Gateway Apartments, Monroe IA

Good place to live, parking was a little tight when we live here though.

Coming from various rental experiences, this has been by far the most professional and pleasant rental experience I've had to date. Repairs have been handled in a timely manner, including an after hours immediate repair to my unit. The unit is a palace compared to where I previously resided. Very quiet and clean. The manager, Laura, can be seen often on the premises and is always a quick email, text, or call if necessary. Pest control and general maintenance is on a quarterly basis and not of my own expense. I have definitely found a long term residence and I fo not say those words lightly. Highly recommend this property.

Definitely the nicest place in Monroe to rent from, and still at a really great price. I love that we have in-unit washer and dryer hookups and two bathrooms for a fraction of what that would cost us in Des Moines. Our property manager Laura has always been available to my husband and I night and day and I've always been surprised by how quickly she's texted or called us back and handled things immediately, even if it's the middle of the night! We also see her regularly at our building and she's always an available resource to us. The men who do maintinence are always professional and kind. They've always encouraged me to put in requests no matter how big or small and they'll come help with a smile. I know that we live in a small town and they can't be at the building everyday, so if I need something done urgently I can reach out to Laura and she lets them know. I've never worked with a property manager and property company that were so kind and easy to communicate with. I very rarely even see the other tenants and my side of the building is really quiet. When I do see other people, they've always been polite in passing and not too talkative, the perfect people to live in a building with I have reccomended this building to my friends, my sister, and my uncle. I've also considered moving into another property this company owns when we move to a different city because Laura and Perry Reid have made renting a breeze and the apartments themselves are wonderful. Parking at this building was a struggle a year ago because we have no off street parking, but the maintinence men added additional spots last fall and I haven't had a single issue finding a spot since then, and I come home from work around mindnight when the lot is fullest. We've lived here for almost two years and will continue to do so until we're ready to buy a home- which is made much easier because we can opt in to have our rent payments reported to credit agencies! You don't have to do it, but it made my credit go up over a hundred points in less than two years, so it was worth it to us.

Extremely unprofessional and repair requests were never handled or acknowledged in a timely manner; many times it took two or three requests for matters to be handled. It took a call to corporate to get my heat fixed in the middle of winter when Laura knew about it for hours - my apartment was 40 degrees before someone showed up to even look at my furnace. Property manager is never in attendance and does not respond in a timely manner to phone calls or messages regarding issues with units. Also, she is too cheap to put padding under the carpet or purchase quality carpet so what is there is ratty and looks awful after a month or two and is directly onto the subfloor. When I moved in, the apartment hadn’t been cleaned from the previous tenant.

My apartment itself was nice for the price but broken down vehicles are left to languish in the lot for months when there aren’t enough parking spots for tenants. Also, I was told on more than one occasion my rent check had “disappeared” from the deposit box or checks wouldn’t be deposited until the end of the month which is why I refuse to do anything other than pay through the online system.

The other review for this property must have a different property manager because the property manager I’ve dealt with is rude, never answers or works on repairs before multiple requests and/or calls to corporate have been submitted and I am not the only tenant that has had an issue with this. And it is rare to ever see Laura here - unless it’s 9pm and she’s vacuuming the halls. Renter beware - these apartments are cheap and not just in monthly rent.