Great landlord, I am really surprised to read some other reviews. He has always been prompt to respond to maintenance calls, the units are well maintained. The snow removal and outside care has been great, the prices are fair, especially living in the area I do. I have lived here over two years, and I will renew again next year as well. Great neighborhood, friendly and quiet neighbors. I have always been notified if they were to enter a unit. read more

I applied for an apartment at 85 N. Whitney and Joel Greenbaum approved me and told me to mail him a check for the deposit which I did, on 10/29. I waited and then called Joel who said he was out of town and assured me after a friendly conversation that he would check the mail when he got back and let me know. Several days passed and he never called me to tell me if the check had arrived and so I called him and asked him if he had received my check for the security and he said no and assured me once again he'd look in his mailbox when he was back in town. So finally, today, 11/20 I called him AGAIN because I was worried, as I had not heard anything and still had not signed a lease, and when I asked him about my check he said that the check never arrived; I asked him how we ought to proceed and he told me that he had simply given the apt away without bothering to even inform me, after accepting my application weeks ago. Now it is a week and a half before I was set to move in on 12/1and I have to scramble to find a place. When I asked why he didn't call to tell me he had not received my check, he claimed he did not have my number which cannot be true since we had several calls already about the check and he could have easily called me back, not to mention that a rental application has my contact info, both phone and email and home address and work contact etc. He didn't even apologize! He did not do anything illegal, but it was certainly not what I would describe as honest. I would not rent anything from him or his company if I were you. Clearly, he found a tenant who was more appealing and just gave the apartment away. Talk about a lack of integrity! I have rented many apartments and never experienced anything as shady as this. read more

Joel is an old school landlord. The units won't be newly renovated, he only takes paper checks, etc. BUT what you get is a landlord who won't charge you insane rent and is a pretty caring person. I pay about half of what my friends do for similar properties in similar locations. When I was going to be late to work because the plow hadn't come yet (oh yea, did I mention he does your snow removal?), I texted him and he sent them to my house in UNDER FIVE MINUTES to take care of everything! His maintenance service is great (fix any issues same day) and he is very responsive to any lease or housing questions. I really appreciate Joel and know a lot of other people who do as well. I wish the 95% of people who have positive experience left reviews at the same rate as the 5% who don't. read more

Please DO NOT rent from them! Joel, the landlord, is completely incompetent. He either doesn't understand that renters have rights or he simply doesn't care because no one has pressed charges against him. One of the reviews on here saying that he constantly sends maintenance workers in without any notice is completely true. The story I'm about to tell is simply the worst of the many. He sent people into my apartment while I was away and they stole EVERYTHING!!! (DURING A PANDEMIC NO LESS). I came home to an empty apartment and I wouldn't wish this dreadful feeling on my worst enemy. I called him within minutes knowing it wasn't a robbery as the door hadn't been broken down and on of the blinds in my bedroom had been replaced (pretty strange behavior for a thief). He said it was weird and that he would call me back. I waited hours and he still hadn't called back and wouldn't pick up any of my calls. I had no choice but to file a report with the police. He also wouldn't reply to any calls from the Police. Joel didn't get back to me until the next day. He admitted to having sent people in but that my things had already been destroyed or were in the dumpster (I checked the dumpster that same day and there was nothing in there aside from a dense swarm of flies). When I told him how much one of my pieces of furniture was worth (it was a very valuable antique locked music and jewelry table), he suddenly decided that maybe they hadn't been destroyed and that he would make sure to find my things to give back to me. Turns out one of the workers (Nick) took home my antique. Not only did he take it home but he also took it upon himself to force open the table since he didn't have the key and stole the piece inside the table that played music before returning it to me. They had also broken all my glassware from my kitchen and my sofa which I had bought this year. When I pointed this out to him he called my things old and basically tried to play off the whole thing. The police officer I filed the report with actually offered to accompany me in case he did anything shady and so he could finally talk to him while I was gathering my things as he had been evading their calls. When I asked Joel about not having contacted the police he told me to drop it because it wasn't that big of a deal and that they didn't "just go into people's apartments without permission", which he obviously does. I've been trying to get back my music piece but he no longer replies to my calls or texts. In a separate incident he tried to refuse my ES Animal even after I had shown him the law protecting my rights. If you don't want constant headaches and you want to rent from someone who understands that you have rights please don't rent here. I don't want anymore people to be abused like this so I'm begging you to find somewhere safer to rent. read more

We were recommended to one of Joel's properties through a friend. We loved the house and decided to go through with it despite quite a few bad reviews online. We had multiple friends that were currently renting from him, all with bad things to say, everywhere from random unannounced visits to dead bats in the closets, and other problems he refused to deal with. He accepted both our application and deposit for the house. We remained in frequent contact with him. Weeks later we heard from a friend that he rented the house to someone else. We called him to ask about it, and he just said 'sorry I already rented it,' with no explanation. He is extremely unprofessional, I would not rent from him. read more

Joel Greenbaum was my landlord this past year and it was a terrible experience. For one thing he was hard to get in contact with, and would rarely respond. He continuously sent maintenance in the house without any warning, which is illegal. At one point the roof was leaking and it took him over a month to fix. We also moved in and there was a centipedes infestation. The only help we received was a gallon of insect repellent. He was rude, unhelpful and unprofessional. Do not rent with him. read more

Excellent place to rent from! I originally planned on renting an apartment from Greenbaum Rentals for a year but then decided to extend for a few months after my original lease was over. I really lucked out with the owners and the neighbors in my building. The neighbors across the way were very friendly and always willing to lend a helping hand. The staff at Greenbaum Rentals was always quick to respond to request for minor repairs i.e. faucet leaking, shower head inspection. No major requests for repairs on my part, this is an older building but it is very well maintained. In the winter months, they were prompt to plow the snow on the parking lot and clean up the snow on the entrance of the building and the roof. A bucket of ice melt and a shovel was always available at the front of building for all residents to use. The owners were also very helpful with my move in and move out dates and allowed me to move in a few days early. -Thank you for making my time in Massachusetts so wonderful! -Claudia read more

I wasn't even one of Joel's tenants, and he was a horrible landlord. We heard about his property through a friend of ours, and reached out to Joel in September about renting for June 2021. He told our group that the house was on hold for us, and all we had to do was get our money and forms in. By the end of October, these same friends told us that we were no longer living there. Joel didn't even have the decency of telling us this himself. We called Joel to ask about our living situation, where he asked me to call again on Monday. On Monday, he confirmed that we lost our housing, simply because "another group got their information in before we did" (even though we were waiting on him to confirm with us that he received our money, in order to go forward with signing the lease). We went to collect our money and information forms back from his office, only to be given a poor excuse for a sorry. The only reason we lost this property is because we didn't rush since Joel assured us that we didn't have to. He is a very dishonest landlord. I cannot emphasize enough that you should NOT RENT from Joel. There are plenty of other reliable, HONEST landlords in the Amherst area (Valley Property Management, Crossman Properties, Kendrick Properties, Vertex Properties, Kamin's Real Estate). read more

If I could give negative stars I would. This business is a joke. I'm not sure if this man is even qualified to be a realtor. I am disgusted by the lack of communication I received and have been lied to throughout the process. read more

If I could give 0 stars I would. My friend and I found Greenbaum rentals (Joel Greenbaum) through friends and spent October through early November all set with a place to live for our 2021-2022 school year (we are students in the Amherst area). We signed the lease and I had sent my check and security deposit to Joel when my friend asked Joel about his policies on therapy dogs (because she was thinking, only thinking about getting one), and all of the sudden Joel fell off the face of the earth. He wouldn't answer her text so she dropped it, and then we received our security deposits back in the mail. We were confused, searched our lease for anything that said something about him sending back our security checks, all the while we were calling, texting and emailing him. When we gave up thinking maybe he just was busy and that he wasn't answering because we had just sent too much money, we thought everything was all set, and then 3 weeks later I sent one more text just hoping maybe if I asked for a short yes or no answer about being good to go on the apartment he would answer. He did, with a very short brief "I returned your check and made other plans. I'm sorry". I asked for explanation of the reason why he was for cancelling our lease but never got an answer. I have also not received the rest of the money I sent for the first and last months rent which is a pretty big check and it has now been about a month. I sent a formal email asking where my check was/to send it ASAP and STILL have not received it in the mail. My friend and I assume that as soon as he got a whiff of having to deal with a therapy dog he backed out and found someone else to move in so he would not have to say no (because that is illegal/discrimination) and he would not be sued. Do not work with this man. He is unresponsive, unprofessional and pretty selfish if you ask me, as college students in the area don't have many options for living places and we had to start at square one very late in the game, especially during covid. Thankfully we found an apartment but if we had been told earlier by Joel that he was absolving our lease we could have found something more in our price range or closer to our school, but it also would have just been human courtesy, which Joel obviously lacks. Just to sum everything up, he left us in a terrible situation when all we did was treat him with respect, and obviously shows no remorse about screwing up our plans and will not have a real conversation on the phone, as he hides behind a screen like a cyber bully. read more

Do not live here, the place is way too old to be inhabitable. It was built in the 18th century therefore not a place for humans to live.