Brackett Apartments

Do not rent here. Please do your research before you sign any leasing agreements especially if it’s owned by Pinnacle Property Management in the greater Seattle area. I have never witnessed such poor customer service from a leasing staff ever in my lifetime.
At first glance it’s a relatively nice location. It’s tucked away in the trees away from all the street noise. It’s a great walk to QFC, Starbucks, Subway, PCC etc. and a short distance to Richmond Beach Park and the transit center. They are pet friendly with plenty of grass area for your dog/​cat to roam the grounds. Although the grounds-​keeping staff do their best, tenants of course have a tendency to leave droppings in the area, but it never bothered us that much since we would pick it up when we took our own dog out. Our unit had all outdated appliances including washer and dryer. There is a fireplace in the living room, but the mantel and the surrounding brick around the fireplace is cheaply painted white so when you did have a fire all the ash and soot would discolor them.
Our 665 sq ft 1 bedroom/​1 bath was $ 1028 a month (already including their $ 20 monthly pet fee). Beware their website is not accurate as far as current leasing prices (although I don’t entirely blame this location as it is probably managed by their corporate offices). When we did come in for a tour and a price quote we agreed upon a price in condition of signing an 11 month lease upon a specific move-​in date. The leasing staff kept «losing» our paperwork (pay stubs with all our information on it) which we kept having to resend both by email and fax. With our paperwork improperly handled, we missed our expected move-​in date which made the original rental price quote increase by about $ 60 (which doesn’t sound like much but over a span of 11 months it adds up). When the leasing staff finally gathered our documents, and we were approved for the apartment; we put in a few work orders (minor repairs) for our unit to be serviced prior to our move-​in. The work orders were never fulfillled by the time we moved in; nor were they ever fulfilled even when resubmitted through their 24 hr maintenance hotline. We’re very relaxed renters and didn’t fuss over it. But a few months later they conducted chimney maintenance inspections on all the units, and when we came home after work we found our unit LEFT UNLOCKED WITH THE APARTMENT/​MAIL KEYS STILL IN THE DOORKNOB. Our dog was in the house (crated for the inspection) and we were lucky him and our belongings weren’t stolen! When we approached the leasing staff about the issue they were unsympathetic, and took no action to resolve the issue. The property manager Tina Castro, was in her office next door with her door open could overhear the whole conversation, and took no part in apologizing. She did not make an effort to even come out and speak with us even though we could see her through the glass walls. When we brought up the incident again a few months later, one of the leasing consultants tried to lay blame on the maintenance manager; claiming that the property manager is hardly ever on site. This demonstration of poor customer service, and lack of accountability clearly emphasizes that the Firdale Village staff has no oversight and no management.
Another big issue about this location is the retrieval of packages. We had a few incidents where we received confirmation notifications (either from UPS, Fedex or Amazon) that our items were dropped off in the leasing office in which our packages were no where to be found. With problems left and right from this place, we speculate that the workers in the office are responsible. In the past when I’ve retrieved our packages, they asked for a license to look at but they weren’t matching my name or my unit number to the parcels; three times I was handed packages that weren’t ours and addressed to individuals not in our unit. When my boyfriend called to complain about parcel drop offs one of the leasing staff had the audacity to call him back, and suggest an alternative in which she then proceeded to hang up the phone on him! What sort of customer service does that display? One word: none.
It’s alarming that they change staff so frequently that there’s no consistency, no culpability, no responsibility. As other reviewers have mentioned, their staff has a tendency to say one thing, but do another. Don’t believe their false promises. Get it in writing always.
Yes-​there is a bit of crime in the area as others have mentioned. One of our vehicles were broken into twice; but luckily nothing of value was in the car. If you want to live in a safe home, please take yourself, and your family elsewhere. If you live like a nomad, care nothing about your property, and like to waste away your finances than this place is just for you! Tina Castro and her crew would be delighted to sign off your bank account to Pinaccle Property Management.

Worst place ever to live
CONS: Mold, unfriendly and rude office management, out of date appliances, loud neighbors no curfew hours, dogs barking throughout the day and night, tenants unfriendly.
Pros: nice landscaping and quick responds to maintenance issues

I cannot praise Firdale Village highly enough; you simply will not find property management more outstanding than this. They will bend over backwards to accommodate you and help you out in any way you can. Over the holiday season they even placed packages inside my door to ensure that, even though I worked long hours and wouldn’t be home in time to get the packages from the office, I would have everyone’s gift in time for Christmas. Maintenance calls are usually assessed same-​day, one day later at the most. What the units may lack in pizazz (they’re well-​maintained and spacious, just perhaps a bit outdated), Firdale Village makes up for in service. I think it speaks volumes of them that, out of the hundreds of units they have in this huge complex, everyone in the office knows both me and my puppy by name. Truly a fantastic place to live.

I’ve lived here for a few years, and was completely content when we first moved in. Our neighbors were great, kept to themselves, but were friendly. Then, several new neighbors moved in and all of them are extremely loud ALL THE TIME (after 10pm, prior to 7am) on a daily basis. Doors slamming, stomping, yelling, screeching… After several complaints to the office, we were told «They can’t do anything because noise is subjective.» Clearly, it’s «just us being overly sensitive» after not having had an issue with noise for a few years…
They also have several parking and driving rules through the complex (including a speed limit), which no one follows, and no one enforces. My car has never had so many door dings. People here are extremely inconsiderate and park horribly.
No one picks up after their dog, and no one follows the leash rule, nor the rule saying you won’t stake a rope outside and let your dog hang out. Again, just like the car rules, no one enforces.
The apartments themselves are meh. Poorly insulated, old windows, old cabinets, old appliances, and excessive moisture which causes mold. The maintenance team is actually extremely nice, helpful, and responsive (hence the 2 stars versus 1); although it wasn’t always that way. The initial maintenance team, who thankfully is no longer here, tried to pin a bunch of water damage on me and my animals after my apartment flooded due to their error and the leasing office did nothing about it.
All in all, I can’t wait to get the heck out of here. It’s been an experience that gets worse and more frustrating every week.

Don’t let the complex fool you.
Short and sweet: filled with mold, the office staff are no help and take forever to respond.
They don’t do good enough checking on pets they allow, my neighbors dog was trained to kill and almost snapped the neck of my new puppy. The tenants are not friendly.
I warn you, look somewhere else!

FYI, Essex no longer owns the property. Its now pinnacle.
The place seemed great when we moved in, but later we realized it really wasn’t. The complex itself is pretty and offers decent amenities like the pool and racquet ball court. However, their maintenance people failed to fix our leaking toilet and a leaking window over a 6 month period despite several attempts. They kept saying it was fixed and then a couple days later the problem would happen again.
We moved out the same time our neighbors did and they even said they had never lived in a place that treated their tenants as bad as this.
They also kept our deposit without any reason why and sent us to collections without warning or reason why. We only lived there for 6 months, never hung anything on the walls, and left the apartment cleaner than when we moved in. Yet are being charged $ 1,000 for reasons they have failed to tell us. Seriously, no letter or notice stating what these charges are for. Just a letter saying to pay the amount and then a letter a week later from a collection agency.
All I can say is good luck to you if you get duped into living here!

I lived at Firdale Village for 25 months. Overall a decent place, receiving an ok rating from me.
Upsides: Fireplace in every unit, decks, washers and dryers. Prompt responses to requests for maintenance (usually within a day or two). A pool on premises open generally for the two summer months. A small playground best suited for very small children. Overall friendly and helpful office staff. This property is Assigned to Sherwood Elementary School in the Edmonds School District. The community is quite varied, people from all ethnicities, lots of families, retired people, and the occasional couple of dudes rooming together.
Downsides: crappy 70s woodwork for bedroom doors/​closets/​cabinetry, etc. The whole place just needs a facelift. In-​wall heating units in living and dining areas that are dangerous and have been recalled due to customer safety issues (fire hazard). I did notice when initially viewing apartments here that the quality varied from apartment to apartment. One apartment might have a brand new stove but an old fridge and sad countertops. Things are replaced as they break, not to keep them looking new and nice. My apartment was a mishmash of old and new… New washer, old dryer, etc… so the quality will vary depending on the apartment you get.
Parking: is catch as catch can in the lot, unless you pay for a covered spot. No guarantees that there will be a covered spot for you to rent anywhere near the entrance to your apartment though… It’s fairly easy to find parking if you get home early and never go out at night. If you like to go out in the evening good luck parking when you return. This is a huge place and you’ll probablly be hiking a good distance to your apartment.
The grounds: are upkept beautifully and regularly, though I can’t say the same attention is given to the outside of the buildings themselves. In the entire two years I lived there the exterior windows were never power washed, and when you live in a 3^rd floor apartment that’s not something you can take care of yourself. Exterior stairwells had to be swept and cleaned of bugs and cobwebs by me or my neighbors, but were power washed by an outside company once during my two years there.
Paying Rent: When I first moved in I was able to pay rent online, a huge plus in my book. After new owners took over that feature was never again avialable despite being told that it would be… ten months later, no online payment options.
My rental rate for a 2 bedroom/​2 bathroom apartment was right around $ 1000 monthly. Water and utilities are divided based on building total divided by number of people, and not included in your rent. Rent jumped by $ 150 to rent on a month per month basis.
Moving out: Upon move out I was told my rent would be pro-​rated depending on my move-​out date, and that I could adjust that move-​out date as long as I gave a minimum of a 20 day notice. When I did move out, they tried to charge me for an extra two days (my original move-​out date estimate). I explained what I had been told and the person helping me called the manager. The answer: I would still have to pay for the extra days. After asking to speak to the manager in person, and hearing his justifications for charging me the extra days I politely insisted that I was not going to pay for their mistake. In the end the manager agreed to not charge me for the disputed days. I was satisfied with the resolution but I don’t believe anyone should have to go through that kind of situation to have a business keep their word, or the word of their employees. It is perhaps acceptable but ultimately mediocre customer service.
Upon move-​out, despite cleaning my own carpets (something each tenant is told to do or face charges…), patching all nail holes, magic-​erasering the walls and touching up paint where necessary I was charged around $ 200 in fees to replace some doors that I painted white. These were the old 60/​70s era woodwork doors I mentioned earlier. I felt I was upgrading the place. A past apartment I leased from did the same thing (painted doors and woodwork white) and called it an upgrade. But the fact is I did alter the apartment so I will pay for said doors… hopefully they’ll be replaced with a nice new model and not more of the same outdated kind. I’m surprised about this charge but the management will get no complaints from me on it.
Editing my review to add information about pets: Currently Firdale Village has a pets welcome with deposit policy. This means dogs and cats of any size allowed as far as I could tell. This must be a major + for pet owners, but not always so great for non-​pet owners as there are barking dogs and occasional pet droppings on the ground despite managements best efforts to get tenants to be responsible for cleanup after their own pets.
Overall a mixed bag, not a bad place to live if you are aware of what you are signing up for and find it worth the price.

My wife and I have lived here for a little over 3 years. We love the location, it’s a huge complex. Minutes away from downtown Edmond’s, and tons or restaurants, stores, and entertainment nearby.