The Waters At Bluff Springs

By far one of the best experiences I’ve had with an apartment complex. I only toured since I signed somewhere else, BUT it was only because of availability. Otherwise this was my first choice out of 14 places from South to North Austin. I was lucky enough to tour with the property manager, Alyssa, so I was well informed about everything. The ownership of this was great since the owner is his own boss, so there won’t be random change in management. He’s also someone who gives back with scholarships, which are open to any and residents get priority. Since I’m in school, this is something that caught my attention. Kind of like «you have my back, I’ll have yours.» It’s located in a nice area with a wood-​sy area behind it, so it’s quiet and very scenic. Community garden and pet area. I used to work in leasing, so reviews are important, and mine is not exaggerated. This place is beautiful and extremely welcoming! Def worth a tour and gathering information.

Excellent apartments! Within a reasonable price in South Austin. The management was the best. If we ever had a problem they were there to fix it. The staff was always very friendly. The only down side would just have to be the traffic but then again its Austin. Overall, I would live here again if I moved back to Austin.

My pro rant:
I have lived in apartments in Texas (Austin and San Antonio), Colorado, and Florida, and they are all the same. This apartment is no different. Now, if I paid more I’d expect maybe a bit more, but honestly, I don’t. I have combed the market to live south and get what I get here at this price. It isn’t there. I live in a one bedroom and have washer and dryer connections in a pretty chill place… with a kick a** view. I mean, for what it’s worth you’re on a protected property. The landscape is great. Yeah, the traffic isn’t ideal, but I live and work south so even though I have to deal with the traffic on that access road up to William Cannon, once I pass that I’m golden. I think people forget how bad traffic is THROUGHOUT Austin. This is just the price you pay to live in a pretty secluded and chill spot. Yeah, everything is pretty blazy blah, but it’s Austin. Don’t trash the place, be cool, and enjoy your stay.
Also, I should note that I’ve had some maintenance requests and they’ve all been handled professionally, quickly (given normal work parameters), and without any hassle. Can’t complain about that one bit.
My con rant:
My issue with any business in general is lack of or incorrect communication and the inept ability to solve what seems to be commonly solvable problems.
Examples
1) When I got the apartment I was told the gym would be open 24 hours, and not have time limits. Is this a big deal? Well, while I’m over it, I do need to bring it up here. I actually may have paid a little more in rent somewhere else that had a 24 hour fitness center. I’m not sure they realize the difference in value there, but it is what it is I suppose.
2) Fix the gate or don’t call it a gated community. Since I’ve lived here the gate has always been open.
At the end of the day though, that’s just life. I like the complex and my apartment.

Decent apartments… and they WERE reasonably priced but I understand that the market fluctuates. I moved in December 2010, into the largest 1 bedroom for 637. When my lease came close to ending, they raised the price on me, 25 bucks… no biggie, however, they said they sent out a notice the month before to renew… no. Never got it. I luckily happened to have a loose conversion with one of the lease agents and it turns out if I don’t sign my lease by next week, I would have to be paying month to month, plus 100 extra per month… so I decide to renew… i asked what the smallest one bedroom was going for, to save money, and it was now going for more than what I was resigning, including the 25 increase!!! You know what my 1 bedroom is going for…785…thats right. 637 to 785. Blame it on demand and market, but still, this is for lower income families. Also, if you dont get covered parking or a garage, good luck finding parking… it is absolutely ridiculous. No monitoring whatsoever. So guests and non residents take up the parking and residents have to park by the gate or in the «tow» areas. No one ever gets towed. Not to mention the parking spots are tiny, tiny, tiny, so pretty much get ready to have your car dingged up. Management in my experience has been sweet and understanding. A lot of little things would bother me, but after looking around for competitive prices, I’m positive the rate I’m locked in now, after renewing twice, (687) is the absolute cheapest I will find in austin for 723sq feet. I use to feel safe, until the recent explosion incident. I was guild to evacuate for a WEEK, missed work, packed for a week and drove to family’s. Unpacked, sat down after a 4 hour ordeal, received a phone call saying it was safe for me to move back in. UGH!!!
It’s quiet, and its fairly new. Maintenance responds fairly quickly (most times) especially for bigger issues. I have to give this place 3 stars… if I was paying 785, id give it 1 or 2 for lack of amenities, lack of apartment perks (cheapest appliances, ugly cabinets and floors) and hacking up the price. The location is awful for getting to the apartment and leaving to go anywhere. Being on the access road, you must go to William Cannon’s light to get anywhere, which id am infamously long, dreaded light. I’d say, unless getting an awesome deal, like I happened to during down season, look somewhere that’s nicer, that has better appliances, perks and better access to driving roads.

The actual apartments are ok. I actually suggested this place and my locator strongly recommended against it because she said their customers have had horrible experiences consistently with management problems. I wasn’t so worried because I can compromise pretty well and hold them to their word. I went and looked at the apartment and the girl helping, Molly, was very sweet and nice. I was told rent on my apartment the Wembury (apparently with the upgraded laminate) was $ 685 although they post it for $ 645 on their website and I saw a price list in the office that says $ 675 for the regular apartment with plain carpet. So there are some false advertising issues there. I picked this apartment solely because they take bigger dogs and the deposit is only $ 200 for up to 2 dogs. So I left that day paying a $ 35 app fee $ 100 admin fee and a $ 200 security deposit to hold my apartment. I also signed up for a covered parking space for $ 25 monthly rent. I have some credit issues so I had to also pay a $ 300 «high risk» fee when I signed my lease. I went to sign my lease a week later and nothing had been prepared. The lady literally wrote up the lease while I was there effectively making me late back to work and dinging my attendance. Then she asked about my dogs weight and breed. After telling them the weight of my dogs one is 35 lbs and one is 50 lbs she said well we can only accept up to a 65 lb combined weight limit. I almost had a heart attack as I would literally be homeless if it fell through, they hbad already cashed my checks and approved my application at this point. She went in the back to speak to her management, which I was a little offended that she wouldn’t speak with them in front of me. If there wasn’t anything to hide she should be able to speak with them while I was present right? Well she comes back and says alright they said it was ok. Then as we were filling out the paperwork she was talking about a $ 6 trash fee and a $ 2 fee for some other insignificant thing. They had told me when I applied that it was included in the price, so again she went into another room to talk with her boss. Again effectively making me feel it was shady. So finally I get my lease signed and then I go to inventory the apartment, I nitpicked through it, as everyone should. I turned it in and was called a couple of days later before I moved in to say the fixes had been made. Some of them had, some hadn’t. On the move in date I pull up to my apartment and someone is parked in my reserved parking spot. This was frustrating as I had a car full of heavy things and the uncovered free-​for-​all parking is just not available, if you move here, it’s important that you purchase covered parking or a garage as parking space is limited/​non-​existent. So I call the towing company on the sign and they say management must call. So i call the number and of course the office is closed so I leave a message on the maintenance line. To my surprise the guy actually calls back and offers to have the car towed, then about 30 minutes later he knocks on my door and says the car has a permit and they must have double booked the spot. He did give me a remote to one of the garages and says I can use it until I can work it out with the complex. An extremely nice gesture I must say. Then I get a message from management that they wrote the lease for the wrong year and I had to go back and sign a new lease. They ended up conceding the garage for the same price as the covered parking which I thought was a good move on their part. So if you move here, don’t expect a smooth ride. Make them stick to their word. My dad actually wants to sue them for false advertising and several other things. I’m not really into all that hub-​bub so I don’t want to sue. But really they need to straighten up the communication and advertising because it will eventually bite them in the butt. And it seems it already has since my locator was strongly urging me to not go there, and I see why. So all in all I like my apartment and location and it’s comfortable. The location is a little inconvenient but the pricing reflects that, but it is secluded so there are no vagrants milling around. They have a dog park (no one picks up their dog poo on the entire property, so you probably will need to designate special shoes to walk your dogs). I wish they would do something about this because I pick up my dog’s poo. I think it’s mainly because there are a lack of recepticles for the poo and no provided baggies, which I’ve noticed when provided people usually pick up. So maybe a few more of these should be put in since it’s such a dog friendly complex. Anyway, this place has a lot of cons on management side, but the property itself has several pros. If you are willing to compromise and are fairly patient, you’d be ok.

I would not recommend this place to anyone. Not only is the location terrible (right off the service road of 35 between Slaughter and William Cannon = miles of traffic ALL THE TIME), but the management could care less about EVERYTHING. We moved in to stay within a (small) budget and we chose this complex because of it’s «amenities.» We should have known better… The pool was unkept and gross– hated swimming there. Their «DVD library» is smaller than my own. Gym is small and most of the equipment doesn’t work or is falling apart. Our neighbors were out of hand, to say the least, and had the cops called on them numerous times. The management knew all about it (they told us), but did nothing– except invite them to re-​lease! The only good thing about this place is that the maintenance guys were nice and actually did their job well (something I wouldn’t say about the office staff).