HomeRiver Group Chicago Property Management

Its awful. We are so upset that we decided to rent from Home River Group when we moved here. It has been one of the worst experiences of our lives. We needed a place quickly with a new job in a new state. This hasty decision proved to be a huge mistake. The house is over priced, but was willing to take our pets. The entire process from move in until now has been disgusting and shameful. They do not address any issues, concerns, they basically ignore every request until your writing letters and on them constantly. And this is for existing actively growing MOLD, wet carpet, toilets that get clogged and overflow, broken sump pumps, gas leaks, it was even a process of getting keys of which we received only 1 key for the front door (not the back patio door, exterior side door or the interior garage entry side door) and 1 garage opener. The house was dirty and full or hair, cobwebs, lint, dust, like someone wiped down the main surfaces, vacuumed took pictures and said, good enough. Gross. This is a very nice suburban location too so we honestly were stupid enough to think we'd have a better maintained home. Nope. Heres the bigger issues for a mom of 3: The washer only works on one setting, the dryer collects lint but not dog hair, the dishwasher is spitting out weird debris since day one and doesnt dry or work hardly at all. The stove had a gas leak, the oven makes a weird ringing sound, there are three sump pumps in the basement one runs every single time you use any water in the house at all and the main one was broken and filling "finished basment" with water in the basement closets and carpet. Not sure why there is another one or if it even works. The staff are helpless, careless and very hard to communicate with. The owner or the staff goes in and "closes" all our work orders without communicating with us. But they do nothing about the work orders. When they do show up, everything they do needs to be fixed again. Or they come and say they will be back and never come back. Sometimes someone from the office will call and state someone will be there tomorrow, but not one shows up. I swear on my life, as a mom, and wife who has rented homes before, was a property manager for a large apartment community and has years of property management experience this is the worst situation I have ever been in with my children. It's just ridiculous. If it weren't for the fact we are new to the state and have 2 dogs and found a home in a good school district, I'd be calling a lawyer. Not a single thing in this house is nice, except the photos and first glance, but once you move in it all comes to light and you sit here with deep regret!

Very painful experience. It was rocky from the start, but I still gave them a chance. I initially contacted this company in hopes of being relieved of stress as a landlord while I relocate to care for family and also travel for military responsibilities. It was the complete opposite. I lost so much money with them due to "hidden fees" that were not disclosed, initially. They didn't help diffuse tenant issues and concerns promptly, including tenants entering non-payment status. They also didn't address maintenance requests in a timely manner. I was told initially that property managers contact the landlords back within, at most, 48 hours. It would be almost 2 weeks before they emailed me back. My tenants also complained about the lack of timely responses from them. I recently decided to terminate my lease because of the accumulation of all of these issues. I thought it might just be the manager I had, but then after she went on maternity leave, I ran into the same issues or worst with her boss. I feel even if you don't have the answer right away, you always call or contact the customer to tell them you acknowledge their concern and you are looking into it. Communication is very important to me. I am a business owner as well, and I feel that is the most unprofessional thing a company can do. Especially when I am a paying customer. After no response for weeks, I had to email other people in the company just to get ahold of my own property manager, and I had no good reason why she was ignoring my messages and calls. She barely apologized. I just received a long email of excuses after I had to email her boss, but to this day, I have never received a call. At least take ownership of your lack of professionalism and care. I will say the only good thing they did well was getting my tenants under new lease agreements and serving lease violations. They also handled the agreement cancellation process well, but that may be because they didn't want me to write a review about them. Oh, they let me have the lockbox, too. Takeaways for the company RESPOND TO YOUR LANDLORDS WITHIN 48 HRS, PROVIDE A LIST OF FEES IN ADVANCE because you charge for everything, & COMMIT TO THE CARE AND TENANTS AS IF ITS YOUR PROPERTY. That's all I wanted.