Royal Crest Estates Apartments

Don’t waste your time here, place is run down. Staff do not care about your concerns with safety, neighbors on rude and inconsiderate. People damage your car and drive off, neighbors are loud. People speed through the parking lot, watch out while walking by yourself or with your pet they will run you over. Maintenance is a joke they fix something then a day later it breaks again. They keep raising the rent charge for the stupidest things. Your trash is kept in the laundry room so your doing laundry near your smell trash of yours and other peoples trash. People don’t pick up after their dogs, snow removal is a joke bring a shovel if you want to get out of your parking space. People double park and take 2 parking spaces, they removed the security gate and security guards again people are just aloud in the premises at all hours. I feel for my safety here and lucky for me I am moving in a month. This place is the pits and the company that manages Royal Crest is a joke Amico any of their places they run they hire monkeys in the office and for management so good luck if you decided to live here.

I’ve only lived here for a short time, but the staff have gone out of their way to make me feel at home. The office made me feel like I was wanted there. Maintenance responded almost instantly for just a minor issue. The grounds are beautiful. My apartment was clean when I moved in. I couldn’t have asked for a better move-​in experience.

I am writing an honest and fair review of this place. I stayed in two different buildings over 5 years.
Pros:
— Close to highway. Great for commuting folks.
— Fairly quiet inside apartments
— 5 Star maintenance staff was always responsive and accommodating.
— Some what reasonable rent
Cons:
— Parking: unless you have a reserved spot in the winter expect to not park anywhere near your building. If you clear out a spot and leave you will find yourself without any parking choices in the winter except for icy and non-​cleared spots where someone just broomed off their car and rolled out to a spot someone who was not lazy cleared out. Out of fairness to the management company they do the best they can but the10% lazy inhabitants don’t move their cars for snow clearing and leave messes where they parked. Also expect your car will have door dings all over it… this is almost unavoidable as people with cheap cars will open their doors into your car without a thought or care in the world. There is no tow policy here either even though the reserved parking signs say otherwise. If someone parks in your reserved spot worst case they would get a green sticker on their car window.
— No security: In our first three years there was always someone watching the gates. Fees continued to rise for things such as trash even though they cut security.
— Location: while this place is near everything you could ever need it’s also close to the one of bustiest shopping areas around Xmas time. Expect traffic on spit brook on the holidays along with backups on the highway ramps.
— The gym: It the few times I tried using the gym it smelt like exotic spices sweated out un-​deodorized armpits. The cardio equipment was rusty where people sweated salty sweat and the air circulation inside was not up to par.
— Bottom floor apartment we stayed in had silverfish and the occasional house centipedes. Even though they are harmless they were an occasional nuance.
— Bringing in groceries can be a PITA depending on what building you are in. Some have many outside stairs and steps to contend with while other buildings near the pond are easy to unload in the fire road but people love using the fire road as a shortcut to avoid speed bumps or leave their cars unattended in the fire road ½ hour at a time.
— People abusing the animal policy was a problem while we were there. They allow for two small cats or a SMALL dog. We would see larger breeds such as pitbulls (not that I’m against the breed) but it was a little ridiculous seeing people walking around larger breeds that could be an issue for children if the owners were not responsible or got the dogs for the wrong reasons.
Conclusion:
Overall not bad place to live but I’m not meant for apartment life. This place made me appreciate getting my own house after listening to 90lb people going up and down stairs like NFL linebackers and the crazy elderly person below us constantly complaining about everything even though we tried to be courteous and light on our feet and make little sound or even watering my plants. I wont miss the parking situation at all. I do feel the property management company does the best they can but they get a little more strict on some parking rules.

We stayed at royal crest for about 6 months.
Pros:
Huge estate
nice two level gym
modern equipment in the gym
huge closets in apt
Cons:
Buildings starting to look very old
We faced lot of maintenance problems (restroom issues) while our stay
We stayed near the lake floor one, there was not much light
Apt was very gloomy on bright sunny days as well

I’ve only been here a few months, but I have not been impressed since day 1. I moved in in January, the snow removal all winter was horrible. I missed work several times because the parking lots & internal roads were not cleared. My vehicle got buried 4 times: they piled snow so high (8−9ft) on one or both sides of my vehicle and it would fall on top.
They randomly changed the apt numbering, so you have 2 addresses, but only one is legally recognized. The apts are old & ugly looking outside. As for inside, I got a modern kitchen. I don’t know what the old kitchen is like, but I pity the residents who pay so much for squalor.
There is a gym, but it isn’t exactly convenient & the equipment is 10+ years old. A lot of the machines don’t move well because of rust, and the treadmills look kind of like toys they’re so small & flimsy. Also, the door swipe never works, someone inside has to let you in.
Utilities are cheap, but they could be cheaper for me. You are on shared utilities here, & usually comes in around $ 40 a month.
Forget handicapped access, nearly every apt has steps to any door on the building. Also, parking & getting to your apt are an issue. I recommend getting a dolly for bringing stuff from your vehicle to your apt.

I’ve lived at Royal Crest for almost 2 ½ years. Now that we’re gearing up to move out and move into a house, I figured a review is in order. It’s easy to go into «BEST PLACE EVER!» or «WORST PLACE EVER!» mode when reviewing apartments, so I’ll be as objective as possible.
THE ESTATE: The estate is huge, and gives almost a campground feeling with its ponds and creeks and little wooden map near the beginning of the property. Location-​wise, you really can’t do any better. You’re on Spit Brook and Daniel Webster. And since Daniel Webster is home to practically EVERY store imaginable, you don’t have to go far for much.
The grounds are very well maintained. I would say almost TOO well maintained. I can only imagine what the budget is for flowers alone every year.
GYM: The gym is quite big, with two levels (cardio and weightlifting on the first floor, restrooms, changing rooms, and a dancing studio on the bottom). Most of the equipment is modern (3 of the treadmills are definitely from the last century, however). My biggest complaint is the lack of proper AC. I’ve experienced three summers at Royal Crest. During all three, I could barely use the gym. Whether there is an ongoing problem with the AC, or a misunderstanding as to how cold a gym needs to be, especially during those humid heat waves, the gym can get unusable at times.
APARTMENTS: The apartments are a mixed bag. Some have been «renovated», some have not. The ones that have not really show their age. Old appliances, old cabinets. Not attractive at all. The renovated ones are a lot nicer, and it honestly boggles the mind that they put apartments up for new residents that have not been renovated. Bugs are an issue. Royal Crest gets a pass, given that it’s New Hampshire, but it is still frustrating to kill pincher bugs and millipedes on a weekly basis.
PARKING: As far as I know, only the AIMCO properties make you pay for parking in Nashua. We were originally told that the parking fees paid for security guards. But there are no security guards anymore, but still parking fees. Finding parking is frustrating, especially if your apartment isn’t right by a major parking lot (and even then, good luck finding a decent spot after 4:30 on a weekday). There was an arms race for a while to buy «reserved» spots (which cost you even more in parking fees). I honestly paid less for parking when I lived in the Boston area.
RENT: Rent is due on the first of the month. You cannot set up automatic payment. You will not be notified. You are considered late on the second (and the late fees are ridiculous). I never thought I’d describe rent policy as draconian, but really, there is no other term. This, coupled with higher-​than-​average rent and the fees (which I’ll get into in a moment) makes for some very unsatisfied residents.
FEES AND POLICIES: Let’s be honest here: AIMCO policies make the two Nashua properties stick out like sore thumbs. On top of high rent and parking, you pay trash removal fee, you pay a building average for utilities (which means that, if you live alone, but are surrounded by families, you are paying more for your utilities because obviously one or two people will be using far fewer resources than, say, five). The kicker here is that, since you pay an average for utilities, that means you pay an average for the resources being used for laundry — and that’s on top of spending $ 4.50 a load for washing/​drying.
Now, let’s get into policies regarding your last days at Royal Crest. AIMCO has quite possibly the strictest policy around when it comes to breaking your lease: 60 days notice PLUS a two-​month-​rent-​equivalent fee. And then there’s the policy of getting your apartment «new resident ready». I’ve lived in various complexes throughout my life, all owned by national chains similar to AIMCO, and I’ve NEVER seen this in any of my lease agreements. Certain things, like washing the carpets after a former resident has left, have always been the responsibility of the leaser.
This also makes things like «pet rent» just another way to maximize profit. Pet rent is supposed to «make up» for the money the leasing agency will have to spend on making the apartment «new resident ready» because of the supposed «extra wear and tear» on the apartment.
AIMCO policies are why Royal Crest gets a 2 star and not a 3 or 4. Because I’ve had nothing but pleasant experiences with maintenance, with management, even with people at the AIMCO headquarters. And I can’t fault them for policies that they have no control over. But that doesn’t make the policies right and that doesn’t mean you should disregard them when making an apartment choice.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years, with new apartment complexes being built left and right. AIMCO will have to step it up to entice and keep new residents. And no amount of freshly-​planted flowers will fix that.

«gated entry» — what a joke. The gates haven’t been operable for several months and they don’t even have a guard at the main gate anymore. Glad to see that even more visitors will be taking up parking and using the pool as the weather turns warm. Royal Crest is really making the decision to not renew incredibly easy.
I will say this though, their maintenance people are great! Always very polite and helpful when you need them.