Wentworth House - Apartment building in North Bethesda - 5411 McGrath Blvd, USA

I liked the apartment. Our tour guide, Olivia, was nice and helpful. The property manager, on the hand, was discouraging. She had no initiative and mentioned about company rules only. I got the feeling that I should not apply. I did not.

My whole apartment smells like cigarettes and I don’t smoke. I wish I was notified this was not a smoke free building. Just found out this past weekend. Also I work from home and the construction noise throughout the day makes life difficult. Just disappointing and uncomfortable and wish the leasing team had notified me of these items prior to moving in a little over a month ago. Would not recommend moving here and if I had known I wouldn’t have moved here.

The building itself seems to have some water pipe noise problem, making a loud noise whenever someone uses water. It's not only noticeable in my apartment, but I find that it occurs in the gym too, so it's probably a building wide problem, that they ignore and cannot fix. If you have any problems though and contact the main manager, usually it is ignored. Also, there was some security problem, that they were vague about and never fully explained, and for a few months, there were either outside window cleaning (which looks dirtier after the cleaning) or unexplained apartments inspection almost every month where it seems you didn't seem to have a choice to not let them in, which is a problem for people not home during the day. Plus, a couple of the concierges are pretty unfriendly and there was one that was downright rude, which she seems to be gone now, it would be better to just have a locker to pickup packages instead. Overall, the location is great, the building is starting to show its age though, most of the staff are great but the main manager can be more responsive instead of ignoring complaints.

Worst apartment I’ve ever lived. Would never recommend anyone moving here. To give you an idea of how they maintain property you can get an idea by the rips and tears in the furniture in the lobby. You also have neighbors smoking on their balconies and the smell gets into your apartment and even in the hallways in the second floor where the gym is located. Imagine trying to workout with the smell while inhaling the smell of cigarettes. Leasing team doesn’t do anything to correct. Lastly, if you move here you’re going to have to endure with very loud construction as they are building a new apartment building. Do not move here is you value your peace and health.

You won't find anything better than this place in this area. Before moving in, I was a bit concerned about the train noise. I can assure you it never bothered me at all. The place is very quiet. The management team is very responsive to service requests.

If you move here, you will be priced out in 2-4 years! I have lived here for three years and currently pay $1,743 for a one-bedroom unit, and let me be clear – no one should ever have to pay more than this to live here. Yet, I have seen more than one family get evicted each year I've lived here. LCOR artificially jacks up the rent every year until you can't afford it anymore. The rent increases are totally unnecessary. LCOR says it's the "market value," but that just means LCOR is more interested in squeezing every penny out of residents rather than offering fair pricing. For example, parking costs a ridiculous $150/month despite the fact that there are plenty empty spaces available. "Pet rent" is $75/month per pet. Wentworth staff and tenants are the people who do the actual work to keep this building livable - not landlords or shareholders. The Wentworth property staff is excellent, and they work hard to maintain the property. But I don't think these rent increases are going towards their wages. Recently, my neighbors have been complaining about "rising crime," possibly linked to a the nearby homeless shelter. In response, LCOR put up "private property" signs in our courtyard, yet they're hoarding a giant plot of land across the street, doing nothing with it, and depriving the community of a usable space. I have run into people sleeping or hanging out in the northeast stairwell, but the building so far does not consider it a safety/security issue as it leaves the access door from the harris teeter parking garage unlocked. This is also a very noisy community. Children run rampant, screaming like they're being attacked all day long, taking over the pool and courtyard (usually they're just playing, but it's still jarring). The north side of the building is plagued by deafening train horns from the train tracks across the street (I have to pause my work calls several times/day to accommodate), some sort of never-ending construction work at the washington gas facility across the street, and harris teeter parking lot noises: car alarms every day, loud conversations, shopping carts crashing, horns honking, loud music, etc.; while the east side has all the loading docks: large truck noises (air breaks, back-up beeping, crashing dumpsters). There's also a terrible garbage smell wafting up to all the apartments. To top it all off, the community here is marked by an unfortunate lack of compassion and friendliness. Neighbors threaten police action on innocent people from the nearby homeless shelter, demanding unnecessary police patrols in our courtyard. They tattle on and nitpick each other's actions without realizing that LCOR is our common enemy - not providing affordable housing, hoarding land that we cannot use, jacking up our rent, letting unused parking just sit there. We work hard to earn our money and LCOR executives and shareholders just want to get rich by funneling our rent into their stock portfolios. Also, there are 4 elevators but only one is ever working. You can't take the stairs up from the ground floor, and there is only one stairwell that has access to the street from upper floors going down. Verizon is the only internet company available in this building. It's expensive and doesn't work well. In conclusion, Wentworth House is a prime example of how corporate greed trumps the comfort and well-being of its residents. LCOR Inc. and its executives should be held accountable for their actions, and prospective tenants should think twice before signing a lease here. I would not recommend living here.

Let me start by saying that overall, this building is excellent. Maintenance is very responsive and the building is kept very clean. The building is super quiet in general, except for the train which could be an issue for light sleepers. Some of the apartment interiors are starting to show their age. Some units were renovated and they are nicer, but they chose smaller and cheaper appliances than the originals even if they look nicer. In particular, this building’s apartment bathrooms are pretty cheap compared to some other buildings. Very basic white tile and old style vanities and mirrors. In recent years the appearance of the hallways has also gotten sloppy. This building has really nice common areas. But the walls need repair from years of people moving and hitting them. The elevators also have scratched walls. There is a gate to the parking garage that fell into disrepair and it wasn’t fixed for months so anybody could get into the private parking. It’s fixed now. This is also a Verizon Fios only building. While Verizon is a decent provider, people should have a choice and they really don’t. Finally, management is very nice , but they’re stretched too thin across all three buildings on the Quad. I was literally making them money signing a new lease and I couldn’t get in touch with them unless I physically walked to the office. The phone goes to voicemail and the email is not responded to. That needs to improve. Also, depending on the time of day, some of the people who work as concierge are not very friendly. Others are super friendly. Again, I’m being picky, but the rent is high so my expectations are as well. I’ve also lived here long enough to know what the building was originally like so I hope they can bring it back to that level because it really is a great building.

Move-in went pretty well. I quickly picked up the keys, the loading dock was available. Unfortunately, the freight elevator scheduling was hampered by multiple elevators being out of order. Also, the shower did not work when I arrived but was fixed within 36 hours.