The Madison Apartments, ames-ia

If you are a student or anyone in general honestly, do NOT live here and save yourself the stress. Utilities are horribly set up and calculated dreadfully, and they will use SimpleBills for utility payments who are a very unreliable and untrustworthy third party who justify their calculations by saying they’re fair by using your average payment, which makes no sense whatsoever. I paid on average 50-70 a month in utilities yet my last 3 months was somehow calculated to be $100 each month. They will find any little way to bill you and make paying rent difficult. I attempted to use Flex to pay my July’s rent and I was told it was going to be available soon after the portal was back up and running, but I called and was told the due date for Flex was overdue and they couldn’t do anything about it AFTER I was told it was going to be available once their systems were back. Maintenance requests were far too unreliable as my room had a constant leaking problem and it was never fixed. They provided temporary fixes that would result in the problem reoccurring within a day or two. The parking lot and sidewalks were NEVER plowed, and whenever they did decide to it was far too late as everything had already turned into ice from all the cars driving over the snow. Pool was never available and noise complaints were never taken seriously. The gym was so disappointing and the volleyball court was disgusting. Seriously, do not fall for this sorry excuse of a complex and pay the extra $100 to live somewhere better.

my roommates and i are absolutely miserable, and so is everyone else we know who lives here. something is broken every other week. whether it's the ac, dish washer, mold, electric, etc. there is a man here that harasses people, ESPECIALLY WOMEN, and management absolutely refuses to do anything about it. cops have been called multiple times due to vandalism and management also refuse to get cameras. it's genuinely insane. i also couldn't leave my apartment to get to work because they won't even remove the snow lmfao. to top it off, residents got charged an obscene "estimated" utility fee, that doesn't even add up if you do the math. my normal bill is $80 MAX. my roommates and i were charged $230 this month. please do not let the pool and coffee bar fool you. the pool doesn't even work. i have hated every waking moment here and i'm gone as much as i can be. please just listen to the other reviews and DO NOT RENT HERE.

I do not recommend living here!!! They charge way more than what the apartments are worth and can barely keep the parking lot and sidewalks clear during the winter. The pool also wasn't open, and there's a man who is on the property that yells slurs at people and flips them off. There are much better options in Ames at more reasonable prices, don't live here!!

NOT live here I genuinely would not recommend this place to anyone. It has been a constant headache the entire time I’ve lived here. First off, the amenities are basically a joke. The pool has never worked the whole time I’ve lived here, so don’t let that be a selling point. The gym is tiny and barely usable—half the equipment is broken, especially the treadmills, which seem to be out of order more often than not. Maintenance is a huge issue. There’s basically one guy handling everything, so nothing ever gets fixed in a reasonable amount of time. You can put in requests, but don’t expect anything to actually happen. My apartment itself is in rough shape. There is literally a hole in my wall that lets cold air blow through—it creates a noticeable draft and clearly has not been properly fixed. For what you’re paying, that’s unacceptable. Speaking of price, while rent is around $550, the utilities are ridiculously high and make it way more expensive than it should be. You end up paying way more than this place is worth. Overall, poor maintenance, broken amenities, and hidden costs make this place not worth it at all. Save yourself the frustration and look somewhere else.

AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. If you see any 5 star reviews, its fake. Nothing about this place is 5 stars. At most 2. Stars if you really push it because of the pool and the balcony if you’re lucky to have one. Plus, the management might seem nice but its all surface level to your face. They will still do what the company tells them to do and usually it sucks. You want examples of why this place is a dump? Gotchu First and foremost, what you see online and the unit they show you when you come is a lie. No unit comes like that. When you actually move in to your apartment, there’s so many faults. For example, in my apartment, the sinks were rusty. The closet sliding door wass loose and will fall if moved too suddenly. Plus, the general living area would just depend on the people you’re assigned with if you do roommate matching. Secondly, when I moved out, I left one hanger and some cleaning supplies. They charged me $150 for “cleanup” like are you mad? Among other things, when you move out they will charge you for the silliest stuff. Your bathtub is a little dirty from using it overtime? Guess what, here’s another $50 charge. All they do is find small ways to charge you. They cannot be trusted. If you move out, even if you think everything is perfect, expect a charge still. Like isn’t it their responsibility to do the proper deep clean after someone moves out? Lastly, the emails they send out. Its so useless. They always send out emails for no reason. They pile it up with such bs that when you get an “important mail” you don’t even see it at this point. And they’ll never be clear about anything too. For example, they’ll send out an email for a lease renewal in September even if you had just signed a new lease a month or two previously saying they’ll give “the lowest price”. Its just price matching what you’re currently on. After that it just keeps increasing but they don’t clearly tell you that. They’ll give you some vague bs. On top of that, they’ll keep changing the third party utility bill collector they have without informing anyone. Before you know it, you’re being charged $75 for a year and then before then before the term ends with their old third party collector, you’ll be charged 3 times the actual bill you need to pay as an “estimate”. There’s simply almost zero to none transparency with everything. If you want more proof? Just look at their responses to all the other bad reviews and probably to this one. AI generated script with their email at the bottom which I know nobody reads. Some of my friends moved before I did and they said nobody replies to that email, so I didn’t even bother to do that. If you choose to live here, its probably because its cheap, but trust me, their costs add up. Its only cheap on the surface. Every after renewal the service they give you keeps getting worse and worse. I’ll give props to their maintenance teams for SOMETIMES being prompt. Everyone is nice because they have to be nice. Keep that in mind.