The Whitmore

Been living here almost a month, really happy with the property. Samad at the front desk is amazing, he knows everyone, is extremely helpful, they need to give him a raise. When I applied to live here, I signed the lease and everything. About a week later, a few weeks before I was set to move in, I got a call from a really awful lady at corporate. She said I needed to sign a different form or my application would be denied. I called Samad, he fixed it instantly, no issues. I honestly would not be living here without him, he really helped smooth everything over. Trash cans are clean, the Amazon boxes are easy to use, community is friendly and nice. Very little traffic in the halls, and there’s pretty good insulation between the walls. Close to grocery stores, restaurants, it’s a great location.

Im so excited to be moving in this weekend. My apartment is beautiful, perfectly cleaned, new appliances, and new carpet! Samad has been wonderful in helping with my move in process. The building looks like a fancy hotel and is secure! If you are looking for s beautiful apartment with amenities that are included in the rent, call Samad. He will help you.

Since I can't leave a review for corporate. I will leave it here which was my former residence. The staff I just tried to negotiate with at the billing department at UDR on the phone a female who did not give me her name was EXTREMELY RUDE! I asked to negotiate the price because I felt swindled by the management at the Whitmore because I thought I had given the manager Kristen proper notice that I was leaving 75 days in advance in an email within the the Whitmore rent portal. I did not realize at the time that the notice to vacate letter was in an attachment within a reply that she gave me. I then gave official notice when I went back and found the letter within the email. Only after someone from UDR corporate called me to ask if I was renewing. I explained to them at that time that I thought I had already issued notice and they informed me that I had to submit the notice to vacate letter. Which I did which put me at 45 days notice of vacating. I then repeatedly tried to stay in contact with the management who told me if they could get my apartment rented before my lease was up they would try their best so I wouldn't have to pay. At time which I asked to extend the lease because our other place was not ready to move into yet, and surprisingly I didn't need to fill anything to extend the lease. That process could be handled over email, but vacating could not. So when I called the billing department to set up a payment plan. The lady at the billing department was extremely rude. I simply asked to negotiate the price because I felt like the process to vacate was done poorly. She said there is no negotiation you owe what you owe. I asked to just remove the late fees. She said no. I asked what payment plan could she offer she said $360 a month for 6 months. I said that's too much I can't afford that. She said well you're not giving me a payment plan. I said $100 a month . She very rudely said that is unreasonable sire. I said well I can do $200 she said the best I can do is $220 for 9 months interest free and repeatedly badgered me that it was interest fee and she didn't even have to offer that to me. I said why are you raising you voice and taking this so personally. I'm just trying to negotiate a payment plan I can afford. Then quickly said ok Christopher I have to go now. I tried to keep her on the phone but she hurried me off and kept saying I don't have time for this.

The apartment units are spacious and well designed however the leasing office does not care about your needs. Our ceiling has been falling down for over a month and I've been calling week after week and submitting work orders to get this fixed and absolutely nothing has been done yet. They have terrible communication and are not upfront or open about community issues. They chose to put money into renovating an already beautiful lobby instead of fixing the things that truly need attention and that matter to the residents like the elevators or staircases. Even with this project, the leasing office first communicated (only about two days prior to construction taking place) that there would be construction on the lobby and it would be completed in about 2-3 weeks. Well it has been about 4 months and they've never sent a follow up update to address the extended time and provide a new estimated completion date. Additionally, you're required to pay for pesticide use within your rent bill per the lease agreement. This pesticide spray is done periodically by the building and you are notified by flyer sent under your door on a Friday night letting you know that they are coming the very next Monday or Tuesday and you ought to have your pets removed/contained and all cabinets emptied which is a LOT to do given hardly any notice especially if you are out of town on that weekend. In order to opt-out, you have to provide 24 hours written notice which means you basically have one day to be notified and to opt out and are screwed if you were not home to get the notice. Additionally, after asking for more details on this, there is one kind of pesticide that is used if you actually do empty your cabinets and a different kind used if you did not. They are not the same and should not be used preventatively as one of the kinds actually is an attractant and is meant to be used only when there is an active bug problem and NOT be used preventatively as the Whitmore will do if you don't opt-out which as stated above, they make particularly difficult to do. None of this is explained to you or provided upfront. The guest parking/clubhouse rules are ridiculous and do not make for an easy hosting experience in your home. I loved it here at first since I fell in love with the unit, but quickly realized how much the lack of care and general concern for resident well-being and unit well-being makes for a terrible living experience. I would not recommend this apartment.

I wouldn't recommend living here for anyone. This is the worst move-out experience I have ever had, just to go a mile away (and I've moved across the country multiple times). I had notified management 5 days later than required that I was moving out, which resulted in paying fines more than $1000. My total fines and rent payment amounts were raised near daily on their website, and after visiting the front office multiple times they were still unable to answer any of my questions. When I reached out to upper management to discuss why my fees were so high and why so many of them weren't on my lease, I got passed around for days until I finally was in contact with the business manager. He then ignored me until I had paid my rent, refusing to meet with me to discuss my bill. The apartment building management is one of the rudest and least helpful I have ever encountered. Other than my negative leaving/moving experience, the overall rent price is too expensive for the area - comparable to a location on the metro line, which this is definitely not. They had wanted to raise my rent over $100 more per month, which is the original reason I wanted to move out. I'd recommend considering better options nearby that are closer to retail, or just moving to the metro line for the same rent.

The building looks nice, but has notable flaws. Worst is the centralized heating and air conditioning system. It's building-wide, and can only be set to one at a time. They claim it takes two weeks to prep to switch to A/C, so expect a few hot days in Spring until they decide they're ready to switch over. That leads to the shared utility bill: each unit isn't billed individually; they get one bill for the building and divide it up per apartment. That nice party room in the basement? They charge ridiculous fees to reserve it. Several hundred dollar deposit, and another few hundred to rent it. If you live in the end of the building closer to the loading dock, you'll want to use the freight elevator. But it's regularly reserved for people moving in and out. Maybe they'll remember to send out notification, maybe not. (More likely not on weekdays.) It's an unpleasant surprise to come home with a load of groceries and find out you have to go to the other end of the building to bring them in. At least they finally fixed it so it doesn't go out of service several times a week. But the management and staff is the real problem. Over the four years I lived there, there were at least three general managers, none of whom (to my knowledge) actually lived in the building. The most recent was almost completely unwilling to adjust to residents' schedules - if they need maintenance to come into your home for routine (not just emergency) maintenance, it's when they want to, and your own needs don't matter. They communicate poorly with their own team - I was once contacted by one manager and replied, but another was on duty the next day, and had no idea I replied. The maintenance staff is openly rude and doesn't care for cat owners. The front desk/concierge staff you are most likely to interact with - the Monday-Friday daytime and evening people - are either incompetent or surly. Just don't move here.

At least there is free food. They charge $100 an hour to use the little clubhouse area that can entertain 10 people. They squeeze every cent out of you. The parking is possibly the worst I have experienced in almost a decade in the D.C. Area. The apartment floors smelled like polyurethane for months after we moved in. The elevator tries to crush you in the door. That has been goin on for two years at least. The storage spaces in the basement has mold and moths every where. We had to throw out a bunch of linens that were in boxes because the mold had seeped through the boxes. I know that almost all apartments have issues but the whitmore was worse than any others I had lived in before. They renamed it to the whitmore from Taylor place for some reason. Possibly because of a bad reputation under the old name.

I will say the apartments are nice and they have larger bedrooms than most. The rest is either a thumbs down or meh at best. The elevators break on a weekly basis. The AC units are weak and have to run all day to keep the temp in the 80s. The parking stinks and they tow visitors without hesitation. They towed a guests car after the guest told the tow driver he was going up to get the pass we printed out for him. All I can say is that you should carefully weigh the reviews you read and make a calculated risk. We regret living there. Our neighbors moved out around the same time because they were tired of dealing with the management.

The building is on a centralized utilities process which is not disclosed anywhere. Most importantly this means residents do not control whether they use heat or A/C. The building switches to heat or A/C and residents can only control that within their unit depending on what setting the building is on. When I found out I contacted Corporate who responded they are not required by law to disclose this information. So, they choose not to. Know everything before you sign!

POOR is even great but you can't continue without a rating so... It is not written anywhere and is definitely not discussed when looking at leasing info and when signing the lease that the Heat and A/C are managed by the building. Residents can control temperatures inside the individual units when the A/C and Heat are switched, by the property, at the appropriate time of the year. Here is the response I received from corporate when I discovered the issue. I have copied and pasted as this is the actual, verbatim response. I was made to feel like the idiot for not asking and not thinking about building codes from the 50s and 60s. With the building being renovated I assumes were at 2017 standards. Who knew? "We understand your concerns and appreciate the feedback, as we are always looking for ways to improve. We want our residents to enjoy their time living in our community and providing quality service is of the utmost importance to us. Our building was built in the late 50’s, early 60’s and the community does have a centralized system. We change the setting twice a year and during the switch if about 2 weeks the weather is normally pretty moderate. During your visit with (said employee) there was a discussion regarding utilities, however due to the age of the community, Virginia law does not require us to disclose the heating / cooling process. In all honesty future residents would normally ask this type of question. If there was any law change, Whitmore would be grandfathered in and not required to disclose. The heat / cooling can be adjusted by the resident in the apartment once the setting has been changed over to the appropriate weather temps. It cannot be switched from heat or cold by the resident. We have also checked with our local counsel to ensure that The Whitmore is compliant and appreciate your feedback." This is the corporate response making it OK to NOT disclose very important information about controlling the environment you live in. You'll just have to live like you're in a college dorm, but we won't tell you that because we're not required to, by law.

Loved my actual apartment. Very spacious and modern. But everything else that comes along with it didn't make much sense. I.e. Parking for guest: besides the fact that there's only about 10 spots for guest parking, you have to go online to reserve a spot for your guest to park, then print the pass out yourself, then pay money for guest to park as well. Guest Pool passes for guest cost money. Walls are very thin so you can here anything upstairs and your neighbors on the side of you. Maintenance has walked in my home several times without knocking. Utilities: it doesn't matter if you use very little electricity and gas, the whole apartment complex splits utilities evenly. The list goes on.. I would not recommend living here

Located on Columbia Pike in Arlington, The Whitmore offers great living quality at a reasonable price in the Arlington. The building is pretty quiet, well run, and very clean. Complaints are fairly minimal (i.e. the shuttle to the metro runs to another building first, doubling the travel time in the morning). Exercise room and pool are both well-maintained as well. Sadly, utilities are not metered individually, so you pay more than you would if you were careful with power usage.

The Whitmore is a great place to live. The apartments are spacious and well maintained. Submit a service request and the maintenance crew are there before your enter the last period. Go to the office and ask for something and the staff bend over backwards to see that your needs are meet. They also give you cookies and some candy. Outdoors is very well maintained and it is a joy to walk your dog and meet the other residents. Which, by the way are the friendliest people I have ever met. It is accessible to the Malls in Arlington and minutes from Washington DC. It provides bus services for commuters every half hour taking them to work and bringing them home so they can enjoy the pool and the community room at the end of a tough day. Its the Apex of Apartment Living in the Affluent County of Arlington,Virginia

Great, building, great location, great apartments, great living :-)