, I think in apartment-​years, that is some insane amount of time. But… the management here makes it so worth it, there’s really no reason to move. Plus, this neighborhood has grown into something really special. When I first moved here, Doc’s Motorworks really was an auto shop and the neighborhood was a little rough. Now… tons of options to choose from within minutes walking distance.
I travel a lot for work, and the management really goes out of their way to help me out while I’m away. They collect any packages for me, keep an eye on my place, email me to alert me of anything happening, and — they even come over and take care of my cat.
They’ve consistently added improvements to the property — the new grills are fantastic. Two years ago they came through and totally renovated my place. Last year they added door-​to-​door trash valet pickup service. And, they’ve finally started cracking down on the actual bad problem here, which is that a lot of my neighbors let their dogs just crap everywhere (its incredibly bad, and unbearable in the summer). At least they seem to recognize now what an embarrassing, disgusting problem it is.
If I did have a gripe its that they rarely wash down the hallways — that REALLY needs to be addressed this year.

I had been living in Phoenix, and had to find a place to rent in Austin without knowing anyone. I found Statehouse-​and Katy was amazing in helping me decide units, floorplans, etc all over the phone. The whole office was fantastic in regards to making me feel welcome over emails back and forth and everything was in place when I arrived-​I just walked in, signed a few papers and I got the keys. I felt so much more comfortable with their help-​it was a big deal for me moving across states to feel good knowing everything was taken care of.
I have only lived here a very short while, but its so close to everything and in a great location. The only negative thing I can say is that the walls are very thin-​I live on the first floor and can hear everything… that being said; it is an apartment complex on S. Congress, so to be expected.
I would recommend this place to anyone-​staff, amenities, location, apartment, garage-​all positives and important in finding the right place.

I am going to amend my last review but with the cavaet that I already mentioned that the staff at the statehouse is one of the best things at the complex. Now an example of what I mean, more than one member of the staff reached out to talk to me and to amend what they could based on my last review which was not so good to say the least. So again the staff pull through.– they are all very classy people.
I will keep the statement about there is dog poop everywhere and it is 8 months of hot and steamy… well you get the picture. It stinks. I will qualify this statement too. I think the dog poop is probably the lack of responsibility of the owners of the pets. The statehouse does provide garbage baskets and little bags for the poop, the tenants would just rather their dogs poop NEXT to the garbage and ignore the bags! tsk tsk on them.
I also will say that the parking situation is not great there. So I will leave the comment about parking below. So if you live there or vist a friend there be very very very careful about where you park. Go to the office and ASK where you can park because JJ towing is on the prowl there. And the amount of times I had to get either a friends car or my car out of tow probably cost me about $ 1000. AND I Have a sticker!!!
I also will keep that there are roaches and other critters. Again probably not fully the fault of the statehouse and they will exterminate if you ask but I think that there must be something that can be done so that the bugs are there a LOT less often. And I am not a dirty person, there are never dishes in my sink and i had a cleaning lady and the bugs just kept coming.
The pool, though very nice is not always kept clean either. I’ve been there where it is murky with garbage in it blech.
I think the pictures they have of the apts aren’t quite what they seem either but it is a really good location. If i I said it once I will say it again: The location, along with the staff, are the things that the statehouse has going for it.
So if you want a good location and don’t care about roaches, dog poop or being paying a bit too much or encountering frustrations like having your car towed at your own place because things are not marked properly then, the statehouse is the place for you.
I will say the 2 stars are because I am not a huge fan of the owners of the complex, and their «rules» especially when it comes to sucking every penny out of you. But you’ll find that they own many of the complexes in that area so I guess it is what it is. As with any rental complex you are renting not owning so a rental is what it is.

I have lived here for about a year now. The location can’t be beat. The places are getting old but they do a decent job keeping them up. Friendly staff. Parking situation is not that great for my apartment but not for all tenants. Will most likely be renewing my lease if they don’t jack up my rent.

RENTER BEWARE!!! Poor Management!!! Days to get a Toilet fixed? Months to get door to get a door fixed so it can close? I will be moving out as soon as my lease is up. Do not live here.

The grills have been fixed. As promised: 5 STARS!

3.5 stars.
I’ve lived here for a year, and about to move out next week. I feel that a lot of people only come onto Unilocal to vent, so I’m coming onto say, «hey, I had a pretty good experience.» I’d live here again.
I haven’t had any major problems with either the unit or the management. They do a pretty good job at maintaining the landscaping and the pool area. Most of the time they’re pretty quick to fix stuff, although we had a broken air conditioner that took a couple of weeks to fix because of a delay in getting parts. -.5 star.
I wish they would accept online rent payments. I had an incident where a rent check was ‘lost’ and they threatened to charge us astronomical late fees without any time between ‘hey, we didn’t get your check’ and ‘that’s fifty bucks plus thirty bucks a day.’ The same thing happened to a few other people that I had talked to. –1 star: I think it’s absolutely insane to wreck good tenant/​landlord relationships with threats/​accusations of nonpayment when there was absolutely no prior history of missing payments. But online eCheck payments would fix this, not to mention cut down on the paperwork every week for the management staff.
I have friends that live all around downtown and south congress and the experiences are all similar. Nothing’s going to be perfect and to some extent it’s a luck of the draw on who your upstairs/​downstairs neighbors are.

I have been living at the State House for about 3 months now and I have had no major complaints. I have always had a parking spot, everything in the apartment works as it should and the management has been superb at communicating with the community about inspections, cleaning, and anything else that might come up.
My boyfriend and I searched vigorously for weeks for an apartment in Austin. We worked with a realtor, looked at reviews, and the whole shebang. After a very tiresome search we were deciding between State House and Crescent. To make a long story short, we ended up choosing the State House because the rent was a lot more reasonable and because Stephen, one of the leasing professionals, is the coolest.
Stephen is one of those guys who you instantly feel comfortable around. He is super laid back, knowledgeable, professional, and honest. If it weren’t for him we probably wouldn’t be living here and we wouldn’t be considering renewing our lease. Stephen figured out exactly what building would suit us, gave us tons of tips on what to do in Austin and how to tackle SXSW. He takes care of all of your complaints in a super timely manner and he even takes care of some before you even let him know, almost as if he’s psychic. He is always going the extra mile, chatting with residents around the pool, making everyone feel right at home.
There are always going to be little issues with big gated communities like this. They are trying to make money and if you’re ok with the paint job being a little shotty and the hot tub being a little green at the end of the week, then you won’t be let down. Rent is expensive wherever you go but here its cool because you feel safe, the staff is awesome, and you get all the cool extra amenities like the pool and grills and a fitness center. Keep your expectations reasonable and this place will exceed them, especially Stephen!!!

I lived here for my first two years in Austin and shared a two bedroom with a roommate.
No apartment complex is perfect, but State House has its downfalls.
First, the positive:
Location: You can walk to downtown in about 25 minutes, or wait at the bus stop and catch the 1L/​1M or a $ 5 cab to downtown. And, you’re right next to Jo’s, Zen, Doc’s, Continental Club (I’ve yet to go there, though), and several other cool things on South Congress.
Landscaping: The landscaping here is quite pleasant, especially around the pool area. They take good care of the plants and keep it looking like a beach resort. Without the beach.
Staff: We rarely had any bad experiences with the management company. Though we did prefer the previous management company and maintenance crew a bit more, the new one was OK with me.
Flexibility: The management was really helpful when it came time for me to move out, and let us remove me from the contract and add another roommate without any issues. They took a while to get a security deposit returned (expected), but they actually returned it, so that is good.
The Bad:
Construction: Austin seems to love building paper-​mache apartment complexes. State house is no exception. You can hear your upstairs neighbor’s dog yipping for hours on end like it was in your bathroom. You can hear 6:00am yoga practice upstairs rumble through the thin floors as well. The walls had cracks in several locations. Our upstairs neighbor sprung a leak and our ceiling started to degrade and sag. When you build cheaply, you end up with disposable apartments. Sure, they’re advertised as luxury apartments but the quality of construction doesn’t quite align.
Bugs: We almost always had cockroaches, as did our neighbors. We were on the ground floor, though, so that probably doesn’t help. They did frequently have the exterminators come which would lessen the problem, but not entirely. Replacing weatherstripping and sealing cracks would have gone a long way.
Routine maintenance: We seemed to always have to request a new air filter. Not a big deal, but its annoying.
Garbage: Every single weekend you could find a heaping pile of trash in the dumpster gated area so big that you couldn’t even reach the dumpster. They didn’t collect frequently enough or have enough space for all of the recycling. It made taking trash out an even more horrible experience.
Pool: As nice as the landscaping around the pool was, the pool itself was often dirty, filters clogged and looked like a Titanic full of insects had just sunk, resulting in a floating graveyard for you to wade through. The chairs are black vinyl, and in the Texas sun you can forget trying to sit on them unless you like 3^rd degree burns. On weekends, the pool is taken over with what feels like a weekly frat party — crappy music, remaining empties, and cigarettes included.
Gates: Gated communities are a joke, in my opinion. The gates do nothing to prevent people who really want to get in from doing so. My friend got his bike stolen out of the garage here as a prime example. To worsen things even more, they are unable to attach the gate intercom to a long-​distance cell phone, so we never were able to put our names in the gate directory. That’s just silly, really. They were usually on top of fixing broken car gates, but pedestrian entrances were always malfunctioning and stuck.
Mail: Its nice that they collect your packages, but they’d never let you know that you had one in the office. Result: a mail room full of so many packages that they can’t find anything quickly.
Parking: Parking is unassigned. This means that sometimes you get to park near your unit, but most times you get to drive around for 5 minutes until you give up and park at the front. Also, they don’t clearly designate visitor parking at all — resulting in your friends’ car getting towed.
Overall, its not a bad place and is cheaper than several other options in the general area. It is a great place to come home to a relaxing environment in the middle of the city.
Don’t expect the full luxury experience that they advertise to you, though. Its still just another apartment hive built for short-​term gains by a big careless construction company leaving the management company to deal with all of the issues later.