Ely Properties

Ely properties is the WORST company I have ever dealt with. We have rented many apartments for all of our college-aged children and these people take advantage of inexperienced and money strapped students. I have never dealt with such rude people in my life and I warn all of you to stay clear of this unethical company. They have not paid us our security deposit and it has been three months! They keep saying it is ""in the mail."" This is not only dishonest, it is illegal! They must, by law, address the security deposit issue within 30 days of moving out. They have been reported to the State Attorney General's Office and the Better Business Bureau. I hope all the people that have suffered abuse from this company do this. And better yet....contact the Student Legal Services at UT! Do something to get rid of this company. Everyone else- stay clear of them or you will be very sorry. Cons: deceitful, unlawful and extremely rude more

I am surprised there are so many complaints about Ely properties and their illegal practices yet they are still in business, cheating unsuspecting college students. We need to do something. If you have been burnt by Ely properties, or are renting one of their properties and fear you will, join the Google Group ""Elycomplaints"" and together we take these people to court. Cons: Don't expect your deposit back more

. Pros: NOTHING. Cons: EVERYTHING. more

Good grief! I'm sitting here reading these reviews scratching my head... Ya'll make them sound like the Devil haha. I've had Ely find me and my friends a place for 3yrs in a row now and have to say I've been truly happy with their services. My agent was professional, responsive and found me exactly what I was looking for each time. Oh ya, and their agents are full-time employees...not students doing this part time, i.e., they know their sh*t! Two thumbs up for Ely. Pros: Professional service, experienced agents. more

I have had the worst experience ever with these guys at Ely Properties. They are HORRIBLE. Every time I try to talk to them about problems I have with my place they treat me like I am 5 years old and don't know anything. I am in college at a great university, I doubt if half of the people here can even read at a high school level. They are constantly trying to rip me off. I know they have a hard job, but whatever happened to common courtesy and treating people, especially your clients with respect? I would not recommend leasing anything from these crooks. Pros: Good at stealing your money and ripping you off Cons: EVERYTHING! more

Do not ever even walk into this office. They are the sleaziest agents I have ever met, they literally told me I had 2 options for apartments in West Campus when I know that is not the case. They tried to push these two properties down my throat and told me I would miss out and be homeless if I didn't choose one of these two crappy places right now. I felt very uncomfortable the entire time and got out of the office as fast as possible.\r I literally felt like I was at a used car lot with the way they talked down to me and tried to make me feel stupid. I ended up going right across the street to Uptown Realty and had a great experience with Russell Cavin from there. He made me feel comfortable and not pressured at all. He assured me that we would find something that would work with my price range and location preferences. He did tell me my price range was a little low for the location but that he knew of a few good places and he was right, we found an awesome duplex that my roommates and I are very excited about living in next year.\r If I have any advice for you about Ely just stay away, they don't care about the people walking in their office and they will talk to you like you are a 5 year old instead of a college educated student. Pros: NOTHING AT ALL. They are the epitome of TERRIBLE AND SLEAZY Cons: EVERYTHING! Don't even step foot in this place. more

These guys are the ABSOLUTE WORST REAL ESTATE AGENCY IN AUSTIN. They are horrible to lease from. They show you awful apartments and convince you that there is nothing else available on the market for your price range. They LIE ABOUT THEIR MAINTENANCE POLICY- they told us all maintenance is included which was fine for the first few times we called but by the 3rd trip the maintenance guys were CHARGING US FOR RIDICULOUS MAINTENANCE ISSUE at exaggerated prices. But the absolute worst experience is that they have LOST OUR RENT CHECKS ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS. Fortunately my roommate has a checkbook with carbon copies as proof. But we have gotten eviction notices at our door!!! They are TERRIBLY MANAGED AND RUDE. And this isn't just my opinion. I have met with students all across UT randomly who have similar complaints. The guy who lived at our apartment before us came back to take pictures fighting false fees and fines taken out of his deposit- he told us all kinds of terrible stories. Our neighbor last year had the same issues. And a random guy I met in a psych experiment had similar horror stories. DON'T RENT FROM THESE GUYS AND WARN EVERYONE YOU KNOW NOT TO!!! THEIR BUSINESS POLICY IS TO CHEAT UT STUDENTS. Pros: NOTHING!!! (We like our neighbors that's it!) Cons: APPLIANCES, FLOORING, LEAKS, PLUMBING, MANAGEMENT, SERVICE, EVERYTHING more

Ely Properties is a sadistic group bent on cheating and bullying their tenants. My experience with them has led to endless frustration. I would not recommend leasing anything from them. The leasing agents are unresponsive, worthless individuals who will do nothing to help their tenants. I never once payed my rent late, and have been lied to, overcharged, and generally treated as a degenerate. Someone should put them out of business, it would be a service to every tenant. Cons: Everything more

I would agree with the previous reviews... Ely Properties makes a profit from taking advantage of students. Do not plan on getting your deposit back in full. They attempted to withhold $1800 of the $2000 deposit.\r This for a triplex that was lived in for 1 year and had 2 sets of parents assisting with the cleaning before move out! This included touching up the walls with paint given to the tenants by the painting contractor for Ely properties as well as thorough cleaning supervised by the parents. Never before have I or my kids ever had a problem getting rental deposits refunded... until we ran into these unethical people.\r \r For over 3 months, my son and his roommates attempted to be treated fairly and finally out of frustration accepted $1100 of their $2000 deposit. After beginning to use paint given to them by the contractor for Ely, they discovered it was a different white so they called Ely Properties and were told to go ahead and use it anyway. Upon moving out, they had $1100 of their deposit withheld and were presented with an invoice for interior painting stating it had been done for ""color change"". Additionally, while the triplex on Franklin was a great property, it was less than perfect upon move in so I took several photos documenting move in state so we would have them as back up when the time came to move out. When Ely sent photos supposedly to justify keeping so much of the deposit, many looked exactly like the photos I had taken. Problem was that they absolutely REFUSED to meet in person although several requestes were made. I finally had to go sit in their office explaining to every person coming in why I was there before they would refund the $1100. IF you chose to rent from them, I would advise that you document in excess with photos and video both before and after of EVERY ROOM. if we could do it over, aside from not using them, I would have INSISTED on a face to face walk through before vacating the property. more

I had a tough time getting myself to rent from Ely Properties, but in the end it was a good decision. The maintenance gentlemen were very nice and got stuff fixed in a timely manner. I would recommend renting from Ely Properties as now I think they have made excellent strides towards fixing some problems that the company had. more

Ely Properties is an embarrassment to Austin. I rented at La Casita for a year. During that time, the following has happened:\r 1) OK, first of all, it's a pretty awful apartment, albeit at a good location and ok price\r 2) They tried to double-charge the application fee\r 3) I received a rude threat for eviction because I had ""not paid rent."" Of course, I had paid rent on time, but they misplaced the check (which HAD cleared my bank)! And no, I didn't even receive an apology.\r 4) My refrigerator never worked, despite 4-5 maintenance attempts\r 5) I got charged for a ac filter that I never asked for\r 6) They send maintenance people without ever notifying you and aren't ashamed of it\r 7) I was overcharged for water for about 6 months and have yet to receive a refund (they share water and had me down as having 3 people in the apartment, even though we only ever had 2)\r 8) Staff does not respond to emails and seems incapable of answering simple questions\r 9) Receptionist is rude and hardly competent\r 10) Every time I visited the office- EVERY TIME- there was someone there with a major, awful complaint to them. At first, I thought everyone was uptight and just complaining, but over time I realized that Ely Properties is just a miserably ran, embarrassing company that thinks it can walk over students.\r \r Please, unless you are a lawyer or law student who can make some money off of their negligence, don't rent from them.\r \r If you are a lawyer, please make it so that they are out of business and out of Austin forever. more

Lived for a year at the Texan Shoal Creek. The build wasn't done when on time, it was 1 week late. They put us in the Hilton downtown and gave us a free month's rent to compensate for the workers coming through to fix things and paint. There were there about 30 days after move-in. The office was cool about making sure everything was done and my agent even call to see if we were happy. They did charge me a late fee in January for not paying rent even though we were out of town and mailed the rent on the 3rd.\r \r Overall the place was what they promised, the hardwoods were real, as opposed to many others on campus that are plastic. The appliances were all new stainless steel. My neighbors were all pretty cool and kept the noise down.\r \r The deposit was $1,000 and we just got back $850 of it. They charged for a maid service and carpet clean, I guess that's pretty fair. Overall, it was a nice place to live, I would have stayed but my parents bought me a condo. Pros: High quality finishes, great location, nice views Cons: West Campus can be loud, pay for parking it's tough otherwise more

I have rented two different properties from Ely Properties in the past and lived in their properties for a total of 5 years. I had nothing but positive experiences with them. They were always nice, professional, and responsive to my maintenance. I have recommended them to quite a few people over the years. more

This is probably the worst decision I have ever made in my life. We can't believe we made this decision, they have been a horrible managment company that is harrassing my roommates and I. YOU WILL NEVER get your deposit back, so please do not think you will get the money you put down back. I live at Texan Shoal Creek which is in shambles, it is still not completed! We have been paying 2100/month for an unfinished apartment and they charge for things like closing our blinds, or having unauthorized guest.The company needs to be shut down for lack of upholding the contract. Read the contract closely, there is a lot of ridiculous stuff in there in the fine print. Please I AM SERIOUS do not rent from ely, what more advice could you want? Cons: Their very existence more

If you must lease from them, read the fine print, document everything in writing, photos, video, eyewitnesses, any thing you can think of. You will need these things when you have to go to court to not only recover your deposit but to deny the additional amounts that they will try to bill you for for their ""make ready"" preparations for the next tenant. My sons were tagged for their deposit and additional charges and were lax on documentation so I, the co-signer, am being hounded by Ely's collection agency for nothing more than ""normal wear and tear."" But my daughter-in-law was wise and won her case against them in small claims court. Be wise. But better yet, stay away from Ely altogether. They are in business to make money any way they can. They are not your friends.\r \r more

I would never recommend this outfit to anyone. Ely Properties bought our little duplex halfway during our contract -- and never informed us for several months. We found out what had gone down when we got a rude note taped to the door about our rent being late, since the old landlord hadn't forwarded them our check as speedily as they wanted. It was all downhill from there. Some of our utilities had been included in the rent; once they took over Ely never paid them and we had constant issues with utilities being turned off, which the Ely staff blamed on homeless people tampering with the meter (no, I'm not kidding). It took multiple visits with the really rude staff, the UT ombudsman's office, and a city inspector to get things straightened out. You can bet we were out of there as fast as the contract was up! more

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Their management was the worst I ever had. The staff was rude. For example, my apartment was shown a couple of times without my permission. One time when they came I was sleeping and didn't notice them knocking my door. Then they assumed nobody was there and came in! I woke up hearing them talking and came out of my room and found the ely person showing my living room to someone. He just said ""sorry"" and kept showing inside, and then left. \r Also when I went back from winter vacation in January and checked my mailbox I found a letter from ely properties saying that this was the final notice and my unit would be pre-leased unless I contact them immediately. The letter also said that they wouldn't notify me if they pre-lease my unit. That letter was sent 10 days before so my roommate and I went to the office soon to renew our lease. But they said they already pre-leased our unit. We complained that the letter said ""final notice"" but we didn't receive any other notices that informed us of renewal deadline before. Then they said that was the only notice they gave us. This is ridiculous. They gave us the ""first and final"" notice only and then pre-leased our unit to somebody else without telling us anything!\r Besides, at their office there is always one woman helping people coming in and answering phone at the same time, and you always have to wait to ask just a quick question. NEVER use ely properties! Cons: rude staff, slaw service, worst management more

I live at the Texan Shoal Creek, which was built in the summer of 2007. On top of being ridiculously over-priced, we didn't move in until a week after classes started in September. Even then, we were living in a construction zone for practically the entire fall semester. I woke up to drilling and hammering at least five days a week, had random electrical men let themselves into my apartment (even when I was inside it!) several times, and had a skate ramp filled with the construction guys' fast food trash for a swimming pool. To this day, our floor, as well as that of some of our neighbors, is sill missing planks of wood here and there.\r \r My roommate and I came back from the winter holidays, after being gone and leaving the place empty for nearly a full month, and found an electric bill for $16 dollars higher than the highest bill we'd ever had before... WHILE INHABITING THE APARTMENT. What gives, you ask? It seems maintenance came in during our vacation to change water pressure settings on the bathroom faucets... and left lights and fans on that we KNOW were turned off by us. Not only that, we have never been left notices stating that maintenance had been in our apartment while we were gone, although all signs point to the fact that they obviously had been here, and the lease explicitly states that such a notice must be left in a conspicuous place.\r \r We just got a $20 bill for an AC filter that was changed... we didn't even know they'd changed it, so much for having actually requested this service... and don't those things cost about a dollar?\r \r I lost my parking permit. I knew Ely would do what they could to squeeze at least a few extra bucks out of me... they charged me FORTY DOLLARS. \r \r I remember reading reviews like these a year ago and turning a blind eye, thinking everyone was probably just being melodramatic. I now know how foolish I was and how horribly right everyone else was.\r \r NEVER, EVER RENT FROM ELY. \r PASS ON THE WORD.\r \r Pros: They pretty much monopolize West Campus... difficult to avoid them (but not impossible). Cons: terribly incompetent & rude employees and even managers, unresponsive to maintenance requests, constant invasion of privacy, pricy, everything is always broken in even the new buildings more

Their agents are only there to make money. The first bad experience I had with them was when I was looking for an apartment. After showing us some horrid units, they walked us into a building they owned at the time(Oxford Place, I don't know if it's changed name) and showed us a decent unit, nothing special but decent in comparison. So, we opted for the place. After signing the pre-lease and paying the security deposit, we were contacted by them only to find out that we weren't going to get the place because the currently tenant had renewed (after finding out we signed for the place). We then had to drive back to Austin from Houston to look at another unit in the same building. We were shown a different unit that only had about half of the living room the other one had and half of the bedroom the other one had. I pointed out that we were paying the same price for basically half the unit and he had the decency to tell me, ""Oh, the other guy had a lamp right there. That's why it looked bigger."" No sir, it was twice as big. Period. We asked if there were any other units anywhere else to look at and he simply said no. And that was the end of our meeting. Well, we went elsewhere and found a really nice unit that we rented instead. As it turns out, Ely owns the place. So, for the past two years, we have been with them. Please watch your rent due date because they love to throw on the late fee. The receptionist isn't friendly nor eager to help you any. My apartment has been shown many times without my permission. I have an alarm set for when I leave town for vacation. It went off in the summer and Brinks called us to say someone entered through the front door. We left everything there since we renewed. So, needless to say we drove all the way to Austin to find that someone had shown the place without our permission, gave a quick tour of the place, and left before the cops showed. It happened again this semester. They never called to tell us that they went through. Pros: They work hard to get your money. Cons: service, response, rude, communication is horrible, maintainence, management more