Searching for that next apartment in Phoenix

So it's not the greatest photo ever, and I apologize for that but I was driving at the time. It's a photo of The Mirage on Camelback, an apartment complex at 40th St. and Camelback the boyfriend and I were considering moving into together. We're looking for a place to move into when my lease is up in October. Since I'm in an absolute dump right now, I'm overly cautious of getting locked into another lease at yet another dump. I'll spare you the drama of my current apartment for now, but it wasn't this bad when I moved in. I've been gifted with some questionable neighbors the management doesn't care about, so it's time to move on and move out.

So I check into the Mirage on ApartmentRatings.com. Whoa! There are some bad ratings on this place! Given that the ratings at this website about my current home are spot-on, I tell the boyfriend I'm having second thoughts about the Mirage. So he drives there at night and finds a couple to talk to. They say they are happy there but that there is a certain contingent of riff-raff around the management is still trying to get rid of. But the couple says those people are pretty much confined to the first and second floors so if we rent up higher (which costs more) we won't have to put up with any drama. There's a lot of young couples (read=more drama) and "young professionals," which in this city could mean anything.

The other odd thing about the Mirage is the free heating and cooling. What's the catch, you ask? Especially in a place like Phoenix with 115-degree summers? The complex has control of the heating and cooling. You cannot control your own environment. So for those first 3-4 hot days of the season, you have to suffer and wait for the AC to come one. The boyfriend and I decided we can't deal with that, so we're still looking for a new place to live.