The Palms Apartment Homes

A few months in to our lease now and we were luckily able to finally move into a different unit on the other side of the complex. This one is much nicer: cleaner, a little more updated and definitely move-​in ready. The first month at The Palms was really bad but they’ve tried many different ways to make up for the terrible move-​in situation. All the help has definitely been very much appreciated!!!

The Palms is a great place to live! The office and maintenance staff are fantastic and the amenities are luxurious! I am currently on my second year lease and I am very happy here. There is a 2 story gym, lagoon pool, a theatre room, a computer room and even fresh brewed FREE Starbucks every morning! In addition, there is a computer room perfect for students to study and people to go and print things for free as long you they bring their own paper.
WOW! It is soon quiet here. The Palms has a security company on payroll that do regular checks during the evenings. They are pet friendly, large dogs are welcome as well! They have pet waste stations throughout the complex as well. The provide clean poo bags and a trash that they replenish and clean regularly.
I can’t believe I am saying this after writing my previous review for the Palms last year but this place is actually a really nice place to live. We had a rocky start here but The Palms has more then made up for it. My previous complaints were mostly in reference to the unit itself and Tony, the old manager. Here is my updated review after signing another year with the palms.
First of all, the company is very lucky to have Jamie on board. She is such a fantastic manager and a really sweet person.
As far as our complaints when we first moved in, the carpet, the walls, paint everywhere we seemed to have gotten a unit that had been overlooked and needed extra love. Management and the maintenance manager Steve, have gone above and beyond to address our complaints and fix everything! They are the magic behind the scenes. Countless repairs later, we are extremely happy with our apartment and are on our 2^nd year lease with The Palms. They genuinely care about the happiness of their residents here and are willing to do whatever it takes to make them happy.
In regards to the non resident intruders in the trash and laundry rooms, there has been a significant decrease in dumpster divers and they have implemented new rules in the laundry rooms keeping doors locked and putting up signs, I haven’t had an Issue since.
They offered to clean our apartment after the contractors made a mess. They also offered an expensive chemical cleaning of our carpet to remove the remainder of the stains which was very generous of them.
This month, we were experiencing a financial hardship and I decided to meet with Jamie regarding our situation. She was beyond sympathetic and let me know what our options were. We were able to work something out and are now back on track. She didn’t have to take the time to work with me but the fact that she did, makes me really thankful.
I did something wrong when making my payment and basically paid 2 months rent on accident. The day before a vacation, the payment went through for almost a thousand dollars more then I meant to pay. I contacted Jamie and she got on it right away. By midnight I received the adjustment in my bank account and could go to sleep knowing I will have the funds for the trip.
On a whole, the new management and staff at The Palms are rockstars. I especially want to thank Steve and Jamie. We now enjoy living here at the palms very much.

Oh man where to start. My truck window got smashed and they stole my radio. Apartment said oh I’m sorry that kind of thing happens just be careful… Um. What?! Also I noticed just about once a week another vehicle gets broke into. Probably the same individual. There’s always people digging thru the dumpsters. Solicitors will come knocking on your door trying to get money. Choppers fly over just about every single night! Literally counting down the days the lease it up. Worst experience I’ve ever dealt with in my life. People ash in pools. Just not a win if you stay here. Hope things change because there are nice people that stay here. We will see if this actually gets posted… Just know what you’re getting yourself into.

The office staff at the Palms is very nice. Every time we go in to the office Mirna is very helpful and nice to work with. over the summer I offered her a hand in cleaning the pool. The next day the Palms sent us Starbuck gift cards! We were very pleasantly surprised and greatful for the gift and their appreciation.

I never actually thought I could be so upset I would leave a 1 star review but The Palms Apartment are the biggest scammers I have ever encountered. I have lived here a year and both my car and boyfriends car have been towed costing us $ 240 each to get it out. They claim our parking passes were not visible and they towed both of our cars in the middle of the night which could have cost us both our job the next morning. We have had our parking pass in the window where they require us too since the day we moved in, not taking them out for any reason. I had my parking pass in the window when I got home from work last night to walk out to my car this morning and my car is gone. I showed up to the towing company and retrieve my car to find my parking pass magically disappeared! I spoke with multiple of my neighbors and this has not only happened to us. My neighbors believe they apartments are getting a kick back from the cars being towed. Why would the security not have any record of license plates of the tenants renting in this complex. I have zero trust in The Palms and want to warn people DO NOT MOVE HERE.

The palms used to be nice but have gone downhill. There was mold in my apartment and everything was old and funky. Got ripped off repeatedly. Management only cares about you when you first move in

I moved out because I felt like the complex was going down hill! Lots of homeless and different people moving in. When I did move out I clean very well, steamed cleaned the carpets (I had NO pets), repainted the walls, cleaned dust/​mopped/​vacuumed and what not. Even replaced the stove tops with new ones. It looked better then when we moved in. They did a walk through prior to move out and said we should get our whole deposit back which was a LIE! I only got 18 dollars back!!!

I am very disappointed in The Palms business strategy. They really go out of their way to bend you over backwards.
Here’s my exiting story:
Our lease ended and we were definitely not signing another lease. Nevertheless, I took it upon me to make the apartment look just like when I left it. I bought paint, spako (for small holes), cleaning supplies, and new stove drip pans.
With the above supplies, here’s the work I did:
1. Patched all holes (made from hanging pictures)
2. Painted drawers and shelfs in the kitchen and bathroom
3. Painted all scuff marks on base boards, doors, etc
4. Wiped down all dust off baseboards and door trim
5. Deep cleaned every bathroom. Scrubbing floors, baseboards, sinks, toilets, showers, and tubs.
6. Deep cleaned the refrigerator
7. Deep cleaned the stove (even replaced the drip pans, which was $ 15.00
8. Painted the shelfs in the closets.
9. Vacuumed
We spent a total of over 20 hours cleaning.
With that being said, we had a pre-​walk through, which concluded with the leasing lady stating that everything looked good and that at most they would charge us around $ 75 for carpet cleaning
(a mandatory charge).
Actual return:
Our actual return was only $ 24 out of the $ 500 deposit.
Nevertheless, expect to get ripped off if you decide to lease an apartment at this horrible place.

It’s nice that the manager took the time to leave a copy and paste response to my review. Apparently he/​she didn’t read my comment. I have never lived at the palms. Like I said I would never live there if it was the last place on earth. Lol. Thanks for trying anyway though. The palms is «not winning»

To my surprise the Palms have actually been a pretty great place to live. There were some problems when we moved on but they have gone above and beyond to fix everything.
The amenities are great. The pool is gorgeous and the gym is off the hook.

Been living here a little over a year and I have to say it’s need a great experience at the palms, the office is great the apartments are clean and the staff is always ready to help, one thing I must say is just the dogs mess that sometimes you see around and that’s just because it’s a pet friendly place, yes there is some noise some days but that’s the price you pay when living in a apartment. A+ but let’s just hope my experience stays this way ;)

I used to live in these apartments.
I lived here for a total of 3 years.
My work and the apartment gave me a few perks.
They are pet friendly, & have doggy poo bags ready all over the duplex at your disposal.
I’ve never had an issue with getting anything done, or take care of. Even calling ‘security’ for late night noise/​parties, they were taken care of on point.
The location is awesome, a quick brisk walk to cal expo, the mall or the long list of restaurants
The only down side, just like any other place, is PEOPLE NOT CLEANING UP after themselves, so the pool area sometimes wasn’t clean (the non lagoon) & people not picking up their dog poop off the lawn.
There are 3 – 4 maintenance people that are top notch, I don’t know if they are still there, but we miss you Islam !
They’re so pet friendly & even donated to my Francos gofundme page when he was initially diagnosed with IVDD.
The lagoon pool area is awesome, but does get crowded. & the rule was you cannot have more than 2 other people at the pool with your ‘pool key’ which kinda sucked.
The did tend to have different kind of parties & socials for people that lived there. If it wasn’t so pricey I’d move back. I’m hoping the apartments complex has only gotten better & not worse. They’re not perfect, because if you wanted perfect you’d be paying ALOT MORE or even living in a house…

I would give 0 stars if possible. I’ve lived here 2 different occasions over the last 5 years, and things really haven’t changed.
Cons:
–Cheap outdated appliances, electricity bill will suffer.
–Drafty doors.
–Not enough permit and non-​permit parking.
–Leasing office workers are ignorant, don’t communicate amongst each other: They mailed my deposit refund to the apartment I moved out of !! WTF!!! The manager claims they didn’t have my forwarding address … I provided the address twice, in email and on their own ‘move-​out/​end-​lease’ form… Seriously… just soo dumb.
–Move-​out charges are ridiculous: $ 170 cleaning fee, $ 10-​$ 50 per: key, parking permit, or keycard if not returned.
–Washer/​Dryers, & soda machines, coffee machine is/​are always busted.
–After your lease ends, rent goes up encouraging you to move out.
–Security, (lack-​of): Bums are constantly going through the dumpsters.
–Dog owners don’t always pickup their droppings.
–If you live on the bottom floor, you will always hear the people above.
–Smokers: no one abides the ‘smoke 10 – 20 feet (hell even 1 foot), away from the building’ rule.
–No water fountains in gym area.
–No one enforces the ‘no alcohol in pool area’ rule.
–Volleyball court… being used for beer pong court. Wow.
Pros:
–Decent gym equipment.
–Lagoon (main) pool can be relaxing if too many kids aren’t unleashed.
–Location: close to freeway and downtown.
–Maintenance crew is pretty good at fixing things in timely manner using the online system.
–Online rent payment system.
After 2 stays, 18 and then 24 months, I would NEVER rent/​live here again. Be Warned!!!

Here are some specific examples of why 2 stars is being generous:
I agree with everyone else posting that they are trying to scam you out of every dollar they can. And there is one guy who works at the front that is actually nice (can’t remember his name right now, but I’ll edit this when I do). Everyone else is totally rude and it is clear they do not want to be there.
1. I needed a package delivered from the office to my home because I work during the times the office is open and there is no way I can pick it up. I called 3 times and left 2 messages with no answer or reply. Finally, three days later, I needed the package and had to take off work to pick it up since they still didn’t answer the phone.
2. One morning I realized I didn’t have my keys to lock the house and ran downstairs to the office and grabbed the spare key. In exchange for the spare key they asked to hold my ID, which is totally understandable and I complied. After, I unlocked my door and returned to the office to drop off the spare key and grab my ID. They had lost my ID and told me to come back later for it. Once again, I called many times to see if they found it and eventually had to come on my lunch break a few days later and get my ID back.
3. Like everyone else mentioned, there is definitely not enough parking, much less any parking if you want to have any guests over. I get home from work after 8pm and many times have to park outside of the complex on the street and walk a very far distance to my apartment. If you have groceries or it is late and you’re alone, this is dangerous and a hassle.
4. I have a 2012 Honda Civic, which the parking permit they give you doesn’t fit on. They will ask you for all of the information for the cars of residents (I don’t know why because they still towed my car when the permit fell off of the rear view mirror). I told the manager that my permit won’t stay on and he offered to tape it to my window, which obviously wouldn’t work because it gets so hot in my car in the summer, the tape would melt. Then he offered to glue it, which is great, all I want is permit glue all over my window… Also, my friends car was broken into right in front of the office, it’s crazy how the security didn’t see this, but were able to tow my car within 10 minutes of it being parked, definitely shows where their priorities are.
5. In winter our heater wasn’t working. I called probably 10 times to get it fixed and they came and worked on it 4 separate times, each time telling me it was fixed. Eventually after going into the office and throwing a fit, they actually fixed it, but until then, our heater sparked and made really loud sounds every time we turned it on (about 4 months of this).
6. We moved out in July. At that time, our air conditioner never worked. I called over 4 times about it and even had to cancel a get together at my place, since it was too hot to have anyone over. Each time I called they promised to have someone over to fix it right away… it was a joke.
6. The charges after we moved out were over 1,200. I will admit that we had some stains on the carpet, but seriously, other than that, everything was fine. I work 40 hours a week, am a full-​time student, and frequently visit family out of town– I wasn’t even home enough to possibly cause $ 1,200 worth of damage. The keys are also worth upwards of $ 50, so make sure you don’t lose any of those bad boys!
Only Pro:
The pool is great, I recently had a barbecue with my roommate and we enjoyed the pool and barbecue areas. Actually I just remembered, even then, I hope you’re comfortable watching couples grind on each other in the corner of the pool, heavy drinking, and cigarette/​weed smoke. Definitely not somewhere I felt comfortable bringing my 11 year old little sister when she visited me… but to each their own I guess.
Unfortunately, the lack of competence demonstrated by the staff, has been too big a burden to overlook and I would never recommend The Palms to someone searching for a place.
Edit in response to Tony’s comment: Is that a joke Tony? Part of my review is that the office phone is never answered haha let me just give you a call to review that info on the bill… Good one. You don’t need to waste one of your prewritten Unilocal apologies on me and I won’t waste my time trying to email you.
Not to mention, try calling the office number listed online, on Unilocal,and everywhere else that I’ve looked. It takes you to the leasing office and you have to listen to a recording, wait for a different number, write it down, hang up, and call the 2^nd number to reach the actual front office. So unnecessary.

I’m giving The Palms 5 stars for now. I might update because I’ve only been moved in for a few weeks now!
The apartments themselves are really cute, I live in a cottage. As far as space in the bedrooms, bathrooms, and living room it’s amazing! Lots of storage space as well. I will say, I am disappointed in the size and layout of the kitchen. A bigger, modernized kitchen with maybe a little bar would match the rest of the place as well as the resort looking recreation and pool areas.
I was in a very stressful situation and needed to find an apartment quick. I have 4 other roommate whom were out of town and I had to be the middleman handling all of the paperwork and deadlines! It was a complicated mess and honestly the only reason I chose to the palms was due to the patience and kindness that our leasing agent provided. Heather Witzig is amazing! :) There’s no competition compare to the other staff. I could tell she was sincere and had our best interest at heart. She even answered urgent questions when she wasn’t on the job. I love love love her! I still need to buy her a drink! Anyways, Heather is awesome and she made the stressful process easier to handle. She was diligent in answering questions and getting back to me pretty quickly. The complex is great so far, but those 5 stars were earned by Heather!

The interior of the apartments and cottages definetly need to be updated. The water, sewer and garbage fees are insane. The resort style pool area is always packed and alot of nonsense goes on there that I dont care for especially since I have children. The upside to this community is that the size of the units are fairly large and it is close for us Kaiser employees. Hopefully things will improve here as of now Im really not impressed.

We actually moved back here after a year living in Natomas, where we had a much nicer (albeit smaller) apartment for the same price. This place remains the best bang for your buck if you work near the Arden Arcade area or downtown. Trust me, we looked at so many comparables it’s not even funny.
WARNING: This might be a novel, but if you get through it you’ll be wonderfully well-​informed.
Since two years ago not much has changed, little things here and there, and the management seems to be slightly more responsible — though the office workers are still almost impossible to have an intelligent conversation with. They’ve marked off some parking spaces as permit only, but the fact of the matter is that there are too many units for the amount of spaces they have available. If you come home after 10 PM you’re going to have a long walk if you can even find a space inside the gate.
The pool is still crazysauce. It’s really awesome on a hot day, but you’re sharing it with the 20 people your neighbor decided to bring with him. The hot tub is also usually crowded, which would be ok (it fits 24 people for goodness sake) if people didn’t smoke out there. The drinking doesn’t bother me much, but the smoking is just disgusting and not relaxing. They’ve replaced some of the workout machines, and I haven’t gone back in a few months but the gym’s treadmills were always janky (1 out of three would work properly, the other two either didn’t work at all or had issues with inclines or resetting)
There are never enough people in the office for how many units they have on the property. I’ve had to wait half an hour just to have someone get a package for me.
The apartments themselves are still really run down for how nice the rest of the property is. Our cabinets in the kitchen are falling apart and have been repainted so many times they don’t close straight. Our tub needs desperately to be recoated; it can’t even stay clean through one usage since there are no smooth surfaces. The ²⁄₁ apartments have such a tiny bathroom its laughable; in the ²⁄₂ apartment we had two years ago both the bathrooms were larger than this one. Maybe enough counterspace for your toothbrush, and definitely not enough room for two people to exist in the space at one time. Getting a proper showerhead is a must; the one it comes with provides about as much water pressure as someone spitting at you.
In the ²⁄₁ the kitchen storage space is very sad. I cook a decent amount and have a normal to small collection of appliances that don’t even begin to fit in the space. You also have to figure out how to fit your pantry food in; we had to add a bookshelf in the dining room area where we store cans and dry goods. There is a fan in the dining room which is nice, but the bulbs in the light go out constantly.
Most of the outlets have worn out plug holes (hehe) and almost anything you plug in will fall out. We’ve solved this with tape, bending the prongs, and swearing. Closet space is average, and the one larger bedroom is pretty huge, though the second bedroom is on the small side.
The laundry rooms frequently have machines that are out of order, but you don’t know it until your clothes aren’t clean or are wet when you come back to get them later. If you tell the office they couldn’t care less; call the number for the laundry management company if you want anything done. They will refund you your money on a card a few weeks later, but it does nothing for your currently wet/​unclean clothes. We gave up after three separate incidents and go to LOVE laundry in midtown. Cheap, clean, cute, easy.
The gates — especially the back one — are frequently broken. And homeless people/​diggers are constantly going through your trash. I once accidentally threw out a paper I needed and went back to the dumpster less than 20 minutes later to find that all the bags had already been strewn everywhere and pilfered through. Creepy.
We did get nickel and dimed the last time we moved out and even ended up owing a small amount of money to the complex, though our move-​in deal was a much smaller deposit. We’re crazy cleaners too, and live lightly. We also patch nail holes and deep clean the carpets. So be ready to lose your deposit. We didn’t have to deal with it, but if you have a pet be ready for an automatic pet cleaning charge, whether your pet has done any damage to the carpets or not.
I know this is a lot of negatives, but if you’re like me you’d rather be mentally prepared. If you read my previous review the «pros» list is still applicable and we still enjoy living here with the minor inconveniences.

I’ve learned two lessons here. First, never judge an apartment rental company until you have moved out, and Second, The Palms is awful on returning your rental deposit. They will lure you in with their legitimately beautiful pool and then rip you to shreds when you finally move out. My girlfriend and I even planned in advance, scheduling a walk through after we moved all of our things out. Day of the walk through though, no one showed up. After walking to the rental office we were told they were too busy to walk through the apartment with us. Our mistake was letting them get away with that.
In spite of the fact that this apartment was hardly lived in, (we both work long hours) they nickel and dimed us left and right. When all was said and done, by their math, we owed them over a hundred dollars on top of the deposit!
I learned a few lessons from this experience. First, demand the walkthrough… it is your right. And second, always take photographs of the apartment when you move out… it’s your only defense if there’s a dispute over the deposit.

They’ll scam you for every penny, by all means necessary. You don’t even have to move in! You just have to blindly reserve a unit online! They work their magic by showing fixed units online and in person, then they show you this new fancy clubhouse and gym they invested in to make the exterior look way better than the interiors are, rather than investing in improving the inside of the units. Then they may try issuing you a filthy unit that only a pushover would agree to! What are morals?! And if you complain, they’ll do their best to try to manipulate you into believing that you have zero options and try to manipulate you into believing that you were the one that did something wrong to breach your contract. Even if it’s really their fault. All while holding one big fake smile. There’s no way they’ll take any responsibility! Also, they’ll ignore your phone calls for as long as it takes for them all to agree on one story! Since they all specialize in making things up (while smiling). Heck, if it’s bad enough, you just won’t hear back from them at all!
Their motto should be «We’ll do anything for a paycheck! Even go against the Code Of Ethics!». I’m sure this place has been expecting my Unilocal review. I bet they were just crossing their fingers and hoping I was like the majority that give up and aren’t educated enough to know my rights or how to go about getting a refund. They probably thought I was just some new foolish 18 year old college freshman at Sac State, without real world experience. As I know I pass for an 18 year old quite often. But this is a review from a 27 year old… I declined my unit as soon as I opened the door to a filthy smoke damaged unit. Which was nothing like I was shown in person or online. So I never moved in! The unit was so filthy that the maintenance man suggested bombing the unit. The maintenance man was the most honest employee I spoke with there. Everyone else that I dealt with was fake. I felt like the assistant manager was corrupt. She admitted that the she knew the previous tenant and said they did not damage the unit. So then who did? I couldn’t have done a year worth of damage in 10 minutes. They also said that the unit was «perfect» on their own inpection, which they conducted without me. The new tenant is supposed to be present for the inspection, as stated in their terms. The assistant manager even tried to tell me that I didn’t know the difference between the smell of indoor smoke damage and a person smoking a cigarette outside. I actually had to write a report to their Corporate Headquarters and one more to the Better Business Bureau in order for them to take me seriously and get things done (which is viewable to the public online). Because they took a month of rent from me and refused to give it back.
And Tony! Don’t even bother replying to this with your blah blah filler! He was nice when I complained. He was nice to me in person. Probably just because it was in person and because there were other people in the leasing office for a tour. But as soon as it was no longer face to face, it was all about polishing a story that aligned with others involved, to keep my money. I hope others never have to go through what I’ve gone through with this place. I’m sure I’m not the first or the 20^th. I even now question if the sudden rush of positive Unilocal reviews are real or staged. This place was such a waste of time and my problem could have been solved faster if people would have just been honest and had this thing called, good character. At the end of the day, at least I don’t have to come home to my family/​friends/​children, knowing that I got my paycheck from ripping people off. I have a genuine heart at both home and work. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. And if you all are stressed all the time with high blood pressure, it’s because dishonest people, make life stressful for themselves. That’s self-​made karma for you.
Sincerely,
— Your favorite Almost Tenant

I have lived here for almost a year and so far so good! I have had no issues whatsoever. It’s pretty quiet (maybe I got lucky and have quiet neighbors) maintenance has always been quick, and the amenities are awesome! Lagoon pool is nice as well as the other pools in the complex. The gym and clubhouse areas are pretty cool and I like that they always have some events going on (even though I haven’t made it yet) they recently put some permit only parking and I never have trouble finding a spot close to my apartment. Also they are super pet friendly, although as another review said, it would be a plus if they added a gated area for dogs to run off leash. Laundry rooms are open 24 hours and only really crowded on Sunday evening. Only thing I would change is update the kitchens and bathrooms. They could use some modern cabinets and appliances as well as some new more updated countertops.