John C. R. Kelly Realty Inc

Avoid at all costs... I have been renting from them for 5 years and it gets worse every year, but yet the rent goes up. It's a shame because the apartment is beautiful, once you get past the plaster walls that might crumble at any moment and the cracking wood floor that my bed might fall for. Don't expect them to come fix anything either or be polite to you. They may raise your rent every year, but they won't do anything more for you. If you don't want a giant headache, I would find another place to live. more

This was the worst apartment that I have ever lived in. From the floor boards that are falling through (which were not fixed after a year), to the flood in our kitchen from a burst pipe (that was taken care of by my grandpa cause they were busy) to the heater that makes banging noises (took the landlord 5 months of constant calling to fix), to the fridge that is super noisy, to the basement door which is basically held together with wood, these are the worst people to rent from. more

While attending the University of Pittsburgh, 3 girls and myself rented a 4 bedroom apartment from John CR Kelly in Oakland. It started out to be a great place and then we had no heat.. and they did no care.... then we had no hot water.. they still did not care. They would send a maintenance person over that was over 100 years old who could not get up the stairs and said that he had fixed it. We had to report it to the health departement and they finally ( in the spring.. after we no longer needed the heat) put in electric heaters along the walls and we did get an air conditioner out it as well.. so that was nice but then we had to pay for the heat and air which the lease said was included.... I said I would never rent from them again. more

I left Bellwood Apt. in Aug. Because some mistake my bank still send the $960 monthly rent to John CR Kelly realty Inc. I called the company couple times told them about this and let the company do not withdraw the check. After a month the company cashed my check and refused to return the check to me. When I called them, the lady who 's name is Marian was very mean and told me I owned her money.After I left the apt., I did not get my $500 deposit back. Now she even said I own her money. I asked her to tell me the reason why I own her money. She said I won't tell you. I email you. I think it's because she got my $960 in her hand, then she thinks a lot of reasons for not returning my money. I have to give one star to post this review. Otherwise I will give zero star for the horrible company. What a horrible place! Stay away form this realty company if you want your deposit back . more

I've had two personal experiences with Kelly and can relay one experience from a close friend who rented from them. My two personal experiences renting from them were pretty good. I was in a house on Sherbrook St. in Squirell Hill and an apartment on Munhall Rd. in Squirrel Hill. My friend's experience was on Atwood St. in Oakland. For my Sherbrook experience, the thing that impressed me most was that they were willing to run a gas line for a gas dryer we had and installed grounded outlets near our washer. The house was old and not updated to three pronged grounded outlets everywhere so that is why this was required. I think they even installed new fuse boxes at this time as well? There were clean carpets and painted walls when we moved in which was a huge change over my other experiences renting from landlords who operate private gigs in Oakland. Heat was ridiculous but rent was cheap so it offset. The Munhall Rd. apartment had heat included and was great. My wife and I were one of the first ones in this recently acquired building and Kelly really did a lot to fix it up over the time we were there included adding additional outlets and upgrading the existing outlets, and installing an electric baseboard heater in the bedrooms in case the boiler ever went down. The maintenance man was also great. We dealt primarily with Tom at Kelly and he is extremely nice. The advice I have for people looking for an apartment in Oakland is set your sights low or be prepared to shell out big bucs or don't live in Oakland. I can't really blame Kelly if they have become callous towards their Oakland properties and while I can't refute the poor track record with maintenance in that particular area since two friends have affirmed it, I will say that I'm sure they get there fair share of the raw end of the deal in Oakland. Oakland is great for the college atmosphere but its not really a place to ""live"". If you want a place to live go to almost anywhere else and ride the bus or ride a bike. more

I've been ready to cut ties when I called to report a leek and they assumed I was a college kid who got drunk and punched a hole in the wall. How about 10 years in the service? I was ready to brawl. When their agent looks fresh out of college with no life experience or professional tact. The kicker is, this business is gonna rent their units regardless. As much as I'd love to see them sit vacant, they've got good demand in a low supply area. Hey if you guys decide to ever come fix this wall before winter, tell your little punk agent to bring over the materials because I got some words for him too. Other than that, don't plan on taking it out of my security deposit for your poorly designed apartment. I've been keeping and making records for your degenerate team to ponder and send to the lawyers. more

DO NOT RENT FROM THEM! I have been living here for a little over a year now, and in that time 3 different tenants have had their mail stolen. Each tenant requested over the phone that the realty company AT LEAST consider putting up security cameras to determine if the problem was external or internal, and each time their response was ""that's just not possible."" It became obvious that the reason for not installing better security measures was for financial reasons over anything else. This company's greed will come back and haunt them one day. It's ridiculous. How many times does the police have to file a report for a federal violation before they will act on this problem?? more

They do false appetizing , This business is comprised of the worst people that I have ever had to deal with as well as the worst apartments apartments and maintenance . They will find any excuse to keep most of your deposit . Avoid renting from them at all ... they took total advantage of me more

I usually don't post reviews but while looking up the number for the Rental Office, I noticed that Bob was getting slammed with bad reviews that do not reflect my positive experience with Kelly Realty. more

First off, in response to JCR Kelly's post, the reason there are no complains they know about it because they do not record, keep, or act on any complaints made to them by tenants. The negative reviews probably represent at least half of the students that rent from this realty company. I know many people on campus that rent from them and feel the same way as all of these comments. When I first moved into my apartment, it was not cleaned at all. I had to have the carpet steam cleaned myself and there was old food left in the cabinets. Cigarettes were shoved into the heating vents and ceiling tiles were covered in smoke residue. The electric bill during the winter months is completely unreasonable as the walls of the building have no insulation and the windows constantly leak cold air inside. There have been multiple times where I have not been notified before my apartment was to be shown and the rude, degrading agent blamed it on me, when it was proven that the realty company had not updated the phone records from the previous tenant. I have called the realty company in order to complain about the tenant above me lighting fire to the building and my outside windows as well as destruction to the stairs and main entrance to the building and nothing was done about it. There are so many nicer and less expensive apartments in Pittsburgh so please do not rent from this realty company. You will regret it, as has everyone I have talked to that has lived in one of their buildings. more

John C. R. Kelly Realty, Inc. has been managing property since 1966. We currently manage over 1,000 rental units. Many thousands of people have rented from us in this time and have no complaints of our service and the quality of our apartments. Our apartments and townhomes are some of the best in the City of Pittsburgh. more

Coming from a tenant who not only paid each month's rent on time, but also early, this rental company is unprofessional and concerned mostly with making a maximum profit from students. First, anyone renting in this building should know that the heat is entirely electric. Since the building has little to no insulation, our heat bills have been $200+ per month for two bedrooms, and we have the internal thermostat set to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Second, the rental company's response to maintenance problems has been nonexistent. I believe that either all of the tenants' water pipes are connected or that the valves on the faucets are very old, because we have very little control over the temperature of any of our water. After water from the shower scalded my hand while I was grabbing a bottle of shampoo, I called on 1/30/10 to see if the problem could be fixed. I was assured that someone would be over to look at it. No one came, or if anyone did come, I did not receive a response as to whether it could be fixed. I called again on 02/04/10 and spoke to Bob, who said that the maintenance man doesn't like to travel all the way to Oakland, but that he would have him look at it the next day. Again, no one came, or if anyone did come, I did not receive a response. I called again on 02/13/10 to alert them to a problem with a lack of hot water, which I had been checking on the hour every hour for four hours, and again, no one came, or if anyone did come, I did not receive a response. I have also tried including notes with the rent check to hopefully reach another person in the office more attuned to fixing these issues, but it has been to no avail. Third, we do not have blinds on our front window, where people can see in from the street. Fourth, our refrigerator does not have a handle and is missing a foot, so it rocks back and forth. Fifth, both the wood of our kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets has rotted so that the bottom of the cabinet is actually the floor. I would definitely not recommend this rental company to anyone. Cons: Read below more

This realty company is absolutely horrible. Ok. Let's start with the good. I really love my Studio apartment. It had high ceilings, a great brick wall. It was eye pleasing. SMALL, it's a studio so...whatever. NOW BAD. The realtor is HORRIBLE. 1. I had to clean my own carpet when I moved in. 2. The shower is terrible. It would be scalding hot all the sudden for 2-3 minute intervals, which is a lot longer than it seems when you're mid-way shower with soap in your eyes. The water temperature fluctuates A LOT. I called the realtor several times and then put it in writing until they finally did something (6 months into my living there). All they did was replace the shower knobs and nozzle. That did not fix the problem. I called several more times. IT NEVER GOT FIXED. It is a health and safety issue. My skin would turn RED if I didn't get out of the hot water quick enough. Hot then cold then lukewarm then cold then HOT 3. My apartment was broken into in December 08. I don't blame the realtor for this, BUT. I called the emergency line (i found out at 2AM) and told them what happened. They told me they would send someone over to fix my lock. I told them to contact the tenants of the TWO other apartments that were broken into. They said to me "" The tenant's information is in the locked office."" WOW your tenants got robbed and you will not tell them. I had to facebook those tenants (finding their names on the mailboxes) in order to let them know they were robbed. After an hour, I called the emergency line again to see when the guy was coming to fix my lock. This is when they told me they couldn't get a new lock until the next day. I stayed in an apartment (with no lock) in the city for the whole night until 2PM the next day. That is 12 hours of no security. Luckily, a friend stayed with me. The realtor flat out does not care if you get burned by their shower, or if you got robbed. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Don't rent from here, it's soo disappointing. Pros: Nice Studio Apartment. CLOSE to Univ. of Pitt. Cons: Realty Communication is horrible. Laundry dryers. etc more

Very underhanded and greedy. John CR Kelly is comprised of the worst people that I have ever had to deal with in any of my apartments. The 'accountant' called and yelled at us many times for mistakes that she made (forgot to record our rent and accused us of not paying). Our lease is up August 15th instead of being a full month, so I paid half a month's rent and they are now trying to charge for a full month even though they are the ones who said that I could not live there a whole month. Also, they breached our lease by throwing my roommate's stuff out before the lease was up and just said ""let's forget about that and get past it"". Total crooks. Pros: Variety and locatioin of apartments Cons: employees, customer care, very greedy and underhanded more

On the date of Sept. 1, 2007 I moved out of my apartment as per the lease agreement. I was contacted about the security deposit two weeks later stating that the final water bill and sewage bill needed to be paid. I paid the final water bill. The sewage bill was not going to be released for 3 months. Although I was more than willing to pay it no one including the real-estate company where willing to do anything about it. I contacted the John C. R. Kelly on several occasions to settle this issue they continued to direct me to the sewage company. Now after 2 months I have yet to receive my deposit. I recently contacted John C. R. Kelly and was told that finally they would handle it. The lady I spoke then told me that she had just recently done the same thing for another tenant that I had been asking her to do for 2 months. Then I told her I would call her back Monday she told me, ?No, I will call you because you don?t know what time I will contact them and I don?t need you nagging me."" On top of all of that I was charged to have a carpet professionally cleaned when I wasn't even consulted on how much the service would cost or if the best price was chosen. I will be filling a complaint with the local Attorney Generals Office this could have been solved two months ago. Pros: Clean Well taken care of apartments. Based on where I lived. Cons: Refuse to resolve and issue for two months that could have been settled long time ago. more

...places I could find was a one-bedroom from these guys. It was in a small, converted office building in Polish Hill. Gas was included which was a perk. Otherwise, they were quick to penalize on a late payment (which only happened once or twice in two years). I was also charged the standard move-out fees for things like carpet cleaning and painting; though I did shampoo the carpet, I understand them bringing in a professional. My gripe is I patched holes and repainted the place myself before moving out, and I was still charged for repainting. I should have taken pictures when I first moved in and when I moved out--I left it in better, cleaner condition that I received it! Pros: Many properties Cons: Greedy more