Willowbend

We toured this apartment. Overall good commnunity nice location but as we could not see exact apartment which we wanted to move (carpet etc. even if they say it will be same as model apartment)
we decided not to rent here.

I have lived at Willowbend for 8 months and I had a bitter sweet experience.
Pros:
— The new management is superb; Laura Dao (new assistant manager) she was very patient and efficient with resolving all the problems we had with our apartment.
— The maintenence team is very hard working (most of my issues were taken care of with in 24 hrs).
— New online maintenence request and payment is very handy and saves the time from going to leasing office or calling them up for every little thing.
Overall I loved the community, it’s very safe, play areas and pool was great, lots of green. Close to Costco, Lawrence Caltrain Station, and Bharat Bazar.
Cons:
–The major problem I faced was pests in the 2^nd month after I moved in, you have to be super clean to keep them out. Which includes cleaning the stove throughly after every time I cooked, taking the trash out every night (bathroom and kitchen), clean any spill immediately, block the sink holes with stoppers every night. It was straneous but it did keep those little unwanted guests out of my apt.
— It was great having a gym close to my apt but it needs some serious upgrade.
— The leasing lady is very difficult to understand one second she is very nice and the next she is super rude. One of many incidences; once I had to cancel pest control on the morning of the spray because my child got severely sick over the pervious night and she was very rude about it as if it was my fault that he got sick.

I am so glad that Jei Horca General Manager at Willowbend contacted me. He assured me that the issue will be fixed within 24hrs. It got fixed as he promised. I have a great appreciation for Jei’s great customer service, people skills, response time and followup. I am hoping with the new Manager things will change soon.

These guys are horrible. Our bathrooms have been throwing water and poop all over (from pot and shower). 7 months and no resolution.
I am going to take them to court — do yourself a favor and stay away. We got fooled into staying here. The Unilocal reviews reflect reality — they will tell you that only the disgruntled folks write reviews. Unless you believe in their bullshit logic, please stay away. Feel free to contact me at apt 1158 here if you want to talk directly.

Jei Horca a.k.a Japheth Horca the new manager is great and doing things in the right direction. The maintenance team works hard and much better these days with better follow ups. The new management is picking up steam from the old manager (Octavio) and working in right direction.
Other than some persistent issues like others mentioned, this place has reasonable rent and a home like feeling.

Pros:
— An apartment community for families only. If you are single and looking for some fun, nope, this is not it.
— Has all the good stores around — frys, safeway, homedepot, Costco, lowes. .name it.
Cons:
— At the very top of the list — Management. Despicable people with horrible attitude. Hypocrites — all lovey-​dovey until you sign the lease and then you are let out to dry.
— Sort of unsafe — lotsa shady characters hanging out, which tbh has reduced in the recent times.
— Pests — Roaches, let out free to roam.
— Old infrastructure — cabinets /​kitchen counters, have no class and nobody cares. No real AC. Some old dust blowing contraption that is an excuse for an AC.
— Bad schooling district: Unless you choose a private school. The rating is 6 and below.
— You are forced to buy your own renters insurance.
Comments from folks leaving the apartment:
— Forget your deposit. You aint getting a penny back.
Advice:
— These guys are milking an old cow. They don’t care about the quality of the milk, as long as someone is there to buy it. Look for better places. I am sure for this rent you can find one.
— If you move in, pray that you don’t have to deal with the management.

Ok, so hubs and I went there looking at the craigslist ad and here is how it went.
As soon as we walk in, my boots made noise, the office agent was helping someone sign the lease so she just gave us a look — didnt greet, didnt say anything. The folks signing the lease noticed us as well. So we sat right across from here where she could see us and know that we were next in line. A couple of other groups come in a few mins after us and she finally says to the third group that she wouldnt be able to help them unless they have an appointment. So they leave but the person after us hangs around right outside her open door (clear glass with full view). A few more mins pass (about 10), finally hubs goes and asks if she would be able to help us to which she said NO. Hubs was surprised and asked why did she make us wait 30 mins to which she said I didn’t see you guys (there was a clear glass door). Really! Funny how it goes! I feel bad for the guys signing the lease bcoz they saw the type of customer service right they would get right in front of their eyes. As we walk away she murmurs something. Again, great customer service! (smh). Crazy market allows them to get away with such actions, god bless the good times.
Simple advice, STAY FAR AWAY!

Do not rent here! I contacted the leasing office and received an email response telling me I could come look at 1 of the 5 units they had available during business hours. My boyfriend (who is black) went in to look at it while I was at work and they automatically told him there was nothing available without asking for any information. I assumed it was just bad luck and called the office that same day to double check if anything had fallen through and was told there were still units available. So, we made an appointment to see the unit for the next evening. When I walked in with my boyfriend and his mom the lady working there (Marie) was helping another family and yelled out to us «umm​.do you have an appointment or something?» I told her we did at 5:30 and she said «well I don’t remember putting anything on the books» and kept doing what she was doing without even looking for my appt. I can’t help but think she was being prejudice since both times my boyfriend was there she wrote him off without doing her job but speaking with me on the phone everything was fine. I’m just glad we found out before signing a lease!

MAN! This 30 year old community needs a serious upgrade/​remodel! The interior and appliances are outdated, very old! The carpets sucks! There’s always a really bad odor around my unit. I would spend a whole day doing a deep cleaning, with bleach, pine-​sol and other cleaning supplies… Aaaaaaaah I love the smell of a freshly cleaned house. The next day the funk is back! It smells like mold & mildew!
The Management and Leasing Team are AWESOME!

Management really sucks… never friendly… they are very nice until u sign the lease agreement… and there after always rude… very poor service. will take more than 2 days for any issues… and they have the habit of blaming residents for any issues or errors…
very old houses and poor design… and paying high rent for these house doesn’t make any sense. and on top of that you have to bare the poor management people.

I feel at home at Willowbend.
–Bugs/​Pest: Never in my 5 years of stay here. Occasional silverfish in the bathroom, spiders might weave webs on the gates to the house if we do not regularly clean the patio (apartment has lot of trees, hence important to housekeep).
–Maintenance: Support team is very prompt and adept
–Staff: They are available all through the week, reasonable, and very responsive.
–Neighbors: Mostly Asian software community. Well-​behaved family crowd. Kids can get noisy and unruly (riding bikes and running on the driveway) but that responsibility is to a great deal upto individual parents so not always a perfect situation.
–Apartment: Size-​wise a tad small. Quite old. But suits me just fine — easier to clean, and i can restrict myself from hoarding until i eventually move into my own home.
–Parking: One sheltered car parking per apartment unit. Plenty of parking for guests, which is something most of bay area apartments cannot boast about.
–Security: There is a private security patrol which does beats. Twice i had to wait outside by the driveway at 4am in the morning for my Über cab to the airport, and both times the patrol stopped by promptly to enquire if all was well. One thing that does concern me is the occasional (once every 2 – 3 months) soliciting by the 20-​somethings claiming to be from San Jose State University for academic donations. I have heard similar situations with friends in other south bay area apartments as well.
–Redwoods: There are some lovely sequioas in the complex, and i absolutely adore them! Keeps the summer temperatures in check for those housed in the interiors of the apartment.
–Pricing: Rental rates have been increasing ~10−15% per annum — this is something which does make me reconsider. To be fair, and sadly enough, this is the situation with most of Bay Area housing.

Is always a pleasure when you visit the office for whatever reason. Marie is always smiling and talkative. Would like to have more reasons and time to stop by.

Bad management, asbestos ceilings/​walls, stuffy, cockroaches and spiders in the summer.
Pros: Rent was pretty good, and they gave us an in-​unit washer/​dryer. They are raising the rent crazy high though so… that’s cool. Yay no rent control.
Cons: Apartment complex is pretty noisy with lots of little kids, and loud TVs. There’s no real air conditioning, so people leave their windows (and sometimes even doors) wide open. Lots of curry smells and Bollywood music, which may or may not be a bad thing depending on the person. I found it annoying when the music was super loud, but +1 to the delicious curry smells — made me hungry.
All of my apartmentmates would sneeze way more often living here — the air is awful unless you keep your windows open all the time. We were constantly living in terror of seeing another spider or cockroach on the wall in the summer, and one time when doing an inspection, we came home to find our door UNLOCKED with the key inside the lock visible from the outside. Thanks, Willowbend, we really wanted someone to rob us…
Don’t have much else to say except there’s not much reason to live here unless you can’t really find somewhere else.

Noisiest complex ever! If your apartment faces the cement factory then get ready to be woken up by jackhammers and machinery. The machinery hours are from 7am-10pm…even on the weekends. The office should warn people for the price you pay or at least offer a discount.

Lower expectation from maintenance team, less disappointment felt. Office number seems always being unreachable. Environment is good, parking spot is enough.

Apartment location is perfect and lot of green around. You have good play areas as well and a pool to relax in the summer months. The only 2 things that I will suggest needs an immediate look into is 1. The appliances are very very very old and needs an upgrade immediately and 2. the gym needs to have a few more machinery and the ones there should be maintained.

The Apartments are ok not so great, but the management is really bad. They don’t respond properly to anything. When you are vacating the apartments the will deduce all the amount etc. Also when they give the cheque it will be guarantor’s name as well.
My suggestion is to look for some place else.

Had such a bad time living here. The apartments have not been remodelled, hence all the appliances are very old and get dysfunctional so often. Also, we had a huge problem of cockroaches. The pest control treatment was done twice in our home and yet no use. Our house was INFESTED with cockroaches. Even then, we left the place in a very good condition, but they never returned our deposit and spoke rudely to us when we asked why. I would never recommend this place to anyone. They put on a fake smile when you come visit their community, but they’re the RUDEST people I’ve ever come across.

I lived here for one year. This complex is way to expensive for what you get. Unless you are Indian there is no sense of community. Don’t expect a hello in return to your greeting. Don’t expect to get your deposit back either. Management acts as though they own the complex themselves. Not very approachable or friendly. Keep looking, willowbend is not worth running your credit report.

I wish I could give a negative rating to the management folks here.
All of them are super rude and brainless fellows. They never have answers to any of your questions. For all the queries you are asked to contact the business manager.
I have been staying in this place for a year, and I never got a chance to meet the manager. I do not even know if the manager is a male or female. When asked for manager’s number, they always give the willowbend leasing office number, which is eventually NEVER answered.
If you are planning to move in here just because of the attractive rents, don’t get trapped !!!
Never move in here, as you could end up into a huge mental stress dealing with the leasing office folks here. I did not want to name but specially lady named Marie is extremely rude irritating and she can make you furious …
Don’t get trapped. Stay away. mails get stolen here. My friend’s passport was stolen from the mailbox, which they never take responsibility of and they will never fix it too.
They find ways to blame USPS guys. Don’t lease here there are a lot of decent humans to come across except willowbend leasing office folks !!