The Gate in The Village

I loved living in the Village. It was the first place we lived in when we moved to Dallas. The apartments are clean, the staff is friendly, the grounds are well-​kept and green. Being a part of the Village community was a wonderful experience for my family and me. It is close to all of Central Dallas’s attractions, has a wonderful country club, and the residents are friendly. I would recommend the Village to anyone moving to an apartment. Heck, even my mother lives there now!

This was the worst living experience of my life, and I have lived in dorms and several other apartment complexes. Basically… we had rats. Rats scurrying across our ceiling all day every day. You could constantly hear them, and they were loud. We also had feces coming through our vents… awesome. (Note — I am an OCD clean-​freak who never leaves food out, doesn’t have pets etc.) We obviously called the Gate to have them bring out an exterminator and fix the issue. We dealt with this for nearly 5 months and it only got worse and not better, not to mention I was the one who had to be checking up constantly with them instead of the other way around. While they did try to do something about it, I never felt it was a priority and still think they could have done more to get rid of our furry roommates. The tipping point was when the rats actually CHEWED THROUGH MY CEILING and a bunch of feces fell out. We terminated our lease and moved the next week. They did let us out of the lease without the paying the fee… which was the least they could do considering the disgusting nature of our complaint. Basically… I would not recommend this place, especially since they told me it was a problem in our entire building and even in other buildings in the complex.

As someone who has rented from multiple complexes in the Village, our experience with the Gate was by far the best we have experienced.
The staff is among the friendliest and most helpful in the Village. Though the units are from the 1970’s with small kitchens, they are very well maintained and are often updated. Security patrols through often and I never felt unsafe or had an issue with safety in our 3.5 years there. It’s also pet friendly here, and our little guy loved it there meeting all of the other pets and random feral cats. The abundance of pools here are also a major plus during the Summertime. I also never had a problem with bugs or any pests. It was a pretty quiet oasis in our ²⁄₂ overlooking the pool.
My only gripe about The gate, and living in the Village as a whole, is that your rent will always head northward. You can talk to Lincoln about getting it a little lower, but in your years here, you’ll definitely see it climb to the point that will force you to move.
All in all, I would definitely recommend living at the Gate. And guess what? After 3.5 years, we got back our FULL deposit. Very cool.

I transferred here from The Hill in The Village and I was only here for 1 week! There was a horrible smell in the apartment. I wish I would have looked at the reviews before moving here. I never thought I would get such an awful unit at The Village. I have rented at The Hill, The Corners and The Bend and NEVER had I had a unit that stunk so bad! It was like sewer smell. My unit was located in the back near Humperdinks. I could not stand the smell, I had to brake my lease. Sandra the assistant manager said she didn’t smell anything (guess she was used to it, she has been living there for years). Ross, the leasing manager was super friendly and understanding. STAY AWAY from this complex. Awful Awful smell!

Please also look at my review on «The Hill», for more details about the Village community that The Gate is a part of. I unfortunately have had a very poor experience with The Gate and I do not recommend living here.
The only stellar aspect of the Gate is the wonderful management and the wonderful people working at the office. They are nothing short of friendly, patient and efficient whenever I had troubles. The «two star» rating I give this apartment is for the quality of the apartment and for other things, but I want to emphasize the excellent management and the excellent service this complex gives to it’s residents.
That being said, here’s a list of a few irritations that I found about living here.
1. Gross smell in the apartment from the toilets. Obviously once my husband and I located the smell, we scrubbed the toilets diligently and I even started their maid service monthly to «deep clean» the bathrooms. My only conclusion is the smell is part of the water system and lingers there no matter how often we clean the toilets. The only solution is to keep the lid closed as much as possible.
2. Bug infested in the summer. When I say bug infested, I do not mean 1 or 2 roaches or bugs, because that’s part of life. I mean that for a month straight I saw a roach somewhere every other day. In the kitchen, dead in the living room, crawling toward my bed. I have had them bug spray my place three times in a span of a month and a half and this problem seems to have abated for now. I did see those little roly-​poly bugs every single day for a month. (Those bugs don’t bother me, but the fact that they are consistently getting in my apartment do).
I’d like to re-​emphasize the friendliness of the office in getting my bug problems fixed as much as they can.
3. Rude maintenance men. Back when I lived at The Hill, I put in requests to change my lightbulbs, which they always did without mentioning to me that I was being silly. So when my lightbulb burnt out here, I put in a request. The man who showed up gives my husband, who answered the door, a look of disgust and lectured him on making him «walk all the way out here for a bulb change». I realize that it is a stupid request, but I would never have done it if I hadn’t had my bulbs changed before without the maintenance letting me know they don’t perform that service. So that left a bad taste in my mouth. He could have just told me that is not a service he does. And I will no longer bother him with it. (I accept full responsibility on my end, but like I said, no one ever told me before that it was unacceptable and he did NOT have to be so rude.)
4. We have a stand-​up shower in our master bathroom. After two months of showering, MOLD was all over the ceiling of the stall. No amount of scrubbing could get it off. Once again, the maids were called to attempt their magic, no luck. I finally complained to the office, because it had been 3 months since I moved in. They ended up completely tearing down the ceiling and replacing it completely. Gross! How does mold appear after only 3 months of living? Since then, my husband and I shower in the other bathroom.
Once again, friendly service from the office, and they replaced the bathroom free of charge.
5. Parking was a minor annoyance, the only places to park was at the back of the complex and even then, on weekends the spots fill up.
Before my lease was up, I had already planned on moving out of the Gate, but I wanted to stay in the Village. Unfortunately I am moving out of Village completely because my husband is getting me a chow chow puppy and chow chows are on their restricted breed list. I hadn’t realized a chow chow was considered an aggressive breed so hopefully someone reads this and double checks with their property manager. And I don’t have the puppy yet (it’s being weaned) so I’m not being illegal, I will have moved out before it is ready to come home to me.
In conclusion, the Gate has great service and friendly people, but maybe they need/​want to check the quality of their units.

I visited Dallas last March and since then Gate has been a fantastic place to work with. I was drawn in by the quaint feel of The Village, the lush green trees, and the fantastic park that is hidden behind the «country club.» And even though I visited months in advanced – before they knew if they’d have a spot for me (1 bedroom apartment)– they kept an eye out and let me know as soon as they knew of an available apartment. I was able to work remotely with the office to get a place set up before I arrived and once I finally got here from California last August they were so friendly. The girl at the desk even helped me wheel my suitcases to my apartment since a) I didn’t know where it was yet and b) I had about 4 of them. Since then I’ve adopted a dog and it is a great pet friendly apartment. I love living here with its proximity to both work and the downtown area!

In 2008, Adeline processed my rental application over the phone and fax while I was driving in from out of state. I really appreciated my introduction to The Gate. It’s 2013 now and the staff has continued to exhibit professionalism and sincere care with their service to me; albeit, the managers tend to rotate into and out from this location, almost every year; so, don’t expect to become overly familiar with some – that their standard of service has been on par with my initial introduction is a testament to LPC’s hiring and training standards, apparently.
Frankly, this is a good location if you care for Dallas; the amenities are worth the price you may pay extra for as I imagine other units are available in the metroplex on the cheap; for the value per dollar and the reputable and charitable LPC overseeing the property, The Gate serves my residential needs very well. The staff and constituents are amiable and any concerns I’ve brought up over the years have all been satisfactorily addressed. If you’ve read «Nicole. H.‘s» review, she mentions a woman named Sandy and I concur that Ms. Sandy is «wonderful and friendly». Recently, Cares has begun to host community events for The Gate. While I have only enjoyed less than a handful of these events, I believe, the couple hosting are kind hearted and their events are tasteful and welcoming; their presence and community service only increases the value per dollar for The Gate, as far as I’m concerned.
This is a non-​gated complex and sometimes you may find an irritable neighbor who decides that they don’t need to follow the rules, e.g. Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. «Inconsiderate» fails to clean up after their canine companion. I know of decent fellow neighbors who have had their motorcycle stolen, or their belongings snatched right out of their vehicle – along with their truck stereo. A delinquent pretended to be a neighbor and suckered me out of a roll of quarters; the sinner was actually doing a tour of thievery visiting different locales to exploit and defraud people – hopefully Mr. «Criminal» is in jail by now or singing Jesus songs in church. Mind you these stories span my residency here of roughly five years and while they are most definitely not pleasant stories, situations, or occurrences, they are nonetheless the unfortunate possibility for any resident living in an ungated community with pets in Dallas. All that to write this, there is an element of risk in leasing in any community, and you have to be able to accept that risk and find ways to lower the probability of that risk if you choose to lease in an ungated community with pets in Dallas. From my vantage, management, security, and appropriate police and/​or the fire department (a neighbor had a medical episode) have handled occurrences to the letter and while this is not a sinless community, their behavior in the face of criminality and adversity has been satisfactory and I am thankful.
In short and in reiteration, location, value for dollar, amenities, and if you love pets; The Gate is good place to lease. Of course, I’ve been in places where the water was yellow, there was no hot water, and you had to bribe people to get anything done – so I may be biased; fortunately, this is Dallas and this is The Gate and they won’t do you wrong like that.
I should also mention, if you like easy strolls, you can walk to The Village park and watch the ducks and beefy Koi fish along the small lake. Somebody knows how to care for their scenery and property here.

I’ve lived here for about a year and I’ve mostly enjoyed it. The parking is sometimes crowded, but I’ve never had to walk too far to my car. Also, they do have the option to pay extra for a carport. I don’t do the whole carport thing, but based on the ones in my little area, no one steals your spot if you have the carport.
The security is present and enjoys a «show of force» attitude where they drive around a good bit and monitor things. There have been a few car break-​ins and one home invasion since I moved in, but it’s in the city (a city that has a high rate of car thefts anyway) and I haven’t personally experienced any problems. The policeman that rides by on the horse on Saturdays and Sundays is awesome, if only because having a horse prance through a community in 2011 is baller! All in all I feel pretty safe in the community.
The three pools in the community are adequate for most swimming/​pool needs and if you want to kick it up a notch, just go over to the Clubhouse pool across the street and swim there. One downside to this community is that a lot of people park in our lots on summer weekends to walk across to the Clubhouse, which can make parking a hassle in the mid-​day, aka that time that you might use to run errands. The pool traffic normally dies down around 5 though.
My apartment itself is good and I personally do not have a bug problem. I have seen the cockroaches run across my porch at night, so I know they are out there (again, it’s in a city) but I don’t leave my doors open, so the bugs don’t get inside. Also, I’m pretty clean so there’s not a lot of incentive for the bugs to move in. My opinion on the whole bug thing is that the people who get the bugs generally are the people with often open doors and/​or those who never clean. I do see a few ants in my kitchen from time to time in the spring and fall, but these are tiny little black ants and I’ve never lived anywhere that didn’t get tiny little ants during the season change. It’s never been bad enough to bother with pest control though, so I’m talking maybe 10 ants a month.
The office staff has always been nice to me and very accommodating. Sandy is wonderful and so friendly! My maintenance requests have always been handled quickly, not that I have had any major problems, but the few items that did arise were fixed within 2 days of my reporting them. Sometimes the scheduled maintenance logistics are a little funny, as I have had appointments for something to be done (I have a cat and need to know when to lock her up) and then come to find out it was done a different day, but that may be more the result of having lots of requests to manage and just messing up the schedule. My cat has never escaped, so it’s not a huge deal to me.
I renewed my lease here and would recommend the complex to friends (and I have). It’s truly in an urban center, so remember that before you move in. The people in the community are generally pretty friendly (my set of neighbors rock!) and the apartment itself is as I expect an apartment to be. The walls can be a little thin between the entranceway and the first room, but not jarringly so, just what you would expect from 1970s construction. All in all, I’d move here again!