J Michael Real Estate

Astrid _{on ChamberofCommerce.com}

Sep 8th, 2023

Renting from J Michael Real Estate in Madison, WI has been an incredibly frustrating experience that has led to a lot of stress in me and my roommate's lives.
The biggest thing to know renting from them is that they will require you to resign almost immediately after your lease begins. Last year, 2022, we had to declare our intent to renew on October 15th. This year, 2023, they are requiring a declaration of intent to renew by September 15th. An egregiously early timeline that puts people at risk. How are you supposed to know how good their maintenance response time is or how the winter goes in your unit by then? You just can't. Though I will tell you, their maintenance response time is SLOW. We have never had anything fixed in less than month.
On top of slow response times, we have had several times were maintenance entered our apartment or did work inside the building with no notice.
If you live by the stadium they will sell your parking space on game days, even though the space costs $75 a month or $900 a year.
They also raised the price of laundry on very short notice (leaving us with no washer and dryer for almost a week). It now costs $4 to do every load of laundry.
All in all, J Michael Real Estate is a despicable example of classic landlord companies that want to gouge as much money as they can from students.

Xander Grab _{on Google}

Sep 26th, 2022

The most critical issues with J Micheal Real Estate is there spotty to down right nonexistent communication with tenants and their overall unprofessional work standards. Expect your maintenance requests to have a response time of 4 - 8 months.
As you can read in other reviews and your lease (assuming you are hoping to sign with them) they will make no effort on their own part to do any sort of cleaning prior to move in and will subsequently attempt to charge you through the nose for your security deposit on move out. If you are moving into one of their places I would highly recommend taking HD videos of your place moving in as you will probably end up having to dispute them for damages. I moved into my place with floors black with grime and solo cups littering the floor, copious damages along the floorboards and doorways, missing/broken blinds, and broken glass along the back entrance.
The real kicker, is that you can often find places in the exact same area with the exact same pricing with far better kept appliances and a higher standard of professionalism. Be prepared to be fighting against your owners instead of working with them if you intend to live in one of their places.

Ravi Srivastava _{on Google}

Sep 7th, 2022

Expect to lose most of your security deposit. Apartments are semi-dilapidated but then they are very meticulously inspected at check-out for even the slightest "damage". You will be charged full-price for used items. Everything is brilliantly set-up to be legal and "professional", but renter beware.

Alexis M. _{on Yelp}

Sep 6th, 2022

A message to J. Michael Real Estate- Terrible Management Company from every aspect! 2 days before we moved into our apartment was broken into and a shooting took place outside of our apartment. The only thing that was mentioned was our window was broken and would be fixed. The only reason we found out was because someone from the news asked how we felt moving into the same apartment of a crime scene. Imagine our surprise when all was said to us was there was a broken window. A week and a half later we were notified of the shooting in the "general area" which was sent to all the buildings in the surrounding area. Through the continuation of our stay, many maintenance requests were ignored, including the dryer broken in our building and possible mold in our apartment. There were also several instances where people came into our apartment without notification. Two tours were given without prior notice as well as a carpet installation in our front entrance done by maintenance. This is basic violation of our lease.When any of these issues were brought up to our landlord SARAH LADWIG we were either ignored or given a brief, insincere explanation. It was only when I called their head office was my concerns address fully; even then I was met with "this is a busy season for us, we get many emails."Furthermore, at move out ridiculous charges were taken out of our security deposit in reference to the broken window I previously stated. This includes a window screen being improperly installed by maintenance that fixed our window, which was blamed on us. As well as the broken blinds on the said window that was never fixed.I am absolutely appalled at the treatment and disregard of any concerns brought to the management company. Not only did they violate our lease on multiple occasions, but our right to know about a safety issue upon move-in. The way they treat and take advantage of college students trying to get by is inappropriate and unjust. This management company should face charges for the conditions of how they manage their properties.