Great folks to deal with . I know they have a lot on their plate when dealing with several rentals but they strive to be efficient and responsive and truly try to help remedy any situation that arises. The girls in the office office kristen / sherry and Lidia are awesome . And David the maintenance crew are very responsive and knowledgeable at keeping these properties up . I Definitely would recommend renting from these folks . read more

This company is the worst I've ever seen. Please steer clear of this place. Charged me the cleaning fee on the front end, my professional cleaners cleaned after I left then Jacob Lei charged another $600 "to clean again". I don't understand how they are in business. read more

DO NOT RENT FROM THEM! I have never seen a more negligent property management. After renting from MANY other places, they have to be the absolute worst so far! They took well over 900 on our deposit (mind you, we are clean and do not own pets, as they refused to allow US to have pets but ALL of our neighbors owned large dogs) They are very rude on the phone (on the rare chance that they actually answer). I highly recommend looking elsewhere for somewhere to rent! During the heavy snow this last winter, they only salted our hill once (mind you, we were in an apartment building). I could not get up the hill, thank God we have a spare AWD vehicle! Upon speaking to our neighbors, they informed us on how they had the same layout as us but they were paying $350 more than what we were already paying! (Then advertised on FB for the SAME apartment for our original leased price). read more

Please do not sign a lease with Jacob Lei. I signed a lease with this company in June 2022 for my college apartment in Fort Sanders. When we moved in, the carpets were covered in animal hair, pet urine, and food crumbs. The walls were torn up (not painted!). The bathroom was full of mold. I had to deep clean the entire unit myself and request a professional carpet cleaning before it was livable. My roommates and I took photos of the state of the apartment when we moved in, and it didn't help us at all when we tried to get our deposit back when we moved out in May 2025. After we moved out, Jacob Lei informed us that not only were they going to keep our entire security deposit, they were charging us an additional $1350 for the replacement of the carpet. They gave us 30 days to pay or be sent to collections. When we responded to their email with our evidence of the carpet's condition from when we moved in, we were completely ghosted. Jacob Lei's office screens calls. If you want to reach them, you have to leave a message. We finally got ahold of them two weeks after their initial email, and when I asked to be placed in contact with the Move-Outs Coordinator, I was told she had been "out sick"... for 2 weeks? When my roommate got ahold of them, she was told that the Move-Outs Coordinator was "on vacation". Right. If you go to their office to complain in person, they will ask you to leave the premises. I even filed a complaint with the Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs office and received no restitution. There is no winning against this company outside of a court of law, which they know is prohibitively expensive to the people they are taking advantage of. Jacob Lei also raised our rent by $400 in one year without making any improvements to the unit. Plain and simple, they do not respect the rights of tenants and are looking to squeeze every last cent out of you that they can. YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR SECURITY DEPOSIT BACK EVEN WITH PROOF. If you are a landlord considering this company, understand how you will be represented. read more

Jacob Lei Property Management - carpet comparison - Property Management Near Me - Knoxville, Tennessee

Terrible property management to rent from. My story is much like the others. Moved into a property in '22 that was filthy and had damage. Took photos of the damage. Had issues getting repairs completed throughout our tenancy. Moved out in the fall of this year (2025). We took excellent care of the property, but they are trying to keep our entire security deposit despite the fact we have proof we did not cause the alleged damage. There are attorneys in Knoxville willing to help with similar issues, you just have to search for them. read more

When moving in my condo in 2022 it was not clean. Very slow to return call or even recognize maintenance request. Never received pool fob in two years of living at the same place, was given same excuse every time I asked. Rent check was lost two different times but found later. When moving out I made sure everything was clean and was in better shape than when I moved it and yet they kept almost all of my deposit with claims of all kinds of damage. Which was there when I moved in! I would not recommend anyone signing a lease with them. read more

I do not recommend renting from this company. I'm currently being charged for damages that were already present when I moved in--issues I thoroughly documented during my initial inspection and reported through the proper channels. Despite multiple emails, voicemails, and even certified mail, I've received no response from Jacob Lei. Instead, they've threatened to send the charge to collections without offering any fair resolution. Edit to add: Today is 7/23/25 and I haven't heard from JLP since 6/30/25. To make matters worse, I paid a $250 pet damage deposit at move-in--yet I'm still being charged for alleged pet-related damage. That defeats the entire purpose of a pet deposit. Unfortunately, this lack of professionalism wasn't limited to the move-out process. During my time living in one of their townhomes, I experienced severe mold that was never properly addressed, unfinished bathroom and kitchen, and filthy carpeting upon move-in. No working lights in the living or dining rooms--maintenance couldn't fix it, and an electrician was never brought in. I was told my options were to "deal with it" or move out. No rent discount, no resolution. (Ironically, the company's current online photos of the unit show those same lights fully functioning.) After a year and a half of never missing a payment, I was once late--because the due date fell on a weekend, and I didn't think they'd process checks on a Sunday. That mistake cost me a $200 late fee, and when I explained the situation, I was told it didn't matter. But when I wrote a complaint on here, Jacob Lei replied that I should have just talked to them and they could have helped. This company is a joke! Also worth noting: online payments cost 5% of your rent in processing fees. For example, my rent of $1425 would cost me $72 additional in fees so tenants are forced to hand-deliver checks or pay a premium just to pay rent. Between the lack of communication, unjust fees, and overall disregard for tenants, it's clear this company does not prioritize tenant well-being. Tenants deserve honesty, fairness, and basic communication--none of which I received. Proceed with caution. read more

My girlfriend and I toured a rental, applied immediately, and paid the $90 application fee--non-refundable, of course. We were approved, had a lease signing date set, and were getting ready to move. Then they gave the place to someone else. No warning. No explanation. No apology. No refund. Just "Oops, sorry!" and we're left screwed over. We trusted them and acted in good faith. They strung us along for days and cost us money, time, and now possibly a roof over our heads. If this is how they treat potential tenants, I can't imagine how they treat actual renters. read more

I do not recommend this company. They said they had tried to contact me many times but they did not. I don't even think the properties they have exist If they called me why didn't they leave a voice mail? I have attemoted to grt an appointment to see one of their alleged properties for eeeks. I will tty no more. They are s complete waste of time ​ read more

I will start by saying I had a well thought out review written that despite plainly stating facts, was too long for Google Reviews or Yelp. I am exhausted of this property management company and cannot express how ecstatic I am to be rid of them. I also cannot fathom how they have any good reviews based on not just our experience, but the experiences of our former neighbors as well. They let us live with disgusting mold in our apartment for over a year as I exhausted all options trying to get it taken care of and contacting them over and over and over. The water damage in the mold room ruined my brand new sheets on a bed that was on the floor due to not having a bed frame at the time. Several different neighbors knew about the mold situation because, as we were told by them, at least two former tenants moved out because of it. The foundation expert defined the moldy wall as "completely saturated" by water, and a maintenance man once found a live slug crawling out of the damaged floor. Once they finally did get rid of the mold and installed a sump pump, they let us live with a demolished room for the remaining 3 months and 3 weeks of our lease, AND lied about not being able to get in touch with an electrician to approve the electrical stuff before they could fix our room. He showed up unprompted and told us he just had to stop by and hope we were home so he could approve it, and that Jacob Lei would not answer or return his calls. He approved everything in about one minute, but like I said, they never repaired the demolished room anyway. Our kitchen sink broke-- and I'm not embellishing here-- FIVE times. (At least, it could have been more honestly I stopped counting after five). Soaked everything in the cabinet below and I had to replace it all. Every time I called (about anything) I was told "the maintenance men are busy." Though I know that is also a lie because one time when a pipe leaked disgusting brown liquid into our ceiling, the only way it was resolved was because I got the personal phone number of the maintenance man, and he came out and fixed it immediately. One of the times our sink broke I called for 2+ months about it. Finally I told the manager she needed to have someone come fix it as soon as possible. The maintenance man came the next morning and I told him it had been broken for 2+ months, and I was just curious if he was ever told. He said no, the previous day was the first time he'd ever heard of it. It's very obvious Jacob Lei is a company of cheap slumlords who don't want to pay to have things fixed. Don't bother calling if you have any issues. They will either be sweet and say they'll get it taken care of soon (and won't), or be blatantly rude. I once called about a major leak coming from our ceiling only to be cut off and told "yeah, it's the rain." I said ma'am we live on the bottom! (Also if it was because of rain I guess that meant it's not important? I don't know). It was a leak coming from our upstairs neighbor's water heater. There are plenty more things I could go on about, for example having to pay a cleaning fee for the apartment to be dirty upon arrival... took multiple x sanitizing the floor for it to get clean...etc. But like I said, I am so exhausted of this company. I just wanted to share our horrid experience and warn anyone thinking of renting from Jacob Lei. We are not difficult people and simply wanted a LIVABLE apartment in exchange for our $1,025 a month. But no! I guess we got used to living the high life at our former apartment since they would actually fix major issues in a timely manner. Oh yeah, and to top it all off they didn't give us our refund on time because they're so "busy." Hahaha that's illegal not just an oopsie but whatever, we got it eventually. Giving 1 star feels wrongly much too high but unfortunately I'm not able to give less. read more

Jacob Lei Property Management - Property Management Near Me - Knoxville, Tennessee

See all

If I could give 0 stars I would. Toured a house with hopes of renting in the next couple days. A day later seen that it was taken off their website. Went to call agent and had no response. Through phone or email. No response from the office. Unanswered voicemails and emails. Im not even sure if this company is legitimate / if they ever go to work. Do not rent / buy with these children. read more

DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE THEY LIE THEY DONT FIX SHIT . The hide behind unanswered voice mails and emails . Good luck going to the office. They won't help you face to face either .... RUN DON''T WALK AWAY FROM THESE POS's you will be sorry if you if you rent from them !!! Read the reviews . Any stars over a 1 or comments of great service are BS they probably pay their friends to give a good review ! read more

Do not rent from this company. They will illegally withhold $1100 from your security deposit for "painting" even when we have have proof that the place was left in cleaner shape than when we moved in and this is a preposterous charge. If this happened to you, contact a lawyer. With all the people they've done this to, I'm sure there's a class action law suit there. I will spare all the other reasons this company is terrible to rent from, but in a short list version: Incompetent. Inhumane. Trash people and business, all around. read more

Horrible customer service. They don't answer phone messages or email when you request maintenance. Only way we got them to poke their heads up is when we withheld the costs of the repairs we made ourselves from our rent. They seemed to agree to the necessity of those repairs and agreed to accept the lesser amount. Over a month after moving out and despite numerous phone calls/emails they still had not returned our deposit. When we finally got our check 6 weeks later it had almost the exact amount we had spent on repairs deducted from it. Bet they got a big laugh out of that one. read more

This company "manages" three properties in our neighborhood and the homes are never maintained. Additionally the tenanats are never provided the neighborhood rules, so of course they consistently dont follow them. awful unprofessional company. read more

The apartment we rented for two years was so outdated, and couldn't get maintenance to ever fix anything upon request. We weren't even able to use our porch the whole time we lived there because it was ready to cave in. The management is impossible to get ahold of and they are rude when you finally are able to speak to them about your concerns. I really wanted to love Chestnut Commons because it's in the heart of Norris, but these apartments are so ran down and dirty. We saw roaches here too. I would never recommend this place or management to anyone. Not to mention, when you decide to move they take almost all of your security deposit to "paint" and "clean". When we first moved in, they never sent the cleaning people and my husband and I had to clean up after the last tenant. read more

If I could leave 0 stars I would. My biggest issue with them is regarding how unprofessional they are. I had to move out due to a tragic circumstance and provided them IN PERSON with a letter stating my new address to mail the remainder of my deposit to. Today I received the snarkiest email saying "it would have been nice to receive a zip code" and I'm not kidding an email saying "ZIP CODE???" I do not know who is responsible for the administration department but they need to approve emails before they are sent out. I was also not asked once for a zipcode until I was bombarded with emails regarding it. I am thankful to be done with this company. read more

We have been requesting new appliances for over a year and have been ignored. The dishwasher leaks, is literally hanging out of the wall and caught on FIRE three weeks about but they still don't have a new one out yet still expect rent. They apparently have been waiting "for new ones to come"? Lazy and poor management. All the tenants on Acorn Woods way are not taken care of and unhappy. Definitely won't be renewing the lease and will make sure nobody I know rents from these people. read more

Horrible place to rent from! Kristen is extremely unprofessional and rude. I went 4 months without an oven having a 2 year old to cook for, as soon as I asked them to lower my rent because I didn't have a working oven they brought one from storage the next day. I haven't been able to use my back porch due to it being completely rotten, dishwasher falls straight out of the wall every time I open it, this place hasn't even changed an air filter in the 12 months I've resided in their property. If I could give them 0 starts I would, DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE!! read more

See all

My 88 yrs old elderly mother lives at a property named Nevada Heights in Lafollette this ratchet company Jacob Lei took over the management from another lame company called Home Source, Kristen called my mom and spoke really rude ! Why did she do this, I call to inform her and anyone in this office to never dial my mother phone, instead call me, I proceeded to go off on her being disrespectful let me tell you these folks at Jacob Lei are the most unprofessional dishonest l ignorant group of people we have ever dealt with first they send text to communicate which are poorly written with bad spelling the letters sent were equally bad. The management never met with the tenants and soon begin to increase the lease amount to unfair amounts. This property was based on income, this area is very low income almost poverty levels, the average income is in this county is 35k. Jacob never check the tenants files are updated the information. My youngest brother lived next door to mom, and died 2 yrs ago, can you believe they sent him an eviction notice? 5 tenants have moved out of this property in the 2 weeks (which some of the units are nice) being only 12 units total. My mother is the longest tenant there 6yrs, the previous mgmt company never painted our repair some items. Recently, one of the tenants received a TEXT stating she owed 2 months back rent, and if they didn't receive by June 1, she would be evicted, well how about she saved copies of both Money orders to proved she mailed both in, (oh and they don't have a drop box or a manager on duty) she has tried calling the leasing office in Knoxville no one has returned the calls (We have tried calling several times). Honestly the remaining tenants are uniting together to petition this horrible company. The Jacob Lei company took the city dumpster out and replaced with some unknown company smaller container, which hasn't been emptied in 3weeks (we took pictures) also the dog poop station has overflowed, grass is high hasn't been mowed at all, one elderly male tenant has no air conditioning, has called 3x finally had to call a local repair and pay for the job. Hud has been notified and hopefully the remaining tenants will be taken care of, Mom will be living with my sister in this area, so this eases our concerns. read more

If I could give this place - stars I would. This is one of the worst property managers. They kept my security deposit because I broke lease early but I paid for my rent until they re-rented it. Never missed a payment! I also had so many issues with things going wrong, example no hot water and it took them almost a month to fix it. They are unprofessional and seriously the worst company!! They also charge a fee every time you pay rent. That is almost 200$ bunch of bullshit. DONT RENT WITH THEM! read more

Horrible place. Our rent went from being $600 a month to $1550 after being sold to these cucks. Online payment system took rent out twice after only going through the payment process once and they said we wouldn't be refunded for at least a week because we would have to go through their second party payment system. We went at least a week after our apartment got sold to even know who we would be paying rent to and literally didn't know until the day before rent was due.. upstairs neighbor went a week with no air conditioning. Two guys knocked on my door as I'm alone with my two small children and came in to check smoke detectors/fire hydrant and said we should've gotten a notice they were coming, which we did not and when called up they claimed they had no number on file for us which is a blatant lie because we had to put our email and phone number in to pay rent. Their phone is set to go straight to voicemail so that they can come up with excuses before dealing with aggravated tenants. Long story short, these people represent people from places like New York buying up Knoxville and high jacking rent prices driving out people, and young families, who have been here their entire life, out of their homes. Disgusting people. read more

We are property owners of several rentals in the Knoxville, TN area. Jacob Lei has been our property managers for almost 8 years now. Kristen & Mike have done an outstanding job - taking good care of the properties, managing tenant relations, minimizing the vacancy rate, & ensuring the properties are profitable both in the short-term & the long-term. We are strong proponents of the concept of Stewardship (improving the properties over time and not just maintaining them or letting them deteriorate for short-term profits). They have bought into Stewardship with us & the results have been great. We recommend them very highly. read more

awful awful people to rent from will do everything in their power to be nice and get you in then you'll never hear from them again even if you call saying you have a problem that they are legally required to fix these people are trash and should not be rented from read more

First off Kristen (the prop. mgr) is rude asf and I was 7 days late on rent and she called and had my water and power turned off which is illegal. The apartments are more like bedrooms I can hear my neighbors cough, TV, etc and they are not loud at all. The will raise your rent 2 months after signing a contract which is also illegal. Do NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE! Maintenance doesn't exist. read more

The apartment itself is okay--not great, but not horrible either. The problem is this company. They don't respond to maintenance requests or any requests at all, until you email, text and phone all of their numbers multiple times. And even then, they promise to get issues taken care of but either take forever to do them, never do them at all or do poorly at them. I've been living without a mailbox key for almost 3 months, my new dishwasher has never worked correctly, there are leaks in my bathroom with water collecting under the floor and several items are still "on order" for my unit. I would be more understanding about delays if they would just respond to my messages, but nothing. They go into a black hole, making you turn yourself into a squeaky wheel to get any response from them at all. Luckily, many other tenants at my complex have had similar issues so I don't second-guess myself, thinking it's me! I would think twice about renting from any property this company manages as they seem to want to operate more as an accounting company. They're quite efficient at asking for rent, but anything else seems to be beyond their capabilities. read more

Deceitful company that will not respect you as a renter and will make renting a painful process. We moved into a dirty house even though they charge each tenant $300 upon leaving for a cleaning fee. It was obvious there was no professional cleaning done. They would not clean again for us even with photo evidence and they also did not do a move in inspection. We signed the contract from out of state and expected a follow up with an inspection as I've had with every house I've rented, but we're told no & that our standards were too high. Highly unprofessional and maintenance issues were also awful to deal with and get repaired. Maintenance team was rude and we'd sometimes have random workers show up for outdoor work for leaks on the roof with no notice. Called to complain, but still happened in the future. When we moved after a year. we cleaned top to bottom and left the house in better shape than we found it because I knew they would try to keep deposit money even though we pay a cleaning fee, but sure enough they kept hundreds of our deposit for some scuffs on the wall and lightbulb replacement. It's a scam!! I rented and owned several places and this was the worst experience and they know they are doing wrong!! Do not rent. read more