Villa Santa Clara

I was a great tenant living in this complex. I always paid my rent on time, never caused any problem for the management, and never caused any complaint from the neighbors. So I am NOT writing this review because I was a «troublemaker» of any sort, but simply as an objective observer.
I feel sorry for those new tenants who got duped into signing the lease by the fake shows put on by this property’s managers. They put on a friendly showing with responsiveness BEFORE you sign a new lease, once you become the tenant, you’ll soon find out you are trapped. Why?
Here’s a list just to name a few of the reasons why you will feel miserable living in this complex.
(1) You will be woken up day and night by the noises of the El Camino Real traffic. If that doesn’t bother you, try enduring the off-​and-​on noises of your neighbor’s every move from coughing to walking around inside or outside your unit. You can hear EVERYTHING LOUD AND CLEAR. There is NO insulation of anything.
(2) Want some company at night? How about bed bugs and silver fish crawling around your bed sheet at night? You will certainly not feel lonely that way!
(3) Manager of this property is horrible. She appears friendly to you at first when you are looking for a place to rent. Once you sign the lease. After you sign the lease, try reaching her again! You got any issue? Numerous phone calls and emails to her later, you will start wondering if she became «missing in action» or abducted by aliens. But the next day, as you walk out the door, you suddenly see her showing a vacant unit with a friendly smile to the potential tenant as if she suddenly comes back to the earth. Finally you realize that as an existing tenant who already signed the lease, you mean nothing to her but a rent check. Nothing!
(4) Maintenance staff picks up and throw around their heavy tools whenever they want at their own convenience, which can be before 6am in the morning or late till wee hours at night. It’s your tough luck if you are woken up by their loud noises. They couldn’t care less even if you complain to them.
(5) Take a look at the filtered reviews of this property as well as the published ones. Although Unilocal filtered those bad reviews at the bottom of this page, I have read all of them and can honestly say they are all true and honest. Tenants don’t waste their time writing a bad reviews with such personal detail unless they genuinely experienced it and feel mistreated. Every single review of this property is negative in general. The only 3-​start review was before they changed property ownership to Prodesse Property Group. What does that tell you?
Life is too short, find another place where you will NOT go insane living there!

Used to live there. The exterior (outside) of the complex looks quite nice and clean. The complex is owned by major investors who have no problem jacking up the rent every few months.
Once you move in, you’ll soon realize all the problems. Bugs inside the unit, noises you cannot complain about because they’re from normal activities…
The main problem is: The wall is paper thin, so you can hear any noise your neighbor makes at night, from talking over the phone to watching TV to even coughing at night. If you happen to have a neighbor who comes back home 2am at night, or leaves 5am in the morning, or single parent with kids (which quite often happens for a complex meant for single people), then touch luck, you can be woken up anytime at night and before dawn! You could be even woken up by the door closing and opening, people waling down the hallway, you name it.
You’ll also hear the major traffic noise from El Camino Real, Harley davidson, fire truck and ambulances…
The manager is very responsive when you’re first looking for a place to rent since she wants your lease. But once you moved in, the responsiveness is out the door!

I first moved in July of ’08 and since this was my first time ever moving out on my own it was perfect. I needed a place that was small and comfortable (since I had no furniture) and a reasonable price for the area, so it was exactly what I was looking for…
The pros:
–great location (close to lawrence, 280, central, 101)
–on-​site manager (Ernie) is a sweet heart, and will help you out with anything
–not very loud
The cons:
–stinky (the carpet in my room is old and ugly)
–freezing in the winter and hot in the summer
–the fridge in my unit was super loud
–my unit came with no lighting in the living area
–after construction started, morning wake-​ups at 7am
So that last con is what is driving me out (among other things). I have a busy schedule, and like anyone I try my best to get as much sleep as possible, and since the owner has changed, they have been doing crazy construction. Some days are quieter than others, but the windows are thin so you can hear every conversation and everything that is going on outside. And this all starts around 7 am! I do not have to get up until around 8am so I try to get the precious extra hour of sleep, and I wake up earlier anyway due to noise.
The other reason why I am moving is because they raised the rent. After my six month lease was up, the new owners (Prodesse Property Group) sent me mail saying that I can keep my same rent rate by signing another lease, but this time for 9 months. That is way to long for me! I might need to move within that time so I decided to do month to month. And they racked up my rent! If the place was nice, and roomier, I could deal with the rent raise, but this place is tiny and old. And loud with the construction! So not worth the extra rent.
My opinion is that they are trying to drive out the old tenants so that they can remodel the entire complex and have a new set of tenants fill them afterwards. Which to me, quite frankly, makes sense (from a business standpoint). But from a customer service standpoint, this is absolutely rude! The economy sucks right now and people cannot find places to live right away, or do not have the money to. The decision to do this was not thinking of the tenants at all.
Sorry for the long review but my overall opinion is, if you are going to move in, move into a new unit, or wait until all of the units are remodeled. It is nicer, but still small. But, the price may be higher after the remodeling. Plus, this new owner may not have a great attitude toward tenants. and they are very strict on rules!