I feel it's my duty to warn the public about this property "management" company. I don't care how nice a residence is or how good a deal seems, I WOULDN'T LEASE A DOGHOUSE FOR FREE FROM ANYONE IF I LEARNED THAT AWARD WAS MANAGING THE PROPERTY.
Three weeks ago, my girlfriend moved into an apartment managed by Award Realty. I cosigned her lease and the process of actually filling out the documents was pleasant and Robert (our contact) was very helpful and quick to answer any questions we had. Par for the course stuff.
A few days later, just before my girl moved in, I did a quick walk-through of the residence and noticed 2 problems: The sliding glass door was completely inoperable and the toilet in the hallway was running 247. I texted Robert and he quickly texted back and had a handyman call me. Nice. Not so bad right? Wait for it...
The next day I met the handyman early in the morning and he spent the next 3.5 (!) hours trying to get the door to work but was not able to, at least not fully. The slider now opens, but only shuts about 50% of the time, and when it does shut it's as a result of a tremendous amount of force being applied due to the rollers and the door itself just being completely shot. The handyman said he would order the parts and call me the next week (last week).
The handyman didn't call me. I called the handyman. No answer. I texted Robert. Twice. Nothing. I called and left a message on his phone. Twice. No reply. I called the office and spoke with "Matt" who said he would have Robert call me. He did not. This single-person game of phone tag didn't occur over 24 hours or anything unreasonable. It happened over a week.
Today my girlfriend called Robert and - surprise - he didn't pick up. She called the office and spoke with Nicole. Nicole said that she would call me. She has not.
So we have a toilet we can't use and an *exterior* door that won't shut. We have reached out to the company through every reasonable avenue and they have been completely unresponsive. So here we are not even a month into her residing in this place and I'm being forced to put on my amateur attorney hat and look up tenants' rights laws.
I've heard of companies like this but have not experienced one first-hand until now. I didn't want to immediately tattle to Yelp, but I don't have a choice now. Please do yourself a favor and look elsewhere when it comes to property management or any sort of real estate deal.
I award Award Realty with first prize for best suburban slumlord.