Ivorywood Apartments

If I could give a Zero star rating I would. The property is poorly maintained– stairwells and garage are filthy and never cleaned. Walls are thin, you can hear your neighbors every move. Lack of visitor parking. Poorest management and maintenance staff– unresponsive to problems and a cant do attitude. Ridiculous rent increases every year. Property amenities downgraded-​weight room, cabana furnished with cheap and minimal furniture. Upon move out charging me for new carpet that was at least 5 years old when I moved in two years ago and painting charge for an apartment that was not painted when I moved in. Stay away from Equity Residential!!!

I helped my good friends move here and I visit often, so I’d like to give a review since I feel bad that the average review for this establishment is less than 5 stars!
Pros:
* amazing location, you’re 5 – 10 mins away from anything by car
* rental process was speedy
* the actual apartments are roomy and designed well
* with a small monthly fee, you get your own private garage spot
* the staff are EXTREMELY friendly, helpful, and always there for you
* maintenance is fast
* the neighbors are quiet (something unique to apartment life!)
* burke-​gilman trail is literally across the street (~5 min walk to enter the trail)
* pet friendly
Cons:
* guest parking can be a hassle
* easy to miss if you’ve never been there before

We’ve lived at Ivorywood for three months now, and are totally happy here. :)
When we were looking for a place to live, we looked at three different suites here over three weeks, since we were moving from out of town and weren’t sure where we wanted to land. They never rushed us, and were always more than gracious when I showed up wanting to look one more time.
The rental process was smooth and fast. Everything was done online, right down to them letting me use their PC since I couldn’t do it on mobile. Speaking of online, all maintenance requests can be submitted online, and rent and utilities can be paid online. What a breeze!
Maintenance — We’ve submitted about six requests now, for everything from a leaky faucet, to a noisy bathroom fan, to a wasp nest. Everything was dealt with within a day. As impressive as that sounds, let me add to it that we have a German Shepherd that’s at home during the day, and they took their time upon move in to get to know him, so they’ll even come and do the work when it’s just him home! And they leave a nice note to let you know that they were in and what they accomplished during their visit.
Rent — the prices are comparable to elsewhere in the Bothell, Woodinville, Kirkland areas, no real jump or deals. The rent seemed to be fair for the area.
Apartment Unit — Love our layout. The kitchens are so nice and spacious in all the suites. Double sinks, good dishwashers, and rangetop microwaves in the suite. Lots of counter space, and cupboards galore! There is no lack of storage here, from the big walk in closets, to the deck space. The bedrooms are very generous too. The attached garages are such a great value for extra space!
Pets — This place is actually TRULY pet friendly. German Shepherd? No problem! One of the leasing companies that REALLY mean «pet-​friendly» with no 25lb weight restriction. The office staff and maintenance seem to really like animals, and always greet our dog by name. He’s been welcome in the office, and they always have treats around for the furry friends. The grounds are kept pretty clean, considering all the pets here. A big bonus.
Other amenities that are great — The bike trail (Burke-​Gilman/​Sammamish) is right across the street. A half mile to the right is everything that you could want in Kenmore, from groceries to amazing teriyaki. The other way is the upcoming downtown Bothell, and easy access to 405. The Bothell library is under a mile away. Cascadia Community College is under 2 miles away, and is the number two community college in the nation. Bothell high school is right up the back path, easily in walking distance, although we have school bus service as well. The King County metro has a Seattle express bus right in front of the building!
Great place!

This is hands down my best experience so far with apartments since I moved here almost two years ago. While the walk-​ups are less than desirable, the safe and clean complex and professional and kind staff more than make up for it. Any maintenance issues were immediately addressed, and I always enjoyed talking with the office. I was very sad to leave since competent staff are hard to find, but the almost $ 200.00 hike in rent to renew the lease convinced me to hunt elsewhere; if the increase were more reasonable, I would have been more than happy to stay.

If I could give Equity Residential Ivory-​wood apartments a zero, I would. They act all nice, but they quickly pressured us into putting a $ 300.00 down payment with our $ 80.00 application fee, $ 40 for my wife and I each. They told us we could get the $ 300 back, no problem, right.
The unit we wanted wasn’t going to be available for 5 weeks, but we weren’t in a big hurry. We thought we could sneak a peak at the unit before we moved in, WRONG. After asking multiple times to see the unit before we signed the lease, they kept refusing. But they did keep trying to pressure us to sign the lease, on a unit which they refused to show us and was currently occupied! In the lease FYI, it states they can show the unit at anytime after you give notice and before 30 days of vacating the unit. They still refused to let us see it.
We ended up deciding we didn’t trust them, and we felt their prices were just too high, so we cancelled the unit all together. BUT, while they tell you verbally you can have your down payment back, that was also lie! THE APPLICATION IS A CONTRACT!!! Don’t let them fool you. By signing the application, you aren’t just signing your permission to check your credit and such, NO, NO you are signing away your rights to your fat $ 300.00 deposit plus your application fee!
They told us they were out the money, because we held their apartment with the deposit. Again, this is another lie. We cancelled the unit weeks before we were going to move into the unit, and weeks before it was going to be vacated by the current tenant.
Conclusion: This company and their property management pray on anyone walking into the door. They will promise you the world, and they will be nice as pie. But then, they will crap on you as soon as you don’t sign that lease! We are SOOO happy we didn’t rent from these monsters.

I searched extensively in the area before deciding on Ivory Wood. Sure, it’s about $ 100 more per month than other 1 bedrooms, but here are reasons I like living here:
1. Covered, locked, garage with assigned parking space — less worries of breaking in and better for your car in general
2. Quiet — if you’re in one of the buildings at the end of the complex
3. Great management — the staff has always been very nice. They carried 8 heavy boxes up the stairs for me and put them in my apartment
4. Burke-​Gilman trail — I love to go running and the trail is literally across the street
5. Public transportation — Seattle public transportation sucks in general, but the 372 bus stop is right outside my apartment and can take me to U Village or up north to Main Street Bothell