My earlier review still reflects my horrible experience of renting a property managed by Dowling Properties. However, a representative from Dowling did reach out to me this month through Yelp (5 months after I moved out due to poor conditions). Initially they contacted me and asked me to remove my photos of the home I rented (featuring the rat infestation and holes in the wall). I asked if they could honor my months old request for a rent credit and I was pleased that they did offer me some money back, though not the entire amount I requested. The credit did not cover my moving costs for moving to a new apartment that was rat free, but it was a nice gesture. I hope that this action represents new standards of conduct for Dowling Properties! From my point of view, the property management system means that both owner and property manager are generally shielded from feedback and culpability for marginally habitable conditions, so tread carefully with Dowling! But I hope they are on the upswing and not just looking to improve their Yelp reviews. read more

Dowling properties is patient, receptive, and friendly. I would recommend using them as a tenant. Clear and concise move in and move out process. Responds to maintenance claims with reasonable timelines. Andrew, Dan and the rest of the team are long time Davis residents and very kind people. Would recommend. read more

Terrible management. Scammed my college mates and I. The house was literally falling apart but they put on a display of fancy. Poor maintenance and build, my room literally split in two and bugs were coming out from under the house. "Lost" our documents to not return the deposit. So so much more! Save you from the facade they put up when you trying to rent, they don't care about you read more

Dowling Properties - Dead mouse under the bag. The opening by the wall was full of feces. - Property Management Near Me - Davis, California

See all

I got locked out on a day they were closed, and the owner himself came down in the pouring rain just to let me in. Every member of the staff I have met has been extremely accommodating and nice- especially Mr.Dowling, Keone and Eric. Any repairs or problems are addressed within a day or less! As a first time renter, I couldn't have imagined a better experience with a property management, and I highly recommend Dowling as everyone's first option if you are looking for amazing, professional customer service that exceeds expectations! read more

This review is based on my experience with Dowling Properties in a certain 4 bedroom 1 bathroom townhouse located off a street that rhymes with Hickamore Mane. I'll be completely truthful and say that we WERE released from this lease and were given a FULL refund for our experience. Also, I'll fully disclose that we were at some fault, because we did not (were not allowed) to view the house before moving in. I understand once you sign a lease, you're bound by law to the terms of the lease. However... I don't really understand how, at the condition that the house was in, Dowling Properties cleared the property for move in? Why was I denied a meeting to discuss the terms of my lease and told that I was bound to it by law when Dowling failed to provided me with habitable living conditions from Day 1? When my group moved our stuff in to the house, we discovered a HORRIBLE mold problem under the sink. See pictures below if you want to look at something gross. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the bottom panel, both sides of the cabinet, and the entire back wall of the sink was rotten and molded. The back walls of the cabinets on either side of the sink were even affected. Like, you could SMELL the mold when you walked into the house. And, you really get hit with a wall of smell when you walk into the kitchen. So I'm REALLY confused on how Dowling Properties missed all of this during their "move out inspection?" Not only did they miss the HUGE, UNLIVABLE, LAW VIOLATING (Civil Code Secs. 1929, 1941) MOLD INFESTATION UNDER THE SINK, they also missed: -a backyard gate that didn't close nor lock, only stayed slightly open -a backyard sliding door that had no lock NOR could slide open without being lifted -a street facing bedroom window with no lock -HUGE piles of dead leaves in the backyard -ages old carpet that probably was the source of the living room mold -a few openings/holes to the exterior wall of the house, which was a source of another mold problem in a bedroom closet ^^^ all the above are violations of California law that requires HABITABLE CONDITIONS ^^^ -messy, rushed caulking job on the bathtub that 100% would have caused another mold problem, if not for the one that was already in the bathroom -sink faucet that leaked at the handles, which caused a leak, which was also poorly sealed up with caulk I will say that when we notified Dowling Properties, they got to the repairs within two, three days. They included a few upgrades like new blinds and new sink faucets, but I think that was about it. In total, it took them one week to do repairs on everything, including the mold. The repair to the mold, as the contractor said when I personally spoke to him, was to remove the affected wood, spray Coppergreen (which is a preventative, NOT a treatment; it will prevent future spores from growing but won't do anything for the spores already in the air) and replace with new wood. The proper, professional procedure is to remove the affected areas, TREAT, purify air for at least a few days, and replace, all with proper setup to prevent spreading of the spores. The contractor only ran a fan and left a window open. No extra precautions were taken to prevent the spreading of spores. We moved our stuff in but didn't actually stay at the house until the end of the second week, which was when we paid for a professional to test the house for mold. The results came up with four different types of mold, two of them TOXIC, in four separate areas of the house: the kitchen, the living room, the upstairs bathroom, and a bedroom. (Also, Dan, thanks for insinuating that our VERY knowledgable mold specialist was a family friend pulling some strings. Might be worth mentioning that she and my mom, who Dan met, speak with accents) So basically, Dowling Properties let us move into a mold infested house because they "didn't know" about these problems. Dan told me they "didn't know" that there was a mold problem because the tenants didn't tell them, they "didn't know" that the contractor's method of treating the mold is NOT the correct nor proper way to treat mold, they "didn't know" the extent of the condition of the house. "I'm sorry that there was just so many things we didn't know about." -Dan Dowling, President of Dowling Properties Well, I would think that if you managed 50-60 properties, it'd be more of a reason for your company to be very thorough about inspections, no? Dan's attitude throughout the entire situation was very apologetic and he was polite through ~most~ of our interactions. However, it really felt like Dowling Properties covered these things up and hoped that we wouldn't notice. 0/5 stars, even if we got a full refund. This was not worth the weeks of couch surfing and stress right before school was to start. Definitely not worth the $250 we spent on uHauls. read more

Dowling Properties - before repairs - Property Management Near Me - Davis, California

See all

Poor service. You have to bug them and bug them to reply back if you got or did not get the rental. At the end, I found better luck on craigslist with a private party. Famous for: Bad service and headache trying to find a place to live. read more

My experience with Dowling Properties was always positive.They show great knowledge of the area and what is available.They answer to my calls, emails and never delayed any request.They are always available to give support. read more

It's the property management system that makes Dowling Properties a tough business to work with. I just ended a lease with a property that was managed by Dowling. It's essentially going through a middleman between a property owner who wants to rent out their house but just want the money, so they give Dowling a cut for managing it. And Dowling is able to cut costs by hiring its own crew of maintenance people and short changing the tenants. In this kind of system, the tenants will always get the short end of the stick. They also think they can get away with things because we're all, for the most part, college students. Don't get me wrong, Jon, our main contact, was nice. But his promises were empty. And his maintenance men and contractors are some of the nicest. Our place was handed to us with a spider and cockroach infestation. The spiders were taken care of after a few calls, the cockroaches were an ongoing problem throughout the year. I don't think they took my emails saying that cockroaches were crawling in the sinks and bed very seriously. Our house was fairly rundown. There were definitely things that needed to be replaced that never were. Like broken window blinds, holes in the walls, old cracking vinyl floors, bathroom and kitchen fixtures. We lived with all this for a year, and returned it in practically the same condition with normal wear and tear. When we signed our lease, they took double the rent (which is the maximum legal amount) for our deposit. They returned it all minus about $400 for "cleaning" and "repairs". Per the lease we signed, there's no way they can be wrong. Awesome, Dowling. It also really sucked to live under our lease (they vary from house to house) because we had to pay for the city services which can amount up to $300 bi-monthly on top of our rent and other services. We also had to pay for our carpets to be cleaned at the end of our term regardless of the condition that we kept the carpet. See what I mean by the tenants getting the short end of the stick? Poor conditions and more expensive for us than anyone else. Don't expect Dowling to look out for you. I should've known this when I met the condescending Mr. Dowling when initially turning in the deposit check. He said to me "Give the me the check, my name's on the door." Regardless, I don't feel comfortable giving $3100 dollars to a man I've never met and will never see again throughout the course of my lease. I've moved every year I've been in Davis and can say with confidence that there are many, many more options in Davis that give you a better deal and a better place to live without having to keep a dedicated hand vacuum for cockroaches. Avalon, part of the Sorrento and Brisa owners, in south Davis had the nicest, most prompt administration and maintenance people I knew, and never have I seen a cockroach there. I will never pay good money to live on 922 J Street ever again. Thanks for the great year Mr. Dowling. read more

I have been renting from Dowling for about 5 years now and have always received great service. Keone does a great job helping me with any problems that arise. He is always quick to reply to me emails and will even stop by for my maintenance needs the same day that I request. Thanks for the great work! It makes my life a whole lot easier! read more

I only lived in a Dowling property for one year, but it was a pretty good experience. I didn't have any major issues with the property, so I can't say much about their responsiveness to problems. I had a couple maintenance requests, and they responded to both. Omero and Erich are both very nice, chill guys. I once completely messed up and forgot to pay one month. For some reason I thought I'd paid for the first and last month when I signed the lease. They didn't charge me the listed fee when I went in and explained even though I was a week late, which was very nice of them. The main issue with renting from these guys is the extremely high security deposit they ask for (1.5-2x one month's rent). On the other hand, they're the only rental management I've ever lived under that gave me back the full security deposit after I left. This is just my own experience, but I would happily rent from them again. read more

One of those places that makes me sad that 'zero stars' isn't an option. They do as little as possible once you sign their contract and they get your money. They don't return phone calls or emails. They don't take care of maintenance or the massive bug problems in their poorly cared for units. And don't expect to get your deposit back, they will nickle and dime you as much as they can. The people who run this place seem to be really lazy and rude. I think they only survive because of all the young and naive college students. I wish they would get their act together because they're behavior is really not okay. Please avoid if you can. read more

I rented from Dowling Properties at 720 D Street and found them responsive and pleasant to work with. I've read some of the other reviews and can't believe we're talking about the same company. I'm a mature adult and I've owned rental property. Most of the negative comments are from students who signed leases and then didn't like the terms. read more

I've been using them for several years now and nicely uneventfully. Staff knows what they're doing and there has been low turnover which is always a good sign. read more

I've been renting through them for several years now and have found it to be a nicely uneventful experience. Everyone has been nice and responsive and they seem to have a low turn-over, always a good sign. read more

I was looking to rent a commercial property in Woodland. Erin was going write up the lease agreement the following day. That turned into a week. Finally after multiple emails and calls I left a nastygram on the voicemail basically saying shit or get off the pot. 4 days later a TEXT sorry I've been out of the office. Fair enough. Following day a phone call. Ok. So I can have it finished today and sent over in a little while. Another week passed and no contact. Weekends area joke to communicate and weekdays aren't any better. Stay as far away as possible. Unless you have perfect credit and thousands of $ on resources, you end up getting ignored. So owner of 1038 Beamer, this is who is running your rentals. Bye felicia. read more

This is the kind of realty company that you use when you have no other option. The office (Eric in particular) acts really easy going in the beginning but that translates into unprofessionalism and laziness as time goes on. Here are some bullet points from our two years with this company: * We moved in late at night due to the need to travel a while from our last place. When we got there around 10pm at night we found that the door had been bolted and required a second key, which we were never given. * Upon originally visiting the apartment there were several repairs that needed to be done. Water damage, a completely shredded drawer, and a large part of the linoleum that had curled up so much that you could trip over it, most of the towel hangers were broken and hanging off the wall, etc. We were promised these things would be tended to immediately upon moving in but despite multiple emails and attempts at scheduling maintentence these things were never fixed during our entire stay. We got so far as to make appointments with the handymen but they never showed up and we never heard a response from the comapny when we followed up. We eventually had to spend our own money/time to do the repairs ourselves. * HUGE infestation problem. It started out with one or two roaches a week. When we talked to Eric about it he shrugged it off as normal and told us they did pest spraying. In the two years we lived there we never once saw anyone come. The roach problem got so bad that we were finding multiple roaches each day. They were coming out of the light fixtures and getting stuck in the glass covering. At one point I went into our kitchen and the floor was literally covered in dozens of baby roaches. The floor was CRAWLING. I took a video and sent it to Eric and once again he shrugged it off saying that we hadn't updated him to the state of the roach problem when we had been telling them for months. We should've done it all via email instead of over the phone/word or mouth because without written proof he just denied that we had said anything at all. Finally, after the video proof and our obvious frustration they sent someone to spray the place. *After all of this they still had the gall to overcharge us for a cleaning fee despite us leaving the place in very good condition. They're a scam company that preys off of college students and people looking for reasonable housing prices. They're good at putting on a nice face but all you have to do is look at their reviews to see how they actually operate. I wish I could've given them zero stars. In summary, avoid Dowling if you have any other option. read more

THE WORST MANAGEMENT COMPANY EVER!!! THESE DUDES WILL ROB YOU AND DON"T CARE. They did zero of the repairs needed, even though I filled out the itemized list they gave with the application and collected a $50 maintenance fee monthly. Then they charged me $400 "administration fee" after I did the work to find a new tenant to take over my lease. To make it even more pleasant, every person in the office, except for Omero, is unfriendly and difficult to deal with on the phone. Also, watch out because they spray round up on the property, but lie to tenants and say its all natural. read more

Just don't. Lol. I can't speak much for Dowling himself because we hardly ever saw him, which might be why the company is so hard to work with. The only assistant that was helpful and decent was Omero. Other than that, would not recommend. High prices, low quality. read more

My son hasn't even moved in yet and I'm already pissed off. They require each tenant to fill out an application but only allow one check each month for the rent or they charge you $20 per extra check and if you want to pay by cash they charge you a $30 fee read more

While Downling Properties are pushy when they want something, they ignore repeated maintenance requests, and blatantly ignore tenant rights. They also have it in their lease that they will not take care of pests in their buildings, which leads me to believe they are just slum lords. read more

Poor Dowling! Thought I should put in my two-cents since I don't believe it deserves quite the bad rap it's receiving. Currently renting with Dowling, and on my third year with them. Having lived in the Bay Area (Berkeley, Oakland, SF) before moving to Davis, I've gone through my share of landlords and feel that Dowling is actually quite responsive. I remember how Jon Vento, the manager, went above and beyond to help us get settled in. They've always been highly responsive to our maintenance requests and do their best within the constraints -- property owners who are stingy at times, maintenance folks who are working multiple jobs, and a relatively small staff managing a lot of properties. My feedback for Dowling is: - Please follow-up with the maintenance folks you ask to come, and try to get back to them regarding large repair orders (e.g., replacement of dryer or dishwasher) in a timely manner. I know it probably requires owner approval, but I think it took more than a week or two in my case. - Please make sure that the property is thoroughly and professionally cleaned before new tenants move in. Check all the cabinets for junk, and do a smell check. This probably has to do with allowing a bit more time between tenants to do these checks. Our place reeked of cat urine despite carpet cleaning due to previous tenants. They were very good about changing out the carpet ASAP, and Jon even volunteered to come help us move our stuff from room to room out of his own time. Highly appreciated!!! - Lastly, this is a piece of feedback for all rentals in Davis. We are not all students renting according to an academic calendar and having time to see properties in the middle of the day on a weekday. If you are a working professional who cannot come during the work day, finding an place to rent in Davis is near-impossible. Please allow for evening viewings and leases that do not follow the calendar year. It is completely ridiculous! read more

I rented a property from Dowling this past year and I can honestly say that the experience was terrible. My roommates and I experienced a variety of problems and it was like pulling teeth to receive any help. Our next door neighbors (also Dowling tenets) had a broken washing machine for most of the year and could never get Dowling to fix it. Avoid the headache and rent with someone else. read more