I'm sorry to see Mr. Laren is still in the property mismanagement business. My experience goes back several years to my college term in Philadelphia, but it is still very fresh in my memory. I rented an apartment from him on Pine Street, and there were multiple issues even before I moved in. He never did any of the work that was written into our signed lease; he had a habit of completely shutting off the heat in the winter (during the middle of the night), while my neighbors and I complained about nearly freezing). Magically, the heat would turn back on around 6 AM. I ended up in court with him, for a fire caused by what the Philadelphia Fire Department attributed to "faulty wiring," where I lost several of my belongings. Mr. Laren was rude, unprofessional, and offensive. We ended up settling in my favor, and I was allowed to get out of the lease three months early. I'm beyond sad that students today are still dealing with the misfortunes I had to endure during college- a time when we should be supported and encouraged to explore our minds in school, rather than fight greedy, ill-intentioned older people who simply want our money in exchange for the lowest possible service and investment in our welfare as tenants. read more

I signed a commercial lease with Constellar, paid first, last, and security deposit, and was scheduled to take possession June 1. Despite full payment and a fully executed lease, the landlord failed to deliver the space and went silent. Their lawyer later claimed--falsely--that the lease was null and void due to unrelated negotiations with a third party. Then they sent me an email asking if I was enjoying my tenancy, and a request to leave them a review. I am now preparing to pursue legal action for breach of contract and damages. Tenants should proceed with caution. read more

This has to be the WORST company I have ever had to deal with. Unorganized, bad communicators, and lack of any type of persistence. I tried to get a lease for a property from this company for 6 months and they kept saying it was coming until eventually they just stopped answering the phones. They left us scrambling to find an alternative place to live. All they care about is getting the application fee from you. Absolutely pitiful company. If I could give zero stars I would. Please stay far away from these guys and don't give your business to them! read more

Terrible customer service. Didnt give me my full refund even though I paid the last month of rent in full when I first signed the lease. Throughout the year I would call multiple times requesting a maintainence service but had to wait MONTHS before they came to fix it. Even when our apt was FLOODING!!!! This was the worst housing experience I've ever had in my entire life and would not recommend it to anyone. Thanks for nothing Constellar! read more

-The house was completely covered in saw dust and the windows has rain coming through when i first moved in. It took them over a week to come in and screw in some temporary water guard on the window. -I still ended up having to duck tape the windows anyways because there was still air/bugs coming in and out of the windows. -The windows didn't even lock either. -Then we went without water and heat repeatedly throughout the winter (like 5 different times for 3 days) and they wouldn't even do anything to re-compensate us.. -They never told us about the rat problem that the "new" apartment had either. -The roof had a leak and we couldn't use the one bathroom because of the nasty liquid that was coming from the ceiling. -And to make this whole experience even worse they took $710 off my security deposit because I left a shampoo bottle in the bathroom and a candle in the kitchen. -_- Seriously.. they are definitely going to hear from my lawyer about this bs. The other tenant that lived under us hated them too and everyone that I've talked to in the area go to them as an absolute last resort.. Kathleen and and Angie are terrible landlords. Facts. read more

We really loved our house in West Shore, and would (now) totally recommend Constellar. If you had asked a year ago, it would have been a different answer. Nicole is the best. She responds quickly to emails, and even asked for a list of repairs or requests. All of the urgent items on the list were taken care of, as well as many of the requests. They now have a nice portal for rent payment, and I think it also allows for messaging with your property manager and maintenance requests. read more

I rent a studio apartment in the University City district of Philadelphia on Spruce St. The apartment itself is converted from an older Philadelphia home and is, unquestionably, adorable. My apartment is managed by Emily, who has been nothing but helpful to me. When I first moved in, I gave a brief list of small things I wanted handled. Within the next 24-48 hours, a maintenance man was sent out and quickly handled all my minor complaints (all of which were normal for any older house, a quirk of Philly living). Since moving in, I hit a rough patch financial difficulty which made it difficult for me to pay rent in full on time every month. At least twice, normal fees were waived since I had been making weekly payments and complete understanding from Emily. Not to mention, the few times Emily wasn't in the office to help me, the rest of the staff at Constellar Corporation was ready and willing to help with extremely friendly service. read more

The corporation purposely sent my deposit to its own address that I no longer occupied. In fact I went back to check whether the check was there, but it was not. It was not clear whether they sent the check or not. When I asked them to re-send. They said I must wait for six months until check can be void. After six months they ignored all my emails and calls. If you want your deposit back, do not rent their property. read more

Absolutely horrible company. I had to live with trash outside the building, the lawn was never mowed and was five feet high and they tried to charge me for everything possible when I moved out including rent I already paid. They are an incredibly disorganized and dishonest company. Run and do not rent from them! read more

Awful company. Completely disorganized, not helpful whatsoever. Could care less about tenants. Properties are old and dated.

I genuinely advise people to stay away from leasing from this company. I have had much better experiences leasing from other agencies in the area read more

All in all, I have had a very pleasant stay in my apartment on Pine. The apartment offers great accommodation with great service for affordable price. The approach from Axel the landlord was very kind-hearted. He was incredibly resourceful. If there were any issues, he was quick to resolve them. Would 100p recommend. read more

I have to say, this has been one of my best renting experiences. Previously I was happy with Constellar. More recently, my most recent property manager went above and beyond to help me out of a tough situation! Communication is key. If you have a problem they can help, just let them know! Thank you for making my stay here a pleasure! Best of luck to those of you future tenants! read more

When I moved to Philly just in time for the start of the semester I was desperately looking for a place and all of the options seemed over priced or in very bad conditions until I found Constellar Corp. I moved to a newly renovated studio, I was even the first person in the building and two years in now, I could not be happier with my decision. Axel and the team are always very responsive to any communication and their costumer service is professional yet friendly. I can't recommend them enough. read more

We lived in an apartment building managed by Constellar in 2017-18. The person we signed the lease with, Tyler, was pleasant and easy to work with. However, by the time we moved into the apartment, he had left the company and we were given another property manager. Soon after, she also left and we had no idea who are property manager was and had no way of getting in contact with anyone (we could never reach anyone in the office by phone). We had multiple superficial issues with the property: -Upstairs' neighbor bathroom leaking into our apartment -Multiple pipes bursting in the basement and no water - The handymen had to cut a 4x2 hole in our wall to repair one of the pipe bursts. They roughly patched it and never painted over it. - Mice -Trash all over the front lawn -Slow to no response to questions and concerns. I received calls 1-2 months after I reported a ceiling leak to ask if it was resolved... I've been a renter long enough to know that these things happen. What was not OK were the many safety concerns that were never addressed. -Our building fire alarm system was faulty (not smoke alarms - the whole building). It started going off one day. We called Constellar who told us NOT to call the fire department.....even after we said we weren't sure if there was a fire or not. They said that someone would be out within 24 hours to fix it. The fire alarm is so loud that you can not be in the building when it's going off. We left to sleep elsewhere and were informed from a neighbor that the fire department was eventually called by someone 6 hours later. The firefighters told them the wiring was faulty and it must be fixed. This happened a second time at around midnight. We called Constellar but couldn't get a hold of anyone. The fire department showed up again and told us that the building was "a mess" and if they were called again the building would be shut down. After they left, one of Constellar's handymen showed up and literally showed us how to DISABLE THE FIRE SYSTEM as a solution to the alarm going off which we did not feel comfortable doing. There were over 20 people living in the building, including children. We told our property manager and she didn't seem to care. The fire alarm went off 4-5 more times in a two week period. Eventually someone came to repair it. - When it became winter, the pipes began to freeze which is..fine. It's an old house. It happens. Constellar's solution was to leave a space heater plugged in and running on the pipe, unsupervised. We found this out because we heard a pipe burst one evening, went to the basement and found the space heater about to be submerged in the gushing water. We unplugged the space heater and informed Constellar about the pipe. The next morning, the space heater was plugged back in and left on. We unplugged it and left a note asking that they do not leave it unsupervised. We informed Constellar and received no response. We called them a few days later and were told by Victoria (never a pleasant person to deal with) that we were the ones who were at fault because we "put a paper note on the space heater" and her handymen "do not know English". Pretty sure they should at least have common sense. She also told us that it wouldn't be a problem anyway because Constellar was going to "turn the building's water off for a month or two to repair the pipes". That never happened, and we can only assume this was her way of trying to scare us?? Who knows. I see from other reviews that Constellar is now under new management....let's hope so. read more

Do not ever, and I mean EVER. Rent from Constellar. 0 stars if I could. They are a complete nightmare, even with new management (Nicole Mejia, Alexis Slaughter, Kylie Tsai). They violated our rights, are liars and thieves, and ignore abismal living conditions. Lived in a house in West Philly of theirs. We complained about several pest problems (mice, rats, raccoons, squirrels, fleas, bed bugs) and they lied about having inspectors out, lied about the prognosis, and lied about having the problem fixed. They also trapped us into a lease renewal, that they then reversed in an agreement with out lawyer, and then deducted the "unpaid" rent anyway from our security deposits. They lied and said they sent our security deposits out, and then 3 weeks later told us we wouldn't be getting them. They violated PA law and did not return our security deposits within 30 days and did not provide an itemized list. When brought to their attention, they sent out a false itemized list that added painting charges (even though they had sold the property), cleaning/furniture removal charges (even though we left the house in the same state as when we received it) and additional rent charges for the month of July, when we vacated the property in early June (my guess: to get around the 30 day law). This summary does not even make a dent in the horror they put us through. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. NOT UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. NOT NOW NOT EVER. read more

Axel Bergeson is known to be verbally abusive with tenants and to resort to bullying and lying. Here is a link to the complete text of several inappropriate emails he sent me: http://tinyurl.com/hlxv6f3 . When I asked to speak to Axel's supervisor Axel lied and said he didn't have a supervisor. I shared these emails with the owner, Guy Laren, who excused this as Axel being "frustrated" and refused to remedy the situation. Based on this experience I cannot recommend Constellar. UPDATE: Constellar attempted to have this review removed on Privacy grounds but Axel Bergeson uses his name extensively in Constellar's online advertising including Contellar's Yelp page, so no dice. read more

Hands down the easiest moving experience I've ever had in Philadelphia. I got in touch with Axel who was prompt, polite, and very helpful. With his help, I found an apartment I liked right away, and signing the lease and finalizing details was a breeze. Would definitely recommend to others. read more

I have been a tenant for Constellar Corp for the past 5 years. Throughout my time as their tenant they have been a wonderful landlord. I delt with Angie first when we rented the house and starting then our relationship has been great. Many times over the past 5 years they have helped us out. From being locked out to having washing machine malfunctions Angie and Kathleen have worked very hard to make sure that all our needs were met within a timely manner. I really appreciate what they have done for us over the past 5 years and, recommend their properties to anyone who needs affordable and reliable housing. I have had many chances to move over the past 5 years but due to their wonderful service and caring attitudes I could never leave. As a student who lived in NY but went to school in Philadelphia, I can say I never worried about my house or its condition, I always knew that help was only a friendly phone call away. read more