Prepare yourself, for this is quite thorough.
We spoke over the phone, said the usual renting guidelines, and then they mentioned something about making a monthly income of at least 2.7 times the monthly rent. We asked if that was individually or combined, over the phone they said combined, which we easily surpassed. They requested that we meet them at their office, even though we know where the property we want to tour was at. We complied, assuming that they had some sort of short informational meeting in store or that they needed some background information on us. Neither of these things were true, they asked us to go to their office for no reason because we left from there almost immediately.
Four of us, all with steady full time jobs, never had any problems paying monthly rent before, just looking for a new place to live.
So I see you've responded, allow me to clarify:
We've used Emerald for over a year now and I have never had an issue with them. Any maintenance issues we've had were always taken care of within 24 hours by very friendly and professional workers. They always call to let me know when someone will be stopping by and they are always nice when I call. I would definitely recommend this company!
I'm actually glad that she asked us that first. It saved us, and her, some time that morning. Nothing against our tour guide, or the friendly faces in the front office, but your policy is completely ridiculous. Also, get everyone on the same page. If you would've told us that information over the phone we never would've even scheduled a tour.
Edit 2: Although the lady on the phone was at least somewhat pleasant, they completely disregarded our attempts at a compromise. Their response was that this policy was in effect to "protect us in case someone moved out, we would still be able to cover rent" which is nonsense. It's to make sure they can still get their money, which is interesting because they don't seem all that concerned about renting that house seeing as it's been vacant for quite some time. That's $18,000 a year they're missing out on. The only thing they would consider removing the policy for is a married couple. So then WHY IS THE HOUSE LISTED AS MULTI-FAMILY if it only makes sense for a single family to move in? Let it sit empty for another year for all I care, we'll be taking our business elsewhere.
Once we arrived at the property, the lady giving us the tour walked through the door and inquired about all of our incomes being 2.7 times the rent ($1500 at this property). We asked for clarification and she said that each of us individually had to make that, not combined. 2.7x1500= $4050. So you're telling me, Emerald, that to RENT your house I need to have a job that makes me $25/hr? That's $50000 a year, $200,000 combined for the four of us to live there. We could go BUY a house for that much. Are you serious?? No wonder that place has been vacant for so long. Needless to say, as soon as she said that, we said goodbye and walked right back out the front door.
We asked SPECIFICALLY whether it was 2.7x rent per person or per household. So perhaps you misspoke, or perhaps your staff misunderstood the question, or we misheard, or misunderstood their response, any of these could be a perfectly understandable mistake. But at the end of the conversation we repeated it to them and it seemed clear at the time. Regardless, a compromise doesn't necessarily require you to bend the rules as you imply, but perhaps adopt policies held by other, more reputable property management centers. These include ideas such as having a co-signer on the lease as a backup, or the "half lease" payment plan, both of which would protect both the owner and the tenant which you claim to be so concerned about. Neither of these options were even brought to the table. And if you do have them or something similar, why were they not offered?
Edit: If they are willing to reconsider and/or work with us, stars will be added later. We will attempt to contact them later this afternoon to make sure this is what they want.
Next, your policy about going to your office first is definitely inconvenient. If safety is your concern, send more than one person. If time is the big factor, ask for licenses in advance.
This company is an absolute joke. They told us they would clean the carpets for us upon moving in and clean the apartment however when we moved in the place was DISGUSTING. Cob webs EVERYWHERE. When we vacuumed we had to empty it at least a couple times per room indicating the carpets were NEVER cleaned liked they had wanted us to believed. AND our vacuum sucked up endless amount of bobby pins which can RUIN a vacuum. I spent a solid 8 hours cleaning this apartment when we moved in and then when we moved out they had the AUDACITY to take out almost $200 for carpet cleaning and cleaning (a $25 cleaning fee, I'm sorry, this place was spotless. You guys got it back in MUCH BETTER condition than you gave it to us in). Not to mention I had a hole punched in my closet that you guy cared nothing about to fix.
Don't bother with this company unless you can afford nearly three of the places you want to live, because that makes sense in a college town...
Horrible and stressful experience with this incompetent company. Beware if you need to move out before your lease is up - they will NOT just break your lease with a fee; you are responsible for the lease until the unit gets re-rented! I've never experienced in my entire life. Even after we explained our situation and the fact that we didn't have money or jobs, they didn't care or show any compassion at all. Moving day arrived and 2 girls came over to do a walk-through even though we weren't done cleaning. They noted EVERY SINGLE LITTLE THING on the move-out sheet, including a fly on the window sill! We had to move all our stuff out of the house and put it in the driveway so they wouldn't mark it down as "left behind" (including the cleaning supplies). They noted things that we had nothing to do with and that were there when we moved in (damage from previous renters) - we were only there for 6 months and the place was filthy when we moved in, which we put on our move-in sheet. But they charged us a crazy cleaning fee, even though the place was cleaner than when we moved in. They charged us for the repairs to the carpet that we didn't even do AND they charged us $25 to replace 3 light bulbs!! REALLY?? During our lease. they also told us things would get done around the property like cleaning the gutters and leaves on the lawn, but never did it. The maintenance guys they hired to do work came over and just walked right into our house before the times they were scheduled to be there. I came home twice to some random stranger in my house and they didn't do anything about it.
As a long-time rental property owner in Manhattan, we heartily endorse Emerald Property Management and their entire team. They managed our property for 13 years and provided outstanding service in every category: marketing, managing tenants, executing lease agreements, maintaining the property and responding to our tenant's issues, acquiring bids for improvements and repairs, accounting and payments, and communications. They always took great care of our tenants and respected our property's neighbors, too.
They are a bunch of cold-hearted, incoherent lemmings that don't know how to give people a break or show any sign of intelligence. I'm so glad we don't have to deal with them anymore.
Emerald Property Management is a US Real Estate Agency based in Manhattan, Kansas. Emerald Property Management is located at 923 Westport Place #230, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA.
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