I originally moved into Courtney Village Apartments back in September 2010. Despite the sketchy surrounding neighborhood and higher priced rent, it was a nice centralized location that fit my lifestyle at the time.
I will say that the benefit of location is a huge plus for Courtney Village. You are less than 10 minutes from ASU and oldtown Scottsdale. Less than 30 minutes from almost every part of the valley.
Another benefit is their dog park. A good core group of residents frequent the dog park multiple times a week. They are very friendly and welcoming to new people and all they ask is that your dog not be a total dick. It gives the complex a greater sense of community.
Unfortunately, those are the only two benefits that Courtney Village offers. The apartment office is rude and unresponsive to resident inquiries. They advertise a "gated" community, but will let the gates sit broken and open for weeks at a time, giving anyone the ability to enter the complex. They promise a 48-hour maintenance work order fix, but refuse to co-ordinate their maintenance appointments with the resident's schedule. They expect you to let their maintenance guys have carte blanche access to your home without ever meeting them. They are so committed to this 48 hour time frame that if you try to call a work order in with a desired fix date more than 48 hours out, they will tell you that you need to call back closer to the desired date.
Another issue with the office is that everyone is in "cover your ass" mode. Employees are quick to throw others under the bus for misinformation and also will lie to a resident at the drop of a hat. My last rent check took over four weeks to be cashed by the office. I called after two weeks to make sure my payment was applied. The office assured me that they had cashed the check and that it must be a problem with my bank. Sure enough, once my check was cashed and I looked at the deposit date, it was deposited on the 27th of the month. Maybe instead of lying to a resident, they could just admit that they fucked up instead of leading someone on a wild goose chase with their bank over outstanding checks.
The biggest problem is that Courtney Village believes they have some sort of inflated value based on their apartment's location. They will try to charge you almost $900 a month for a 2 bedroom, 1,050sq ft apartment. They do this despite having a trailer park a block to the west, being 1/4th of a mile away from a complex where two men broke into the apartment of a woman and proceeded to rape and rob her, and also 1/4th of a mile away from a National Guard base where a solider was stabbed while taking out the trash. They refuse to even hire a security guard to do nightly checks, instead relying on the two residents who are Phoenix police members to demonstrate a level of security in the complex that does not exist. Seems like the more the neighborhood goes downhill, the higher they raise their rates. They also won't give any current residents a fair shake when it comes to renewing their lease. My buddy continued to pay nearly $800 a month for the same model unit that they rented to his neighbors for $750 two weeks earlier. Seems that they would rather risk bringing in new tenants at a slightly higher price point than working with current residents.
This review may seem negative, and in all honesty it is, but this complex is ran by a very negative group of people. They try to work you with their community bullshit, but at the end of the day they could care less if your car is broken into or if the grounds look nice or if your apartment is taken care of. They only care about that rent check being dropped in their mail on the 1st. Avoid the bullshit and find a nicer, safer, cleaner place closer to Scottsdale or ASU for the same price point.