Alize at Aliso Viejo Apartment Homes

I came in from out of town, under horrible circumstances. I was greeted with a smile and the professionalism was amazing! Omg, Shannon was amazing! She stayed on the phone with me for 47 minutes helping me with every floor plan and garage, and location down to the details. No questions was not worthy of asking. She took her time and was happy and positive about it. Every time. Then when I leased the leasing staff was wonderful too. I love mark, Tara and Elizabeth. No matter what I needed they always are there. Especially Elizabeth how when there was a missed communication on maintenance she gave me a gift card. They truly care. Mark helped me every time I called, or even stopped by. His energy is awesome. Tara chit chat with me like we were people not tenants. I am so glad I made my choice to come here. I know if something ever goes wrong Shannon will fix it! Please come and visit Alize!

I recently moved here and so far I love it! The location is next to everything you would ever need. Schools, fine dining, hiking trails and shopping. The apartments are gorgeous and the quality is excellent. If you require maintenance for anything they are there fast to address it and do an excellent job. The office staff is wonderful and will do anything and everything to assist you. I love how friendly Mark, Liz, Tara and Shannon are when I walk in with an issue or a concern. All in all Alize is a wonderful place to live because the staff really takes pride in keeping the place beautiful and also keeping you feeling special by living there.

The positive is that you can have a killer view. We live on the 3d floor and the view is amazing.
The negative is that the service is horrible. It takes a while to get a service request fulfilled. Staff (especially this gentleman there, not sure what his name is) was rude and is a lot more concerned with selling their available apartments than making current residents happy.
Overall, I am not happy and won’t consider it again. I lived in several different places and this one is pretty disappointing (yet expensive).

DANGER: This complex is a joke, they use deceptive ways of screwing you when you move out, it doesn’t matter how clean you leave it. My girlfriend lived here for 3 years, never missing a payment or creating any problems, we decided to move to a 2 bedroom apt. together, we visited a 2 bedroom unit and was told that was the layout, Wrong… different layout so our furniture didn’t work, also was promised new carpet, wrong… carpet is cheap entry level junk, falling apart at the seams and entry way edges, I had a crew fix them twice (I’m in that industry), I fixed the garage door twice, also caught the rats that were invading the porch closet, oh yes, there are rats, the kitchen florescent light fixture had ¾ inch of water in it from above .I was promised they would put a new pump in the dishwasher as it was extremely loud… nope…after moving out we were backcharged for utilities that were supposedly included in our rent, nope… no one ever told us this fact… so be prepared to get screwed when you move out… because its going to happen to you too …

I am sadden to see all the negative reviews on Unilocal because I truly love where I live! I have lived in several different apartment complex’s including one owned by Irvine company and this is still by far the best experience I have had. Rent increases, maintenance needs, and rude neighbors is something that you deal with no matter what complex you live in. To me its all about how the complex handles these issues that makes a difference. The staff here is friendly and extremely helpful. I have lived here for almost 3 years now and in the time the complex has made a lot of great changes that contribute to a better living experience.
Soon after they changed the complex to a non smoking complex I have seen a huge decrease in smoking. Unfortunately there is still a few people who choose not to follow this rule, however I don’t believe there is anything that can be done to stop people who have no care for their neighbors. Being a dog owner myself I was very unhappy with the amount of owners who did not pick up after their dogs. Once the complex enforced the poo prints program I have not seen any left behind dog poop! The complex also recently removed unnecessary bushes and replaced them with decorative rocks to help save water.
My experience working with the complex regrading any concerns has been wonderful! Once we first moved in we were experiencing a large issue with spiders and ants. I am located in the corner of the complex with only bushes out my windows and no walkways. I noticed the pest controls employees were only spraying along open paths and walkways. I notified the complex of this issue and the next day the pest control company was spraying the bushes behind my unit which resolved this issue. About a year ago when I was walking my dog I noticed a part of the back gate that was loose and rusted, this concerned me because I saw children playing with the gate. I informed the complex of this and the next day maintenance was out there replacing the gate.
My only suggestion to the complex would be to add a parking service that checks the complex once the office is closed. After hours there is a few residents who choose to park in front of their garage blocking the way for cars to go by and also parking in fire zones. These residents will leave their cars parked all night and into the morning. There is plenty of parking here it just seams these residents are too lazy and choose to park closer to home. I feel a parking service who can ticket these residents will resolve this issue.
All in all I have had a wonderful experience living in Alize. I feel a real since of comfort because of my experience here! I hope this review can shed more light for people considering living here!

This place is a joke. It gets worse and worse… I really liked it at first and then the neighbors started. The manager does nothing about the neighbors and blows it off which is unacceptable. Everything in these apartments break it amazes me. Dishwashers, your washer machine for clothes, door knobs, fridge, sink… Water heaters etc. This could just be a fluke since when I moved in there is no way they had someone inspect the place with how dirty it was moving in and little things broken here and there… I believe they use a third party for this part so I can’t blame just them but hey shoulda had their own company look it over, and if they did I have no idea what they looked at. Certain parts of the complex has a lot of parking like the back (but people who don’t even live here take up all the parking when dropping their kids off at school and while waiting for them to get off which takes a few hours) The trash valet is nice when they actually show up and don’t spill your trash. Other tenants will complain saying you left your trash out when really the trash valet forgot to take it. The carpet stains from previous tenants end up surfacing which is a nightmare. If you call security (which a few neighbors of mine have) they say they won’t knock on the residents door if they don’t here then. Therefore they’re pointless to have. The one thing I can say about this place is Shannon in the front office is amazing and the bigger one bedrooms are designed to where everything isn’t so close together. My advice, please listen to the other negative reviews. Maybe you’ll get lucky like the other people who left good reviews but I’m sure those positive reviews turned into negative ones over time like mine. They will try to buy you by giving you gifts on your renewals, but it’s not worth it.

I absolutely love living here! My apartment is perfect for me but the main reason I love it is because of the associates who manage and work here. You will always find a friendly face on Shannon and Mark as soon as you walk in. Matt represents management and is so accessible and helpful. He always brightens my day and makes me feel at home! Tara is very responsive and quick to answer any questions or offer solutions — and she has the cutest son! But I am especially writing this review to recognize the maintenance team– especially George, but they are all amazing. George has bailed me out of «hot water» and many minor repairs but today I am especially grateful I live here. I was out of town the past few days and I knew my apartment was going to have some work done. I expected to walk into minor dust and debris yet when I arrived home late at night after a full day of travel I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the repair better than ever, my apartment was fully cleaned! Not just the area where the work was done but the entire apartment sparkled. I don’t know the name of the person who did the cleaning but I will find out and personally thank them too. I know it was a team effort to make this happen and I appreciate everyone involved. My experience at Alize is different from any other apartment community and I would highly recommend living here. Thank you Alize team!

BEWARE!!! Don’t get suckered in by a great move in rate. I got a great rate on an upgraded 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment but 10.5 months later I got my renewal offer with a 6% increase. I asked them to work with me as I am a single mom with expenses and I do not get child support. Unfortunately, they have no heart, business is business. Realistically, an increase should have been about 3.5 to 4.5%.
The property is moderately maintained, the hallways and stairwells are never swept or cleaned, the plumbing has issues, there are pot holes in the driveways, they do not provide a method to properly manage universal waste such as alkaline batteries. Additionally, we have been in a drought, and they have failed to minimize the watering or to put in drought tolerant plants.
Can’t wait to see how much they gouge me on the move out cleaning fees!
The leasing staff are personable, but the property manager and asst property manager are not so great.

CONCIERGE LIKE SERVICE!
I have lived at Alize since 2008 and the office team here has just gotten so wonderful.
In particular Mark in the leasing office. I can’t say enough great things about him. Honestly he just goes that extra mile and always with a smile. I have never lived anywhere that I have received this kind of personalized service. The fact that we are a huge community and he really makes each person feel special says so much. Thanks Mark for all your great service!

Was a resident at the community for 18 months. At the time I left, I was probably the longest tenured resident in my building. From my understanding, not many people renew because of the high rent increases and the price posed little value for the apartments that were not renovated, compared to surrounding communities.
Customer service with their management staff is poor and there are several issues in the general area. First is that it seems like police make regular visits to the community, as I saw them in force at least once a month for various reasons. Secondly the rear exit is next to a school and pretty much inaccessible from 7am-​9am and again from 1pm-​3pm. So much school traffic in fact that I stopped using that entrance altogether, not to mention the parking that a lot of the school traffic uses within the community that goes unchecked.
I also felt duped by the fact that although I requested an «initial inspection» upon giving my notice of vacating the apartment, they «no showed» to the appointment window, while leaving me waiting for several hours. This created a problem as that I was unaware of things I needed to address prior to moving out and which led them to not only keep my entire deposit, but also issued me a collection notice for more charges. After trying to work with management through these issues, my frustration grew too much to even care to deal with them anymore.
Although the location was really convenient to my work, I would not choose to live here again and would not recommend this complex to anyone looking to move to the area. There are much better communities in the area for a better value and whom actually care about their residents.

My biggest selling point with this place was the «no smoking» policy. Having lived with smokers myself, I was done and this place seemed like a Godsend. Of course, they don’t enforce it. My downstairs neighbors light up a fresh cigarette right under my patio every day. Their butts litter the planters around the walkway under my patio and I walk by them every day.
When I first moved in, I acknowledged they were hard on their cleaning policy and that they are known for ripping you out of your deposit. That’s fine. I get it! Landlords are landlords and people don’t pay top dollar for a beat up apartment. We were shown an awesome model, spotless and perfect in every way. We signed up to be on a program with some money down to get a «discount» on an apartment. Sure! So I was shocked to find my bathroom counter had been SPRAY PAINTED white behind the sink when we came in to look at it. It’s a glaring difference from the cheap laminate. I immediately wrote this on my inspection sheet (which I’ve yet to receive a copy of) and brought this to the attention of Mark. He sent Theo over immediately to address it. Theo gave me two options; he sands it and repaints that spot again and we just leave it that way, or my apartment smells like paint for weeks and he paints THE ENTIRE COUNTER. I have a dog and a cat and I would have to take them out because of the smell and he insisted the first option was better. When I asked him why it was painted in the first place he said it was because of a yellow bleach stain from the previous tenant. WHOA WHOA WHOA! I’m being punished because of something the previous tenant did? No. The counter should have been replaced. I expect an apartment in the same condition all the others are in. How many others have been spray painted white? Apparently quite a few since I walked in today to hear another tenant complaining about hair being painted into her drawers, on the doors, and even medications left behind by her previous tenant! Now I revel in my two toned sink every morning. They didn’t paint the shower wall where the same stain is splashed… wonder if they’ll charge me for that! A couple days after move in, we took a black light to the carpet to see if there were any stains and they are EVERYWHERE! We used the black light to make sure our last place was spotless but it clearly looks like they just vacuumed this place before we moved in. They definitely didn’t check for the multitude of pet stains I found that we are not most likely going to get blamed for when we move out!
When we first applied, Mark told us our applications were lost and we needed to fill out another one. No. I refused and told them to find my personal information. Mark did and said Shannon had just put it in the wrong folder labeled «in progress» which make sense since our applications were IN PROGRESS. Great… I turned in the inspection sheet the day we started moving in and I followed up with Mark later in the day about something else and he asked to get our inspection sheet. I had literally handed it to him no more than 2 hours prior and reminded him of this. He said that it must be around there somewhere! Let’s hope he found it!
Yesterday, we got an email saying a package has arrived! My fiancé went to pick it up only to be told, Woops! We messed up a number and it wasn’t actually for you (they said they switched a 6 and a 9). Okay… so I swing by to pick up the mail after work last night and there’s a slip letting me know that the leasing office has a package for me! I check groupon and look at that! Package delivered at 3:48pm Saturday! My fiancé went back in today and they turned him away again so I had to go in, give them my tracking number, show them proof of delivery. Shannon even said that yesterday, she left it on her credenza before lunch. Now she’s called me to tell me that while she was gone on lunch, the previous tenant came and picked it up! WHAT?! Who in that office didn’t check the name and is giving previous tenants the new tenants’ packages?!
We hosted father’s day on our patio the first weekend we moved in and it was great. We actually had a flood that morning and they sent a young man over immediately to fix the problem! While he was here, the water kept getting higher and higher and he had to run upstairs to have the neighbors turn off their washer. He was attentive and slowly cleared the grease clog (again, something he said the previous tenant did). I saved my dining room furniture but the carpet was wrecked from all of us running in and out with sopping wet rags, rugs, towels, and even blankets. The office was nice enough to clean the carpet for us because of this. Definitely a solid star for that whole experience.
This community is the start of something great. No smoking. Real amenities. Shannon seems to really try and my fiancé says Matt has always been helpful.

When we moved in we noticed many things that could have been fixed or cleaned before our move in. I wouldn’t blame the leasing office exactly. I would say maintenance and the leasing office share the responsibility. Some things were broken upon move in which sucks but it’s nothing big. HOWEVER forget about being able to get the leasing office on the phone half of the time. There should always be at least one person available for current residents :/​. This place is fairly quiet at night which I love !! There is a lot of parking available as long as they don’t start making it permit parking. I will update if anything changes or gets better!

Cataldo? I was shocked to learn leasing agent Tara’s last name wasn’t Bull. Because not only is her customer service Tara Bull, but she is full of .it. Here are 5 reasons why homelessness would be preferable to life at Alize:
1. The Experience is traumatic. If you’re a company selling yourself on «Experience,» at least try to make it pleasant. Staff members (Tara and Elizabeth especially) are rude and condescending (except Shannon; the others here should all take notes on how she interacts with tenants) and you can expect to have something break down in your apartment bi-​weekly.
2. You are a walking ATM. It’s all smiles and friendly faces until you sign the lease. Then, expect to have every penny drained out of you. Rent jumps up every year. There are comparable, even better, places to live in the vicinity for less money. Sequoia (Alize’s parent company) is a greedy corporation, and it’s all too obvious their loyalties are to their shareholders and not their tenants.
3. The desperation. People are fleeing Alize. En masse. You can feel it. It’s palpable. People are wising up to the fact they’re being mistreated here, and they’re over it. The sign with balloons by the front gate? Didn’t used to be there. Bonus incentives for tenants for sign up their friends? Please. Friends don’t let friends move to Alize.
4. Ghetto. Over the past, maybe, six months, life here has really taken a turn for the worse. Aliso Viejo is supposed to be comfortable, convenient. You know what’s not comfortable? Listening to the couple across the way fight every evening as you’re trying to sit down to supper. You know what’s not convenient? Neighbors pulling up in their souped-​up pick-​ups at 2 AM blaring Guns and Roses, waking up the whole building.
5. Sneakiness. When I first moved in, this place had floundering Unilocal reviews. When I mentioned this to my leasing agent, she said, «Oh, you can’t pay attention to Unilocal.People just go on there when they have something to complain about. Our residents LOVE IT here.» I let myself believe her, because I really wanted to like this place. However, if this were true, how would other apartment complexes have such excellent ratings? About a year ago, they came around and gave everyone a cookie at their door and asked, «Have you had a good experience at Alize? Please write us a positive Unilocal review.» (Goes back to point 3.) They also now have their positive (and only positive) Unilocal reviews listed on their website. Do yourself a favor and get the whole picture first.
You’ll notice, though, I gave two stars instead of one. In-​unit washer and dryer are nice, and the pool and gym are all right. Neighbors are amiable. Even though you’ll have maintenance over a couple times a month (you’ll get to know them on a first-​name basis after your first year), they’re all friendly. (I think they feel bad for the people who’ve been duped into living here.)
I know, they put on a good façade. It all looks clean and pretty, and you’ll WANT to like Alize. I know I did. But if you’re looking for a new place to call home, you’re better off without one at all, then dealing with the «Experience» of Alize.
Good luck on your apartment search. Hope this helps!

We recently moved into Alize in mid-​November. Upon first meeting Mark to tour the place, we immediately felt the enthusiasm he had about the community. As we looked around, the amenities are nicely maintained. Then Mark brought us over the what would be our new home. We absolutely love the open floor plan and the location of our apartment in the complex. It is very spacious and the way it was set up fit us perfectly! Our neighbors are very friendly. One neighbor even helped us move in some of our items on our first day here!
The «Heroes» program dedicated to people in the service industry (teachers, nurses, etc) was a really nice treat! It helped with some of the move-​in costs and they painted 2 free accent walls!
Though we’ve already had to put in a few service requests in the short time we’ve been here, the Alize staff responded promptly and the maintenance people have been helpful and friendly.
The location is central to many different shops and restaurants. It is situated close to Wal-​Mart, Target, Home Goods, Trader Joe’s, Ralph’s & Edwards Cinema. It is accessible to the 5 & 405 fwys and the 73 toll road.
Overall, we’ve had a great experience at Alize, thus far. We are grateful to the nice, friendly and attentive staff here and are looking forward to making this our «home» for years to come!

Convenient location and very nice staff!

The office, it really depends who you are dealing with. Most of the employees are cool, especially Justin, he really helped me out but some of the females are rude and/​or clueless. I just made sure I dealt with Justin. I had to get out of my contract and find another roommate which was stressful but Justin made it as easy as he could. Got nothing but kind words for him.
The rooms are kinda small but the bathrooms and kitchen are good enough. Didn’t like the kitchen sink much.
One AWESOME pro is the clubhouse. Its free to reserve, $ 500 deposit which makes sense. Open til midnight. I was able to throw a pretty cool party and as long as we aren’t making a scene, we used the pool at the same time.
The two things that are definite cons: parking and the pool.
If you come back late on a Friday or especially Sunday night, parking sucks. I had to park on the other side of the complex a few times on these two nights. Each apt gets one carport and getting another is $ 75 with a long waiting list.
For a pretty big complex, having just one pool is weak.
Overall, if you need a place in this pretty expensive area, its a good spot.

We lived here for 5 years prior to relocating to Nor Cal last year. It’s a well manicured and comfortable community, just off the 73 toll. We loved our experience from the first time we visited in 2008. We were on the top floor with a southern view, beautiful sunrises and 6 Firework shows from our balcony on July 4^th! The gym is 24 hrs and the spa was really nice. We didn’t have issues with parking our second car ever. There is dry cleaning delivery and they’ll deliver your packages for you (we didn’t use this service), but we used the trash valet and that was convenient.
There will forever be cons when you are in communal living. Noise, dogs, smoking, etc.
Alize was beautiful and we’d happily do it again!

Summary:
If you like these apartments, and your concerns are about community or quality of life then I definitely recommend living here. For more details, see my pros and cons below.
My lease is almost over at Alize and I have been here 11 months. I have lived in apartments in Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Orange, and Irvine. So far, this complex has been my favorite place to live.
I’ve decided to move somewhere else so I can get more space for the $. It should be pointed out that in doing this, I know I’ll be giving up some of the pros I have listed below.
My cons to living here and other people’s comments are really not that bad in comparison to other places. I’ve lived in places where my car was stolen, floods in the apartment upstairs due to old buildings, flood in my apartment due to maintenance making a mistake, my upstairs neighbors being ridiculously loud and the managers didn’t care– no problems at Alize it has been really pleasant.
Cons:
* Some of the dog owners don’t pick up their dog’s poop, but it doesn’t get that bad, so maintenance does a good job keeping up.
* I had some miscommunications with the staff when going through the lease process. Read your agreement carefully, mine had a few mistakes.
The leasing agent promptly fixed it and was nice about it. The carpet was cleaned but looked like it needed to be done again. Our leasing person said she agreed and would have someone come out. She said they did, but the carpet looked the same when we moved in a few days later.
* Price. It’s true that you get what you pay for, I feel like what I’m paying in rent is reasonable for the area. My renewal letter asked to increase my rent by $ 87 to extend 12 months. I think that’s a lot but it’s still about accurate for the area.
* The kitchen sink is really shallow.
* The website says you can pay by credit card but I don’t see the option to do that. I wanted to earn miles for my rent!
* Neighbors, sometimes. I’ve had issues with kids being rude. Riding bikes/​skateboards/​scooters/​etc on the sidewalks and streets– and getting dangerously close to people, dogs, and cars. Really careless! Also young boys howling and hooting inappropriate things– but this only happened one time.
* The community is big in my opinion but the only place you can get your mail is in the front.
* The back gate is right next to two schools, so there’s a lot of traffic right before and after school hours, and parents who idle at the gate turnout for pick-​up/​drop-​off.
* UPS leaves items at my door instead of the office. I don’t know why, since FedEx drops off at the office. I haven’t had any issues with my things going missing, though.
Pros:
* Maintenance is friendly and timely. I have only had to call for a clogged kitchen sink (which was entirely my fault). The other time they came in was to replace light fixtures for a community-​wide upgrade.
* No issues with my appliances (except replacing my fridge and oven lights, I just did it myself)
* Parking here is AMAZING. I have NEVER had an issue with my car or visitors
.
* Great apartment features: full size washer and dryer, big bathroom with roman tub, central a/​c.
* Valet trash (someone comes to pickup your trash every night if you leave it outside your door)
* Well maintained pool and common areas.
* Office throws some type of event, I think monthly. I never participated but maybe you’re into that kind of thing.
* If your USPS package is too big for the mail boxes or you receive something from FedEx, the office will hold them and keeps an accurate log. They send email or text messages, too.
* For two occupants and occasionally a small child, cost of utilities are good. Water/​trash/​maintenance/​etc that’s added onto my rent is about $ 30−40/month. My electric bill and gas bills are reasonable (about $ 40 – 60 a month each bill).
* Everything is so CLEAN.
* It’s QUIET inside and out. With the exception of a loud motorcycle or kids once in a while. But you can’t expect perfection anywhere. Sometimes I can hear/​see late night gatherings or small parties but only when I’m outside walking my dog. When I’m in my apartment, I experience no noise from my upstairs neighbors, from the stairs outside, or through the walls (this could be simply that I have good neighbors).
* I feel very safe here. Sometimes I forget to lock my car doors, but I know it’s not an issue. I can take my dog for a quick walk and leave the door unlocked it’s not a big deal.
* Neighbors are friendly or keep to themselves.
* Dog owners are courteous and will ask first if their dog wants to say hello to your dog, or will walk around/​go another direction to avoid you if their dog is being too anxious.

Do not move here! The staff gives terrible customer service, the rent goes up EVERY time you renew your lease, the gym smells like BO and half the machines don’t work, we consistently have BLACK MOLD growing in the bathroom and a water heater that doesn’t work, and the list goes on and on.
By far the worst place we have ever lived!
Save yourself the trouble and look elsewhere.

Was going to rent here cause the place looked nice and had a lot of good things about it.
They called us and got us approved for the apartment they showed us and then the next day called and said they were taking that apartment back cause it was upgraded and was going to be only a 100 more in rent than what they told us. That apartment had been empty for three motnhs already.
So with them doing that was plenty enough reason not to move there plus have heard from a coworker who lives there that they have tons of plumbing issues and parking issues.
If a company does that even before you move in doesnt give much confidence in what it will be like to live and rent there.
Much better apartments near by anyway.