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Excellent place to live, but beware of University Realty
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
8/9/2005
Years at this apartment:
2002
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2005
4 responses
The exterior of Greenwood Towers might not win any beauty pageants, but the interior (especially after undergoing recent renovations) is more than worth the average price for its location, amenities, and city living. Many people who live in Greenwood Towers really, really like it and find having lived there a positive experience.
Although it is an excellent choice, there is one major caveat to living in Greenwood Towers that any person who is thinking about living there must consider (if it applies to them): University Realty.
If you're looking to sign a lease with an individual owner in GT, congratulations--I have heard no complaints about individual owners in all my time in the building (about 2.5 years). Consider yourself lucky, you'll love the place...and you need read no further.
However, if you're thinking about leasing a unit from University Realty in GT, it would be in your best interest to continue reading.
Greenwood Towers is a condominium building, so many units are owned and lived in by the owners, some are owned by individuals who lease them out, and many are owned and leased out by property management companies (and in some cases leased on others' behalves by them, also). University Realty is the largest of these and by far has the most units in Greenwood Towers.
University Realty is notorious ('notorious' cannot be overemphasized, though it sounds a little exaggerated at first glance, I admit) in Greenwood Towers for their unprofessionalism, aggressive pre-leasing tactics, and overall seeming disregard for their tenants' happiness (the terms of service of this website prohibit me from going into further detail about a particular person who runs University Realty, the actual cause of every one of these complaints).
Many people in the building love GT, but they prefer to rent from individuals who are much better landlords than University Realty. These people often move within the building and divorce themselves of University Realty if they first found GT by renting through them. Others simply cannot find an available non-UR unit, and these people move out rather than continue their relationship with University Realty (myself included).
Some details on University Realty:
University Realty aggressively "pre-leases" just a few months into a year lease (to my knowledge, year leases are mandatory with them). For instance, if you signed a lease with UR in August, in December they'll send you a note to "pre-lease." If you ask to wait (because you've only been living there a few months--who knows where you'll be eight months from now'), they'll inform you in no uncertain terms they will try to find someone else to live there in the meantime. In other words, for the next eight months you will live under constant threat of people coming in and out of your apartment and of possibly losing the place you've only lived in for a few months (or longer, depending how early they can find someone with whom to "pre-lease" it out from under you). But it gets worse.
Often they do not give advanced notice of these visits (even when you ask for it), and sometimes they don't leave a note stating they've been in your apartment (yes, this violates any standard lease). This happened to me on three separate occasions about which I am absolutely positive (and who knows how many more). This also happened to one other person of which I am aware (and who knows how many more).
The list goes on and on. Simply put, every single person--literally--I know who has leased from University Realty has had an unusually unpleasant experience with them and has nothing nice to say about UR whatsoever. UR has many prime properties near UT, so maybe they're aware how poorly their previous tenants think of them, but it doesn't matter b/c there will always be thousands of people going to UT, thousands of new people every year who have not heard of University Realty...
It is my intention writing this to better inform some of those people to prevent them from my (and some of my fellow GT residents, past and present) experience with University Realty.
Please note: I have otherwise had pleasant, normal experiences with other property management companies. This is not a bitter diatribe as such against University Realty on a whim from a vindictive person with nothing better to do; rather, it is my attempt to warn people the way I wish I had been before I signed a lease with University Realty, and to better inform their decision.
So, if you'd like to live in Greenwood Towers but the unit you're considering is through University Realty, it would be wise to explore this subject further--come at night (when you can be sure to find people in the lobby) and ask around.
...You will definitely hear more.
Good luck.
(My apologies for not saying more about GT itself; that wasn't the purpose of my writing this. If you want to know more about GT, come at night after nine and take a look around, talk to the people milling around in the lobby...
Overall, it's a great place to live--great residents of all ages, great neighborhood, great that you don't pay electricity and that it's GreenChoice, great night attendants, great day guy in the office, stellar location.)
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User Responses
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From:
msbak883
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Date:
01/25/2006
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I second everything you said about University Realty. I rented a different apt from them 2 yrs ago and they were TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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From:
kwdavis
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Date:
06/26/2006
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There is not enough to be said about UR. They are absolutly terrible. If you decide to live there, you are doing so at your own risk. My person story is that they would not clean my condo of asbestos after there had been damage to the ceiling. They told me everything was "OK" and that I should just move in. Reckless disregard for their tennants and the president is a terrible person. A complete slime-ball who, as far as I can tell, only cares about the bottom line. DO NOT RENT FROM UNIV. REALTY!
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From:
niswift6-1
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Date:
10/14/2006
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wow, thank you so much for all of the input, and I greatly appreciate the insight and time you put into this for the benefit of everyone.
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From:
Anonymous
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Date:
04/02/2008
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Wow thanks so much for that inside info, here's to one less person not falling for UR's scheme.
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Disclaimer: No attempt has been made to verify or assure the accuracy of the claims made by the author of this opinion or responses. You must judge the truthfulness of any review and accept responsibility for your use of this information.
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