First Site LTD

Do not rent from Frist Site, unless you want a ripp off with your security deposit, and you don't mind your maintenance request being ignored. I rented from first site (in CrestWood apartment, Vernon Ave, 404) and left my apartment in mint condition. Intensive cleaning, whashing bathroom and floors, carpet cleaning, etc... Nothing beyond very light normal wear and tear. I spent days making sure everything was clean and neat. Long story short, they took my $350 security deposit. They were so spectacular in their rip-off that even though I took my microwave with me and there was no microwave left in the appartment, nevetheless, they comunicated in writing they used my money to clean the microwave and ""other dirty left over in the house"". I told got in contact with the office and informed Katie Coldwell about my issue, but I still don't have an answer from them, even though it's been more than six month since I moved. My only purpose in writing this is to put my warning out there to make sure others make an informed decision! more

This place is terrible. I only signed with them because my roommate and I were in a pinch to find a new place and our friend was a leasing agent with the company - wish we wouldn't have. We ended up subleasing our apartment after a few months. Our sublessee paid rent and everything on time but didn't pay the maintenance fees when he moved out (which btw, were ridiculous - $600+ to paint the walls? Yeah right.) Neither my old roommate or I ever heard about this outstanding bill until we got a summons to court!! First Site never sent anything to us and never attempted to call us and instead just decided to take us to court. We ended up settling on the original amount of the bill and they are now going after the sublessee. The bottom line is they are completely unprofessional and are out to get whatever they can from you. If they were a decent company, someone would've at least attempted to contact us before taking us to court. I wouldn't ever rent from them even if they were your only choice. Better to stay with friends or family and look for a decent place than rent with these jerks. more

Some of the apartments are nice, staff is okay but if you are considering first site as a landlord, make sure you get everything in writing because they will promise you for many things and not deliver. we kept our apartment clean n neat, as just 2 people were living there, n me n my hubby, no messy kids so left the apartment in better condition when we're moving out, but did not receive our $300 security deposit that we were told we would receive. Instead of returning deposit, they charged us extra 200$ for nothing. I totally lost my mind, when we wasted 500$ for nothing. One of my friend has lost his $2000 for this agency. Can you believe! Nobody will cost this much or cleaning n maintaince cost. Everyone who are living there are worried with the rent also, as they increases rent yearly by 100$. In 2007 we're paying 689$ for 2 bhk apt. and in 2010 we paid 789$ for the same. :(( That's why we thought to change apt. more

First off I want to say, when I rented from First Site I was completely aware of all their bad reviews, my thoughts on it were ""Oh, there's always bad experiences with everything, I'm sure we'll be fine!"" And we were for a little over a year, despite a few minor things. But this last June we signed a new lease, with the clause if my fiance found a job in another city we could move with a 2 month notice. And of course he got a job offer 2 days after we signed our new lease- so we put in our 2 month notice with our leasing manager and we agreed upon the option that if he could show our apartment and try to rent it (only showing it until the first week of July) that we could move out in 1 month rather than 2, so we wouldn't have to end up possibly paying our last months rent and a new apartments rent at the same time. We even signed our exiting agreement ""tentatively"" making our last day in the apartment July 31st (you see where this is going) If he couldn't find someone to rent it by that first week of July, then we would just stay in the apartment until the end of August. We were happy with this. Well, they only showed the apartment once and Nathan, our leasing manager never called us after that first week, so when we went to the city to look for an apartment that weekend we took our precious time thinking that we were staying until the end of August because no one had signed a lease. He calls us 4 days after our his ""due date"" and tells us someone is interested in the apt. That kind of put some pressure on us to find an another apt. then, and we werent' sure if we would be able to find one on such short notice (hard to find an apartment in chicago,while only looking on weekends by the way!) and we called him the next day and told him that, he said just to keep him updated and let him know what was going on either way we still had the apt. until Aug according to our lease so it was fine. So we finally found an apartment in chicago and filled out the app. for the apartment on July 25- were got called to let us know we got it on July 27th, before we could even call First Site to let them know we finally found a place for Sept 1st, we got a call from a ""Dan"" asking if we were ready to move out on July 31st because someone had leased the apt. We were like what? Where's Nathan, he knows what's going on! But he was on vacation for the week. Our theory is that someone knew Nathan was on vacation- the one guy who knew what was going on with us- they had that exit agreement saying we would get out by July 31st- they said screw it lets rent to the new people bc they singed this paper. Long story short- they were ""nice enough"" to give us till August 3rd rather than the July 31st date- but we had to move everything out and find a storage place up in Chicago since we can't move into our place until Sept.- I am essentially homeless for a month, although I have my wonderful mom and a friend letting me stay at their houses, I am living out of a suitcase. First Site has basically gotten so big that they don't care about anyone they rent from as long as they get their money- I am just another unhappy customer to them, little do they realize I am homeless because I trusted what our leasing manager told us and we signed a piece of paper. Don't trust them- get everything is writing!!! And just plain please don't rent from them! more

-mold on my windows, didn't get fixed for 3 months. First site claims it is ""mildew"" but when the maintenance man was cleaning it he was wearing a face mask and called it ""Mold remediation"" on the phone. I wish i had a tape recorder at that time. -spiders everywhere in my apartment -apartment was messy from the last people who lived there when we moved in. -they tried to charge us for people leaving cigarette butts and beer cans outside, like we don't already have maintenance fees included in our rent? If they didn't want to clean up after college kids they should move their company elsewhere... Oh wait, they wouldn't be able to pull this kinda crap anywhere but a college campus -parking lot was beat to crap, there were no lines to mark the spots -every chance they had they would try to charge us, an example being: the dumpsters were moved over a little bit. Does it really cost them that much money to move a dumper on wheels five feet? Can they really charge 24 apartments for that? Ridiculous. -there was a gaping, molding hole in our ceiling above the toilet. When i asked about it they told me there was a flood upstairs a few years ago... So apparently that problem was not fixed, and to take care of the black spots that were growing on our ceiling they simply painted over it... now that its getting warm more are growing... so i worry about the person living here next year. -rudest customer service ever .... i could go on and on about this horrible experience, if you are thinking of renting with them you might as well find a box, and post up on campus all year. Pros: Nothing Cons: everything more

Upon checkout of the apartment, the First Site employee told me that my roommate and I had done a great job cleaning up the apartment and there were just a few minor things that were a little dusty. I was very disapppointed when I received my security deposit check 30 days later for less than half ot the amount we paid. First Site took over 150.00 for carpet cleaning, cleaning, and paint. Don't rent here if you want to see your deposit again or at least don't waste your time cleaning the apartment before you move out! Pros: good location, nice office staff Cons: No outgoing mailbox slot, locks constantly broken on doors, getting deposit back, LOUD NEIGHBORS!!!! more

Some of the apartments are nice but if you are considering first site as a company to rent from, make sure you get everything in writing because they will promise you many things and not deliver. My three roomates and I kept our apartment in tip-top shape, left the apartment in better condition when we moved out, and did not receive our $600 security deposit that we were told we would receive. This company also oversteps it's boundaries with privacy, sometimes walking into our apartment with their spare key while we were in our rooms or home alone. I would not recommend this realtor company to any of my friends. They are dishonest with their customers and take you for every cent they can. more

I rented a Fairway Apt from First Site for 9 mos. in 2007. The apartment was fairly nice and besides a fire next door, it was a relatively quiet location. Pros: Staff appears friendly/helpful at first Cons: They screw you over on check-out more