I've lived at the property since September 2007. Do not move here. In the past 11.5 months, there has been constant turnover in the office, and the property manager just left. I've scheduled items to be fixed numerous times and they never show up for appointments. To their credit, they gave me a credit for gas because my apartment was so hot I never used heat in the winter. But overall, management is completely incompetent and does not care about the needs of residents. While they did just spend a lot of money remodeling everything, it's clear they're not investing money in management. And while I understand that apparently the tenants used to be extremely bad/dangerous, the tenants now (at least in my building) are either families with many young kids or uneducated people. Nothing but trouble.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/13/2008
I'm the property manager who is referred to in this post so I'd like to chime in on this. I left because of a very good job offer, the Laramar Group which is the company that currently owns the property is one of the best property management companies you will find so I did not leave due to any ill will. Also regarding turnover in the staff that is because it was a lease up and renovation project. Some staff were brought in for the initial portion which is common in this type of situation and then moved on to other leaseups. The majority of the residents at Gates of Deer Grove work at well established companies in the area i.e. Motorola, Abbott Labs, Siemens, Allstate, Hewitt etc. so the assumption that there are a lot of uneducated residents is false, possibly due to lack of interaction on this residents part with his neighbors. Secondly the statement about there being many families with young children is also false. Since I am no longer an employee of this company I can say that there are only 11 children on the property. This is an incredibly low number especially for Palatine. In response to the "never showing up for appointments". Our staff show up for the appointments set however when a resident isn't there we have to reschedule. In this case the resident was often not home for the appointments we set and we would have to reschedule. In the case of the apartment being too hot the resident was offered a larger apartment for the same price but chose not to move. The work to fix the heat involves jackhammering out the concrete floor to insulate the pipes. Unfortunately the previous company that owned it did not have any record of this problem in this apartment or else it would have been fixed before anyone moved in. At this point it can't be done with someone living in the apartment and when a resident refuses to transfer and tells you they would rather live with the problem since it's minor if their given a credit then we have to assume that is what will make the resident the most satisfied. You will find very few management companies with the integrity that the Laramar Group shows. This year we had renewal rates of 60% to 70%. In this industry 30% to 40% is average. This is the true test of how well we are doing; when our residents choose to stay because they are happy. Sadly only dissatisfied residents for the most part use apartment ratings so you will seldom hear from the residents who are happy in their homes. The best way to find out about a community is to drive around after work and ask the people you see walking around. This is a very social community where a large number of the residents hang out together so it's easy to talk to them and find out their true feelings. I can honestly say this resident was a great resident and I'm very sad that after all we did for them they still chose to say negative things about the company. All a management company can do is fix any problems that arise or offer to make it right if a problem can't be fixed. It then comes down to the resident to choose to accept that offer. I hope this helps shed some light on what kind of home you will find at the Gates.
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/16/2008
While I don't really want to get into a he said she said, I will say that this does appear to be the former community manager, and as I credited her earlier, she did try to make up for the repetitive failures. Regarding the heat, to this day I do not see how moving all of my belongs and changing over all utilities 2 months after we just moved in is considered a proper remedy. Moreover, I'd be interested to know if management informed the next tenant of the perpetual heat, and whether they'll be honest and offer them a credit for gas they've never used. Regarding the appointments, I had an 18" hole in my ceiling for 4 months. I notified her, and others, that on 3 separate occasions that I would be out of town for days at a time. Each time I was told it would be fixed, and each time we came home we still had an 18" hole (caused, btw, by the gross negligence of our neighbors upstairs, who had 2 of the apparent 11 kids). Finally, Illinois law provides that if tenants are being charged for utilities indirectly (ie - on a pro rata basis by the management company, not directly through the utilities), the management company is required by law to provide tenants with the formula used to calculate their pro rata share. As I'm sure the former manager will attest to, I requested said formula for about 5 months (November through March) and never received it. The fact that the community manager was less of an indictment on her and more proving my point that the office group constantly changed. Like another former tenant posted, I was happy to see I received a monthly rent statement after I moved out, and a full month after I furnished written notification of my intent to not renew. I stand by my statements that I do not recommend living in this community. TB, I continue to maintain that I like you as a person - I think you meant well. The totality of the circumstances (miss appointments, things not getting fixed correctly, things never getting fixed from my move in sheet, sidewalks not getting cleared, etc) caused me to post this, not anything you personally did. Regards, MO

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