The Willows Apartments

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Location

1959 Lake Boulevard

(West Davis, near the intersection of Lake Boulevard & West Covell Boulevard)

Hours

Monday through Friday, 9:30AM to 5:30PM

Saturdays 11AM to 4PM

Contact

(530) 757-2118

willows@tandemproperties.com

Website

http://www.tandemproperties.com/property.aspx?id=14

Features

Central heat/air

Dishwasher

Cats allowed

Patios/Decks

BBQ areas

24 hour Pool/spa

24 hour Laundry Rooms

24 hour Fitness room

Handicapped access

Free fax and copier

Stonegate Country Club memberships available

On the P/Q Line, only 15 minutes to campus

Plenty of offstreet parking for residents

Clubhouse with free wireless internet, cable TV, free cookies, and other services

Located 2.5 miles from the UC Davis campus, 1 mile from The Marketplace(Safeway, Dos Coyotes, Jamba Juice)

• Arroyo Park
  

• West Manor Park
  

• West Pond
  

• Westwood Park
  

• Whaleback Park

• Emerson Junior High
  

• Patwin School

• Westlake Plaza
  

• The Marketplace

Management Announcement:

New Management Announcement:
1. Want to cut your cost, ask us about our Roommate Program today!!!
2. Are you a Transfer Student looking for housing, ask us about our partnership with UC Davis and find out how we can provide housing plus a great experience at Davis.
4. Visit us today to play our Bonus Game of the Day!!!! (Worth $200)

The Willows is an apartment complex on Lake and Covell Boulevard across from the Circle K gas station, basically at the northwesternmost point of the Davis city border. Rent is on the cheaper side, ranging from $1035/month to $1,695/month for one- to three-bedroom units with a $300 pet deposit — on par with most other West Davis apartments, and the apartments are quite nice. Apartments are fairly roomy, and the grounds are very well kept. The staff is excellent: response times are usually the same day, everyone is very friendly and helpful. Parking is pretty good before midnight, otherwise street parking is free. The pool and workout room are decent, but there's also a banquet room that can be reserved by residents. Willows residents can also join the Stonegate Country Club for a mere $10/month.

The only bus line that goes to the Willows is the Unitrans P/Q bus line. You can transfer to other lines though such as G bus line,J bus line,D bus line, and K bus line. Broadband internet has just recently been made available to the complex. The complex is also very quiet. The Willows is managed by Tandem Properties.

Pictures

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Floor Plans

1 Bedroom 1 Bath	2 Bedroom 1 Bath
2 Bedroom 2 Bath	3 Bedroom 2 Bath

• For additional information on locating rental housing in Davis, check out our Housing Guide as well as our Apartments pages.

Comments:

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2005-10-23 16:08:19   THis is by far the worst place I have ever lived. Not recommended at all. —JohnNash

2006-02-16 23:05:58   can anyone tell me more about the Willow? How good or bad it is and why? —LienTran

2006-03-13 00:55:35   I looked at about two dozen places in Davis and decided to go with the Willows. The two units I looked at were the 2B1B for $1105 and 2B2B for $1190 as of March 2006. The exterior of the complex looked very well kept. The interior of the units were nice, although one of the apartments I saw had pretty old grey looking carpet (the other two had newer tan carpet). The cabinates were a tan wood color and the kitchen's in both units were spatious with plenty of counter space. The living room in the 2B1B was smaller than the one in the 2B2B (overall the 2B1B is 100 sq ft smaller). The bedrooms were decent size at roughly 11'x11' in the 2B1B and 10'x10' and 10'x15' in the 2B2B. Overall I had a good impression of the complex and the units when I checked out the place. —GuyGordon

2006-04-17 16:37:49   Greg Stewart at the management office is awesome! He was very friendly and helpful when looking for a place. The place I have is upstairs with a deck for watching the sunset. Community washers/dryers are okay. Grounds are really clean. Parking is decent. Complex is spacious. Circle K is across the street and has many student necessities. My unit has new carpet, average oven and electric burners, and really hot water, w00t! =) Quiet part of town, few parties. Great for studying but definitely closer to the action than Woodland, Winters, or even Sacramento. —GeorgeRobertson

2007-04-26 16:01:47   I've lived here for 3.5 years and have been happy with it. Managers have changed several times - some are better than others. Grounds are clean, parking is open and available, pool and hot tub are pretty nice and usually available. Laundry room with plenty of W/D. This place is nice and quiet. Maintanance is great - things are fixed quickly. Appliances/cabinets/etc. are not particularly high quality but are entirely functional. I would continue living here, except that prices keep going up and my salary hasn't. —rachelss

2007-06-29 20:25:26   There are tennis courts at The Willows? Where? —Wendy

2008-03-05 18:59:35   This place was fantastic. I'm surprised there aren't more comments on here, since the Willows really does stand out in my experience. We moved to Davis very late in the fall, and the Willows staff were helpful getting us set up over the phone. It made what would otherwise have been a difficult challenge of finding housing while out of state very easy. Since then we've had nothing but positive experiences with our neighbors and especially the management. They're more like neighbors themselves, and there are usually snacks in the office. They put out a monthly newsletter, too— and other things that make you feel like part of a community. I'm not sure what the first reviewer's reservations are, but then it's been 5 years, so I guess things have changed. —jess&will

2008-03-19 13:44:18   Has anyone had roach problems here? —lindsayream

This comment was left by a manager at The Willows

2008-04-17 15:24:14   I lived at The Willows before I graduated and I absolutely loved it! The pool is 24 hours and so is the fitness room! I could always find parking and I never had a problem with the other residents. Very quiet place to live and study! And I loved using their clubhouse for study groups during finals. I would definitely recommend this place! Plus they have the best cookies!! —Kristina123

2008-05-14 19:31:59   To respond to the questions on here: The pictures are pretty descriptive. The second picture was taken from inside the clubhouse. The third picture appears to be a sink outside a bathroom. Some bathrooms are separate from their sinks. The fourth is a kitchen inside an apartment. Notice that the cabinets are an unfinished or barely finished wood. Apartments are large and spacious. Apartment layout is good, with the exception of the bathrooms.

There are no tennis courts at The Willows.

Greg Stewart is not a current manager.

The managers are generally quite good, and were among the best at the places that I checked out. We've switched managers several times of late, but they have all been good, and are quite pleasant.

Laundry: There are approx. 8 washers and 8 dryers per laundry room (I believe there are two such rooms). I've never had a problem getting a washer or dryer regardless of the time of day. However, the capacity of the machines is not very high, and the quality of the washing and drying can be inconsistent, esp. the drying.

Usually, the complex is quiet, however there are some apartments that are very noisy. Sound insulation is not particularly good, and you can sometimes hear people in other *buildings*. Management is generally quite good at dealing with disruptive residents. It is also possible to hear the Canada geese in West Pond, and from time to time, cars on the nearby streets.

Maintenance response time has varied from a few minutes to weeks or months, depending on the problem. Easy problems have generally been fixed quickly. Hard ones may not be fixed.

Apartments are in generally good condition, although you can see evidence of past repairs that have been painted over.

Someone asked about roaches. I've never seen one here. Spiders show up frequently.

Kristina is most likely one of the managers (there is a manager named Kristina, and as noted by someone on her user page, she logged in from the same IP as Willows Management.)

They provide free WiFi in the pool and clubhouse area - another possible source of the common IP with Willows Management, although it is unlikely that a past resident would come to the Willows to access the free WiFi to post to the Davis Wiki about their past experience living at the Willows. :-)

Distance to campus is approx. 4 miles. There are safe bike paths to campus. The P and Q line stop right outside the complex. Time by bus to and from campus is about 15 minutes. If you are in shape, you can beat the bus on your bike.

The complex is next to farmland. You will get lots of wind and pollen here. Several buildings were badly damaged during the heavy rain and wind at the beginning of the year. Many building roofs were ripped open by the wind, and some apartments experienced leaks through the holes in the roofs. Management did a good job of triaging the problem. A subsequent windstorm a month or two later also ripped many tiles from the building roofs. Flying roof tiles can make quite a bang when they hit the walls of the buildings!

The complex uses the Davis Model Lease - sort of. There are about 12 pages of additions and modifications to the lease, so it isn't really the Davis Model Lease.

Rent is comparable to other West Davis complexes. The price per square foot here is probably a bit better than at complexes closer to campus (presumably because this is about as far away as you can get - the Welcome to Davis sign is right next to the complex.)

The closest place to get groceries is The Marketplace. There is a Circle K across the street. It mainly offers overpriced junk food. Gas at the Circle K seems to be cheaper than other locations closer to campus.

The units have effective central heating and AC that works well, even in the hottest and coldest weather that we have in Davis. Note that if your AC unit fails over the weekend, it is not considered a maintenance emergency unless the temperature is above 85 degrees.

There is an emergency maintenance answering service. You can also submit requests online at the apartment website. Requests go to a Tandem office somewhere, and are transmitted to the Willows office, and are generally addressed quickly.

The buildings are located quite close to each other. If you have your blinds open, your neighbors will have a nice view. Landscaping is reasonably good by Davis standards, which is a good reason to keep your blinds open. The contracted landscapers often start using leaf blowers at 8 AM, which is a disadvantage if you wanted to sleep past that time.

Closets are large and plentiful. Refrigerators are large and plentiful. Ok, you actually get only one refrigerator.

Parking is also plentiful. A sticker is required to park here, although there is also quite a bit of street parking, as the complex borders quite a bit of street.

Comcast is your only option for internet service or cable TV (unless you get satellite). The DSL central office is to far away to provide service. Comcast's service has been reliable (2 downtime events), however if you need service from them, you will need an appointment, which may take several days to get. They have very poor customer service.

There are several pretty willow trees on the grounds.

The cookies are indeed quite good.

The clubhouse (a source of tasty cookies) can be reserved for evening and weekend use. —WillowsResident

2008-08-03 06:27:12   It's a great place and management is always friendly and helpful. Rooms are all clean and new compared to the other old, decrepit, and/or creaky apartments you can find in Davis. Like other people mentioned above, maintenance responds fast.

My only complaint is about the freaking pigeons which are always on the roof early in the morning, cooing and making noise. They have woken me up a few times and I would not be able to fall asleep again. I wanted to buy a BB gun in order to permanently silence these rats with wings, but my lease is almost over, so I won't bother.

I definitely recommend this place especially if you are looking for a good study environment. None of our neighbors threw any big parties in the last year we were here, and the location is away from downtown which cuts down on the general noise level. Yet the apartment complex is close to stores like Safeway, which is only about a mile away. —MattLow

2008-08-20 16:59:53   I've lived here for a year and I'm staying. It's very clean, quiet, and I haven't had any problems. I've enjoyed having 24-hour access to the pool, spa & laundry rooms, and Management has been friendly and accessible. Yes, the pigeons coo in the morning! I kind of like it, though, but I'm on the first floor so it's not very loud. I've noticed that (maybe in response to the comment a couple of months ago?) that notices are now being left on our doors when we receive a package in the office from Fed Ex/UPS/DHL. Since many offices have a policy of not accepting packages at all, it's nice that our office will take them and sign for them. I ride my bike to campus often, and although it's a little further away (takes me about 20 minutes, although I don't ride fast!), most of it is along the tree-lined bike path on Russell Blvd., which feels very safe because it's separate from the road and you aren't riding near the cars. —AMcAdow

2008-11-03 16:39:31   I've lived here for a little more than a year and generally find it a nice place to live. The amenities are pretty basic, but generally kept clean and I've never had a problem with noisy neighbors or parking. The only majors negatives are the large number of pigeons that have decided to roost here. They %&$* on everything including your car and/or bicycle and are amazingly noisy as a whole. So far the management and Tandem haven't been responded to multiple requests on the subject, but I'm holding out hope they will do something. —jasonb

2009-05-16 11:33:44   I've lived here for about a year and it quite nice. It's quiet, clean, maintenance respond quickly. The free cookies are a bonus. Haven't had any major bug problems. And insulation is pretty good. My apartment is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, hardly had to use the ac. However the windows do get a LOT of condensation during the winter so be sure to keep towels on the sills to prevent water soaking into the walls. —Ruby777

2009-06-02 01:05:38   I have lived at The Willows for 3 years now and absolutley love it! The staff is nice helpful! The apartmetns are big and reasonably priced for Davis. This is a perfect location for any UC Davis student who is looking for a serious and peaceful place to study. All of the neighbors are great and there are no bugs whatsoever!!!! —Kerrie

2009-06-05 12:25:35   Caution to folks considering renting anytime soon. I resigned the lease to rent my apartment from the Willows for another year. About a week later they send around a flyer saying they're renovating the outsides of all the buildings. Now there are crews of people putting new siding on the buildings, redoing the roofs, etc. The nailing, sawing etc. starts pretty early in the morning. Around 9am - so don't expect to sleep in. And if you're a student wanting to work from home - don't expect that either. Parking in my section has also been cut in half. It used to be easy to find a parking place close to my apartment. No longer. Also - for any women out there - this "renovation" scheme means older men hanging out on your porch, and generally around everywhere all the time.

Further things to consider:

First, the timing of the announcement of the renovations is pretty disrespectful. I agree with all the comments people have made about all the Willows staff being friendly. This move seemed out of character. But in my mind was deceptive.

Second, no apology, no compensation. It wouldn't make it worth it to me, but at least cut my rent by $100 or so a month. It would be a nice gesture and at least acknowledge the inconvenience they're putting everyone through.

Third, don't expect it to stop anytime soon. They are going pretty slow. They're just starting the 3rd building and they are about a month and a half in. There are about 20 buildings, maybe more, so you do the math.

Bottom line: it you signed on for next year, I'd try to get out of it. And if you're considering renting next year, ask for a break in the rent or something. And definitely ask where your building is located and when they will be renovating it and the surrounding buildings. The staff here is great, the grounds are well-kept etc., but definitely not worth the rent once you take into account all the inconvenience. —resident

2009-06-11 00:16:27   I am a resident here at The Willows and have been one for over a year now and I have to disagree with the comment above. First of all, I think that if anyone complains about nailing, temporary limited parking, male workers, and the fact that the crew is only on the "3rd" building, I feel sorry for you because you obvoiusly will never be able to own your own home and understand what it is really like to maintain property. I understand that parking has been limited, but I am a law student who transfered from San Francisco where there is NO private parking for residents! I am okay with parking a little further from my apartment, that is, if I do not decide to take the student busline to class that day. So the temporary parking situation means nothing to me. I have spoken to the office about the project itself and they were kind and professional enough to tell me all of the details and went above and beyond to increase parking as much as possible! And the reason why they are on the 3rd building is because the office put a pause on the project for "finals" week! What kind of property would do a helpful thing like that for their residents??
These projects will take some time. And I am more delighted to know that the 2% rent increase is being invested right back into The Willows renovation project. My bottom line: If you have signed with The Willows, the mini project is really not that bad!! And good luck finding something else right now in Davis. I would much rather have my building undergo this for one week than go through the hassle of moving into a dump with no good maintenance! —Cassie89

2009-06-11 00:21:17   Yes, I agree with the last comment posted by the law student. You are childish to complain of just great property maintenance. —frank05

2009-06-11 13:07:31   Dear Residents,

We would first like to apologize for any inconvenience that our exterior upgrades have caused. We have tried our best to make this necessary process run as smoothly as possible and by no means do we want to disturb our residents' daily activities. We would like to help our resident who left the comment about the construction, but if you don't let us know that you are unhappy then we can't help you. Please feel free to let our staff know of your concerns, as we are here to help :)
Let us explain a little more about the exterior upgrades. We notified the first building that was going to experience the exterior upgrade as soon as we were informed of the starting date and we do apologize if you thought that this was a short notice. Our construction vendor crew is very small for the same reason that we are attempting to minimize the impact and inconvenience to our residents. Our construction vendors are professional and if they are on the balconies/patios it is because they are working on the siding around that area and also on the replacement of the railings. Please do not be alarmed as they have all the qualifications to work professionally and respect everyone.
The construction does start at around 9am, but in any other construction field, workers usually start at 7am and we did ask if they could make an exception in order to allow our residents to get the sleep needed.
Also, we would say that the exterior upgrade is moving relatively quickly, considering that during the first buildings there are minor details that come up which are not expected. However, they work around this and improve as they get more "hands on". We are expecting for this process to move somewhat more quickly as they get more familiar with the surroundings of the buildings. And as Cassie89 mentioned, the construction did stop from 6/4-6/12 in order to give our residents the peaceful environment for them to study during finals and enjoy graduations.
Unfortunatley, The Willows does not have storage space on site and we did have to close a total of 12 parking spaces in order to give our construction vendors storage space to store their materials; this will only be temporary. Of course, as the upgrades move building to building we close parking spaces that are directly near the building that is under construction in order to avoid any potential damage to the vehicles of our residents'. We apologize for this, but we think it is really important to make sure that our residents are safe and that their cars are not damaged.
Potential Residents: If you are concerned about these exterior upgrades please let us know as many others have explained to us that they would prefer to not experience the construction. We have been able to accomodate their needs and give them a home that will have been upgraded by the time they move in.
Overall, we want to make sure that our residents have an updated home and for this reason we tought it was important for The Willows to undergo an exterior upgrade. If during this process any of you feel unhappy, uncomfortable, and/or are being disturbed, please contact one of our friendly staff members as we would be more than happy to resolve the issue. We understand that the construction can at times be noisy and inconvenient but after reveiwing all the options, we thought this route would be the most beneficial for our residents while at the same time cause the least disturbance. If at any time you think that we have not met this expectation please contact us. We hope that at the end, you will be glad with the result and that it has been worth it! :) —willows

2009-09-10 22:32:49   As a resident of the Willows for 3 years, I have to say that I enjoyed my time at these apartments. They really try to complete work requests within a day of submission and are very attentive to anything that you think is going wrong. I know a few times I got worried about finding bugs in my apartment, and they made sure to call in Terminex within a week. Sure, the work on the outsides of the buildings is annoying while it's happening, but once all the apartments have been finished, I'm sure they will look a lot better (not to mention the fact that they will be better insulated)! My only complaint from this complex was that management changed fairly often (I'm not sure whether that is good or bad...) so it was a little difficult getting to know the staff. All in all, I felt my experiences at the Willows were positive. I would definitely recommend them. —knick

2009-10-05 13:39:46   The Willows was our home for four years, 9/05-9/09. During that time, my husband and I lived in the same downstairs 2 bedroom (1 bath) corner unit. We had a baby there (actually, at Sutter Davis down the road), and moved this fall to a house with a yard for our now-two-year-old son. We LOVED living at The Willows for the following reasons: the staff and management, in spite of leasing-agent turn-around over the years, was wonderful. We felt these people were an extension of our small family. We will always be grateful to Billy, Juan and Maria, the grounds and maintenance crew, who were a consistently warm and friendly part of our life there. All the agents that came and went were at minimum kind and decent people who LISTENED to residents and enjoyed helping. We loved having actual relationships with them. I don't know how Tandem finds these lovely people (and I'll bet Tandem has no idea just how special they are), but it made our life there very pleasant. Things went wrong in the apartment, for sure: we had a sewage backup through the bathtub pipe one Thanksgiving, while we were on vacation. YUCK. The Willows never missed a beat— they cleaned up, replaced carpet padding, and reimbursed us for the purchase of about $700 in new furniture/goods we had to replace. That specific event was due to some city-water fluke—a kind of twilight-zone thing, even rarer than rare—so if you are a new resident, do not worry. That will not happen to you. The take-away message is that the Willows takes excellent care of its residents, and always dealt as beautifully as possible with anything that happened.

I wanted to write about our positive experience, to encourage future residents to feel right about choosing the Willows. I still think it was the best apartment complex to rent in, for the money and the amenities. All too often, it seems folks forget to share the good stuff. Other things that we loved: the "club house" that we could reserve for our massive holiday parties, play dates, and last-minute football game fix... the post office service (our mail carrier was AWESOME)... and the location of the Willows. It's the northwest corner of Davis, and the surrounding fields and neighborhoods are quiet, beautiful, and scenic. Hot air balloons were regularly visible from 7:30-8:30am in the summers (we had south-facing windows that looked out onto the drainage field that is just south of the Willows on Lake Blvd). We could see stars and the moon from our bedrooms, and sunsets were amazing. —ElHarvey