The Esplanade Apartments

First of all, let me say that the new management is outstanding. A definite upgrade to the previous staff under Carmel Partners. I’ve had issues with my toilet flushing slow and a leaky garbage disposal/​dishwasher recently, and all were fixed within 24 – 48 hours of me calling the office. Staff is very pleasant and ready to answer any questions. With the previous staff, you might get maintanence work done in a week!
I have live here since 2004 in a 1 bedroom apartment. I was recently reading the description provided on
, and there are some corrections I would like to suggest to the description they give… especially since I’m paying $ 975/​month. First of all, there are no washer dryer units in the 1-​bedroom apartments. There is no hook up to have them. The closets are not «walk-​in». They are two standard, sliding door closets separated by what I call a «linen closet» which best describes it, 4 shelves where about the only thing that fits is your towels. Don’t have too many. There is no built in microwaves either. The appliances are old, and with the exception of new paint about 6 years ago, the buildings are old, windows are old. For me, I keep my heater set at about 70, and during the winter, my SMUD bill runs about $ 65/​month. I’ve never had the free internet/​wi-​fi noted in the description either. While I love where I live, and realize that part of the reason the rent is priced where it is is because it is Greenhaven/​Pocket, the price won’t truly be worth it until the renovations that have been mentioned are made. $ 975 is still steep for a 1-​bedroom, so I might be looking for another place once my current lease expires. :(There are other places in the area where the rent is less for the same 1-​bedroom space.

2 Word Review: NO! BAD!
The LONG Review:
I recently took a job as part of a leadership development program for a major organization in June 2015. This job required myself and my wife to relocate from our home in New England to temporary corporate housing in North Carolina until the end of the year, and ultimately would bring us to Sacramento in January 2016. Sounds crazy, right?
Now, to be honest, this new job pays well. However, neither my wife nor I are interested in finding a fancy apartment. We simply want a balance of price, location, and space. Eventually, we happened upon The Esplanade. We had read that the Pocket area is nice, the apartments seemed spacious, and the price seemed reasonable! Jackpot, right?
We called the Esplanade, and spoke to one of their community directors, and things went really well. She seemed friendly, knowledgeable, and offered us a ton of great information. Considering we planned to start the lease without viewing the unit, we relied heavily on intuition, and everything felt positive! Our only uncertainty was whether we should choose the 2 or 3 bedroom unit. On November 12^th, we requested the dimensions of the 2 bedroom, and on November 13^th, we communicated that we felt the 3 bedroom would be better for the additional storage space. Unfortunately, this is when things began to fall apart.
As I mentioned earlier, our plan is to be in Sacramento in early January. We understand that landlords have no interest in letting a property sit vacant. With this in mind, we asked for availability of units in December. Several units were expected to become available around December 14^th. So we filled out an application online for a unit that was listed at $ 1480/​month.
On November 14^th, a «Deposit and Rent Status» form was emailed to us, stating that we had paid $ 100 for a rental application, and $ 91.98 for our background checks. (There was also a small convenience fee.) Both of these were accurate. However, the agreement showed the rent for $ 1580. It also showed an additional $ 100 per month for water, sewer and gas. I called the community director, and inquired about the changes. She said that prices are subject to change daily, which seemed odd, but I accepted it as a quirk. I was also accepting of the additional monthly charge, but my skepticism started to sneak in. We agreed to continue to look at units as they became available, to keep prices down.
On November 19^th, my wife found a 3 bedroom option listed on The Esplanade’s own website at $ 1480, which would be available on ¹²⁄₃₁. HOLY CRAP! PERFECT!!! We saved the website to a time stamped PDF at 10:52 AM. We immediately emailed the community director expressing our interest in the unit. HIGH FIVE!!! Or not…
The community director got back to us approximately 9 hours later, stating that their power had been spotty throughout the day. (Hmmm…) However, she did state that the rent on that particular unit had increased to $ 1599. Furthermore, due to the fact that we were in corporate housing our security deposit had to be increased to $ 2080, from the $ 500 previously quoted. She mentioned that we would be able to do a 6 month lease, as opposed to a 7 month term we had previously discussed. She also mentioned that she can «take our security deposit from $ 2080 to $ 1580, reducing it by $ 500» through an affiliation with Deposit IQ, a bond program The Esplanade offers. (Editorial Note: Please review bond program terms VERY carefully before proceeding.)
So to recap:
* The power/​internet was not working. When it DID work, the priority was to increase the rent price before communicating with people that had expressed interest in the unit
* THEN in communication back to us, we are told that we can take a unit $ 19 dollars cheaper.
This, my friends, is a textbook bait and switch. It’s also highly illegal. Furthermore, our:
* Term decreased by one month
* Security deposit increased by value of one month’s rent
The FINAL straw was the receipt of a new «Deposit and Rent Status Form» which contained multiple errors, including:
* Unit size
* Rent price
* Rental term
* Rental dates
* Monies paid to The Esplanade
At this point, we can only assume that one of two things is going on: complete incompetence or intentional deception. Neither of these are acceptable, especially in a place that I will be contractually tied to for 6+ months.
The company has stated that they will refund our $ 100 (which we received on ¹²⁄₁), but retain the background check fee. Considering the legal boundaries the company has been crapping all over, I can’t say I’m pleased by any of this. The $ 90 really isn’t a big deal. However, I can’t help but feel the need to fight back. If they’ve done this to me, how many others have they treated with similar disregard?
Clearly, I cannot recommend The Esplanade under ANY circumstances. We are just glad they showed their true colors before it was too late.

I love it here! So much more peaceful than where I came from. My neighbors are friendly. The office staff is always pleasant and helpful. The location is great and I feel very safe. I have a 3 bedroom unit and it’s very spacious with plenty of storage. As a single mom, feeling safe is obviously important to me, and we do. The kids love it here too.
I’ve read the negative reviews and those all seem to be from previous management. Is this place perfect? No. Guest parking is somewhat sparse near my unit and that’s a bummer. But really that’s my only complaint. I would definitely recommend this complex to anyone considering this area.

Management — ⁵⁄₅
Landscaping — ⁴⁄₅
Ammenities ⁴⁄₅
Safety — ³⁄₅
Parking — ⁰⁄₅
Bugs — ²⁄₅
Area (Pocket Rd) — ⁴⁄₅
Building structure — ²⁄₅
Overall, I’ve had a good experience here. I guess management changed two months before I moved in and from start to finish the front office has always been extremely nice. Anything I ever had problems with they addressed it immediately.. Girl named nicki was my favorite although she doesn’t work here anymore.
Overall safety hasn’t been an issue for me people mind their own business here from what I’ve seen. On occasion you’ll hear neighbors partying which is fine for me, I used to be part of that scene back in my high school days, but others might not. The townhouse itself is very nice and comfortable, the saying, it’s not about what’s on the outside its about what’s on the inside definitely applies here. When your driving by this complex it looks kind of sketchy but the inside of the townhouses are very nice. Very spacious, I live in a 3 bedroom townhome.
Their is a swimming pool which I never used, a gym, and it’s connected with the river. It has this really long walkway along the river that alot of people use to do their morning exercises and to go fish. They have a basketball court and tennis court.
The front office have these cool events where they give out free meals just to show appreciation of its tenants, they invite everyone by leaving notes on your door.
The only cons I can think of are parking and the bugs.
This complex is extremely challenged when it comes to parking. There are nights and even sometimes during the day where I can’t find parking to save my life. So I’m sometimes forced to sleep in the car or park a block down the way just so I can relax and go home after a long day of work. Which was very inconvenient considering the fact that I work full time, in the morning when I’m half asleep I’d have to walk all the way down at least one block just to get in my car. The front office in this case have no sympathy when it comes to parking in a no parking zone even though they know the parking sucks here. But I understand every business or institution has it’s guidelines and they just so happen to be the face of the company, so I don’t really blame them too much on the towing. What I do like is if someone parks in your spot, that car instantly gets towed. I think an easy solution to at least ease the parking situation would be to replace some of the guest parking for tenant only parking, giving more than one spot to one household. Also the bugs in this complex are crazy, considering that were right next to the river. Be prepared to get bit by mosquitos constantly and find spiders in your room. I remember a time when I woke up in the middle of the night facing the wall and right in front of my face a HUMONGOUS spider sitting on the wall, I jumped out of my bed and ran into my brand new led smart TV and shattered it. Haha. Embarrassing but this really happened a few times not exactly like that but you get the idea. I would wake up some nights with a huge spider bite on my back. There are bats all over the place at night. Their are leaks that occur during holidays.
For these reasons I give this place a 3 star rating even though everything else was great. The parking really affected me the most, I had some of the worst nights being forced to sleep in my car because I didn’t want to park my car all the way down the street leaving it at a higher chance of getting broken into .
I would come back to live here again, but I’m not unfortunately.

New Management! Yay!!! So I have been here for about 5 yrs the management before was terrible, they were rude the «sisters» who worked at the front had no respect for anyone else.
But! New management is awesome! They always get back to you, you are always greeted with a smiling face when you walk into the office! Love this place!

Having worked with the new management for this establishment in the past, I would recommend The Esplanade Apartments to all of my friends and family looking for nice place to call home. Although the complex is in a pre-​renovation phase, I can assure you that Josh and his staff will work hard to provide the best service possible.

I lived in this complex for almost 2 years and only ended up here because the townhouse a few feet away on the other side of the park fell through at the last minute. we were down to our last few options. the other was a park bench, and I should have taken it. every single review I have read for this place that was negative was completely on point, down to the apt not being clean for the walk through. it was not updated, the counter tops were obviously the originals from at least the 80s. the wood under the carpet creaked and was raised in random spots throughout. My daughters room smelled like dog urine whenever it got warm in the room, it was the carpet. When we complained that the heater wasn’t working properly, we were told to close vents upstairs when we were downstairs and vis versa. the single paned windows made sure the SMUD bill was well over $ 200 EACH month. walking from all sorts of obscene distances to get home because of the serious lack of parking. in the 2 years I was there, I saw SEVEN large trees fall over, like roots exposed, or have large branches snap off and I had to wonder if it had anything to do with the CONSTANT watering of the grass. 11 at night and my daughter can’t sleep because of the loud sprinklers going. children play outside, so i don’t think trees should be falling from 2 stories up. they don’t enforce people cleaning up after their dogs so make sure you walk in the parking lot when starting the hike back to your car because 9 times out of 10, there are gross landmines in the grass from jerk tenants who don’t clean up after their pets. the Jack and Jill sink handles didn’t match and I may have been able to let that go except that we were paying over $ 1300 a month for rent! the paint on the walls were MATTE, so we could forget about the deposit. everything sticks to it. no counter space, 6 weirdly placed and small cabinets, not including the space under the sink. The electric stove, which sucks by definition alone, broke almost immediately after we moved in and of course they blamed us for it. If you want something fixed, forget it, they get out of doing anything by blaming the tenant for it. And when they did send someone, they always did some janky temporary fix. NOTHING that stopped working was replaced by them the entire time I lived there. Police standoff complete with guns drawn right in front of my kitchen window about 3 months before we left. 2 weeks after I moved, I received a letter in the mail stating that I was being sent to collections for non payment of the cleaning fees that I did not know existed. 2 weeks? Really? I honestly could go on and on but i’ll just leave you guys with my neighbors horror story, which was being run out of her apt in the middle of the night by pinching bugs. She had to bring her dog to my apt so they could spray for the bugs. no one came until days later., no call or rain check. Just came when they were ready. I give this place one star only because when I moved in, the girl Breanna in the office was so helpful and so likeable. It’s a shame I didn’t take a cue from her and leave a month after I got there. Unless you are a student or in a roommate situation with other adults, don’t do it. don’t take your kids here. avoid avoid avoid.

I moved in to these apartments about six months ago and have had nothing but great experiences. My children love it here. It’s a great family environment, and the town homes are extremely spacious. The management and maintenance are on call and have always responded immediately to anything we’ve needed. It’s a great place to call home!

The complex is well maintained and the townhomes are very spacious. It is near everywhere in Sacramento and so wherever you feel like going you are near. The staff is very professional, but at times, do not keep commitments to call you back for maintenance issues. The parking two miles away from your residence and walking to your home is something special. Overall the apartments are Okay.

I have lived here for a year now and the apartments are very spacious. The manager is very nice and will do everything he can to make his tenants happy. We have great access to the river and surrounded by nice parks.

I have lived here for a couple years and have found it to be a peaceful, great location, and great amenities place to live. Of course there are a few drawbacks such as parking but we all seem to manage. Overall it is a great place to live and the new management seems to be great.

Listen, it takes a lot for me to WANT to give a bad review on a non-​restaurant place. It’s located in a good neighborhood (start with the positives) and it’s peaceful for the most part. If you’re familiar with the pocket area, consider this as one of it’s lower income sections (trying to refrain from using the word «ghetto», it may not always be proper to say so). My mother lives here and every time I head home I’m motivated to find her an apartment elsewhere or heck even move her out to live with me (but I live in Chico). There’s never available parking… okay I lied, there’s a grand total of two cumulative hours of parking space available per day. Even some of the residents with two cars will keep a car, they don’t use daily, in the visitor parking while they use their assigned parking spot to go in and out freely. So this place is almost designed to not want visitors if that makes sense. The lawn care is almost non-​existent and so is the lawn in front of my mother’s apartment. Obviously someone is cutting it but that’s it, since usually there’s also trash «around» the dumpster. Can I fault the apartment manager for the tenants actions? No, but if it collects and I have to strategically drive around trash and cars randomly parked (remember, no available spots) then somebody is not doing their job, they charge renters to do. Harsh but if you can spend an extra $ 100 a month elsewhere, then I recommend that you do.

Management is nonresponsive… they do not keep commitments to call you back… took over 2 weeks to get a new fridge meanwhile food went bad… someone barfed on my car and behind it… overall had I not needed this place in a crunch we would not be here!!!

Worst place to ever rent. Being homeless is far better than dealing with the slum lords they call managers. Trust me save your money and look else where. I didn’t wanna give this place any stars but it makes me.
Let me elaborate as to what my issues are with this place. If you like finding condom boxes on the grass and puke behind your car… this is the place for you. If you like loud drunken people partying in the parking lot… this is the place for you. If you like parking two miles away from your residence and walking to your home… this is the place for you. If you don’t care about falling tree branches and stepping in dog poop… this is the place for you. If you like listening to screaming children play unattended in the parking lot… this is the place for you. If you don’t care that you aren’t able to swim in a pool you pay to rent because its so congested with young children and teens… this is the place for you. My family and I moved in April of this year and are already moving out. I would strongly suggest that you drive 5 mins down the road and rent a real unit from a decent place.
The managers of this place are not decent and are very unwilling to work with people.

If you’re moving in from the ghetto it’s a bit of an upgrade. Heating/​cooling sucks don’t ever expect the downstairs to be warm during winter months and don’t ever expect it to be cool during the summer, insulation sucks and there heating/​cooling system is ancient, not proficient at all. The homes stink and the appliances are outdated. Go a couple blocks down and get a much nicer town home for cheaper where the electric bill won’t kill you. There’s a reason why security deposits are so low… Biggest mistake moving here. I wish I could take the family and leave.

Management great. Had a major leak upstairs. They responded within the hour even though it was after 10 at night. They have taken care of any problems I had in the past. I have lived here for a year and a half and have no complaints.

Let’s start on a positive note by saying that I loved the Pocket neighborhood and loved being close to the water where my dogs could play. Pet rent is reasonable which is 25 bucks a month.
And now the negative. Parking is terrible. Only one covered spot per apartment. Good luck finding a space after 7pm. Electricity is very expensive. If you only plan on running the fridge and taking a shower without turning on the air or heating plan on spending 55 dollars a month, minimum. If you like living comfortably don’t be surprised if your bill is 200+ a month, and that doesn’t include the set monthly rate of $ 58 for water/​garbage.
And now my favorite: management. Failed to tell us prior to move-​in our queen box spring would not be able to be moved upstairs (where the bedrooms are located) because it is too big for the stairwell. Imagine our surprise when our standard furniture didn’t fit! Requested a pre move-​out inspection and was told that if we haven’t lived in the apartment for two years or more, they would charge a pro rated fee for paint. I tried looking for this in the contract and couldn’t find it. They would also be charging us for professional carpet cleaning for the entire apartment even though downstairs was the only reasonable spot where it might need it. We were informed the only way for us not to get charged this carpet cleaning fee is to have a professional come and do it. When I asked how much they were charging for carpet cleaning the lady said 85.00. Okay, I could live with that.
After we moved out they sent us a bill for the repairs/​cleaning they made but no receipts were included so that we could see why we had been charged and where these charges went to (this would be a requirement per state law). We also never received an itemized statement after the initial move out inspection (also a requirement per state law). Cleaning/​repair was $ 40 (they didn’t specify what they cleaned or what they fixed). Paint was 43 dollars (lower than expected). Oh, and can you guess how much they were now charging for carpet cleaning? $ 160.00
I wouldn’t recommend my friends to go through this headache. The bed issue, the high utility costs, management’s lack of business acumen… STAY AWAY!

I HATE THIS PLACE. Management is so unresponsive. The day we received the keys to move in, I completed the walk through with a leasing agent — the place was dirty!!! They offered to have the cleaning lady come again. I said no, I needed it cleaned before I would move my stuff in & they couldn’t get her in the same day. They didn’t even knock anything off my rent for having to complete my own cleaning. The carpets were gross — I had to complete my own carpet cleaning also!
Then the upstairs REEKED of DOG PEE! It was almost another month fighting back & forth to get the carpet replaced. They just kept sending the carpet cleaners back. Finally they replaced the padding… but the awful smell was still in the carpet! I complained enough apparently because they finally replaced the carpet.
The walls are so thin you can hear your neighbor’s conversations. They don’t have dual paned windows or sliding doors so it’s not energy efficient. I know these apts were built in the 60s or 70s, but COME ON! They charge so much in the rent they should have been able to upgrade the windows!!! SMUD even has programs. STOP BEING LAZY & LOOK INTO THEM!
The icing on the cake was our first winter there. My SMUD bill was OVER $ 300!!! When I called the front office, they advised oh ya, that’s normal. It’s an old heating system. REALLY??? You couldn’t give a heads up? I called SMUD and was educated on the coil heating system that the very first central heating systems used. She told me to get space heaters — I’d spend less that way. So I suffered through the winter with $ 300+ heating bills. I admit, it’s nice to only have $ 100 air conditioning bills in the summer, but it’s not cool to freeze in the winter.
I received our invitation to attend the «Lease signing Party» where we would receive gift cards for signing early — well we did & because the increase was ridiculous if you were to sign anything less than an 11 month lease, we were forced to sign an 11 month lease… begrudgingly. We were stuck. The economy took a toll on our finances & the Carmel Homes Property Management took advantage. (Not to mention we have to pay our own water/​sewer/​garbage!) Oh and it took me following up with management for at least 2 weeks before we could get our gift cards. I looked around the neighborhood & found that I could rent a home with a yard & garage for what I am paying here & the owner pays the water/​sewer/​garbage… WTH! Unfortunately I value my rental history otherwise I’d move now…
The final straw is when we referred someone here. The front office will not honor it & will not pay out. When I first called about it, they advised I needed to wait until the resident has lived here for 30 + days. So I patiently waited. A few weeks later I followed up & they said the referral didn’t reflect we referred them but to have the resident come in & tell them since she said she told them. So we did… A couple weeks later, I call again. They advise the manager needs to review the application & she’d be in contact with my by the end of business that same day… NOTHING. I called the next day & was told the manager is out of the office & that the leasing agent would try to resolve the issue that day or the next. I waited… NOTHING. So I called today & she said — Oh ya, I talked to the manager & we won’t honor the credit because the resident didn’t put you down as a referral.” UMMM WHEN THE HELL WAS SOMEONE GOING TO CALL ME??? Oh wait — they don’t do shit for anyone! I asked to speak to the manager & was told she was busy talking to maintenance & that she would call me later. I told her NO. I want to talk to her now as her track record in returning calls is Nil. She said she will have her call me back. I then asked for corporates phone number because I was very unhappy with a lot of things in this community. She said she’d forward my request to corporate & someone would be calling me back… I again said NO. I want corporate’s number now because I want to speak with someone NOW. She placed me on hold & low & behold… the MANAGER finally decided to speak with me. I advised I no longer wanted to speak with her & asked for corporate’s number. I received the # to her Regional Manager…
DON’T RENT HERE! DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY! There are nice town homes up the road & nice homes for rent that you will get your money’s worth. This community is horrible & not worth it — I didn’t even touch the parking situation!
Save your self time & heartache!

The Esplanade is a great place to live (from my point of view). It is near everywhere in Sacramento and so wherever you feel like going you are nearly there. We love that the park and River is a short walk away so we can walk enjoy nature and fish at the river (with a fishing license of course).
The maintenance comes quickly if you have a issue arise and then they make sure to fix it correctly to your likely and make sure you know if something else comes up be sure to call and they will be back out. Staff is really friendly and helpful. Management is not uptight and stuck up like some management offices are, lol. I think this management staff is pretty much the best I have come across as a renter and being over 40 now I have had a few.
The landscape is well taken care and they even have a dog potty area complete with lights and poop bags for you to utilize (this came in handy when I dog sat (my sisters dogs at night they arrived) and I needed to take them potty but wasn’t able to see so we used the lighted pet area and it was so much easier to see the clean up that I needed to do. I think this is going to really come in handy cause I watch my sisters dogs often when she travels for business.
I pretty much love it here all the way around except there is a small shortage of linen closet space (so I will need to go through and donate some linens) that’s ok though I think I had more than my share anyway.
It has also been quiet here even on Saturday night except one night and nearly soon as the noise began a security person came (within minutes & out of no where) and asked the young people to settle down and they did. So it is mostly quiet and family like here. If you like that sort of thing and are looking for a place to call home for a reasonable rate then you should try The Esplanade in Sacramento

New name and new paint does not make the apartment complex formerly known as The Park Townhomes any less scary.
Bad management, high property crime (it has direct access to/​from the levy, and all manner of folks walk into the complex and just wander. You really don’t want to live there, no matter what the move-​in special is.