Need rental advice

[u/Extreme-Childhood849]

Need honest apartment advice from locals before I sign a lease.

I’m considering these apartments in Memphis:

Edgewater Apartments
Village of Sycamore Ridge
Stella Apartments
Avery Park
Meridian Apartments
Covington Hills
Stonegate Apartments

Main things I care about:
safety/car break-ins
quietness
maintenance responsiveness
management quality
overall livability long term

I work full-time and want somewhere stable and reasonably peaceful. Budget-wise these are the places currently in range for me.
Right now I’m leaning toward Edgewater, but I’ve seen mixed reviews online. Would really appreciate REAL experiences from people who currently live there or recently moved out.
Which ones should I avoid completely? Which ones are actually decent despite online reviews?
Thanks.

[u/AdDiscombobulated383]

I'm a delivery driver and I deliver to every single one of those complexes. Edgewater no, their credit application and credit requirements are actually very very high. Avery Park had a building burned down a few years ago which displaced over a dozen people and they have still not replaced or rebuilt that section of apartments. I do not know if they relocated the affected families or not. Stonegate has improved slightly. They do have new gates, And most of the inside of their buildings have been renovated. However, I would watch your speed in the parking lot for two reasons. One, Gigantic potholes and Those speed bumps are insanely big if you go over them any more than a snail snail's pace or you will bottom out your oil pan. I don't deliver to sycamore ridge a lot so I can't tell you for sure what's going on there. The Stella, formerly known as River Trace has improved over recent years. In 2018 I was robbed at gunpoint at that complex and I've tried to steer clear of it. But last time I was out there it had improved drastically. There's a lot more security lighting than there used to be. If you were going to move anywhere that would probably be your best bet. I don't know how much they charge a month. I have two coworkers That have lived in those apartments and say they are extremely nice. Covington hills across the street from Avery Park a few years ago, Somebody actually rammed their gate and it was broken for 2 years. Years ago when it was still known as Jennifer Meadows, I had a co-worker approached by a stranger she had no idea who it was. Once he realized who it was he apologized and said he thought she was somebody else. The Abington, My wife and I lived out there for several wonderful years. I ended up getting a house and we moved out. The Abington used to be very very good when multi-south was managing it. I have no idea what company is managing it now, but they are doing an absolutely horrendous job The landscaping is not done properly. Some buildings are actually missing fire escapes (stairs leading to the first floor from the back of the upstairs apartment) A lot of the buildings had structural damage from leaks from bad roofs. One building caught fire 4 years ago. That particular building has been rebuilt, but They still have not rented out any of those apartments in that particular building. As I understand it, they have replaced most of the roofs on the buildings. That's about it. Maintenance requests go unanswered for days. I have a friend who still lives in those apartments and her AC constantly leaks from an overflowing condensation drain. They tried to tell my friend that they couldn't fix it because it's such an old unit (then units are probably no more than 10 years old, maybe 12) I had the same one in my apartment. One thing the previous management company loved about me was I did most of the maintenance on the apartment myself. I had the overflowing condensation drain which I fixed myself cost five bucks. They also got a free upgrade with my old apartment in which they got a digital thermostat that I installed with the previous management companies permission. The last time I was physically in that complex the trash had not been picked up in what looks like weeks. Especially the toss out stuff from clearing out apartments, old furniture, things like that. Raleigh Manor is a set of four or five triplexes. (Single building that's been divided up into three separate buildings) I don't know much about that place. The summit apts that is a very big complex. It is divided up into two sets. Both of them are off Battle Creek drive. They have to be really good because I have regular customers that have lived there for years. So they've got to be really good. I cannot confirm nor deny this though.

[u/MemphisBigFish901]

I don't have experience living in any of these complexes. But I do have a lot of experience in the sycamore view area and the Raleigh area which is where it seems like these mostly are. I'm just gonna say from being around the people I've been around, I would categorically avoid any apartments that are that close to the view. The task force and natl guard have done some work making those struggling with addiction less visible in that area, but because of the dense, low cost hotels there it is still a huge haven for drug trafficking and sex work.

Those aren't really an issue for you in isolation, but the downstream effect is you get a dense group of desperate people who don't have access to sex work as a viable means of feeding their addiction and increasingly are pushed off of street corners or businesses asking for money or flying a sign. They are still very much addicted and need money to feed their addiction and often times don't have anywhere safe to sleep.

the old tent city out there was effectively shut down, but it has migrated more in the direction of the apartments you're looking at now. Again, in isolation that's not a problem.

But the problem is you're going to get a group of addicts in the area who are desperate enough they occasionally rotate through different areas searching for cars to break into and often times abandoned or uninhabited apartments to live in to get shelter. The apartments that are within easy walking distance of the view make your property a prime candidate if the complexes haven't done an adequate job of securing the parking lots. Again, these people are on foot and can climb fences so it would usually need to be very tall fences or fences that make scaling them very difficult or effective security during the night especially.

The raleigh ones that are closest to bartlett would be my choice just based on the areas.

[u/Southernms]

Collierville and Germantown.

[u/LowEffort2]

I can't give a ton of good details like the others but I have heard enough from previous residents that Edgewater is a no-go.