1. The Magnolia advertised having a fitness center on at least one website (ForRent.com was one of them) before and shortly after I applied to live here, when they really didn't have one available to use. This isn't the only lie they'll tell to get you to sign a lease, but it's an example of how The Magnolia likes to start their business relationships.
2. Not all units have cell phone reception. This fact is not something that the leasing office advertises (at least they didn't advertise it to me), so test your cell when you visit the unit you ll be leasing.
3. Ask for confirmation that your unit was recently tested for mold before you move in. And understand that if there is a mold problem, dealing with it will come out of your pocket regardless of what your lease says.
4. The unit you've leased may not be completely turned over by your move-in date (if it s turned over at all), so take pictures - with time/date stamps - of anything that's not functioning or not in decent condition. You don't want to be charged for someone else's damage.
5. Make sure the keys given to you on your first day are the ones that were actually used to open the door. You don't want to move in (especially in the evening) with no food in the house, no idea where to call for decent take-out (if you have a functioning phone to even make calls), and no way to lock your door if you choose to leave to find some place to eat - unless you've moved in with someone else, and that someone is old enough to be home alone.
6. If repairs need to be done before you move-in, stay on top of it with the staff so they don't try to push the responsibility off on you as if the issues you're bringing to their attention don't have anything to do with their negligence. You're leasing property that doesn't and never will belong to you, not making mortgage payments on a house you own. You shouldn't have to clean up or repair anything after former tenants have moved out, or call (i.e., remind) maintenance and ask them take care of it as if they didn't drop the ball.
7. Don't bother with the quarterly pest control (even thought it s included in your monthly rent, a fee they tack onto your base rental rate but don't mention unless you ask). It's ineffective; you're better off using boric acid (or Borax soap) and roach traps.
8. At least two Magnolia employees live in the complex, and they're friendly with quite a few tenants (most likely people they haven t scr*wed yet); so be weary of anonymous posts at apartmentratings.com with stellar reviews. Maybe it's a Magnolia staffer, maybe it's one of their cronies.
9. The courtesy officer is a liar ("birds of a feather flock together". See item 1.). He's also incompetent enough to lie even when what he's saying is being documented and can be proved as a downright lie.
10. Community rules are not strictly enforced. Some of your tenants will be able to get away with almost anything (see list item 8), while others will be accused of almost anything.
11. Come with your own washer/dryer. The laundry facilities aren't always available when they’re supposed to be, and it’s not because they’re so good that everyone's using them. The machines either don’t work because of CoinMach (the ones who maintain the machines) or they don’t work because of The Magnolia (who provide the heat and water so you can use the machines). No worries though. There's a sanitary wash house near Roswell and Dalrymple and the family who runs it VALUES YOUR BUSINESS by not only providing good customer service and machines that work well, but by also providing extra goodies like: chairs for you to sit in, restrooms in which to relieve yourself, fans (right, more than one) to keep you cool, detergent and a change machine in case you've left either at home, and a television and a few arcade games to keep you and the kids entertained.
12. Bring an inflatable pool and some water weenies too. It can take up to six weeks past the normal re-opening time before you can take a dip at the Magnolia. And even though there are two pools, you might not be able to use but one.
13. Need to speak to someone in the office, but don’t have to time to walk-in? Be prepared to be put on hold for 15-20 minutes, or accept the “call us (as many times as it takes you), because we won’t call you” policy. You’ll have better luck getting E.T. to call you back (ooouuuch).
14. Wanna pay your rent on time? The Magnolia does too. The thing is that they don’t always open and close their office at the times they post (and at one point their online office hours didn't match the office hours on their door), so if you want/need to pay your rent in-person, you might be a day late. And good luck trying to convince the Magnolia answering service that the office isn’t open when it’s supposed to be; even though they’re not the ones standing in front of a locked leasing office with you, they’ll adamantly disagree about it being closed.
15. Wanna experience Atlanta’s infamous “too busy to hate” motto? Don’t move here. Unless you have your DOB, class status/salary, job title, education level, ethnic group, religious affiliation, sexual identity, and life purpose tattooed on your forehead, you might have to deal with a few unpleasantries until word gets around about you being from a pre-approved demographic background. Just think "high school", or (to a certain extent) if you've been in one, a "prison" or "street gang", to get an idea of the social dynamic certain people may want to suck you into when all you're doing is minding your business and trying to make lemonade from your lemon of a housing situation.
16. Don't assume that just because you're a pleasant, respectful, and patient person who pays rent on time that you'll be treated like a desirable tenant. There's more than one person on staff here who somehow thinks they're helping to line your pockets instead of realizing that you're helping to line theirs.
The only positive truth about living here that I can think of is that, if you're interested in learning what it's like to live in a THIRD WORLD country, this might actually be the place for you. Or maybe I’ve misspoken since the third world countries I've lived in NEVER had the problems listed above (except the cronyism and nepotism I hinted at in items 8 and 10), despite their old-skool thinking. Because, from what I've experienced, even if you're in a third world country that has an overt problem (like pre-US civil rights style or worse) with people who are darker than a brown paper bag (and yes, there are still places like that out there in the 21st century), or that equates single mothers as whores, or a place that simply doesn’t like US citizens, TRUST and BELIEVE that you'll have a better (i.e., decent, clean, pest-free, problem-free) housing situation there than you'll have here at the Magnolia at Sandy Springs, operated/maintained by no one but puppets (some of whom are or have been black single parents - who should know better than to house their own people, or anyone for that matter [even children for goodness sake! they simply don't give a *uck as long as they and their children are eating/living well!], in roach-infested moldy ISH, and then have unabashed conversations about who's the blackest in the office [no joke!] with their office windows wide open for anyone within earshot to hear [right, "hear", not voluntarily listen to] their self-righteous, quasi-socio-politico crap.). I mean seriously, how do you sleep at night knowing you make your money by reaming others out of theirs? Not cool.
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