River Oaks

The complex may not be flashy but the location cannot be beat. It takes me less than five minutes to walk to class and the price is a bargain. The interiors are newly renovated and management really makes an effort to update the apartments. It is very quiet and peaceful. I've never had a package stolen. It's perfect for a student who doesn't need a ton of amenities or storage space for the best price around and the closest spot to school.

The place is nice, with a great outdoor space and pool area. No bathtubs, only stand up showers, if that matters to you. It comes with washer/dryer hookups, but make sure yours have 110v plugs (not the usual dryer voltage). They also have a laundry room with app-connected machines (much easier than coins). The a/c is good, but they use a chiller system that takes a while to switch from cool to heat and vice versa. This can be an issue if it's warm during the day but cold at night, but the apartment is well-insulated so it doesn't get too cold. It is near a hospital, so you hear sirens and helicopters sometimes, but they don't wake me up.

The apartment is literally across the street from the law school. It takes me five minutes to get to class. If you move in during the off season, you can get some great discounts on rent too.

Overall, I probably would re-live here, but there are some caveats.

Pros:
I really enjoyed living so close to the law school, because I was a fairly anxious law student, and I liked feeling like I was able to get to class/library within ten minutes. The apartment is newly furnished, so the inside is pretty nice. Plus, my unit was almost 800 feet, which is pretty big for a 1 bedroom. I liked that there was so much storage, especially because I live with my husband. Management is also really responsive to requests for repairs.

Cons:
The biggest downside to River Oaks is that they have central air, which means that the apartment complex management gets to decide if the air is cold or hot. After winter, they won't allow cold air again until the low temperatures start averaging above 50 degrees. This can make for some pretty hot days in the apartment. We bought big fans, but it can get uncomfortable.

Otherwise, it has some downsides that I think are pretty common to apartment living. There are cockroaches and flies. We bought traps which we renewed every few months, and the problem basically disappeared. For laundry, they have hookups, but you would have to bring your own W/D. Otherwise, they have communal laundry (which I used), and it's not great.

We were thrilled when we got this place before 1L—so close to the law school, decent price, and a “luxury style.” If only we knew then what we know now...

First, there are some things you might not catch just touring an apartment—the HVAC system is complex-wide—which means you can’t control whether your apartment gets a/c or heat. Additionally, the a/c struggles in the summer months— if it is 95 plus outside our apartment will be at 77 even with the a/c cranked. Also, while they advertise that there are laundry hookups, they don’t tell you that they only have 110 electricity available—this means you will be forced to rent a tiny combo W/D unit with technology from the 1970s that can’t wash and dry at the same time.

There is also not a property management office actually at this complex. Not a huge deal, but illustrates how low a priority this place is. You have to go 2 miles away to pay rent, there is not a place for you to send packages, and maintenance requests routinely take months (!) to be addressed

Overall, you could do worse than this place, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Overall, my wife and I have been happy here. The floor plan is great, and it's a short 20 minute walk to McCombs. The apartment was remodeled 7-10 years ago, and the complex continues to make upgrades to the outside.

Biggest issues:
- Very unique heating/cooling system. The whole complex runs on the same system, so you can only use heat OR air conditioning at any given time. It's usually fine in the winter or summer, but there are some days in March, for example, where it all of a sudden gets very hot for a day, but you can't turn the AC on because management still has it on heat. They switch between heat and AC if a heatwave or cold front last for more than a day, so it's not a big deal, but it's a peculiar system. It's also very loud to run the heat or AC in the apartment.
- In our unit, the hot water takes two minutes to warm up, so we end up having to waste a lot of water.

Everything else has been pretty great. Management is fine and pretty responsive to any repair needs.

The apartment has the best location available, however the units are old and the air conditioning/heating system is terrible. Management and maintenance are friendly. The walls can seem pretty thin at times and you can often hear loud music being played. Overall, you're living here for the location, not the quality of the complex.