Engel Realty

This company rounds up your rent so beware: your lease amount (after being raised for no reason) might differ from your online portal amount. P. S: They also couldn't care less about making minor improvements to your apartment. Will explain later. Don't waste your time.

I worked with Michael Johnson on leasing a location for a business I want to open. It was fine at first and he seemed cooperative and friendly, but as time went on he got more and more unprofessional. He would speak to my wife and I in a condescending way about our finances like we couldn't afford to open our business. The building owners wanted way too much control over the way our business would look and run.

At the end of the several months we were in communication, and after confirming we were well within budget to open our business, he completely ghosted us. After several follow-up emails with no response I tried calling him a few times only to be sent to voicemail every time. It's now been months since our last communication and I still haven't gotten any sort of response.

So instead of just telling us that they didn't want to work with us from the start, they decided to waste several months of our time when we could have been looking for a different location. I don't know about any of their other agents, but I would not work with Michael at all if I were you.

Overall, the bathrooms not very well appointed for an office location and feel more like a cheap bathroom at a Circle K than in an Office Building. The sinks and toilets are old, scratched, and stained. The sinks are small without any counter space and are huddled into a corner where you physically hit the towel dispenser when washing hands. The mirrors are damaged and peeling.

There are damaged and broken tiles in the hallways and bathrooms. The men's room smells of urine even after cleaners have been here. The odor from the bathrooms permeates into the hallway which is reminiscent of sewage smell to greet our clients and workers. The utility sink drain in closet backs up and also sends rancid water smell into hallway. The cleaners have a 2-year pattern of cleaning okay after complaints and then returning to not keeping hygienic routine. Mold is frequently in sinks and toilets. Floors are not mopped. Walls have water and soap marks running down them.

Run out of paper towels and toilet paper. Soap dispenser becomes clogged because not cleaned. Leaves and debris remain in hallways and on rugs for days. Gritty hallway floor and dirt ring builds up along the base-cove along walls and in corners due to dirty mop water being used on floors. This complaint is now just a pattern - tell Engel management, slightly better for awhile, return to low quality cleaning, repeat.

This has been 2 years. Frustrated to the point of looking for other space particularly after all the effort needed to get Engel to make our office suite water tight. Still dealing with the cleanup after recent water leakage - walls stained and not cleaned and all ceiling tiles not replaced. Last time it leaked back in December - ceiling tiles not replaced, no cleanup done or offered, and even worse - THE ISSUE WAS NOT FIXED. We have now come to expect nothing.

Engel Realty is a great company run by honest, hard-working people. Don't understand the previous comments! Highly recommended!

I lived in an Engel-managed apartment for six years, and I wouldn't recommend them or go back to them. They responded to calls about water-leaking through the roof and massive electrical problems and some plumbing issues. They ignored repeated calls about holes that their electricians left in the ceiling and broken windows that had fallen apart because of age. Their representatives said that they would send maintenance and maintenance wouldn't show up. I would recommend avoiding Engel, if at all possible.

I have been a tenant of this abysmal agency for over 7 months now. I have constantly complained to them about their lack of maintenance and their terrible management of their property. I am a resident of Chapel Park Apartments. They just fired their manager and brought in the manager from Waterford Landings. Well guess what it hasn't gotten better. Slap on a few coats of paint and no one will even notice.

I have had to hire a lawyer to contact them to attempt repairs to my apartment. I am paying for a 2 bed 2 bath but i don't have the full use of my apartment. One of my tubs has been out of commision since i moved in 7 MONTHS AGO! My refrigerator is freezing in the bottom for over 3 months, The parking lot has turned into a for sale lot, good luck finding a place to park.

The water bills have been over 100.00 dollars for a 2 bedroom, well thats because we leave our laundry room open for the public to come use it. How convenient for the locals right. But the residents foot the bill for the water. Stay away from ANYTHING that has the Engel name on it, it is a systemic problem with this company.

Renters beware. Other than just generic poor management (or poor choice in hiring property managers), look what happened to their Waterford Landings Apts. property in Hoover. 2 decks collapsed killing a whole bunch of people in July. It happened once, then two weeks later, it happened again, and it took the efforts of the City of Hoover after a couple of weeks after that to actually tell people to stop using their decks.

Then Engel finally put up their own notices. This isn't just a case of "poor management" this company now has a history of criminal negligence. When I was apartment hunting, I was recommended Waterford Landings from someone who lived there before, and I tried to contact the people; the main contact I had before had been fired, and I never heard back from anyone else.

This was around the time of the massive destructions; of course I hadn't heard of those horrible incidents until recently (I've only been in the area for 2 weeks). Now I'm really glad I didn't try to rent there (cheap or not).