Cedarbrook Apartments

I have lived here for almost 5 years in their 600SF one bedroom apartment. My boyfriend and I choose this apartment complex originally because of the price and the fact that our apartment came with it’s own washer and dryer in the unit. We had just moved to Texas from California and we needed a cheap apartment to get us started. Originally we paid around 625 $ in rent a month, but every year the rent has gone up. We are currently paying over 800 $ for the same apartment. I believe that is because they have been focused on updating the exterior of the property. They have painted all the patios blue, re-​tiled the pool, updated the fitness center, added a dog park, and painted/​added more parking spaces. The interiors are not entirely their focus. When we moved in, in 2011, our apartment was painted terribly. There was paint splatter on the door knobs/​hinges/​cabinets, carpet. Also, all of our cabinets were bowed from water damage. We decided to replace our sink’s faucet to a taller one to allow easier access in the the sink. When we pulled off the original faucet the amount of mold and rust caked into the faucet left us with no choice but to dispose of it immediately. We were planning to return the original faucet back to the sink when we moved out but it was no longer an option and at first we were scolded for changing hardware with out consent until we convinced them that we did them a favor. All in all we decided to stay for this long because it was close to the UTD campus and my boyfriend was completing his degree. This complex was originally our best choice at the time we came, but I feel that it is no longer worth the current rent they charge.
MAINTENANCE:
Any time I have had an issue they have responded very quickly however they do not speak English extraordinarily well. There have been a long list of issues I have had with my apartment. Just to name a few, broken fridge, broken A/​C, and my favorite, water that poured from my ceiling anytime the A/​C was used… I’m talking buckets.
PARKING:
Terrible…just terrible. At first they did not offer assigned parking at all. I work a night shift and I don’t get off until midnight. There were times that I had to park at the farmers market next door because there was not one single parking space available. In the last year they have labeled a couple of reserved spots at each building for 10 dollars a month. I have been much happier with my reserved spot however there is absolutely no tolerance for visitors. There are a couple spaces at each building that have been labeled for visitors but residents obviously park in them because the parking lot is so limited. We learned the hard way that visitors are not allowed to park in UNMARKED spots. I left the country for two weeks and informed the office that my sister would be staying in my apartment to watch my cat. I also attempted to give them her license plate number and told her to stay out of the reserved spaces. (The new parking policy had just went into effect) Shortly after her first or second night, the apartment complex had her car towed off the lot because she was not in one of the few visitors spaces. After a heated phone call to the office they did agree to release her car for free.
STAFF:
Every one I have dealt with over the years has been extremely friendly and they have treated us with nothing but respect. I can tell they have been trying really hard to update the old complex, but it is just alot of work to take on. Last year, I was offered a free upgrade on an appliance of my choice, and seeing that ancient old stove get replaced for a new one with ALL the burners now working was a very positive experience.
PETS:
They allow large animals. Deposit for my cat was 350 $ that they allowed me to pay in two installments. Pet rent every month is 15 $ per animal.
NOISE:
There have been just two issues that I’ve witnessed the cops having to step in but honestly other than that this is a very quiet community.
MISC:
This complex is made up of almost ONLY one bedroom apartments. I believe there is only 3 two bedroom apartments in the whole complex and I don’t think the families that live in them are moving out anytime soon. If you are here for a two bedroom, don’t hold your breath.
I have always said that this was a great starter apartment for us. I never felt unsafe in the community and I can honestly see the management staff attempting to update the complex. It no longer fits my needs and I am moving on to something with more space. Unfortunately, they do not offer the same low price for the size and quality they offer, which in my opinion was what governed our decision to lease here in the first place.

i lived here for 2 years in the smallest one bedroom. It’s clearly an older place and the price reflects that.
PROS:
W/​D included, no extra cost
Large treed area behind the complex for walking my dog, grilling, etc.
Best maintenance response time ever! Hardly anything broke down but when it did these guys usually showed up within hours. Friendly, professional and fast!
Convenient to a lot of things, and I loved having the garden market next door.
Outside of hearing people walking & talking in the breezeway, which is fairly normal for apartment living, I hardly ever heard my neighbors. I have a big dog with a loud bark and never got complaints about noise (she didn’t bark constantly but when she did it was loud).
I never had an issue with bugs or pests. One time I had some ants but that was my doing b/​c I forgot something on the counter when I went out of town. I called the front office and they had it taken care of quickly.
The front office is professional and responsive. I left the place in a hurry and didn’t clean or repaint my walls back to the normal color. I was worried I would get an extra bill as well as losing my deposit. But I got half of my deposit back. I thought that was more than fair.
CONS:
The front office is strict in their rules and procedures. If you are late, you get fined. If you are like 10 days late then eviction process will be started. It doesn’t not matter if you talked to them beforehand about special circumstances and agreed you’d have the money on the 11^th. The paperwork will be filed on the 10^th and you will have to pay the extra fees. (If that happens you will NEED to follow up with them to make sure they stop the process. I paid my rent when I promised and then the fees in the allotted time and I was told not to worry, the proceedings were stopped. NOT SO, I just found out I have an eviction on my record, even though I was never actually evicted and continued to live there for another year.)
It’s not sexy. You aren’t going to impress anyone with your apartment. If that’s your goal this isn’t the one for you. It’s older and the apartments aren’t updated (at least not when I left in Nov 2013). In my unit I didn’t get a lot of sunlight. (Could’ve been the direction my unit was facing but larger windows would’ve helped.) The hot tub always looked kinda dirty and the fitness center is not worth mentioning as an amenity.
Parking was a bit of a hassle sometimes. There is no reserved parking. So if people had a lot of visitors or you’re coming home after 10pm on weekdays you could end up parking a couple buildings down. That only happened to me maybe 2 – 3 times a month, not a deal breaker.
SUMMARY:
For the money, it was a good deal and mainly hassle free. If I hadn’t moved out of town for a job I would probably still be living there.