My daughter & her roommate lived in a Newlove apartment for 2 years. What a joke moving out every tiny hole was professionally filled by a construction professional & they still charged us $115. All they had to do is paint & that is required when someone moves out. We were charged for a door that had been broke off & on from day 1 that they never properly fixed. To top it off the hot water tank flooded they came in ripped up the carpet dried it with big fans replace the water tank but never cleaned or properly tacked the carpet down & charged us 90 for this & it was their neglect. Out of the 8 charges only only 3 were true. I would never recommend anyone to rent from them. read more

I rented from this group almost 30 years ago when I was a student and it seems like nothing has changed. Mr Newlove (the older man) and the staff in the office were quite rude. I agree with Sarah P's comments about the audacity of the people at this organization to treat potential clients with such disrespect. I am also not surprised to hear about the unethical service charges or lack of deposit returns. They did that 30 years ago too. Accroding to The BBB, they have a favorable rating. Yeah, that's a joke. Overall, if I could give them a 0 star rating, I would do so without hesitation. If you or a family member needs to rent in BG, I would suggest avoiding this realty group at all costs. read more

I want to be completely honest about this review. I have never had John Newlove as a landlord, so I'm willing to admit my point of view is somewhat limited. I have, however met him on two separate occasions when I was apartment hunting: once two years ago, when I first moved to Bowling Green to start my Masters at BGSU, and once this afternoon, because I'm looking for a new place next year with my friend/roommate. Two years ago, he was pretty friendly and seemed willing to accommodate me, especially after I told him I was also looking at some apartments rented by one of his rivals, Steve Smith. He showed me a cute 3-bedroom house and was even willing to bend the pet policy on the house for me. But when I let slip that I had not just one, but two cats, he said I would have to pay a $325 nonrefundable pet deposit for EACH cat. I'm sorry, but my clean, generally well-behaved cats are not going to do $650 worth of damage and that is simply an absurd amount to charge, so I went with Smith. This time around, I was hoping to get out of the college-y, big apartment building type of setting I'm in now, and figured there must be a nice house or portion of a house with a yard that we could rent. So today, I went back to Newlove with my future roommate to look at some apartments. She had set up the appointment and told them that we were looking for pet-friendly places, and he told her that pets were only allowed in apartment buildings. So I suppose I should've known from the start that we weren't likely to find what we were looking for, but I guess I hoped we might be able to negotiate once we got face to face with John himself. By the way, I'm only GUESSING it was John--he seemed like the big man in the office, but throughout our appointment he never engaged in petty politenesses like introducing himself to us. As soon as he pulled our file and realized we were the pet people, his manner became very curt. He handed us a paper listing all of the properties, and next to each one, the very first thing listed was either a big bold "No Pets Allowed!" or a big bold "Pets Allowed with a $325 nonrefundable pet deposit in addition to the security deposit!" Clearly this company is paranoid about pets. He took us to the first place and quickly let us have a look around (by the way, I've lived in pet-friendly apartments before and they've never smelled this bad). He asked us if this was basically what we were looking for, and I mentioned I was really hoping for a house. He asked for more details, and I said I wanted to get out of the college area. He said, I know we're in the numbered streets (college area), but this building isn't full of college students--it has families, too. And I said it was more the area I was looking to get out of, not the actual people who lived in the buildings. After this, he basically told me what I was saying was unclear and pets were only allowed in apartments anyway. Hoping to strike up a personal connection so he could see I was a responsible pet owner, I said, "You don't allow pets in very many places, do you? Have you guys had some bad experiences with pet owners?" And he just gruffly said, "Many, MANY bad experiences." Then he told us that the four apartments on the list he gave us were the only places he had available for pet owners, reminded us that it was a $325 nonrefundable deposit for EACH pet, and said if we weren't interested then oh, well, so we ended the showing halfway through. I'm sorry, but, where do you get off treating your potential tenants with such apathy and impatience? I just had an appointment with another company yesterday who was willing to work with me and gave me confidence we could find a place that suited my desires AND was cool with my kitties. You have to wonder what happened to make Newlove so strict. It's fair to want to be careful when renting out your properties, but being just plain rude to someone because they love and live with animals is unacceptable. read more

I have been battling for two months now over a bill sent to me. I rented from John Newlove for 2 years. Soon after moving to Columbus I was sent a bill for $1000 on top of $700 in security and an $800 pet deposit for a number of accusations. Little did they know the next person to move in was a friend of mine that let me in to see if they did in fact make all these changes..which they did not. I was being charged almost $3000 when all they did was clean the carpet and slap on a terrible paint job. After calling to ask to be sent receipts for these charges they began to argue saying I had left a terrible mess with animal urine requiring them to use special paint on the walls, purify the air, and replace the carpet, etc. along with stating the fact that not once did my pets urinate anywhere in the apartment, I explained how I have picture proof showing all these statements to be complete lies, then I was accused of breaking into the apartment for such proof. After explaining how I had this information, they promptly changed their attitude and said they would send me an updated bill in the mail. After waiting an entire month for the updated version, I am now being charged a whopping $200 less than the original, with receipts for only half of their claims that were billed from their own company to their own company. So of course they could "charge" whatever they felt like. The process again restarted when I asked for the remaining receipts, which they responded with "we will not send you anything else until you have started a payment plan". At no point until moving out had I received such terrible service with this company, I only wish it had been sooner so my friend would not have to deal with the same situation. read more

I've rented from John Newlove for two years and will soon be finishing my masters degree and leaving Bowling Green. I've only lived in Thurstin Manor during my stay here; I have a studio apartment, and because I live alone, the limited space is manageable. The closets are a dream: walk-ins with plenty of storage space, which is great because the closet is the only storage you get in these apartments. I love the five-minute walk to campus, and the price is one of the cheapest in town. I'd recommend renting an apartment on the second or third floor if you can: the insulation in the building is very poor, and it gets quite cold. The heating/AC units are window units and use an extraordinary amount of electricity. They are also automated so they click on and control the temperature in the room, even when you don't want them to. I've spoken to a few people about this, and there is no way to prevent it, unless you unplug it. If you go away for an extended period of time, consider unplugging the unit or you will have hundreds of dollars in electric bills! I've spent two winters turning mine on every now and then and wearing many layers because they are so obnoxiously loud I have trouble studying and can't talk on the phone near it. Even though I've stayed here for two years, and I've grown used to the trains running by just fifty yards from my window, I've been constantly frustrated with the lack of parking spaces. Newlove assigns each renter his or her personal spot, and there are exactly enough spots in the lot for each studio apartment in the building. This would be fine, except Newlove must think tenants never have guests because we receive NO guest parking. Guests resort to parking in one of the two Manager's spaces and risk getting their car towed. I've even parked my own car miles away at a friend's house so my partner could park his at my apartment, and Newlove leaves notes on his car threatening "all spaces are for tenants ONLY." Also, if you're unlucky enough to receive parking space #64, aka "the snow spot," you will have no where to park all winter because the trucks push all the snow to that spot. So considerate. Overall, Thurstin Manor was good enough for what I needed. I would probably rent at Thurstin all over again, but mostly because it was all I could afford. read more

Several of the women in the front office are quite rude!. I recently signed a sublease agreement and I asked the management if I needed to clean my apartment further or if I needed to hire a cleaning company. My intention was to have the apartment cleaned, per their requirements, before the new tenant moved in. When I spoke to one of the employees, I was scolded and told that I had not cleaned my apartment and that I left a mess for the new tenant. I attempted to explain to this employee that I had cleaned the apartment and that I was willing to pay for any additional cleaning. I was simply told that there were a number of areas to clean and was treated quite rudely. When I brought this to the attention of another employee, I was given a general reassurance that the rude employee would be informed of her behavior. I wish that the Newlove management would place a higher standard on their customer service! read more