The Winhall of Williams Pointe

I toured at Winhall and loved everything about it! The community is conveniently located near some of my favorite restaurants and businesses in Waukee. The leasing and maintenance team were very helpful and kind!

Be prepared to pay for features you don't want (like a crappy package room which forces residents to switch from conveniently having packages delivered to their building to having to brave snow and ice to pick up packages from the club house), new fees (such as pest control and garbage fees that didn't used to be charged), and increasing pet rent ( from $35/month to $100/month for 2 pets). This community also has a huge marijuana problem with the hallways smelling of weed 50% of the time and... fire alarms being set off at 4am due to people smoking in their units and the garage. Also, the model unit is misleading with ceiling fans in every room and drapes on the windows. Some units dont have ceiling fans as another reviewer stated and none of them have drapes or any additional window curtains other than standard blinds. Also, the water pressure is horrible (hot water in particular). Will be leaving as soon as my lease is up. Lee mas

Be prepared to lose close to all of your deposit when you move out of the Winhall apartments. When we moved out, I specifically asked them to do a final walkthrough with us before we turned the keys in. The employee who did the walkthrough with us literally took less than 2 minutes to complete the walkthrough which I thought was weird because usually they are supposed to inspect the whole apartment and let us know what damages there are. I specifically asked her if there were any issues to which... she stated there were not and that the apartment looked great. Due to her response, we felt comfortable turning in our keys. Just recently I received the Final Statement paperwork from the Winhall in which it states there was a small charge for general cleaning(which I think is fair although we cleaned the apartment very thouroughly), and a relatively large charge for "paint." They charged us $267.50 for paint. I was confused as to why it was such a high amount for paint based on the condition we turned the apartment in. I emailed the manager regarding this. I asked for receipts of the paint they purchased and a specific description of what rooms or areas needed to be painted. The response I got was underwhelming as she stated "The FMO gives you a description of what was done." Miss ma'am... The FMO states "FMO-Paint," in what world is that a description of the areas painted? At this point, the issues isn't the money, it's the dishonesty and unwillingness to provide proof of why they are charging nearly $300 for paint. If the walls were so very damaged, why didn't the employee who did the final walkthrough discuss this with us? Lee mas

There are many good things, some okay things, and some annoying things about the property. The good include spacious apartment units (minus small balconies), updated appliances, and timely maintenance services. The okay things include not having individual garage stalls but a shared, sometimes messy bay, somewhat thin walls so you do hear your neighbors, a fairly small and usually cold pool (but still better than nothing), and the very modest gym. The "bads" include, cheap/thin carpet, large... piles of dog poop near the buildings, residents occasionally smoking in some buildings (not cigarettes), setting up the expectation of having fans in the bedrooms by showing a model unit with fans and then leasing out apartment units that do not have fans (and then saying if you want a fan you can pay about $200 to have them install a fan), and including fees in the lease documents that were not previewed in renewal or initial price quote documents (such as trash and pest removal fees). They also recently raised pet rent from $35/animal to $50/animal, which is not reflected correctly on this site. Neither is the trash fee and pest removal fee which is not previewed at all during the application process or renewal process, but just appears as a non-negotiable addendum in the lease. In fact, the whole lease document is non-negotiable so if you apply and are accepted and then realize you don’t like the lease conditions, you’re out your application fee. I was told the lease documents are standard and unalterable for all Indigo Living properties, so make sure you know what you’re getting into.

TL:DR If you are considering leasing here, I would recommend that you request to preview the full lease agreement prior to applying and request pictures (or better yet a walk through) of the actual unit you are going to lease or, if that is not permissible to the current resident, verify if there are features in the model unit that are not in the unit on your lease and get a list of those features in writing. They generally only show a model unit that has all the bells and whistles, and not show actual apartment units. Lee mas

Initially, this looked like a great place to live. The rent wasn't too expensive, the property was well maintained, the front desk was actually helpful, and the neighbors were all quiet and respectful. This has since changed. The walls of the hallways have patched up paint jobs that are worse than whatever they are trying to coverup, the hallways and main building entrance smells like cat urine, dumpster divers shift through trash late at night, other tenants park their cars in front of garage... stalls blocking the garages (management refuses to do anything about this even after multiple complaints), residents smoke weed in and between buildings, and what I thought was a great apartment unit turned out to be cheaply constructed with poor quality carpet and thin walls (constantly hearing our neighbors). Previously free services (trash and pest control) are now at cost, which is ridiculous considering the pest control consists of quarterly spraying the kitchen area of the apartment with god knows what that is probably harmful to pets and the trash/dumpster areas are always overflowing. The front desk is unhelpful, avoiding questions or stating that every bad thing is just corporate policy or that there's nothing they can do to improve any of the mentioned situations. Lee mas