Bella Terra Apartments

We were supposed to move here in April, and I have been holding this review until we got our money refunded to us.

We were moving back from out of state and we chose this property due to previous recommendations I had years ago from people in the area. We were pretty excited to get in and we had a pleasant experience getting agreements into place to take over. However, the day we were set to move in, we immediately backed out.

The fridge had grime built up inside, the shower had what looked... like mold (that they claimed to be wax they couldnt remove), random pieces of food on the floor in areas and our dishwasher door was on the floor and wouldnt latch close.

We originally thought this was an oversight of a cleaning crew as we know most places use a third party to get apartments ready. So we sent an email to the apartment manager that had helped us and we got a 180 of a totally different person than who we had worked with. We had used the word dirty, and she replied back that she was basically insulted that we called the place filthy (we didnt). She tried to justify it that she cleans these apartments herself (while managing other properties for Knapp according to a previous text i received from them in the past). That they had put in new carpet just for us (although, according to our lease, the carpet seems to be replaced every tenant). The overall issues felt overlooked and we were not trying to insult anyone by any means, but come on. They ended their email to us by saying if we didnt want it we didnt have to take it.

So we decided to leave the keys. We did get our refund at the 30 day mark and we had to scour for a new place in the meantime and pay another deposit and the delivery of our belongings had to be delayed. We tried to track the refund but didnt get anything and had tried to call Knapp about our experience and they kept wanting to transfer me to the property manager of this complex.

While the price point seems reasonable, we did find a place that was just a little bit more that had actual amenities (clubhouse, gym, pool, outdoor area) that this property doesnt offer.

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The management here is definitely excellent. Always had a reply within an hour or so! Maintance was also always very quick at getting the job done. The weekend was when people got a little rowdy especially during the summer. I used to live in a loft on Court Ave. I know loud and I had more problems with drunk people at Bella Terra then I did downtown. During the winter they're not too good about putting salt down. I had a garage but it was three rows away from my unit so walking from my building... to the garage at 5am was terrible because the spot lights never came on. Also there are controlled access doors but no way to buzz people in. I had to run all the way down from the third floor and run all the way back up. (Which was fine on my end it's just not fun listening to your friends/family complain) also since there is no elevator I was limited on inviting over disabled family members. Carrying up groceries was a nightmare. I think you pay more than your fair share. There are other complexes in West Des Moines for around the same price that have pools, community rooms, exercise rooms and more. But if those are all something you won't use then Bella Terra is perfect. Read More

The apartments are well kept and quite. The management is solid and very efficient, real straight forward, and nice. Bella Terra's maintenance staff is second to none, knowledgeable and have a lot of skills.

I enjoy living at Terra Bella.

Bella Terra is a super place to live, the best Apt Manager I’ve ever had! Taylor is super at management. She always gets the job done gets back to us with a solution ASAP. Nathan the main Maintenance man is the man with a plan, he’s quick and thought full. Any keyboard-troll can hide behind a keyboard and write non-truths or (their opinion), because they don’t have the life skills to follow the rules or be accountable and be reasonable minded.
Check this new, well managed complex out, the proof... is in the pudding. Read More

Great management!
Also good follow up on the maintenance front too!
These folks...Got it going on!