Metro Realty

If you were to ask me what one of the worst realtors in West Campus was, it'd be this group. My first mistake was allowing myself to be talked into signing with them, and I was suspicious at first because the realtor we talked to was ridiculously pushy about getting us to sign early. He said things along the lines of 'I only chose to let you see 'cuz you said you would sign' and complained when we didn't sign on the spot for any of the three places he showed us. Next, they were terrible when it came to answering work orders, and when my suitemate's toilet broke, someone came in to look at it, give it a sniff, and left.

This is just one example, but the most egregious came after the Texas winter freeze, whereby rather than address ANY of the work orders that people placed, they just wrote out a bland email saying the freeze hurt their ability to help and did absolutely nothing. The state of the complex was abysmal, with the ceilings of the parking garage peeling from its struts, a faint smell of mold permeating the public space in the complex because they couldn't be bothered to clean anything.

This is probably the biggest indicator of their quality, given that a large weather freak accident occurred and their chosen response was to shirk responsibility, and later trying to get away with passing the costs onto tenants. Since our apartment experience was plagued with issues, we decided to leave early, and for once, we thought the realty was being useful when they decided to refund us a prorated amount if we moved out a couple weeks early. Delighted with this, we left assuming nothing of note would happen.

Then a couple months later, we received our security deposit back sans about $1,500, with one thousand of that coming solely from 'repainting.' First of all, there was little to no paint damage, and we have the video to prove it. Second of all, one thousand dollars for a unit that small and unkempt prior to our move-in is insane. Since they are likely just trying to get away with getting their prorated refund back, given that the painting costs are interestingly similar to the prorated refund we received, we will no doubt be fighting this.

But for those of you who haven't moved in yet, I sincerely urge you to go to an official apartment complex and save yourself the trouble of dealing with this scam realty. I actually felt so strongly annoyed by them I wrote this review, which is the only review I've written because they are that poor of a realtor.

I lived at Dos Rios for a year and should have paid more attention to the bad Metro Realty reviews, as I am apparently not the only one scammed out of their security deposit! Despite having someone out to my place practically every other month to fix something, I was not told in advance of ANY issues, and did not find out until a month after move-out (when I finally received the check in the mail) that they had charged me: $118 for carpet cleaning (there was only ONE room with carpet, I had the whole place professionally cleaned, there were ZERO stains/tears/issues) $81 to replace a light bulb, smoke detector battery, and A/C filter (the latter two I replaced the day I moved out and all the lights were working when I left, these are straight-up LIES) and the craziest charge by far, $200 for "painting beyond reasonable wear and tear".

I knew ahead of time I was only going to be there for a year so literally didn't hang a single thing on the wall, didn't decorate at all, barely had any furniture. I'm a clean, quiet, spartan guy. Never hosted a party, never did much beside sit at my desk or sleep in my bed. It's insane that they'd charge me that much when the place looked exactly the same as it did when I moved in.

I sent two emails to management about this and never heard back. In hindsight I should have had someone walk through the apt with me prior to move out, but I had gotten it professionally cleaned after removing my belongings and never in my wildest dreams imagined anyone could find $400 worth of issues. Just unbelievable. I will never rent from Metro Realty again and would caution against using their services at any property in Austin. Terrible company, terrible people.

Unbelievably slow with maintenance requests. Good luck if you lose water or electricity. Chelsea is extremely rude.

Avoid Metro Realty at all costs. I lived three years in a Metro Realty managed apartment in downtown Austin. While living there they were highly unprofessional and not responsive. E.g. it took over a year to get them to fix a door which I communicated was broken since I moved into the apartment. But the worst came when they dealt with my security deposit after moving out.

There was absolutely no transparency and countless delays in the process. To my remarkable surprise, when I received the check (of course well after the 30 days window which was in the contract) only half of my security deposit was sent back to me, providing no real justification for the cut. Life is a beautiful thing, but dealing with Metro Realty absolutely makes it worse!

Honestly, avoid these guys. We rent an apartment from them for one year. Everything went pretty well for the first two month. But after that, you understand what a big mistake it is. Not responsive for what they were saying at first and being rude. Your apartment will be the place of realtors for the next year every couple of days even during pandemic since you don't want to extend the contract. At the end, they will deduct at least half of the deposit for stupid reasons and you can not do anything.

Staff is very indifferent to all the problems you have and always reply with "we'll get back to you and we're so sorry about that". It's very obvious that they could care less and they don't even bother calling back. And whenever you say that something is unfair and try to call upon the shred of humanity that you think they might have, they basically say nah bruh here's the predatory contract instead of why we don't have to sympathize with you.

Very unprofessional behavior by owner chuck winkley, seems to have trouble having normal conversations as he will just cut you off and speak aggressively for no reason and when told you do not appreciate being spoken to that way replies "I don't give a sh*t what you appreciate" very unprofessional owner so if that doesn't speak about the company I don't know what does.

Please do not use Metro Realty. The staff is incredibly rude, you will get different information every time depending on who you speak with, maintenance requests are not completed or take months to do so. All the positive reviews on here are either 1) from complex/unit owners who do benefit from Metro realty, as they do a great job in never fixing anything and taking as much of your renter's money as possible 2)Renters who unfortunately have been tricked by Metro's hospitality/customer service just so that you can sign the lease.

The worst part is, Metro owns many units/complexes so if you don't lease from them, another poor UT student will, and Metro can be as rude and inconsistent as they want to because no one is going to stop them.

The staff is unhelpful, rude, and uncommunicative. They have an online portal to submit maintenance requests, which they barely fulfilled half the time, and when they do, they charge you heftily. They once charged us $80 for a battery replacement for the AC thermostat. There were roaches in our house the day we moved in, which they never addressed after repeated attempts to have them come and do proper pest control.

We finally moved out of our house after two years of issues and recently got the deposit back, where they charged us $500 for painting and $50 for replacing the AC vent (which we just replaced one month prior to leaving). This is all after we spent $300 on a full professional move-out clean. Ridiculous place!

I have never had much success with really offices, but metro realty is top notch. Ended up finding a great deal on an apartment close to campus. I would highly recommend people check this place out when apartment shopping.

I've lived at one of their property for seven month and sent around 10 emails before Metro Realty FINALLY got my full name spelled correctly and updated my contact information. We had problems with our A/C in September and it took them a month to fix it. We live in the top floor, and our rooms were like ovens and our beds were like grills. It was entirely uninhabitable yet they made no compensation.

The courtyard accumulated rainwater and fostered colonies of mosquitoes in summer. The roof leaked water. The frame of the front door of our unit was broken. Me had rat problem and flea problem. Our water heater broke for a month. We've sent numerous maintenance request, most of the time they ignored our email or hang up on our phone calls.

I worked with Metro Realty last year to find student housing. The process of finding an apartment went great, but after we moved in the customer service was intensely aggravating and almost never helpful. Throughout the year, my questions were rarely ever answered. On the rare occasions that I called, I was met with a harsh tone of voice and made to feel like my questions were stupid and I was an annoyance. Definitely to not recommend working with Metro if you can help it

0 stars is more representative of this business. I am less than halfway through my lease with them, and their lack of communication is only the start of the trashy service they offer. When we first moved into the unit, the door was left UNLOCKED. Let it be noted that the house is located off of Guadalupe St. We could have walked into a trap house full of homeless people or God knows what else. Then, the place was absolutely filthy.

Apparently it was "professionally cleaned" however the 2 pound ball of lint in the dryer and centimeter thick scum coating of the floors would suggest otherwise. Before I could move in, we had to clean the entire house for hours just so it is bearable. Additionally there were several repairs that were left unattended for weeks. The bathroom sink was not able to drain any water.

Three girls share one bathroom so for a while we all had to brush our teeth in the kitchen. When the very condescending "handy man" came to fix the sink, all he did was completely remove the stopper. We now have to cautiously handle our items around the sink, for they will fall down the drain otherwise. Additionally there are large pieces of sharp trash that have been left in the backyard for the entire time we have lived here. Amongst other problems we have encountered, the service is very poor.

The employees are rude and disrespectful. We have been contact them for over 2 months now to ask about resigning the lease (because we like the house, not the company or the people running it). First of all, THEY should be contacting US. The fact that it took two months to make any headway in this process is absolutely ridiculous. I DO NOT RECOMMEND SIGNING FOR A PROPERTY THROUGH METRO REALTY AT ALL COSTS. the service is trash.

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE I am less than halfway through my lease and hating Metro realty. Every one of their employees I have interacted with have been condescending and disrespectful. When we arrived the apartment it was filthy and it took sending 20+ pictures for them to finally believe us. At first they kept rudely insisting that it was professional cleaned which it was obviously not.

My roommates and I get texts from random people at all hours of the night claiming they are coming to show our apartment. Be prepared to constantly have a bunch of random people walking through your place with very little notice multiple times a week. When we arrived there was also a stack of maintenance requests for them. They weren't completed for weeks.

This includes the living room lights being completely broken and a leaky toilet. This company takes advantage of college students and will take your money at every turn. My only advice is: TURN BACK NOW!

The problem with Metro is the management. I currently lease a house with them, and I have been under a lot of stress because they have a mess with the maintenance. It's unfair for owners, since the units get unnecessary wear and tear for the lack of care, and unfair for us the tenants who are paying an overpriced service.

I am an absentee owner of a rental unit in Austin, Texas. I have used this company for years and have never had a problem. They have managed the property professionally and supply comprehensive and periodic reports. I hardly ever have any contact with them. Bill R

They don't give you notice when coming to your apartment and will walk in on you while you're sleeping/in the shower. I live alone and have a service dog, I was told I would get 24 hour notice so that I would be able to put her up if I'm leaving and they need to come show my unit. Well apparently they want to walk into an apartment with a protective dog in in because yeah. no notice.

Also don't expect your apartment to actually work, and don't expect them to do anything about it. My bathtub when turned on would cause water to come out THROUGH THE FLOOR BOARDS. It was flooding my whole bathroom and smelled terrible, it took them months to finally come out.

Avoid at all costs. I got an extension for move out, only for them to claim I never made the extension and will now not reimburse my deposit. You may think you are saving money by living off campus, but after everything is said and done, you will probably end up paying the same amount with metro realty as your property management. If they find an opportunity to take advantage of you, they will do it.

My daughter moved in August 10, 2016 with the help of David C., the agent locator who takes his job seriously and professionally. David located one of the best located large condo units in west campus. The unit was super clean upon arrival, the docs digitally signed, they added roommate easily, and communication always clear. I have leased many places and still always have questions to get clarity.

This company was always patient with questions. There where minor items that needed correction which I noted on inventory sheet and Tim, the property manager listened to concerns, had an experienced handyman to the unit within one hour, and corrections completed. Online repair requests are available and they will happily answer the phone so me and my daughter are happy.

I think people who don't understand a Realty company must hold people accountable and run property management as a business have no idea of the struggles. That must be the reason for any bad reviews. Metro Realty has been in business for many years and that is why I used them. There are many variables in real estate that people don't understand.

This makes leasing or purchasing a place to live a stressful process but the Metro team made it good for us. My experience with Metro Realty was professional and no complaints.

Some friends and I were looking for an apartment, and happened to get connected to Metro Realty after looking up places online. We had Gary as our realtor, and he did an awesome job. He understood what exactly we wanted in the area we specified. Granted, there wasn't much for what we wanted, but he found us some good options. He also helped us through the entire paperwork and financial process. Overall, good experience and I highly recommend Gary. I don't know about the rest of the team there.

Metro is a completely money hungry horrible company. They seek to charge their tenants whenever possible. I had issues in the apartment and they charged me for them even though I RENT and did not cause the damage. In addition the customer service and main receptionist is very rude. Avoid this company. At move out you have to pay for professional carpet cleaning and full clean or else they hold security deposit even though our carpets were not cleaned when we moved in. Literally the worst property management I've ever dealt with.

Metro Realty was a far better realty company than the other one i experienced, thanks to Lori Kendall, the office manager. She was attentive, professional, and helpful. Each time I emailed her for whatever problem, maintenance request, etc, I received a prompt response from her and I greatly appreciated that.

For those of you looking to lease in Austin, you're in for a good experience if you choose to go with Metro Realty. I was relocating from Houston to Austin and Metro did a fine job to get me in a new dwelling. The girl at the desk, Lanea Baum, was super helpful and made sure to follow up with me and get me in the new place by the time I needed to be. Couldn't have done it without her! I was I the new place within four work days just in time for the first day at my new job and have been overly pleased with the place and the roommates. Overall 5 stars!

It's funny to me that all the reviews of Metro are so negative, but perhaps I've just been lucky. I've been in the same apartment with them (a little house in West Campus) for 3 years and I absolutely love this place. I fell in love the minute I walked in the door and I'm sad to go. Working with Metro has never been a problem for me.

They were very clear with the lease and helpful regarding an early move in date because I had to start classes early. Since then they've been helpful and very nice. My heat went out one night on what was the coldest night of the year. One of the staff brought me her space heater from under her desk and had a maintenance man come look at it immediately.

She left the heater with me until my place warmed up and called to make sure it was working. I always did my place up for Christmas and they would tell me in the office that they loved it. There was one year when an adjacent unit (owned by PMT) had the loudest, rudest, crappiest tenants I've ever heard of and Metro made sure my complaints went through to the correct people.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to resign this year, and since they do have a weird practice of really early preleasing, I didn't know what to do. They gave me an extension and told me that, after that, should someone want to sign that they would let me know so I could decide up until February. Despite the fact that rent in this area have gone up a bit, mine has remained the same until this year.

There was a $50 increase, but they informed me well in advance. Overall my experience has been great with metro. Always nice, prompt email responses, great maintenance (also prompt), and absolutely the homiest most beautiful unit I could have asked for. I've loved this place and have called it home for 3 years and I don't regret my decision, my experience, or my time here at all. So maybe they're not all bad

I was looking to lease or buy a condo and went by to see what they had available with my agent. One of the agents in the office jumped in front of us even though the girl at the desk was about to give us a list of what we were searching for. She was incredibly rude to my agent and I will never go back there again. I would also give them a zero if I could.

I couldn't even get past the front door without them being unprofessional and rude and that is usually a good indication of how it will be to work with them. I wouldn't be surprised if we see another business there in the near future. Don't even waste your time going in to try to talk with them.

****METRO LEASES MICE INFESTED HOUSES***** First, we had a gas leak. When they fixed it there was a GIANT HOLE left in our kitchen behind the stove. Because of that hole, we had a insect and mouse infestation. We told them about the mouse problem and they called an exterminator and all they did was seal the hole and set up sticky mouse traps around our house.

When the gas leak was being fixed our gas was turned off, so we didn't have hot water or a heater for a little over a week. Metro still made us pay full rent during that time. Not to mention our gas bill was 5 times the normal amount because the leak had been going on for 2 months, and Metro didn't even pay for the entire bill. For the next few months we could hear critters running around in the ceiling throughout the house.

We heard them WHIMPERING. I can't even explain how disgusting it was to live in this condition. One day we realized the mice that were scurrying in the ceiling were actually getting into the house. We called metro and it's been a little over two weeks and they still haven't approved the extermination services to get this fixed. We had maintenance problems since day 1 of moving into this house, and they never fixed anything in a timely manner.

I really wish I could sit here and type up everything wrong with this company. If anyone is considering leasing with metro, please message me and I will gladly give you the gritty details in hopes that you will turn away from them. For Austin homeowners wanting to hire Metro has a leasing company -- stay away. This might be the absolute worst business to work with in Austin.

It seems a lot of the reviews are pretty negative, but I think a CONDITIONAL positive mention is deserved. I am in a house in north campus. We moved in with little knowledge about our house, which turned out to be very old. There is no insulation in the walls (AC is expensive), water damage in the bathrooms (pipes under house are broken), the paint is pretty cheap on the walls, the ceiling is something out of the 50's, and the AC system uses filters that look like giant lego blocks (impossible to find at home depot).

The only reason I know these things about the house is that the owner started doing extended contract work (without telling us how long it was going to take), and they keep finding more and more things wrong with the house as they keep remodeling. At least the contractor is friendly and tells us why our house is such a mess. The work, as you can imagine, is a little annoying for students who do work at the house.

Stuff in the yard, bricks everywhere, jack-hammering in the morning (10 am). Chuck, however, has been a good advocate and sounds like he actually cares. We can always reach him on his cell phone, and he has been relaying messages to the owner. One of which was that no work can be done during our school exams. I think he made that one pretty strong, and so far, so good.

We tried to get a rent reduction - because our house has become something from a post-apocalyptic world - but this is in the hands of the owner, not Chuck. He relayed our messages, and maybe argued a little for us. Unfortunately, if the re-modeling work gets extensive (its already been 6 weeks) and we don't see something for it, we may have to go to court.

The maintenance has been quick to respond. Three requests (AC was one) have all received one day responses. I have read that they charge a lot for move-out things. And the last renters mentioned it, too (but they seemed messy). I cannot attest to this yet, but if our charges are reasonable and the contracting work stays orderly then I will update and give them five stars for advocating for students in north campus.

If the contracting starts during finals or we get billed out the wazoo for problems related to the work or the house's age, like AC filters or water damage, I will let you guys know.

PLEASE DO NOT EVER, I REPEAT, EVER COME CLOSE TO THIS PLACE! They are absolutely god awful and will try to drain money from you at every possible angle. I can't even begin to explain to you just how infuriated me and my roommates are at Metro Realty. I even made an account this minute just because we were supposed to receive our deposit of $1700! Instead, we apparently owe them $42.25 for absolutely insane charges.

As our last year at Austin going to UT, we decided to go with Metro Realty (for reasons I now have no idea about). We landed an apartment and everything was fine. until we moved in. They would constantly show their place (that is obviously overcharged. I lived in the living room to save us all some money) and indirectly blame us that they can't sublease it because it's "too messy". I'll admit that we didn't have the cleanest place, but it's a lot better than the many apartments I've visited in the past that were still occupied.

They were rude every time they stopped by. Plus they hide stuff from you just so they can charge you later on for it. No one really has time to read the entire contract, but they conveniently forget to tell you that you have to get your carpet professionally cleaned and maid service (which came out to be close to $300) until the lease is about to run out.

I just looked at our "deposit" mail, and they clearly made sure they didn't have to write us a check. "$646.88 for 1/4 Paint due to scuffs"? "$274.56 for Red carpet stain"? "$200 for Resurfaced tub due to 2 chips"? "66 BUCKS FOR MINIBLINDS REPLACEMENT?! Are you absolutely kidding me?" Oh, they fined us $400 for my roommates' cats, which I understand, EXCEPT THE PART THEY SAID IT WAS A $100 FINE IN THE BEGINNING. Never ever ever ever ever ever deal with them no matter what. I don't care if they're the last realty place on Earth. Go live on the street if you must.

Okay, okay, I've learned a valuable lesson about speaking too soon. I really thought for a while that this place was great. After dealing with Metro for a year, though, it turns out they only nice and helpful up until the point when you have signed the lease. Some time after we had signed a lease and paid our deposit and been guaranteed the apartment, our agent called to let us know someone else was interested and had offered more $ than us, so we'd need to pay more or loose it.

My roommate and I had already made all of our plans and everything, so we decided to go ahead and pay the extra money each month. We didn't have any big issues during our year there, due to the fact that we didn't really need anything from them, and I just put my check in the dropbox every month. The one thing that came up was that they never gave us a key to the pool area, and it took 4 months and quite a few phone calls and e-mails to finally get it from them.

Upon moving out, they informed us at the last minute that we would need to get the apartment professionally cleaned and the carpet professionally cleaned before our move out date. Not terrible, but really inconvenient since it was Thanksgiving week and we had to try and reschedule our moving plans etc. Then, once we moved out they kept our entire deposit, plus charged us a little extra.

My real estate agent was with Metro when I first signed my lease almost two years ago. He has since left, but my experience with the company was not wonderful. There was no specific incident that occurred, but rather a general bad taste in my mouth (maybe I am being a bit harsh.has anyone else dealt with them?) Every time I phoned or stepped in to the office, I was not greeted, but grunted at.

The people are rude, impatient, and act as if they have much more important things to do than deal with you or your property needs. I would simply suggest looking elsewhere for your apartment renting or home buying. Future visits? Run screaming in the other direction.