The Villas in Bellevue

First off, I would have given Alena (Property Manager) 6 stars but, they only had five. She has gone above and beyond what is even considered above and beyond. Her enthusiasm for her job is evident in her bright and friendly personality. She genuinely cares about her clients. She is so sincere in all that she does and says and she backs it up with performance. I can’t say enough about her. We are basically renting here because of her. I mean, its a nice place and very affordable for new construction but, there are a lot of choices in Bellevue. We are renting here because we felt taken care of by her and that no matter what could go wrong, that she would take care of it to the BEST of her ability. She may not be able to solve every problem (reference other bad reviews) but, at least you know that she cares and that she is giving 110% all the time. We absolutely love this place and can’t wait to move in in April 2016. Her assistant Her assistant Amber was also very helpful. They make a great team. You can tell that Amber is following Alena’s lead because she always addressed our situation and application with a «can do» and «yes we can» attitude. It was just wonderful, positive energy and it really helped us make our decision.
I can’t say enough good things about this place and the people who work here. I’m sure we will be calling this place home for quite some time…

Alena the property manager is absolutely wonderful, and always works super hard to be available and helpful when questions come up. When I needed a tour of the complex, she dropped everything to show me around, and is great about answering email promptly. When we’ve had work orders, they been attended to promptly, and everything has always been handled in a professional manner.
The apartment is spacious and has balcony access, which is great as it gives the apartment a lot of natural light and an open feeling. The complex is located at a very convenient spot, and it’s both easy to get there and easy to reach Bellevue or Issaquah quickly. Would recommend the Villas if you’re looking for a nice complex with a friendly staff!

I really dislike living at these apartments management never answers phones, fire alarm systems go off randomly, trash situation is terrible You are required to pay for valet trash service which requires you put your trash out in the hall before 8:00 p. m meaning when you get home from work you get to experience the disgusting smell of trash Odor and dirty diapers in the hall .The garage door is either always broken or not working properly sounds terrible right? It gets worse the elevator is extremely slow as if it was coming down from the 100^th floor not to mention I’ve been trapped in the elevator twice because it malfunctions from time to time or so they say ! The carpets in the apartments are installed with no foam underneath so be prepared to step on nails when your walking extremely fun right !? If your thinking about moving into these apartments think long and hard ! And take my advice from this review !

My family moved into The Villas in August 2015.
PROS: Alena, the community manager, is very friendly and professional. She gives a great tour and is eager to help when questions or concerns have arisen throughout our stay. My kids love popping into her office just to say hi — and get a treat (popsicles when its hot)! She is knowledgeable in her field and surprises me with her practical knowledge — she called in a professional for diagnosis and repair, but she totally figured out why my dishwasher was having water issues. Best of all, Alena truly cares about her property and her residents.
I would give Alena 5 stars and she really carries this review of The Villas.
Our town home is spacious and lovely. We have made some great friends at The Villas and my children played outside with numerous new friends at the end of summer and into September. Once school started and rain came we have seen many fewer friends playing outside. The residents are mostly friendly and neighborly.
Super dog friendly! Waste bags and disposal bins on site for walking your pet.
Samena is a quick walk down Lake Hills Boulevard and many residents enjoy using the fitness classes and pools. My family loves Samena.
CONS: Lots of details in our town home feel missed or cheaper than they should. (Poor painting, painting over a misplaced screw, feeling tacks through carpet, carpet appears to show wear rather quickly, low end appliances, thin walls).
The parking garage has become a greater hassle with the retail development taking charge. There seems to be minimal concern for residents as «guides» have been put up in our gated entry that make entry extremely challenging and could easily be changed to be less difficult to navigate and secondary entrance/​exit is not always marked so I know when it is open for my use. I prefer the secondary entrance to avoid the dividers.
Lots of charges not contained in rent. Valet waste (required), storage, bike storage, parking — and the rent is not cheap.
No information on any additional development for residents — kid’s play space, dog run… there was talk but it just fizzled out.
All that said — we picked The Villas and have been happy living in our town home. It is a great location and Alena is a pleasure to work with any time. Not everything is the way we would choose and I hope the owners take an interest in upgrading their property as things progress. I also hope that the retail property is successful and adds to the benefits of being a resident at The Villas.

Moving to the area in a few months so we took a tour, the girl that helped us was nice and answered all of our questions. Clean and nice looking place for the price!

Falling apart and it was just built. Code violations — if the power is out you are evicted due to key fob access with no battery back up. Dark, not enough heat for the square footage. Not sure how they got occupancy permits.

My One Star is Only because this will not allow NO STARS.
My wife and I moved to this complex stressing the fact that we had very noisy neighbors above and next door at out prior place.
THE GOOD Two bedroom apt. on the fourth floor, it is a nice apartment. That is about it.
The Bad:
* The walls are paper thin, you can hear your neighbors snore, their private conversations and their intimate moments. The same can be said if you stand outside my apartment door, if I was speaking to anyone in my kitchen their would be no privacy.
* I can hear the elevator bell when it reaches my floor, and my apartment is over fifty feet from the elevator.
The Fire Exit Stairwell may as well be called a «boom box» people pounding up and down the stairs, the doors slamming, vibrate through the walls.
* The apartment doors have auto-​closer hinges that are wound so tight the doors SLAM shut vibrating the walls down the hallways and to the apartments above and below.
* No Need set an alarm clock, the next door neighbors alarm or ringtone will wake you. If that does not wake construction crews will.
* Complaints to the management receive a roll of the eyes and «I can’t do anything». We have been told, «Then move your bed» «change rooms» Wear earplugs! We pay over 2k a month to live in an apartment we can not enjoy.
* Management decided to lock the garbage area and have tenants leave their garbage in the Hallways, the Hallways stink every night and often into the following morning. The «Garbage Valet» as they named the guy, goes up and down the hallway noisily picking up the garbage.
* Kids run up and down the hallways, ride the elevators.
* The Elevator in each building is a joke, they have to be the slowest elevators I have experienced. It takes longer to travel four floors here than it does to travel 16 to 18 floors any where else.
* The Garage entrance door to the elevator is not working correctly and you have to remember the trick of pulling it towards you before pushing it to enter?
* Other tenants complaints shared with me is incredible as people become dissatisfied, I am only waiting to the end of my contract and finding another place. I meet the tenants of the shared building as we ride in the elevator and hear them share the same complaints and dissatisfaction, it appears most of us do not want the penalties associated with breaking a lease. My next door neighbor has told she paid seven thousand dollars to get out. Others are leaving as soon as possible.
Smoke Free Facility. Yes it is between cigarettes of your neighbors as they ignore their contracts. Letter to the tenants that cause disruptions do not appear to work, when are severe penalties going to be applied?
Review your contracts before signing! DO NOT be fooled into believing the rental amount each month is set. Mine went up 300 +/​-​with extras! Including a Vacancy fee? Did I mention they have locked us out of the Garbage Area and force tenants to pay a «valet garbage fee».
DID I Mention the Garbage is left in the Hallways, stinking and leaking. Some tenants at the houses adjacent but still part of the facility, leave their garbage out for crows, rats dogs etc.
The Solid waste management investigator has informed me that this is not good considering that this complex is in an area of lakes, agricultural and the rodents are huge around here.
I have filed several complaints with the City of Bellevue, they are looking into this complex.
I would not recommend this place to my friends. DO NOT BE DECEIVED. You want the truth speak with me.

My family moved into the Villas summer 2014, with high hopes. The apartments were beautiful and with the promise of a playground we decided to ignore the construction going on around us. When we arrived with our things on move in day the apartment still had construction materials about and hadn’t been cleaned. This set the tone for our living experience. Its been just under a year and there is still no sign of a playground. Many minor things weren’t done such as the nails poking up from the carpet where the seam meets the linoleum in the kitchen and bathrooms. The building materials such as the toilet paper insert, the center piece of the towel rack (some type of plastic) the wood used for cabinets and the carpet, leave much to be desired.
The kitchens are dark due to the lack of natural light so every light in the living area needs to be turned on in order to be considered adequate. With the onset of summer, the apartments are very warm considering there is no air-​conditioning. We spend most of our time outside where we can feel the breeze.
Which brings us to another problem; the traffic driving through the sidewalk separating the apartments and the adjacent town homes. At least 10 cars a day drive through like it is some kind of road. This is very concerning because there are many children who spend there time playing out there. Management has told us that they are working on the problem and that the majority of vehicles are new tenants, which is false because myself and the other tenants repeatedly see the same vehicles time after time.
My final complaint concerns the trash disposal. Due to problems with the mixing of trash and recycling by tenants, management locks the trash room during the week. I can understand somewhat why they did this but you end up having to put your trash on your tiny patio and wait for Valet trash pickup to retrieve it. The trash room is only unlocked on Saturdays and Sundays. This is especially concerning for tenants on floors 2 & 3 because trash just sits in the halls because they’re unable to throw it away. We also just received a notice that The Villas will now be charging fines for people leaving trash out during non-​pickup times because they don’t want their house to stink. Notices by the way are not uncommon. It is almost constant that they are enforcing a new rule or regulation. I can’t even keep my bike on the porch without receiving a notice that says move the bikes to the storage facility in another building for an additional $ 10 a month or they’ll serve an eviction notice!
Overall these apartments are not worth the money you spend to live in them. It’s not as terrible as other places I have lived but for the money you are spending you should have more freedoms. Despite the cons, there are some positive aspects of living here. You are within walking distance to the Lake Hills Library and a small park. The retail shops are starting to open and all the other tenants I’ve met are fantastic. It makes me hesitant to leave but I can no longer tolerate all the negatives.

This place is a disaster — we moved in in Sept on a 6 mo. lease — thank god we can get out next month.
The property management team does the best they can — but; the place is still largely under construction, so expect dirt and lot’s of construction noise.
The buildings don’t have actual lobbies — meaning you come in the back of the building — if you don’t happen to come in via the parking garage.
Garbage — a total hassle; you have to take it to a different building and have to go outside to get to a dumpster.
None of the retail spots have been leased out — so that looks weird… sort of a ghost town look and feel.
I believe the property owners are low on $$$ and that’s why the place isn’t finished.
Vacancy has to be very high — so you can cut a good deal… but you’ll be getting what you pay for.