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changeit20 · 4 years

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First Site Review

Oh where to even start with this company...I never write reviews but this one had to be written. This will be long but I assure you its worth the read. I will try to go in order of what issues I had throughout my lease along with an overall summary at the bottom and a note to the owner who replies to these reviews.

1. Whenever I had to talk to a First Site employee I was always talked down to, and they treated me as if I didn't know anything. Always had an undertone of "mommy or daddy" handles everything so I can't possibly know what I am talking about. This is evident when going through the leasing process. Whenever I asked a question about the lease they would brush it off and just say “everything is handled this is a very easy process no need to ask these questions” I didn't sign it immediately as they so desperately try to do with other students. My roommates resigned and they assured us the apartment was ours as long as we signed the paperwork on Friday (This was told to us on Wednesday) Friday morning comes along and we go to sign. They told us the apartment was already rented out to someone else yesterday (Thursday). We told them on Wednesday that none of us could sign that day and wouldn't until Friday as our schedules were booked. They assured us repeatedly that we would have the apartment because we were resigning and were good lessees. When we were obviously perplexed as to why it was signed away. Their reasoning was they didn't have to wait on them and signed within hours of viewing pictures online.

The lack of professionalism is astonishing. Not sure if they do not communicate between each other, lack training, or simply make rules up as they go. Another example is you could ask a simple question and receive a different answer from every single one of their employees. I went in and called them (I kid you not) 10 times asking about my parking pass that was included in my lease. They were dismissive and clearly fed up with me consistently asking. I finally was told to go to Joes Towing to get it. When I got there a few minutes later the lady was frustrated that they sent me to their office. She did not have my pass. Even she was annoyed with them as this was not the first time they did this to someone. It took one call from her and they finally disclosed where to actually get it. Mind you this was the same person working that told me to go to the towing office. This was not the first or last time I had to go in circles to get the right or proper information. If you ask them something PLEASE get it in writing and the name of the worker so you can defend yourself. If you tell them you were told differently you WILL be called a liar or simply just "misremembering" as they "would never" tell someone false information...ugh please.

They treat you as if you were a child. When I first moved in I was given one key. This key was meant to be the front door key. The key they gave me looked like the stairwell key. I did not say anything at the time and assumed they changed the locks to the door. When I went up unlock my apartment the key didn't fit. I went to check if it worked for the stairwell and it did! I went back to the office and asked for the front door key. I was belittled and treated as if I was dumb.

"Are you sure you did it right?" "Do you even know how to open a door with a key?" "That is the right key, you clearly did it wrong" "That is the front door key" "Did you even go to the right apartment? Did you go to [redacted]? Are you sure it was apartment number [redacted]? Do you know your numbers?"

He then told another worker to go with me to "show me how to use the key right" The other worker, bless his soul, knew that the key I had was the stairwell key so he got the master key as well. I am grateful he apologized on behalf of the other worker. The way that worker talked to me was despicable.

Hire more personable and competent workers as this worker was also the one who gave me false information about the parking pass and has always been hostile towards me. I have talked to FirstSite about this worker and I was simply told it won't happen again.

They only care about money. They offer a program where you can defer payments until your student loan comes in and you are able to pay rent. I asked when the due date was to fill out the form and was told I had a week to do it. I filled it out 2 days later and called again to ask a question, they told me that the date had already passed by over 2 weeks. I told them that I had a week of time left because that is what a different employee told me. They said they couldn’t do anything and I needed to pay. I waited another 2 days and called again. I was told I still had time and it wasn’t until the end of the month. I turned in the paperwork that day. A few days go by and I was told that I was too late as the due date passed by a week. After talking to this agent and the manager I was told I needed to pay and if I didn’t pay within 5 days after the 5 day grace period they would start the eviction process. I told them I wouldn’t be able to pay until a day or two after the grace period because of my financial situtation and if it was possible to waive the late fees for that. I thought that was reasonable as multiple workers told me lies and caused me to go in financial distress in order to pay for the months I would have had deferred. They refused to help me in any sort of way. I have worked in the rental business and a good company would try and work with someone in my situation after everything. I would still pay, just not within the grace period. They were rude to me and said I still needed to pay the rent and late fees. Each time I was late I and my roommates would be harassed with text messages saying I NEEDED to pay, and multiple threats of eviction.

What really pisses me off is that my roommate during our lease couldn’t pay for a few months, and yet no threat of eviction was given to her! They said she had something like 30-60 days to pay. They were sympathetic to her and understood her situation. Also I only received ONE text message about it. How come I was not given that same response??? Was it because she was white and I was not? Again the level of professionalism of their employees is sub par. They do not have good customer service AT ALL. It is basically non existent.

2. First Site is obsessed with renting out their apartments as fast as possible. They start their rental process extremely early and pressures students to find an apartment for next year quickly because they rent out fast. They can show your apartment to potential renters. I lived above their office, I can not say if they do this to other locations but they would send out a text to each person living in the apartment stating they are going to show it to people within 10-15 minutes. That in itself is outrageous. Typically lessors should give at least a 24 hour warning before showcasing the apartment. This is to assure the renters have privacy, can clean up and make it presentable, not have a ton of guests etc. But because we were right above their office we were never given that absurd 10-15 minute window. It was always 5 minutes or less.

How is that okay???? I have been in the shower or freshly out of the shower multiple times when they came in. It happened so many times I thought they wanted to see me naked. It is extremely uncomfortable to run from the shower to close my bedroom door while its being opened by the leasing agent all while naked because I did not hear them. If I was given more of a warning of the apartment showing I obviously wouldn’t hop in the shower. I checked my phone when I closed my door and their warning message was sent to me 7 minutes prior. THAT IS INSANE.

My roommates and I felt violated and felt like we had zero privacy as they just waltzed in whenever they felt like it. Many times I wouldn’t get the text until they were already knocking at my door. They always came at the WORST times. Either someone was showering, we were cleaning, cooking, sleeping etc. Our apartment didn’t rent out fast so we had to deal with this for MONTHS. And they never changed anything.

First Site should refuse same day apartment showings for walk ins. Their website offers a schedule showing option. I have never used it but they should make sure they do not allow people to view an apartment less than 24 hours of booking. This would solve the major issue I had. My roommates and I expressed our concern about this and we were told that they simply just have to rent out the apartment for it to stop and the texts were sufficient. 15 minutes or less IS NOT ENOUGH TIME. WE DESERVE PRIVACY.

This is the part that a lot of people have been reviewing about. Filter the reviews from lowest rating and you will see.

3. The move out process is predatory. It is designed to assure you do not get your deposit back. If you do get any money back, it will be enough to get you a fast food meal. Each person on the lease will have a security deposit. Anything they deduct from it will come out of every single person’s deposit regardless of who did the damages. Their form and method of inspecting the apartment is rigged. They will simultaneously nitpick and glance over every part of the apartment. The form they used is rigged because if one box labeled as a deep clean is checked, then your deposit is hit with the max amount. A deep clean depending on the apartment size is an automatic $100-$235. So it does not matter if there is a tiny amount of cleaning like a simple wipe down or a large amount like an actual deep clean scrub, it’s viewed as the same. Here is what the form looks like for the Kitchen:

[ ] **Clean inside/outside/sides of Stove

[ ] ** Clean top & underneath Stove top

[ ] Pull out stove & clean floor under stove

[ ] ** Clean top and underneath range hood/microwave

[ ] **Clean broiler

[ ] Clean all ceiling fans & light fixtures

[ ] ** Clean inside & outside of refrigerator

[ ] ** Clean inside & outside of microwave

[ ] Clean inside and outside of all cabinets

[ ] ** Clean inside and outside of dishwasher

[ ] Clean and wipe down countertops

[ ] Clean all light switches & outlet covers

[ ] Clean & mop floor

[ ] Clean out pantry

[ ] Clean bar stools/table & chairs

the ** parts are labeled as a deep clean. When they inspected the kitchen they automatically checked these before viewing the kitchen. When I commented on that they then spent extra time trying to find reasons to justify it. The microwave justification was 3 specks of the inside corner of it. They did not check the underneath it yet it stayed checked. They did not open the dishwasher but it was checked. Regardless if was spotless or had a minuscule speck of dirt, if a box with the double asterisk was checked the entire apartment was automatically considered a deep clean. It says on the from as well

“If a box is checked then the required cleaning was NOT completed by the tenant.

** Failure to clean any appliance and/or shower/tub will result in a heavy clean charged to the tenant”

Now I will admit that the inside of our oven needed cleaning as something on the base of it would not come off. That is one part I will agree to it being justified.

But they just mark these boxes for any small reason. For the bedroom the desk and dresser is combined into one box. It was checked because there was a TINY piece of paper that came off of the paper towel used to wipe it down on the bottom half of the desk. They took a picture of it and used that as their evidence that we did not clean it. I am talking half an inch in size. I said I could just pick that up after they took the picture as it was so tiny and the desk wasn’t dirty so it shouldn’t be marked as so. It still ended up marked and the picture was in our final move out form lol.

Example of Bedroom:

[ ] Clean all ceiling fans & light fixtures

[ ] Clean and wipe down inside and outside of desk/dresser

[ ] Clean and wipe down all baseboards

[ ] Clean all windows (glass, sills, frames)

[ ] Clean closet and all shelving

[ ] Vacuum carpet

What is also annoying is the carpet section. Not only was the vacuum carpet section checked (When you can CLEARLY see the vacuum marks, and they came by 40 minutes before our appointment asking if we were ready and would want to do the move out early, they said sorry for knocking loudly as they could hear us VACUUMING and wanted to make sure we heard instead of just unlocking the door) That is just dumb.

They have a carpet cleaning section. In this section there are 3 options.

No carpet shampoo needed

Carpet shampoo needed

Strip and seal (wax) needed

They will charge you $45-$89 dollars if you did not have it shampooed yourself. Which is so stupid because their sales pitch is “we have professional cleaners deep clean the apartment so it is move in ready for you” They say that they have the carpet shampooed after each tenant, so why should we have to pay for it if they allegedly do that after every lease?

If they find pinholes in your walls they will mark it down for painting. That is an automatic $100-$225 fine. The painting fine is automatically applied regardless if it is one wall or the whole apartment.

What pisses me off is that they do not do these cleanings that they mark in these move outs. When we moved in, there was dust, dirt and grime everywhere, previous pin holes in the walls, marks on the bathroom floor, paint chips on the wall etc. The appliances were not cleaned, I could see the grease left on it from the previous tenants. The carpet was 100% NOT cleaned. I vacuumed my room 5 times in a row and each time my vacuum was FILLED with dust hair etc. And yet they heavily charge you for these exact reasons. The showers were gross. Red and brown build up, the shower doors weren’t wiped down. My toilet had this brown/black sludge on the bottom outside bowl that had to be there for a while because even when I cleaned it with bleach and other cleaning supplies, it left a stain. I have no idea what it was but I was extremely grossed out. A “deep clean” wouldn’t leave that.

Now I am not stating that I am perfect. There were a few things that needed to be cleaned. What I wish First Site would do is deduct the damage costs based on who lived in what room. A majority of our deductions were in a roommates room. I shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Now stuff in the common areas I think is fair to distribute the costs between everyone. I do not agree with their nitpicking. They want you to leave the apartment 20X better than you got it. And if you didn’t get your own pictures during the move in inspection they can claim [allegedly] it wasn’t there before and you did it and its their word agains yours. Now again I am not stating my apartment was perfect upon move out, what I am stating is that the way they handle this move out and they way they charge is isn’t right.

Basically if you want to sign with them, take two days to fully look at every single detail of your apartment and take photographic evidence of it and send it to a manager or the owner so they also have the photos. Do not expect any amount of your deposit back. ( I have a feeling that they might get commission for marking it as a heavy clean.) If you want any amount of it back, it should sparkle and not have one speck dirt. Take spongebob’s episode sb-129, everything is chrome in the future, make sure your apartment is like that too!! Do not think you will be treated as an adult. I am in my mid 20′s and was talked down like I was 12 years old. You will receive different responses/answers to simple questions from each person as they do not communicate with each other or maybe they don’t care to look up the actual rule/regulation and just say whatever they want. The only redeeming quality is their maintenance team. Any time I have interacted with them has been pleasant and they are very nice people. I wish first site would hire more people like them.

I don’t know if the actual owner replies to these google reviews, but you can clearly see how “professional” they are. I have gone in and discussed my issues to you, so don’t reply with that. You don’t seem to take any of these negative reviews as a serious matter nor care to change the ways of your company and your employee’s behaviors. I dare you to reply to this review with something other than your 4 same responses. I already came in and discussed the issues. A “thank you” reply to a negative review is simply passive aggressive. You sound like Trump when you state any negative review is “fake news” or a “fake review.” The only fake reviews are the 5 star review that you tell people to leave so they can get a free t-shirt, gift card or another incentive. Also I clearly do not have my name public on this review so don’t even try to say that “you have no record of me” and therefore my review is “fake.” How can this level of detail be fake love? Why would I spend my time writing a fake review? Also your empty threats of posting the move out inspections of people so “the google world can see” is just laughable. If you could do that, you would have already lol. The responses you give make you seem like an immature child who can not take any criticism and simply deflects it. Your awards of being one of the best in Bloomington doesn’t have any real credit to it as you monopolize the city and are 1 of, what, 3 realtors for students? Here is a link to their replies incase they delete them or if they say I am “making this up” https://imgur.com/a/V154UuN and gives proof of these repetitive replies I stated above. I have stated my issues and ways you can improve. So why don’t you actually implement some changes for once?

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