Reviews
Headaches not worth the aesthetics
Dwell does well in appearance and presentation, but underneath the surface things quickly go downhill. You can expect to be nickeled and dimed for everything from the leasing office--it's an immense hassle to deal with them. The staff won't really help you out if its any inconvenience to them (except the maintenance guy--he should be running the place). They're also very liberal with their towing practices, (we bought a new car on Sunday and when we went to go register it with the office on Monday, it was towed to the tune of $185). They also charged us $345 for cleaning upon move out for a few jelly spots in the fridge and the walls of the oven. The dissatisfaction with the leasing office doesn't just come from one unhappy resident--they also had a high turnover rate in their staff during the solitary year I lived there. That should tell you something when they can't keep their residents or their employees.
When we moved in, the leasing office also had told us we would be getting one floorplan, but we ended up getting a different one with a terrible breakdown of the space. This created a HUGE hassle as we had to switch apartments after a month, especially after the leasing office incorrectly told us the number of the new unit, which means all our utilities weren't transferred to the proper unit, so we incurred a fee (surprise!) for their mistake.
The amenities would be nice...when the gym has water, the TV room equipment is all hooked up, and the pool (more like oversized bathtub) is actually open.
The units are also quite loud. You'll almost certainly hear your upstairs neighbor showering at 5 a.m, your next door neighbor when they watch their action movies, and the kids as they run down the hall. The wood floors may look nice, but they're very good at transmitting footsteps from above. Also they give you a utilities closet, but threaten to fine you $25/item if you try to store anything in it, even though you're paying for that square footage...
The Safeway and CVS is nice, but other than that, there's not much walkable. Don't move here expecting to have things to do after work or school. The metro is still far enough of a walk and ride back into the city that you'll be sick of the trip by the time you get there. End of the orange line is a long way from even the Clarendon area.
The place gets it two stars for the fact that the apartments and building generally look nice--the construction and maintenance staff had/have their act together. But after that, the staff doesn't add any stars, neither does the location, and the property should even lose one for the nickel-and-diming.
As a final anecdote, when we received notification of what our rent would be if we continued living there after our initial 1-year lease, it was higher than both our current rent, AND the rental rates they had posted for our units on their website. When we inquired to the discrepancy, the response we got was "Upon renewal rents always go up." even though the website had a 10% lower price. Apparently the leasing office doesnt understand that when supply goes up with the new apartments/townhomes being built by the metro, that market rates go down, else people like us move out.
When we moved in, the leasing office also had told us we would be getting one floorplan, but we ended up getting a different one with a terrible breakdown of the space. This created a HUGE hassle as we had to switch apartments after a month, especially after the leasing office incorrectly told us the number of the new unit, which means all our utilities weren't transferred to the proper unit, so we incurred a fee (surprise!) for their mistake.
The amenities would be nice...when the gym has water, the TV room equipment is all hooked up, and the pool (more like oversized bathtub) is actually open.
The units are also quite loud. You'll almost certainly hear your upstairs neighbor showering at 5 a.m, your next door neighbor when they watch their action movies, and the kids as they run down the hall. The wood floors may look nice, but they're very good at transmitting footsteps from above. Also they give you a utilities closet, but threaten to fine you $25/item if you try to store anything in it, even though you're paying for that square footage...
The Safeway and CVS is nice, but other than that, there's not much walkable. Don't move here expecting to have things to do after work or school. The metro is still far enough of a walk and ride back into the city that you'll be sick of the trip by the time you get there. End of the orange line is a long way from even the Clarendon area.
The place gets it two stars for the fact that the apartments and building generally look nice--the construction and maintenance staff had/have their act together. But after that, the staff doesn't add any stars, neither does the location, and the property should even lose one for the nickel-and-diming.
As a final anecdote, when we received notification of what our rent would be if we continued living there after our initial 1-year lease, it was higher than both our current rent, AND the rental rates they had posted for our units on their website. When we inquired to the discrepancy, the response we got was "Upon renewal rents always go up." even though the website had a 10% lower price. Apparently the leasing office doesnt understand that when supply goes up with the new apartments/townhomes being built by the metro, that market rates go down, else people like us move out.