Avalon Reston Landing

My fiancé and I have been here for almost a year, and we’re staying for at least one more. Our rent did go up a little bit, but it’s pretty standard for the area, and it still beats DC prices. We’ve had a largely positive experience.
The pros:
–Location: It’s great being able to walk to Trader Joe’s, Reston Town Center, etc. It’s also located close to a lot of walking paths which is really great when the weather is nice.
–The apartments themselves are overall really nice. Our pantry is HUGE, we have a decent sized walk-​in closet, and we really like the open floorplan. The only drawback is there isn’t a lot of extra closet/​storage space in the apartment.
–After the snow storm this year, the complex was GREAT about quickly clearing out the parking lot.
— Maintenance and the front office are responsive. They fixed every complaint I’ve had within 24 hours.
The cons:
–Kids can get a bit loud outside in the summers, but whatever, they’re kids, and it’s not a huge issue for us.
–The trash compactors always seem to be broken.
–The gate is almost always broken as well. It would be better if they would just leave them open, since it’s just security theater anyway.
–The appliances are old and loud.
–Parking is a pain if you don’t get home before 8 p.m.

I wish I could give this 0 stars.
My first issue with Avalon was when I sent in my monthly rent check and it got lost in the mail. Because my roommate and I split the rent down the middle I asked if they knew which bank they had received the payment from, in order to ascertain which payment was missing. They told me they could not. After fighting over a late payment fee etc, that issue was taken care of.
Next I ordered couches to be delivered to my apartment. I work full time so I set up with the front office to allow the delivery personnel access to my apartment. This consisted of giving written consent and having my dogs locked up all day. When I left work the day that the couches were to be delivered, I picked up 3 messages from the moving company saying that my apartment complex turned away the couches because they could not authorize that I had given permission for them to access my apartment. When i called Avalon for an explanation they did not have one. I ended up having to get a trailer to get the couches from the warehouse. (and my dogs spent all day locked up for no reason)
Next I saw a large amount of money on my Avalon account. I realized that it must have been the check that got lost in the mail, and therefore I had cancelled. I called Avalon explaining to them that the check they cashed had been cancelled (I also told them this during my first issue) and that it would bounce. 3 days later I got an email saying I had to pay a bounced check fee. When I called Avalon to ask them why i needed to pay them that when I originally told them I had cancelled the check (and they had this note on file), they told me that it is company policy to cash every check they receive, and therefore they were being charged the fee by their bank and I needed to pay it. I had no choice but to pay the fee.
Thankfully due to other reasons I moved out of Avalon, but I will NEVER live in an Avalon community again.

Overall, a good place. I’ved lived here just under two years.
Pro’s: — Great location. Central for driving, walking distance from Reston Town Center, biking distance from Wiehle Station on the Silver Line, Trader Joe’s across the street.
— Good walking/​biking trails nearby (W&OD, Sugarland Run). Lots of nature (if you’re into that sort of thing), with a pond and walking path around it, that connects to an excellent network of walking trails through foliage. I’ve seen red foxes, cranes, raccoons, and king snakes within 1000 ft of my apartment. In another review, someone noted ticks in the foliage; there must be some, but I’ve never picked up a tick around here.
— Apartment layout is excellent. Lots of storage space in the pantry, for food and dishes. A big walk-​in closet with lots of space.
— Maintenance and the front office are responsive. They fixed every complaint I’ve had within 24 hours.
Cons:
— Like every other apartment complex in northern VA, they only want to sign one year leases, they bring you in with a cheap monthly rate, then raise the rent once you’re settled in. At least enough new apartment complexes are coming on line in northern VA to address the imbalance, which should help prices.
— Parking is tight. If you get back home past 9pm, you’ll be driving in circles for a while to find a spot.
— Walls and ceilings/​floors can allow sound through. If you have a noisy neighbor, you might hear them more than you want to.

After posting my initial review, the community manager followed up and had the pest and AC issues taken care of my in apartment, and was apologetic about the towing situation. It’s still hard to forgive as I don’t believe a community should be towing its residents under anything but the most extreme circumstances, but I appreciate being met with something other than complete indifference to my complaints.
I won’t be staying past my lease’s expiration since I’ve had many months to look at other apartments since the towing and know I can do better for what I’m paying now. However, I wouldn’t rule out giving it another try in the future if Avalon does some renovations here. They have a very nice location and landscaping, but the apartments themselves need some updating.

First the good — apts are quiet, hardly hear neighbors. Beautiful surroundings. but that’s Reston — with a nice walking path around pond. Maintenance has been promptly handled and fixed issues without a problem.
Now the bad — Avalon raised my rent $ 100 dollars after 1 year. PARKING IS HORRIBLE! PARKING IS HORRIBLE! PARKING IS HORRIBLE. Prepare to walk a LONG way if you come home after 8:30 pm. They have all these garages that are not fully rented (for the asking price of $ 2000 a year) which use valuable space for parking. They need assigned parking! Other places do this. why not here? Also, they enter your apt every 3 months for «maintenance» and they refuse to schedule appts. Some of my neighbors are a bit shady… so be careful.
UPDATE. A major appliance has broken. They WILL NOT REPLACE IT to date. Going on nearly 3 weeks. Next step is court.

I rarely write reviews, but my negative experience with Avalon, the new management company, compels me to do so. The apartments at Reston Landing are poorly built and get really cold in the winter. Avalon jacks up the rent every year in an apparent attempt to discourage long-​term residents with families. They WILL charge you a cleaning fee and damage fee no matter what condition is when you move out. The WILL keep your $ 500 deposit and they will overcharge you for rent. They are really inflexible with their leases, no matter how long you live in the apartment. If you break the lease they will penalize you by making you pay the difference between the low price they charge the new tenant and your over-​inflated rental rate for the remainder of the lease. The company WILL NOT work with you on a payment plan and instead immediately send a thuggy collection agency to collect the money and then threaten you that you will never be able rent an apartment in Virginia again if you don’t pay them. This is a really despicable company and I would highly advise not having anything to do with them. There are other, much more ethical companies to rent from — Waterside Apartments next door being one.

I wanted to write a review because I was super hesitant about moving here after reading the Unilocal reviews. I know that everyone’s experiences are different but I wanted to offer my experience. I moved from Boston to Reston so that might bias my perspective. But I felt compelled to write this review for people who might be in my situation and looking for a place to live in Reston.
Yes, you have to walk your trash to the front of the complex but I have learned that this is common for other apartment complexes in the area.
Hot water was a concern for me based on the reviews. I asked about this before moving in. I was told that if it was not adequate, to contact maintenance and they would turn the temperature on my hot water heater up. I did do this after my first few showers this winter. Maintenance came out the same day, turned up the temp and I had plenty of hot water for the winter.
I love that you can pay rent online and submit maintenance requests online. The office also accepts your packages if you are not home. Office staff are always friendly when I walk in and I am waited on immediately.
And the gate is usually open but I prefer that. Although it did help me avoid ordering out when I first moved here because I thought delivery could not get through. I have found that Reston is generally safe and gates only provide the illusion of safety anyway.
Location is awesome — it’s about a 20-​minute walk to Town Center or a 5-​minute drive. There is a bus stop for the 950 that is about a 5-​minute walk that takes you to the Silver Line. All sorts of businesses across the street — Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, Bank of America, and a 24-​hour gas station.
I hope this is helpful.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that it is actually a fine place to live. The location is great, the apartments are nice and up-​to-​date and the maintenance staff is first rate. BUT…
The front office and everyone in it have absolutely no idea what is happening, and my wife and I constantly received hundreds of dollars in additional charges on our bill because of it. Late chargers were constantly added to our bill because because the front office failed to deliver us accurate information. In the first couple months, we signed up for utilities following the information given us by the office. We ended up being billed for service fees because we were signed up through Archstone, not directly with the utility service (despite the fact that the office staff told us this was acceptable). We asked repeatedly about mysterious charges we were finding our our monthly bill, and noone knew what they were. Because of this, we would go in each month and make sure we were covering everything before paying, were told we were, and had the same late charges appear on the next bill. The online payment system was down half the time (employees in the office groaned their frustration but were helpless to solve the problem), and so we had to wait for the office to open to pay, which of course resulted in a late charge that they said not to worry about and then failed to take off.
The main problem is that noone in the office had access to anything about the bill or any knowledge of it. We were always directed to the national company, who could care less about our problems.
Incidentally, we moved out of Archstone a few months ago, and were recently contacted by a debt collection agency to recover ~$ 150 dollars in unpaid utilities. This is months later, mind you. Anticipating this issue when we were moving, we checked numerous times with at least 3 members of the Archstone front office staff regarding our bill. We were assured we had covered everything, and received an email confirmation of that fact. But of course they were wrong, and, rather than communicating with us, they decided to send a debt collector after us.
Don’t be snowed by these people. The place is beautiful and the facilities are great but you will end up paying hundreds of extra dollars a month for their incompetence.

My husband and I will be living here for a year this September. I would say it’s been a positive experience for the most part– it really is a great place to live, and we knew this coming in since my husband had lived there a few years ago before we were together.
Location – wise, it’s awesome. I can see Fairfax County Parkway and Baron Cameron from my balcony and can walk to Trader Joe’s, Silver Diner, a whole shopping center and RTC. The toll road and pending metro stop are pretty close, too. You could not ask for a better location in Reston.
The community itself is pretty nice– it’s quiet most of the time, the apartments are clean and well-​kept, the maintenance staff are great. The amenities are nice– pool, fitness center, big pond with a jogging trail around it (watch out for geese droppings, though), paddle boats, and it’s very pet friendly. The office staff, however, could use some professional development in customer service.
While I have enjoyed the amenities, I will say that there are times when you’re at the pool and there are kids unsupervised by their parents. They are extremely obnoxious and the lifeguards don’t do much. I witnessed a 12-​year old yelling the «F» word and a woman going over to ask him to stop because her young daughter was around. There were also numerous occasions when I went to the fitness center due to lack of time to go to Gold’s, and there was a kid or two fooling around on the treadmill and/​or elliptical. Those machines are not meant for children’s bodies and there’s a sign clearly posted regarding appropriate ages. My recommendation to the staff is that they take care of these situations.
If my husband and I could tolerate our commute to Alexandria/​Arlington, we said we’d be renewing our lease for another year or two until we could buy a place. After we received a letter stating if we renewed, our lease would go up about $ 400, we quickly changed our minds. The cost to live there was high enough before ($ 1900 for a small 2 br/​2 ba, but I’m afraid they are raising their rent significantly due to the new metro stations opening up soon. That’s too bad because they’re going to lose a lot of residents that don’t want to leave…

I’ve lived at Archstone Reston Landing for about three and half years, and there’s some good and some bad. Not great, not horrible. Just somewhere «in the middle».
THE GOOD
Reston Landing is relatively quiet, relaxing community by a small lake. The apartments are spacious, and fairly well equipped. There’s plenty of parking for residents, though guests spaces can be a bit limited at times.
One of the major pluses: the apartments are easily accessible to all the nearby major roadways and areas, and you’re always close by to events/​shopping. You can walk to Reston Town Center (about 8 blocks away), and there’s a Trader Joe’s literally across the street.
The front desk staff is incredibly welcoming and nice, and they provide free coffee to residents, along with a gym, office/​meeting space and a few other nifty amenities. I’ve never had a problem with any of the staff.
THE BAD
TICKS! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, THE TICKS! If you walk around the lake in the Summer be prepared to become a veritable walking buffet. It’s to the point I wouldn’t doubt it if the ticks have their own Unilocal reviews for each of the residents.
The appliances provided by the apartment are… uh, cheap? Yes. Cheap. The standard microwave is all but useless, to the point a bean burrito proves to be a challenging concept. The outer shell is molten hot and the inside arctic crisp.
All the knobs in the kitchen are of cheaply made plastic, and are prone to breaking/​shattering after light wear and tear. After three years, we’ve had three knobs completely shatter just trying to open a door.
And good luck getting hot water in the Winter. The apartments use a dual-​purpose water heater which both heats the apartments and the water. We usually get no more than 5 minutes of hot water (if that). It doesn’t matter what time of the day, be it AM or PM, you will NEVER get a really hot shower in the Winter. This is really a problem for the washing machine if you have to wash clothes on warm/​hot water in the Winter.
THE UGLY
The apartments are expensive. To make matters worse given the current economy, the rent goes up by about $ 100 annually.