Varsity North

I’m glad I don’t live there anymore, and I hope you don’t have to. Maybe some of this will get fixed eventually, but I wouldn’t count on it happening soon. They’re supposedly doing the same thing to another crappy motel in Centralia, and I’d expect similar problems there. This is probably the worst apartment complex I’ve lived in, a cheap motel flip with existing problems covered by bandaids. The units were incredibly dirty when I moved in, with construction debris and metal shavings. The oven didn’t work and the shower had no hot water, though those were fixed within a week or so. There’s construction debris outside regularly, too. One morning I found more than 20 screws on the walkway. The rent is higher than advertised because of a mandatory $200 "Utilities Package." The owners aren’t legally required to provide any of those utilities. Wi-Fi, which you pay for monthly, wasn’t installed for months despite repeated promises it was coming soon. Promised reimbursements for missing utilities or facility features never happen. The facility doesn’t actually have working laundry or a pool, despite its advertising. Billing and paperwork were constantly wrong. I got three different lease documents, all missing information, and was frequently double-billed for rent or other fees. Those were usually corrected within a couple weeks. They also won’t return your full deposit, whatever condition you leave the unit in. They’ll invent a reason and tell you to kick rocks. There are no window screens or weatherstripping on doors and AC units, so bugs and spiders get in often. I was told the screens and other items were on backorder. The entire property runs out of hot water several times a day, and it’s only about one-third full now, so I expect that to get worse. The AC is loud and inefficient, running no more than five minutes and then staying off for ten, regardless of temperature. I didn’t try the heater because it was still warm when I lived there. The smoke alarm is incredibly twitchy: boiling water set it off once, and another time it went off when a construction worker smoked outside the unit. There’s little airflow. Fans help in the main room, but not much can be done in the bathroom, and towels stay damp forever, so good luck with mildew. The kitchen sink is the smallest I’ve ever used, about half the counter space isn’t really usable, and the single drawer can’t be opened because of the oven and stove. Lighting is odd, with no lights where you want them, like the kitchen, and several incredibly bright ones in less useful spots like the entryway. Parking isn’t enough for residents, so we often had to use the street. They make strange demands about vehicles, supposedly to keep track of who parks there. Management is inept enough not to notice when you don’t provide the information. Parking passes would be much simpler. Highway noise is constant but probably manageable, especially when it gets colder. Fridays and weekend nights turn into the local racetrack, with unnecessarily loud vehicles. The walls are thin enough to have conversations with neighbors. Most people there smoke, so expect everything to smell like cigarettes. The site manager is only plausibly available around 6-8 hours a week and usually doesn’t promptly respond to emails or texts. Maintenance requests go through an offshore call center where staff don’t really speak English.