The Whitmore

Loved my actual apartment. Very spacious and modern. But everything else that comes along with it didn’t make much sense. I.e. Parking for guest: besides the fact that there’s only about 10 spots for guest parking, you have to go online to reserve a spot for your guest to park, then print the pass out yourself, then pay money for guest to park as well. Guest Pool passes for guest cost money. Walls are very thin so you can here anything upstairs and your neighbors on the side of you. Maintenance has walked in my home several times without knocking. The list goes on.

My assessment of Whitmore Apartments has significantly deteriorated in the last 8 months with the unbearable noise level and new tenants profiles. In the last few months, we have been suffering from the constantly barking dog that lives upstairs. There is another neighbor that plays piano and signs loudly whenever she feels like it. In addition, our downstairs neighbor has big parties every Thursday or Sunday and blasts music until someone calls the front desk.
I hear similar complaints from other people in the shuttle and I do not recommend this place anymore. Since the management people had changed in the last year and things started to fall apart. We are definitely moving out when our lease ends!

Hmmm… Where should I start?
This review is long over due. I will start with the positive parts.
— Nice big apartments
— The shuttle to the metro
— The gym is ok
— Good location
— They take big dogs.
— The maintenance and cleaning staff were nice.
Ok, now to my experience. So when we moved in there was a cinco de mayo deal. The deal was that we didn’t have to put down a deposit and our pet deposit would be half of the price.
The issues we had include:
— the buzzer in the front never worked for us so we always had to go open the door. We asked them to figure it out more than once. Still didn’t work.
— Unfortunately the concierges weren’t very helpful. They really only helped with mail and parking passes.
— The biggest reason we moved out was because of the community utilities. The utilities started at about 120. When we initially moved in they stated it would be about 100 on the high end. Ok so by the time winter came they changed the company and things got out of control. The bills from January to April cost 170.00! The community director, TC said this was because of the cold winter months. Which on February was freezing. By May and June the bill had gone down $ 20.00.
— Also in empty apartments they would leave all of the lights on all the time. So I’m sure that contributed to the utilities bill.
–When I spoke to TC about this he stated that he thinks the community utilities is fair for everyone. Of course he would say that.
— The business center which they highlighted in the tour, never had printer paper or ink. All the computers had viruses.
— The lounge room is really nice and tried to rent it for and event. The cost was outrageous. It was a $ 300 deposit and $ 200 fee.
— Mid way in the summer they changed the swimming pool rules and started charging $ 5.00 per guest for the day.
— So as I mentioned earlier, we didn’t pay a deposit when we moved in. We knew they were going to charge us for the carpet, but everything else was in the same shape they gave it to us in. The finance person sent us a bill stating the hardwood floors were damaged, which means they were less shinier and the cost would be $ 700.00! Im pretty sure it does not cost that much to wax 350 square feet. We tried to fight it by showing them pictures of the floors before and after, but my sanity is important so I could continue to fight with dirty people. Interestingly enough they moved someone in within a week that we left. The truth is they were discriminating against us because we had a dog.
As you can see this company is dirty and they really take advantage of people. I would think twice before you move in. We’ve talked to some other people that lived and worked there and they have left because of the companies scamming.

Best snow removal ever, and I have lived in a lot of apartment complexes. It’s also generally just a great place to live.

Whitmore was good for many reasons, spacious apartment, pool, pool table, gym, location.
Residents who have dogs don’t take care of apartment. You would have smell in elevators. Noise is less. My neighbor did complained once about music but then it was settled as I understood that walls are thin.
They have electric gas which is good part.
Most staff is good. Few are rude, the top ;) So my review is for the bad behavior guys who really need to understand what makes a good apartment.
They charge $ 500 even if you get somebody to take over your lease and there is no loss to them. Pathetic rule or to me is kind of cheating people. I don’t think VA laws allows this.
Biggest problem while you are living — AC works slow, it cant keep room cool or even that heat. Hall is big and since its not centralized AC and is OLDDD ACs (80’s model for sure), it is TOOOO slow to cool it.
Freight elevator is slow and does not work most times.
Good thing, mailbox, gym, pool table in same building, enough parking space, portal for socializing, sell stuff.
Bad thing, you need ID to enter into swimming pool, which closes quite early. Need $ 5 for guest entry.

I moved to the Whitmore after looking for several apartments both online and in-​person over a weekend trip to NoVA. They were very helpful in getting my into an apartment that fit my needs.
The Good:
–Several apartments have been renovated and have new appliances, features, etc.
–The sq footage of the studio is considerably sizeable.
–LOTS of pet owners live here (which I guess can be bad if you hate pets).
The Bad:
–Utilities are split between everyone in the building, there is no cap. So there is no point in trying to «save» on your bill by turning off lights, taking shorter showers, etc because no one else does either. This translates into a rather large utilities bill on top of the rent and fee.
–They WILL SCREW YOU OVER ON RAISING YOUR RENT! Plan to move.
I went from paying $ 1460 in total (rent+ $ 18 pet fee + $ 28 trash) for a 9 month lease to being asked to pay $ 1550 to renew my lease for a year. The going rate of a studio in the apartment with the same floor plan on the same floor was $ 1325 plus pet and trash. In addition, they said that I needed to start paying another set of fees since I’m no longer a first year resident. Needless to say they priced me out of an apartment.
–The pet owners leave their dog crap everywhere on the grass in the area, so if you have kids or want to walk through the grass at all — don’t count on it.
–The hallways are a bit dingy and the carpeting is old and smelly.
Overall, I would have stayed had they offered me something a bit more reasonable.

You get what you pay for :)
As I write this, the A/​C is out (it’s still in the 90s during the day), the pool pump is broken– so no swimming and the water has been shut off unexpectedly 4 times this year. And… there are roaches amd black mold that occasionally spring up when the water lines burst.
The utilities are communal, so no matter how frugal you are, your electricity is not metered to your usage. The location walking score is horrid (you can walk to a «Food Star» grocery store, I’d advise bringing a bilingual dictionary though). Did I mention there are roaches?
There is good access to Rt 50 amd 395 however, but the bottom line is don’t be lured in by the amenities because half of the time they will crap out.
If you are mil, working pentagon/​Henderson/​ft myer, and you have done a few pumps to the sandbox, then carry on and sign up because it’s at least better than living at a PB or FOB. If not, she’ll out the extra 300 $ amd stay toward Ballston.
Cheers

I recently visited a friend who lived in this building. She had a studio, and I must say that I was impressed. It was a nice size had decent closet space, and a washer/​dryer in the unit. Appliances were modern and the carpeting was good. If I were moving to Arlington I would consider living here.

These apartments are overpriced and ok at best. A two bedroom with a military discount is 2380.00 per month, way too much for tiny two bedroom. The only positive things about this apartment is it’s close proximity to the pentagon and downtown DC. The local area is RUNDOWN, this is not the good part of Arlington. The only grocery store in close proximity is the Food Star, which I would not enter unless I had a Police escort. The stretch of columbia pike next to the apartments is terrible, the road has more potholes than route irish in iraq. In the last 8 months there have been numerous security issues in this building involving intruders, on one evening at about 2am my wife saw the door handle turning and someone trying to get in, she screamed and the person went away. Arlington PD did respond quickly which was a relief. in my opinion these apartments are more suited for young single people who work in DC and want to have roommates, this is not a family oriented location. There are fees for everything, parking, the pool, you name it. the concierge staff is nice until you need something, the smile goes away the second you need anything more than picking up a package. Unless you absolutely have to live within 5 minutes of DC, and you are cool 20 something hipster (even then there are probably better locations in Arlington), live somewhere else like fairfax, springfield, or newington, where there are much more affordable options with better amenities.

I’ve wanted to share my truthful review on the Whitmore apartments. We first choose this apartment because of the manager. He was awesome, personable and he seemed to really care about the residents. Everyone knew him and said hi to him. That’s what made us want to live in the apartment. Not the fixtures, the amenities, ECT. We can find that anywhere. Great management is what makes an apartment. Well, soon after is when he got a promotion and that’s when things started to go downhill.
A new manager came in. First time I came in contact with him is when I noticed there was a pesticide sign on the grassy areas surrounding the apartment saying «pets keep off» but I thought it was odd that we never received a notice about this under our door. (Seeing as though we have a pet, we were definitely concerned about our pet and others). I went to the manager and mentioned this to him and he had no idea that they had even sprayed and it wasn’t even mentioned in the books. He asked me to show it to him the sign. He never alerted the tenants in the building.
Our next issue was with water damage/​paint issues showing up on our kitchen wall. My significant other’s cousin is a firefighter. While visiting, he pointed out to us that it was definitely water damage. It was very visible and told us that we needed to get that checked out. So we did. I put in a service request and a painter came and painted it. A few weeks later, on the other side of the wall, the paint was chipping in the same place. I went down to the management’s office and he came up to take a look at it. I mentioned to him I was concerned because ever since I’ve lived in this apartment I’ve been getting headaches every day. I don’t know if it’s mold, mildew or what. He said it’s not mold and that I am probably just a person who gets headaches at night. What he doesn’t know is that I’m highly allergic to mold and mildew. So back to the fridge/​wall issue. Apparently, before we moved into this apartment, there was a freezer leak above us that came down into our wall. I don’t know what was done about the leak. No one has told us about it. I tried asking the maintance worker but the language barrier seems to be an issue or he was either nervous about the question/​answer. The VERY next day, I came home from work, and saw a painter painting the outside hallway where the paint was chipping. I stopped him, explained the situation and requested that he stopped painting so they could investigate it. (Common sense but apparently management is more concerned about the appearance than about safety of their residents) I called UDR (Washington office) and apparently, they said they’d take care of it. Well next thing I knew, the manager of Whitmore called me saying he was taking care of it. Then I guess the front desk people called me said they’d work with solely me through this issue. If I wanted to contact higher up, I still would. So, that manager leaves and we get a new manager. So I mention my complaints to her. I’m already moving from the apartment at this point. We wanted to buy. We were going to wait another year but with all of this happening, we decided to buy earlier than later. So I have her come up and take a look at the wall. She says that I don’t see anything in your records about these issues. It was never documented and I have nothing to go by. She says it should have all been submitted via email or by service request. I feel taking it by phone/​message/​person is more formal then putting it through the service request system. They also don’t work weekends either when I’m mostly available). Her way of figuring out if there was mold was «I don’t smell mold or see mold and we did a damp test and nothing came back so I can’t get you out of your lease.» Now, not all the time can you smell mold. Only in their records would they have what was done with that wall. And if they had something done, I would feel like would show us. It would be inside that wall if there was anything. I just felt like they didn’t care. They never offered well let me bring in a professional and check. She said mold wouldn’t really be an issue or irritant for people unless it was bad but for someone like me who has a really bad allergy to mold/​mildew – it would certainly aggravate me.
The last thing that really struck a nerve was with the last manager, which I’m sure carries through with this manager is the empty show apartments. I mentioned to him that those apartments have their lights on all day and all night. I asked him if those lights are footed into the tenant’s bill. He gave me the answer «YES». I told him, he should go green since they highlight that they are «energy efficient.» This is just my opinion of the Whitmore from my personal experience. Others may have had better. Unfortunately, I did not.

So I am writing this review mainly to help people who may have been in the same situation as me recently. I was living in Florida and moving to DC with no time to come up here and scope out places to live. I found the Whitmore online, and it looked nice, but let’s be honest, every apartment website makes it look nice, so that isn’t a lot to go on. At the time they were having really good move in specials and they have a 3% discount for teachers and other professions which were good selling points.
My husband and I decided to bite the bullet and go for it, mainly because we were running out of time as our moving date was approaching and we signed a lease with them for 10 months.
We moved in in August and things have been great so far. We have hardwood floors, and a washer and drier in the unit. There is a heater/​ac in the living room as well as the bedroom which is nice so we don’t have to heat/​cool the whole house through the night, and the maintenance people are awesome. The only complaint that I really have is that the concierges are not the nicest group of people. You have to go the them for things like parking passes and packages, and they always seem a little put out by you asking them to do their job, but really that isn’t a big deal.

This is a pretty good find in the Arlington area. The complex takes pets (with restrictions on breeds of course) and is really nice. They completed a renovation a year or so ago and I have yet to find another complex in the metro dc area that looks better.
they sign for packages for you, respond to service requests within 24 hours and have a superb staff.
the downside is the rent. for being so far from the metro, rent is too steep in my opinion.
they also do this metered system for gas and that can get annoying when you aren’t in control of how much your bill is each month.
overall, 4 stars