The Willows

THIS PLACE IS LIKE DISNEYLAND! (With all the mice running around).
The saying, «Home sweet home» is a phrase I have not been able to say for the four months I have been living in The Willows.
I was able to look past the location far from Davis (so far that I don’t even get the snapchat geofilter for Davis). I was able to look past the thin walls and noisy neighbors. I was even able to look past coming home one day and finding out that someone else had been in my apartment. I informed the apartment office of the incident and they weren’t of much help.
But the thing I was unable to look past was the mouse problem. Upon finding the first mouse, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and turned the other cheek. After the second mouse I found, they told me the construction work across the street was the cause for the mice problem. Mouse after mouse, excuse after excuse…4 months and 10 mice later I am here writing my first Unilocal review.
Whenever I have called the maintenance to help solve this problem, they weren’t of much help and did not even bother to look for any solutions. I question their honesty when their «new» solutions were things they supposedly had already done. I feel as if they have done nothing to fix my vermin problem other than give me more mouse traps.
Living at The Willows has been the worst living conditions I have ever experienced and I find myself constantly finding ways to sleep at a friends place because I am terrified to go home to find another furry friend.
IF I WANTED TO BE IN A PLACE FULL OF MICE I WOULD SPEND MONEY ON DISNEYLAND TICKETS RATHER THAN PAYING FOR THIS EXPENSIVE RENT. AT LEAST I’D ACTUALLY WANT TO BE AROUND THE MICE AT DISNEYLAND.
If i could give this place 0 stars I would. This is coming from someone who has never left a bad Unilocal review. Look around for other options in Davis. For the same or less money I’m sure you can find a place that you enjoy coming home to, unlike The Willows.

This place was great when I lived there last year. The apartments are really nice a spacious. I lived on the first floor and our apartment was upgraded with tiles throughout. Our apartment rarely got hot even in the summer time.
Parking at the complex is great, you don’t have to use the permit and any of your friends are free to park their car there too. There’s more parking all around the unit.
The pool is really cool at night too, it changes colors! The place has a gym, and a place to do your laundry. Everything is accessible by your utilities key.
Since this place is far from campus, it’s really quiet. I live in South and you can definitely tell the difference with the noise.
The management is nice, just make sure to pay your rent on time, there is a strict late fee. Also when you move out, they are pretty strict with the cleaning that you have to do. My house ended up getting a couple hundred bucks taken off for it not looking fully cleaned.
The P and Q line run through here so if you take the bus, it’s literally right outside of your apartment.
For the price of renting out an apartment in this complex, IT’S AWESOME! I split a room for $ 260.
If you’re okay with living pretty far from campus, I’d definitely recommend this place for you!

After living at a few other apartment complexes in Davis, I have upped my stars for The Willows. In the bay area, they would get a 3. There are issues with leaky windows (although you could grab some caulking for like $ 7 and fix those yourself) and fairly thin walls – although my neighbors for the most part were pretty quiet.
Parking was never a problem for me – I moved in December 2009 and moved out in August 2011 – and the management was always friendly and responsive.
We weren’t charged anything upon moving out (we got our full deposit back – a rarity in Davis) and there were always fresh cookies in the office.
Additionally, the gym is open 24 hours per day, unlike my current housing situation, the pool and hot tub are cool and hot (unlike my current situation), and overall building repairs (like re-​doing our deck, re-​painting the apartments, etc), happen in a timely and relatively quiet manner (unlike my current situation).
West Davis is kind of far, but it is quieter. There is a grocery store within walking distance, and Trader Joes and Safeway are a quick five-​ten minute bike or car ride away.
Plus, The Willows uses the Davis Model Lease and doesn’t insist on charging tenants garbage and other utility fees on top of rent (unlike my current situation).

Contrary to other reviews, I’ve been living here the past two years and it’s by far one of the best place I’ve stayed at during my years in Davis. During the past 5 years, I’ve stayed at Sequoia, Drake, and this other place south side Davis but the Willows is by far my favorite place. Yeah, as you can tell I am one of the tenants who had a dog and I thought it was extremely nice of the staff to let me live here. there aren’t that many dog friendly places in Davis and the deposit here for having a dog is alot cheaper than others. In addition, I find the management staff to be extremely kind and accommodating. Whenever we have a problem or if there is any issues, we just have to go talk to them and they are pretty understanding. About the noise level, I think this place is like extremely quiet… I don’t think I ever had a problem with the noise level here. Yeah… parking can be a bitch here… but I never had any problems finding a parking. The only thing that does bugs me is the gardening maintenance which they do every friday in the morning… but seriously… this happens everywhere. I remember back at the Drake. they do it like twice a week. It’s really not that bad… I usually wake up pretty early anyways. I would definitely stay here again but too bad my days in Davis is over so I’ll be moving back home.

Paper thin walls. Loud neighbors. Be prepared to hear the pitter-​patter of feet storming above you if you live downstairs. Lazy management (and the managers live on site and are actually a good portion of the heinous noise at odd hours on the weekend). They have a «No Dog Policy» yet oddly enough so many people have dogs, it wouldn’t bother me too much if they weren’t the type I’d like to drop kick due to the annoying squeal they tend to let off throughout the majority of the day. Bug problems. And not that it’s too much of a «big issue» but they couldn’t really pick a worse morning to do their «gardening maintenance» — all day Friday beginning around 8 am you’ll have leaf blowers at your window annoying the hell out of you. For the price it’s totally not worth it. The apartments really aren’t that nice, they are just ok. And being kinda out of the way from the central area of Davis, it’s just not a good price for the place. Like the previous guy mentioned — it really is parking hell, and the size of some of the parking spots must not even be standard because they seem far too small for my little car. All in all, it’s just a crappy place to live. Unless you can tolerate all of the above mentioned. But it’s a place I was glad to leave.

Parking hell. Hardly any parking to be had of any worth.
One advantage — the laundry rooms seem to be open all the time. You need your key to get in — but they don’t ever close them. Having been in many complexes that close the laundry room at some point and working an off schedule job — I love this feature.
That being said — the apartments are fairly expensive even for Davis.
They are clean. They tend to be pretty nice. I have heard of lots of bug problems on the first floor. Being on the second floor was quite nice though. And a decent patio — which is great to store a bicycle on or have some munchies and drinks with friends. They have a hot tub and a pool but their are often teenagers in the hot tub. Occasionally some drunk college kids.
If your over 45 this is probably not the place for you. If your young or single you might enjoy this place.