SCAM. This property management is a scam. My close friend leased an apartment from them and they scammed her into paying extra rent after her lease had already ended. Despite giving verbal notice that she would not be renewing her lease, they continued to harass her and charged her an extra month of rent because the person she gave notice to "couldn't remember". They also hung up on her and are not answering any of her calls which is extremely unprofessional. I do not recommend this place at all. They will scam you and make your life miserable. read more

I would avoid ERI at all costs. The staff are wildly unprofessional and unwilling to work with you in the slightest. Despite giving them notice of my intended move out date, they still insisted that I must pay an additional 2 weeks of rent. When trying to resolve the matter, I was yelled at, hung up on, and fully ignored. Overall, a terrible terrible experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. read more

Slavka is an outstanding professional. She goes out of her way to help clients and vendors alike. Cheers to ERI.

Terrence of ERI Property Management helped my daughter and her three roommates get through the arduous process of applying, qualifying and finally securing their new home in Berkeley. He was incredibly responsive, helpful and extremely pleasant to work with. My group had been looking for three months and Terrence made it all happen within 48 hours! I would definitely call him if I was looking for a place to live in Berkeley. read more

Pretty responsive for a property management company with so many places to run. Not exactly the friendliest people on the planet (with the exception of Slavka, who knows what she's doing and helpful), but they do a decent job. Easy to communicate with. Maintenance is often overloaded and small jobs often get scheduled way far out to the point where it's easier just to fix the problem yourself. read more

I hate slander, and will avoid it here. Am offering a review of my experience with these folks. Attempted to lease a unit through their rental agency, and it took over 1 week for them to return with any information on tenancy, despite stating they would reply within 2 days. Kept myself and all other applicants waiting until within 6 days of the possible move-in, leaving myself and all others high and dry to find a place within less than a week. Did not respond to phone calls or e-mails, despite being in office. Very rude individuals (I spoke with, atleast) who demonstrate little respect for their prospective tenants. I strongly urge you not to rent through ERI property management, if this and the other reviews are any indicator of their quality as landlords. read more

This property management company IS absolutely terrible, unprofessional, and a scam!!!! I also don't know who could have possibly given 5 stars either. Must be someone who works for the property management company and wants to mislead. DONT BE FOOLED, they are not 5 stars. My experience with them was super sketchy. Most everything negative that other reviewers already mentioned also happened to me. They don't return calls or emails for a long time, up to a week. The woman in the office is really rude and doesn't know whats going on. They ask you for a "hold deposit" of $400 or more BEFORE they confirm or not if you have been offered the property or not. And they say it will make your changes better. ..so sketch. Which, by the way folks, HOLD DEPOSITS ARE ILLEGAL!. They need to be reported on this. They have you go through a process of coming to see the place and paying $35 to have your credit run. They run hard inquires on your credit (as opposed to soft inquires) , so beware of that, the credit check and background check they run will stay on your credit report for up to two years. Even if you have excellent credit and steady income they will not pick you. I was in a pool of six other applicants that applied to one of their properties. After paying $35 and submitting paperwork, they said they gave the applications to the owner of the house, Mary, to make the final decision on who they would pick as the new tenant. And when she decided they would get back. Before that, Sasha, who showed the property and acts as though she's the rental agent, said the REAL rental agent (supposedly Samantha) would make the final decision. After several unanswered or unreturned calls and emails, nearly two weeks after having submitted an application they sent emails to me, and presumably to everyone else in the application pool, asking for hold deposits. And that if we gave a hold deposit they would take the ad off craisglists and other advertising sites and offer it up to us. They really make it sound like you are chosen so they are deceptive that way. I refused to do this unless I knew if I was actually the only one chosen. I checked back on the craigslist ad every day or two to see if their ad for the property was still active and it was, they kept reposting daily BUT WITHOUT OFFERING NEW OPEN HOUSE TIMES AND DAYS - which is what they are advertise as doing at least once weekly. Apparently, no one fell for the hold deposit scam. They only took the ad down when they decided not to rent it to anyone. After a week and a half I finally got a email saying that the owner decided to rent out the cottage to the current tenants of the main house and no one out of the applicant pool was chosen. When I complained how poorly they were managing things and I asked why the owner decided this and why none of the applicants where chosen. I was told that it was ultimately up to all the tenants to decide. Again, that was contrary again to earlier information about how the decision process was made. Something else that I found weird was that at one point I was told that Mary, the "owner" of the cottage, actually had a phone extension line at the ERI Property Management company office. So she works there? I don't know. But at the showing of the property I was told she doesn't live in the area. It was all very unclear and by the end of it I was really upset, ready to go pick up my paperwork, and insulted that they would waste everyones time, not only tried to scam me, but the 5 other applicants, and others before and after us. BEWARE OF ERI PROPERTY MANAGEMENT. THEY ARE A SCAM. read more

A friend, an out of state investor, used their management services. Over approximately 5 years of her Hills income property being "managed" by ERI, she experienced: -significant gaps in tenancy -2 different tenants stopped paying their rent -no compensation/withholding of down payment for tenant caused damage, such as gouges in wood flooring, replacement of wood plantation shutters with cheap plastic ones, tenant painting interior (prohibited by rental agreement) -more serious damage to the property that was made worse by lack of management oversight and adequate maintenance, such as: significant rat infestation in the basement (undetected for years and then addressed inadequately, so infestation continued), roof leak (property manager oversaw inadequate patch job, which led to more water damage). After experiencing all of this, I have no idea why she continued to employ ERI, but I'm sharing my lesson learned: DO NOT use ERI property management services. Frankly, our friend's experience scared us off of owning investment properties at all. If for some reason you do consider using their services, I recommend reviewing their contract with an outside party. read more

I wouldn't use this company. I dealt with Mary and Slavka. And while they are personally very friendly people, it's been over 18 months since I moved out and they still haven't gotten my security deposit back to me despite multiple calls. And good luck getting them to pay the legally required yearly interest on your security deposit too. Small claims court is your friend when dealing with ERI. read more

It is glaringly obvious that at least a few of the 5-star ratings on this site, if not all of them, were solicited or created by ERI Property Management. The business of selling good Yelp reviews is, after all, a business that incompetent and unprofessional companies rely upon to boost their own SEO and internet legitimacy, as well as to cover their tracks if they are involved in sketchy activity. Someone posted here that "complainers are usually folks who did not get their offers accepted." I am a complainer and this does not apply to me, because I never even had the chance to make an offer. My partner and I showed up on a beautiful Saturday to view a wonderful little home in Kensington/Berkeley, along with nearly a dozen others, and were completely stood up by the agent who was supposed to show the property. No sign, no internet posting, no communication whatsoever -- anywhere -- that the property was rented or the showing was canceled. One prospective tenant had driven all the way from Santa Cruz for the second time to see the place, yet had not once even met the "agent" who was supposed to be showing it. The home is still listed on their website, yet no further communication has occurred with the agent. This type of scenario indicates that ERI is one of two things: 1. Utterly incompetent, unprofessional, and incapable of delivering on their company mission of property "management". OR 2. Engaging in deliberate dilatory tactics to coax desperate renters into sending sensitive info (e.g. SSNs, bank account #s, email, phone), as well as application fees (see other posts below) to their seemingly vacant office, at which point they can simply abscond with this information, sell it to interested parties, and leave renters with the impression that they just got unlucky. Either way, if/when Yelp implements the 0-star rating, ERI is a candidate. They may even be a candidate for an investigation and/or lawsuit. Stay away from ERI! read more

I really don't know what's up with everyone here. I've been renting my apartment from ERI for the last 4 years, and they've been nothing but nice and professional. Renting my apartment has been a ridiculously seamless experience, and I've never felt a sense of dread going to anyone at ERI at all because I know they're nice people. A few stories: 1) There's been several occasions I've been, like, a day late on my payments because of how much I travel around. Everyone that I've spoken to at ERI - Sasha, Mary, Slavka, etc. - has been super nice to me about it. They always told me "don't worry about it, we won't penalize you, we understand." 2) Once, I had to mail in a money order because I was away for a while. I was scared because it would take a while to reach ERI, and it possibly wouldn't have reached the offices before the deadline for rent. In any case, though, they were super nice about it, and told me as long as it was postmarked before the date, I'd be fine. 3) My old car broke down once, and I totally forgot to tell them I had a new car (for parking spot purposes). They left a note on my car, saying it was the third time they'd warned me, and that they'd tow me if they see me again. I was like "...third time? I'd never received a note like this." I walked into ERI's offices ready to unleash a barrage of complaints on them. But when I walked in and told them about my situation, they weren't mean about it at all! They told me that they were sorry about worrying me, and they registered my new car right away. As for the "3rd time" mystery? Turns out some random person had been parking in my spot while I was away sometimes! And since I've never seen that again, I assume they must have caught that person. I admired their integrity in striking directly at this matter, and the kindness with which they treated me. Also, they've always been professional and transparent about maintenance going on in the apartment, as well as things regarding services I needed (shower head fixing, sink repair, etc). Possibly the best landlords I could have ever asked for. read more

I can't imagine having a better property manager. From the moment they showed us the house, until this day, having lived here one year, they've been kind, responsive, organized and helpful beyond expectation. We agreed on a reasonable price and I was able to get keys on the 31st. They provide gardening once a month. It's a beautiful but older house and so random little things need repairs. These always get done. Even during the pandemic, they've sent someone to fix the porch railing, the door and the sink (and even the plumber, who's been working with landlords to fix houses for 40 years, raved about ERI.) ERI is far and above the best property manager I've ever had, and I've lived in 15 rentals in NYC and the Bay Area over the last 10 years. Thank you ERI! read more

From a prospective tenant's standpoint, ERI's business etiquette was absolutely atrocious. We fought an hour's worth of traffic to make it to one of their open houses in Berkeley, only to find that it was hosted by a young woman who knew absolutely nothing about the property. While the house itself was very nice, the agency requested highly sensitive personal details (bank account numbers included) in its rental application, as well as money up front, and in return provided absolutely no details on lease terms, availability, utilities, nature of credit checks (hard or soft), etc. The hosting agent could not even tell us where the attic entrance was. We had to search for it ourselves (never found it, though could see the window from outside, and the ad on craigslist said attic included). Multiple follow up phone calls and emails were never returned. I will avoid these people at all costs going forward. They are precisely the type of agency that you don't want to deal with as a renter....particularly in this tight market. read more

I called ERI to inquire about one of their properties. Someone named Mary answered the phone. She was pleasant and explained the property was no longer available. She mentioned that another unit in the same duplex might become available and wanted to transfer me to the person in charge of the listing. Ok, no problem. But then there was some odd commotion in the background as she asked around the office about the listing before she transferred the call. Then a guy named Terri picked up the phone and was extremely unpleasant. He did not seem at all interested in answering questions or providing more information. So, I'm done with ERI. Something just did not quite seem right with these guys. read more

I had the pleasure of meeting Terrence while searching for a new home. I saw a house I absolutely feel in love with that was posted two hour prior. I called Terrence and he was able to find time to show me the space that day, as it was the only day off I had that week, and even though he had a packaged schedule. He was friendly, courteous and when we told him he wanted the space, he was able to work with us to get the place secured within 48 hours!! I 100% would recommend working with him. Although I can't imagine moving soon, because he helped us secure our dream- I would got to Terrance first if I needed to move. Would give 6 stars if I could!!! read more

Terrance was extremely responsive and helpful while my SO and I were looking for an apartment. We were able to find a beautiful place and rent it within just a couple days. The people in the office were friendly and well organized as well. I'm glad to have rented through ERI. read more

The actual management are wonderful- they are quick to respond, extremely helpful and nice, and promptly respond to calls and emails. They are very nice and understanding and have catered to all my needs, I wish everyone I rent from is this wonderful. read more

I find Sasha to be extremely helpful and professional. Her open houses are welcoming and informative. She answered all my questions and helped me make an informative decision on my rental. I as well as Jill am surprised at the negative reviews and believe it's due to people not getting what they want most likely due to their own negligence. read more

For the price I think you would be hard pressed to find a better small apartment building manager locally. Lots of experience and friendly staff. read more

I am a renter in a house managed by ERI. Slavka and Mary are always helpful and courteous, and all of our maintenance needs and questions about the house are taken care of quickly and efficiently. Honestly not sure what the 1-star reviews are about below, but as a tenant, they are absolutely 100% fine, no problems. read more

I have to agree with the last review. And I'm laughing (sort of -- more wincing), because we must have gone to the same open house. The house itself was quite nice, but yes, the young woman representing the rental agency had absolutely no idea what she was doing. She couldn't even answer the simplest questions. And after several attempts at contacting the rental agent herself, we've gotten no response whatsoever. Stay far, far way from these people. read more

SCAM, SCAM, SCAM .....avoid, avoid, avoid....sad we lost our credit check deposit -$70

Worst experience I've ever had with a Property Management company. It is nearly impossible to reach anyone but the secretary working in the office and Mary, who is extremely rude and unhelpful. I sent multiple unrequited emails inquiring about simple steps in leasing and contact information. There was absolutely no dialogue for about two weeks while I continued to reach out to them. I highly discourage anyone thinking about renting with this company. read more