Horrible, horrible, horrible! Will never, ever lease with Premium again. TAKE YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY ELSEWHERE. Premium Properties will woo you with fancy emails and a pretty website, but like any leasing agency, they're done with you as soon as you sign that lease. What's even more laughable is that they recently partnered up with AP Management, which is probably the second worst company to lease from in town, so woe betide you if you choose one of the properties that AP actually owns. Here's why they don't deserve your money: Premium blatantly disregarded the "thirty-day notice" clause in my lease, which I signed with AP Management. When they asked for 90-day-notice, and I politely pointed out that my lease said thirty days, they ignored me and sent me a Termination of Lease notice anyway. I sent several polite, articulate emails and even a few phone calls their way regarding my apartment, and they treated me as though I were dirt. Once I had decided not to stay, they scheduled showings without asking me. Instead, they posted "24 hour Notices of Entry" on my door whenever the hell they wanted to show my apartment. They were extremely put out when I called to reschedule said showing because I was having serious dental work done. If it's not clear yet: these guys just want your money. And once your lease is signed, you're jack shit to them. Don't do it! read more

BEWARE: AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Sam is a sly businessman who will try to siphon out every last penny from his tenants. In person, he comes off as a nice guy but he will employ scare tactics to get as much money as possible out of his minimally maintained buildings. He enforces paperwork procedures only when beneficial to him and is incapable of communicating clearly. For example, at the end of the lease he promised he would not charge for replacing the carpet because in the 6 years the lease had been renewed they had not once cleaned or replaced the rugs. After making this promise, however, we got a bill for carpet cleaning, because they decided not to replace the rug after all. The incompetent staff will misplace paperwork and notify entirely the wrong people (if they even make any attempt to contact anyone at all). This company does not care about the people living in their facilities, the main priority is increasing their bottom line. read more

I figured I should write something because the other reviews seemed quite harsh. I lived in a Premium Properties apartment for a year, from summer 2008-summer 2009. It wasn't a great building, but I never had any of the problems with management that other people described. The building itself was old. It shook when cars drove by and when particularly large neighbors walked up the stairs, which did not inspire confidence as to what might happen to it in an earthquake. It was old so there were obviously maintenance issues, but there was only one occasion on which the issues weren't fixed in a timely manner, and they were very apologetic about it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the place to a friend, but that had much more to do with the particular building I lived in than the management. read more

Had the worst time trying to book viewings with not one, but TWO of their agents. The first question asked before even pretending to respect us as human beings was "do you have credit?". We were treated so poorly upon asking about cosigners (which has never been a problem at any other apartment I've had in 6 years) and made to feel as though we were too poor to even consider their shithole apartments. Absolutely would not recommend unless you're making a 6 figure salary, but in that case you should also find another company to try to lease from because there's nothing "premium" about this dump. read more

I would advise any potential renters to read the filtered reviews. Premium Properties must be Yelp advertisers, because all the negative reviews have been flagged. Not surprising for such unscrupulous landlords. Also, they have a rating of F on Better Business Bureau. read more

Premium properties SUCKS. Ever since they bought our building they have been ruining everything. They are very difficult to communicate with and everything with them is a hassle. Additionally, they do things to our building without asking for our permission and a lot of these things make life more difficult for their tenants. First they took away the doors in our stairs without asking for our consent. Then, they emailed us to let us know there will be hammering and construction noises in the back parking lot for the next 4-6 weeks because of a "building improvement project". They did not specify what this project is nor did they ask us if this would be okay (it is NOT okay). They also asked my neighbor who is paying them for building parking to relocate their car but did not offer compensation for the money they will have to spend on a street permit. They are the worst and I would not recommend ever renting from them. If you are, get out while you can. read more

As scary and challenging as rental searches can be, Premium Properties truly outdoes other East Bay property management companies in customer service. As my husband and I searched for a two bedroom where we planned to start our family, Premium did everything to calm our fears and navigate us through our options. It became clear that they work hard to keep their buildings up to date and have focused their recent efforts in revamping and beautifying buildings they take over. Jeff Strause was our initial contact and as he showed us apartments, it became clear the type of service we could expect if questions or issues ever came up during our tenancy. With several unhappy experiences with landlords and property managers behind us, I can confidently say anyone looking for a place would be lucky to have Premium Properties supporting their housing needs. Additionally, Cheryl Collins, the admin processing and managing the logistics of the application and lease, was incredibly helpful and responsive. You'll find you're never sitting around waiting and wondering or even worst, chasing them for a reply. read more

My location: Hillegass and Parker - Berkeley Living in Berkeley, old buildings are a reality of life and an unfortunate standard for almost every apartment management company. That being said, Premium Properties has done their best to make sure my roommates and I feel at home. All maintenance requests have been handled within 24 hours, by polite and friendly staff that did their best to avoid causing a disruption. Our building manager, Mindy, is extremely professional and friendly. She goes out of her way to accommodate her tenants while maintaining a calm and respectful living area. Being a young college student, it's refreshing to be treated with the amount of respect that Premium Properties has afforded my roommates and me. There are some sketchy apartment companies out there, but Premium Properties isn't one of them. read more

NEVER RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!!! Firstly, the way they operate is extremely sketchy and probably illegal. They strong armed us into signing their lease by requiring a $1000 application deposit and stating that if we don't sign with them they won't return it. Furthermore, the rent they told us during the application fee was less than the actual rent we ended up paying because they said there is an additional fee for the "view" from the 2nd floor. During our stay, the service was terrible. Apartment manager would barely reply, repairs would never get done, it was so bad that every time we cooked the fire alarm would go off because the fan was broken. At the end of our lease, they tried to get us to renew but refused to disclose the rent increase before signing. They said that only after signing the new lease, will they tell us how much the final rent is after a couple months. Oh and of course they try their damn best to scrap every dollar from the security deposit. Honestly the most frivolous, maleficent business exploiting poor college students. Don't know how these people sleep at night. read more

The people who work in this office have never been anything but friendly and helpful. I rent a space in Berkeley that is beautiful. Overall a good experience, no surprises and rent is reasonably priced. read more

COLLEGE KIDS STAY AWAY,THERES ALOT BETTER HOUSING FOR THE SAME PRICE OR CHEAPER.The people who run these properties are solely trying to flip a profit from the people living in their own units. They don't do anything to maintain their housing units and keep them up to date besides throwing on some paint onto the walls and they're so cheap they use white paint on one wall and eggshell paint on the other. Not the biggest problem but just an example of how little they care. They then ask for outrageous security deposit prices and will try to utilize all this money once you are leaving their unit. Horrible. Immature. Unprofessional and down right scam artists to put it lightly read more

Premium Properties was the first rental company i have ever used since moving to Berkeley. I had to find a place in a pinch and they where very helpful in finding a apartment for me. They had me locked in for an apartment in downtown Berkeley but the building did not meet fire code, so i was forced to switch apartments. Despite that issue a rep. was very helpful and found me a place in Albany. It was small and was on the first floor, only unit available The building was old and living on the first floor was a gamble with moisture. The apartment was dark most of the day and was full of moisture even with air filters. Mold spread throughout all my clothing, up the walls and even on the ceiling of the bathroom. Called for repairs and they gave me more air filters and helped repaint and fix the mold situation in the bathroom...They did what they could when it came to removing the mold.. but you know what they say nature always takes over.. the mold came back due to the placement of the unit. I dont recommend the first floor in the solano stroll apartments, noisy due to the Pub next door, darkness, and parking garage. But otherwise, premium properties does a pretty decent job at handling issues. read more

We've lived in a Premium Properties apartment for three years and I have appreciated that they are more responsive about fixing things around the apartment than other landlords I've worked with in the past. However I'm writing this to warn all Premium Properties tenants - don't fall for the "give us early notice" trick. I did - 3 and a half months early - and was frustrated to find out that they plan to show my place every weekend for the next three and a half months. It feels not only like a ridiculous waste of time to show a place so early but an invasion and complete lack of respect for their tenants privacy. I might just protest the next fifteen weekends of open houses in my underwear. So to all tenants - be forewarned! And to Premium Properties if you are listening, my place is cute - it will rent easily in 8 weeks rather than 15. You have my email and if you give me the next month of privacy I promise to clean my apartment floor to ceiling for all your open houses. read more

Utterly the worst office rental experience ever. Tenants be warned. you really should go out of your way to have a lawyer review the lease they propose to you before signing. The lease they gave me was full of sloppy errors - some in my favor which they then tried to remedy for themselves by repeatedly sending random lease changes my way, as if they can just do that willynilly. 2 Rent increases in 2 years and a total mess of CAM charges from the get go. Sloppy, rude, and unethical doesn't begin to cover how these people operate. I am not a student so some review that claims to defend them by saying reviewers must be crazy college kids is stupidly dismissive. My lease was for a professional office. Premium is far from professional and far from premium. What a headache. After 2.5 years I'm giving up and getting out. This management company is atrocious. read more

Our leasing agent Lillian made apartment finding in Berkeley an easy ordeal among stiff competition. The open houses held were relatively well organized and groups of apartment seekers were broken up into separate groups as to not crowd the apartments during viewing. There were some hardware issues with locks and keys. The application process so far has been effortless and she took the time out to explain the exact documents(e.g. in our international students' case, I-20s) necessary. All calls to Lillian were answered promptly if a little too efficiently. Overall a solid experience thus far and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend premium properties and especially Lillian to others. read more

Overpriced accommodations. Be prepared to be harassed every week when you opt to move-out.

I would remove this star if possible, the service that they have provided so far is not good at all. There has been a toilet leak for several months now and after reporting it three times it still has not been fixed. Our balcony was under construction for 1/4 of our total stay in the apartment and we were not notified about these planned remodeling before signing the lease and the compensation obtained was less that 3% the rent per month. They charge a fee in order to charge you for your rent, which is just absurd. Would not rent with this real state agency ever again. read more

If you don't make 10k a month you can't rent here. PP is hit or miss, depending on who you are working with. I had a terrible time getting anyone to respond to phone or email when I was looking to rent an office. After weeks of no reply at all, when I finally did, that person was great and incredibly helpful and signed a lease. However, a few months in and dealing with a different person, I was told that to keep my lease I would need to prove I was making 10x the rent (10k/month) to keep my office. I'm pretty sure this was an attempt to break my lease and get the office back since I had just paid for hardwood floors. The building is beautiful on the outside, but inside the paint is chipped, lights are often out and the original french doors aren't lined properly so there is a terrible draft. When I have asked about these things I have been told that I can take care of them myself. Classy! read more

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Carmen, the main assistant (the other being Nick), is the stupidest human being I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. She lost our paperwork several times, and instead of finding it, she would blame us for not submitting it. After she found said paperwork, she didn't bother to send it to my building manager or AP Management, which resulted in yet more hassle later that I had to sort out. Nick is also terrible; I asked him some basic questions about the lease and the deposit, and he couldn't answer any of them. Sam Sorokin is the only one I've talked to in that office who seems to have brain, but unfortunately he doesn't deal with most of the tenant matters. read more

These people are extraordinarily full of themselves. Especially for being the white collar slumlords they are. They own and manage alot of property near the Berkeley campus, which means they feel entitled to just gouge their tenants. They were charging one group of students $2600 for a 3 bedroom apartment with bedrooms the size of phone booths (anyone remember those?) in a crappy building near Berkeley high school. Alot of their buildings are substandard and run down. They seem to like students and people in low rent areas. I was present when one tenant was yelling and screaming at the owner because of work that had gone unfinished in his unit for weeks. I'm sure that guy also spent thousands moving in, too. Altogether these guys make big noise about "premium service", but I think they're disorganized rip off artists. There are certainly other landlords in Berkeley and Oakland with better service and ethics. read more

I put money down on an apartment at 1618 Milvia in Berkeley, with Premium Properties. I was told by the leasing agent, Lillian, that once I paid the holding deposit, they would cancel the scheduled open house but that was untrue. Premium continued to list and show the apartment up until my scheduled lease signing. When I went to view it, it was not as advertised. Peeling vinyl tile rather than hardwood floors, etc. I mentioned this to Lillian, who responded rudely, and refused to answer any other questions about the apartment. Huh?? So, at the lease signing, I asked the representative (Ana) to adjust the rent accordingly to reflect the price point or present the apartment as advertised at my move-in date. They presented me with a tailored version of the ad that conveniently disputed my claim, though I had the (still listed) craigslist ad with the advertised hardwood floors on my phone, which I provided it to them. Read: Premium provided a printed and doctored version of the ad to justify the price point and when I proved myself, they still would not acknowledge my request as valid. Sam Sorokin took over for the leasing agent once I began to negotiate and when he found out I was recording the meeting (due to an accident related disability) he freaked out, saying he wasn't comfortable with my documenting the interaction. Premium refused to lower the rent or to bring the apartment up to the standard they advertised saying, "we'll be able to rent this to someone else." Even though I was approved and contested that I wanted the apartment, they refused to rent to me. Sam even followed up our meeting with a lengthy email later attempting to rewrite the script of our conversation, which was frightening. This company is banking on tenants not knowing and exercising their rights, and they employ discriminatory housing practices. They denied my tenancy because I asserted my rights and implemented technologies that are sanctioned due to disability. I would advise against entering into contract with them. Here's a side story for emphasis: while I was in Premium Property's office waiting for my appointment, one of their agents was on the phone with a renter, and when he hung up, he referred to the tenant as an "asshole" right in front of me. I commented at how unprofessional that was and was told that "when you're dealing with this many rentals, stuff like that happens." Completely inappropriate and disrespectful to the people of Berkeley who are paying an arm and a leg to rent here. This is the attitude that Premium has towards their renters. Pretty slimy. read more

I originally wrote a long review basically calling Sam some awful things I would never say irl (the best/worst thing about the internet) but then went in with him to discuss getting out of our lease 3 months early and it went surprisingly well: he knocked one month off the lease transfer (which I hate that they have) and offered us more help with finding a new tenet than I expected. Of course, he had a patronizing air and his contempt for the renters did flicker out with a rant about how they want to pull one over on you by submitting an application and still going apartment hunting. So, I still hate Premium Properties and am overjoyed to be rid of them but we did not have any major problems with them, just the ever present feeling that if we did need something from them more than repairing a window screen they would not have our backs AND would try to make a buck off us for it. I say avoid them if you can but if the apartment is too awesome to miss then just...idk, just accept my condolences. Oh also, this is mostly just about Sam, everyone else there (Damon, Annette, new cute redhead receptionist, etc) has been very nice and helpful (except for old receptionist). tl;dr- just haunt craigslist, you can find something better! read more

I have rented from Premium Properties for some years now. I have had a very positive experience with them over the years and have continued to be happy with all of their services. I am particularly happy with Jeff Strauss. He has been responsive to all of my needs, he is very professional and knowledgable and is a terrific person. He is really excellent at what he does and offers in his position for Premium Properties. My experience of him could not be better and I want people to know that. read more

I wish I had read the yelp reviews before doing buesiness with these people. I have no hard feeling but very regretful dealing with Nate and Sam. They rushed us into taking the first bid on our home in the Berkeley Hills (Kensington), even though thier orignial stretagy was to set a low asking price and start a bidding war. Less than a week on the market and they abandoned that stretegy, telling us we were making a big mistake if we didn't take the first and only bid. I told them we wanted to wait. They didn't honor my decision and kept pressuring my 64 year old and very stressed mother to sign. Eventually we caved when Sam promised we could take the bid, leave it on the market for a week as I requested, and if we got a better bid he would "do his best" to get us out of the 1st offer. Well less then 4 days later we got a bid for 75k more. Long story short we missed out on a big opportunity because of Sam and Nate. He said his firm postion was staked in "25 years of experience" and that we were making a "BIG MISTAKE." Turns out we were the ones who made the big mistake by listening to him and not sticking with our gut and best interest. What was only a 3k mistake for him was a lifetime of regret for us becuase the house represented our entire net worth and my mother's retirement. I now see why real estate agents leave their own house on the market an average of 6 months longer compared to when selling a clients home. Sam and Nate embody the steryotypical realtors that just want to get their money and get out, move on to the next sale with no ethical or moral obligation to the seller. In my opinion, they did not have our best interest in mind. It feels surprizingly good to share my family's tramatic experience with Premium Properties, take from it what you will, maybe it was our mistake but we still feel horrible about working with Sam and Nate. I hope anyone reading this does not make the same mistake. Also on a side note, we were promised a nice rental while selling our house and we checked out a place being rented out by Premium properties. The rent was 2400 for a complete dump in a kinda nice neighborhood. The property manager was extreamly unprofessional and they struggled to rent out the units at that price (I later herd they dropped the price dramatically to fill the vacancies). I wouldn't rent, buy, or sell with these people. I cannot speak for anyone other than Nate and Sam but thier real estate blunder could only be excused by market incompatance or the fact that they were not working for us in good faith. I think it was a mixutre of both... read more

Premium properties offers test of dignity and gullibility. Sugar coated with fake professionalism, their advertisements tricked me into accepting an offer that I, as an unintelligent college student, ultimately regret. You cannot sublease Premium Properties properties. As a college student not living in Berkeley over summer, I was paying for housing I was not living in. I decided to sublease, they caught me and threatened to sue me. They threatened to sue a college student. How petty can they be? But I did sign a contract and I do concede I should abide by their rules. Someone from management also left an entire pizza box and other trash in the apartment during the summer I was not living in it. read more

So, I am currently living in a property managed by premium properties. The on-site manager is really nice and super helpful, and so are the maintenance folk. The are many reasons I am giving them one star, and all of them are related to the head office. Should you not want to read the expanded details of my experience, this is a question that I asked them that sums it all up, "If you charge an extra $100 a month for pets, and also require the maximum allowed deposit in California for non-furnished apartments (2 months rent in advance), why then is it so difficult for you to prepare the apartment properly before I move in." To start off you'll find L being mentioned in a lot of the other reviews, and the descriptions of her, though sometimes exaggerated, are probably true. She is really not the nicest person in the world, and if I owned premium properties, I would have definitely fired her. She obviously doesn't enjoy the job, is incredibly inefficient, and there are plenty of people without jobs in this world that hiring people like her should never happen. So anyways before I moved into the apartment, I was promised by L that the carpet, which smelled like cat-piss was going to be taken care along with many other items. It took 2 weeks and what was a small struggle to get the carpet replaced. I didn't sleep in the room that was carpeted, and truthfully, I am pretty sure it could have been considered a biohazard. The rest of the apartment had small things that needed to be fixed here and there, which were done in a manner that was nothing short of inadequate. I don't even think there was any kind of deep cleaning done on the apartment because I finally had time to clean my apartment today, and found mold under and around the sinks. Firstly, I am not sure why that should have been there if the apartment was cleaned properly, and secondly, the mold was hard and seemed like it had been there for years. Add to that I cleaned the the top of my sinks and found that the silicon was not done properly, and mold had grown to fill all the crevasses. Oh, and covering wall holes with mailing tape, then painting over it is not a fix... To sum up my review... L, even though I know you are probably too lazy and don't care enough about your job to look at these reviews in order to see how you can improve, I just want to say that I get an alert when you read my emails, so when you don't reply or choose to ignore certain parts of the email, as paying customer, it is a terribly showing of your professionalism. Premium properties, you keep such a huge deposit, so please stop trying to cut corners, and use the deposit for it's intended purpose. At least in the apartment that I am living in, I am pretty sure it would cost nothing even if you replaced all the flooring, repainted all the walls, and pay for an apartment-wide deep cleaning. The 4000-5000 in cash you are sitting on should more than cover all of that... read more

Pathetic. It's not like these reviews matter much because you really can't choose your landlord, but at least you can complain about them! These guys run a racket in Berkeley where they lock people into one year leases which all end at the same time - ie, lets mess with students. Who in the world does one year leases in the Bay Area these days? These guys, of course. If you need to break your lease these clowns will force you to be the one who has to do the work finding a new tenant, they will raise the rate, and they will force you to pay a $450 "fee" to transfer the lease. Obnoxious, greedy.... you couldn't be more stereotypically a nasty landlord. read more

I've lived in a Premium Properties (Telegraph Gardens) building for almost 3 years now, no complaints, really. Pros: -The building is pretty new, the units are clean and bright. The rooftop patio is awesome. I don't know why more people don't use it! It has great views of the Bay and has a BBQ for use whenever you like. -Parking is secure I haven't experienced the downtime like the other commenter had and I drive to work every day. Maybe it had some problems at the beginning before I moved in? Either way, I would take the once or twice in 3 years (1 of those 2 was because of a power outage) that I couldn't get to my car over the damage or theft that would occur with street parking. There's a fee for parking (con) but it's worth it imo if you aren't driving a beater or can't afford to come out to nothing but broken glass on the street in the morning. Bike storage is free but a little crowded. They've been adding more spots so hopefully this gets better. -The location is great. Whole Foods is right across the street for any last minute purchases (though I usually go to Berkeley Bowl for better prices and selection - they're a 5 minute drive or walkable if you're getting anything heavy) BART is walkable, Starbucks is in the same building (but I prefer Peet's which is one block south). It's a pretty safe area too - it's juuust at the start of the really rich housing in the lower hills. -The supers are really nice and friendly. They've always responded to me same day over email. I haven't really had anything break so I can't speak to the response time for that but for little things Cons: -They make you sign a year lease, rather than month to month which seems like it's more a symptom of the crazy real estate market in Berkeley that they don't need to cater to residents like that. -The rent is pretty high, but again, compared to the other places we looked at when we moved in (and again when we were deciding whether to move before we renewed) it's actually pretty good value -Laundry is coin operated which is a PAIN to constantly be out of quarters. Seriously, a building this nice should have some kind of digital card system. Whole Foods is always good for helping you out when the bank is closed though. -As stated above, parking costs extra. We were able to negotiate the rate though because they have quite a few empty spots. Overall, I'd recommend them if you can afford the rent. read more

Horrible service. Had an appointment to look at an open house at 1:30. Arrived a few minutes late because parking was hard to find. I called to let them know a thousand times, no response. After 30 mins of waiting, the person showing us the apartment called saying she was on her way. She never came. read more

The worst property rental company. Can't wait until my lease is up. None of the staff are remotely helpful, and the property manager is just rude. They don't care about living conditions for residents or resident's well-being. Nothing premium about this, highly recommend choosing a different company. read more

This company provides signing services for leases. In my situation, the person managing the property was a slumlord. And the documentation authorizing the person to act as a property manager was expired (temporary/limited power of attorney.) If you're a slumlord with questionable paperwork and would like to swindle people out of their rent for substandard housing, come to Premium Properties; they will be more than happy to take your money and add an air of legitimacy to your con game. read more

I just called Premium Properties leasing agent Lillian White (DRE Lic. #01467778, 510.594.0332) regarding an apartment advertised on Premium Properties' web site. This was possibly the most rude, angry person I have ever had the misfortune to interact with. I'll outline some highlights of the conversation below. 1. I introduced myself and began stating that I was interested in visiting one of their properties. Lillian interrupted me: "HOLD ON! HOLD ON! WHAT PROPERTY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??". 2. I said that I needed a second to look it up, that I have the computer in front of me. Lillian angrily demanded that I look up the property information first, and then call her back, at which point she HUNG UP. 3. I called back with the information (I don't know at this point why I even bothered), and asked about the possibility of scheduling a viewing on Friday or Saturday. Lillian's response? "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" 4. I asked if there was no possibility then, that people who are not able to attend the open house, would be able to see the unit. Lillian said that they could attend the next open house if it wasn't rented at that point. 5. I asked - "just to confirm" - whether there is no way, then, to see the unit outside of the scheduled viewings. Again: "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" and then she started talking about how people live in the unit and something about the law (as if I'm expected to know both whether or not people currently live in the advertised units - and "the law"). 6. As the cherry on top, she closed the conversation with yet another loud "GOT IT??" at which point I wished her a very nice night and hung up myself. I don't know if I should be surprised at having to have such a conversation with a person who's trying to sell something to a potential customer, or surprised at having to have such a conversation with any human being... read more

After moving out of a K and S apartment because they would not carry out earthquake retrofitting as required by law, Premium Properties was a stark improvement. They were extremely nice and understanding that we had broken our previous lease, and did not hold this against us. They have been very easy to work with and maintenance issues have been addressed well. Additionally, the apartment is well maintained and nice, and they seem to genuinely care about their clients. One of the leasing agents, Mackenzie, has in particular has been a great contact within the company. read more

All of the negative things you hear about PPD and its a-hole owner are true. I had forgotten all about PPD until now, many years later when I was looking for a new apartment and found a listing tainted by the words "Premium Properties and Development" (update: which is apparently not the same company as "Premium Properties" in Walnut Creek). I lived at one of their properties years ago. I will NEVER live at a PPD-owned/managed place ever again. About they only thing they do right is to quickly fix things that may damage the unit, like leaks and flooding. Sam is a green incarnate. When I was going to leave my unit 3 weeks early, his guys came by to measure stuff for recarpeting, but when I asked for a pro-rated portion of my rent that month back, Sam refused. After some back-and-forth, I just gave up and let him have 3 weeks rent for free, but I never forgave him for that. Sam will also do stuff like throw a pool party or whatever right at the peak of renting season. It's literally the only time of year they do such things, to try to make it look like they are cool landlords. They aren't. Sam is GUARANTEED to raise your rent as much as the market will bear, and then some. Sam always pushes everything the maximum allowed by law, whether it's huge deposits, extra-early notification that you're leaving, or his legendary dodging of rent control by flat out refusing to do month-to-month leases and making you sign a series of short term leases instead. Would you trust such an aggressively-run company to do right by the tenant? Of course not. He's going to do the bare minimum to keep things running in order to pad his profits as much as possible. To top it off, he has a very punch-able, smug face. I don't think any of his employees like him, either, because if he's squeezing tenants for every last penny, he's probably doing the same to his employees, and you get to deal with their grumpiness when they come to fix stuff. read more

We lived in a Premium Properties place our first year in the bay area. We showed up after driving 9 hours to find the place filthy, with the old tenant's garbage all over it. Craig could not be bothered to do a walk through with us so the next day when we turned in the walk through sheet, we were told we "couldn't turn it in with all these problems listed on it." They lied about the building being pet friendly. They were continually jerks to us every time we had to contact them for something, and the receptionist (this was in 2008-2009) was constantly "forgetting" to return our calls or pass information on to Craig, who also did the same thing. We didn't get our lease until 4 months after our move out date, and that was only after two strongly worded letters than very much implied we would be taking them to small claims court, especially since we left that place in better condition than we found it. We're apartment hunting again now, and every time I see a PP ad I avoid it like the plague. Overall, terrible customer service, terrible properties, terrible people. read more

Honestly, Premium Properties is the worst place you can possibly rent from. If you want the TL;DR, scroll to the bottom. Also check out the filtered reviews for this business. I'm writing this review a few years after I've rented from them because I was naive and inexperienced with renting and housing laws. After renting from other places, I realize how fucked over I was when I rented from Premium Properties. If you are doing your research and considering renting from Premium Properties, DO NOT DO IT. There are PLENTY of other choices to choose from and I guarantee you any other choice would be better; just do some simple research. Their entire staff is a soul-sucking group of thieves and they are incompetent at damn near everything. First of all, the idiot girl that works at the front desk (I forget her name, but it starts with an L and she's blonde if that helps anyone remember) is absolutely atrocious at her duty and has the worst attitude. Now when we were signing the lease, we were a group of students that were brand new to the whole thing and we had done very little research and were naive. We were just looking for a place to live in for the school year and Sam Sorokin, the head of this office, knew this and took advantage of this. The CraigsList posting for $2,000 for a 3 Bedroom place. When we walked in and discussed everything, Sam said "Oh btw, it's $150 (or so) more per month because you have an extra person." Are you fucking serious? Why does it matter to you if we have one more person living there (4 instead of 3)? We, at the time, had narrowed down our choices to either this place or another, decided that this place was still slightly cheaper than the other (boy, did we mess up that one). So we signed in. Throughout our tenancy, we had PP people come in to our apartment MANY times, claiming that we were "making too much noise". This was absolute bullshit; we were a group of 4 students that barely ever had visitors over. The most people that had ever been inside at one time was 8 people, and no partying ever happened. I don't know WHY they would intrude on us without warning (which is AGAINST THE LAW. Again, we did not know this at the time). We received no receipts for payments, no confirmations of starting tenancy, no responses when we inquired about repairs. When it was time to move out, we hired our own carpet cleaners from a third party vendor because we had heard about how PP will dock your deposit for every little thing they can find. So we found an affordable company to do the cleaning for us; we also hand-cleaned every inch of the apartment, buying our own cleaning wipes and equipment. Guess what? Nope, it was still dirty they said. They deducted HALF of our security deposit. We couldn't do jack shit about it because they notified us AFTER we moved out. They claimed it was for a "badly damaged carpet", but they did not provide ANY proof of purchase of a cleaning service or anything, which they are REQUIRED BY LAW TO DO IF THE DEPOSIT DEDUCTION IS MORE THAN $125. So, we spent a couple hundred cleaning the entire place ourselves, only to have this shady landlord business take off A THOUSAND more JUST for carpet cleaning. I will warn those of you reading once more: DO. NOT. RENT. FROM. PREMIUM. PROPERTIES. All other landlords I've had cannot compare the monstrous load of crap and incompetence that is Premium Properties. I was able to tolerate them when I was younger and did not know any better and had no experience. But now that I am older and a bit wiser, I now know what an idiot I was to not have done my research and rented from this shithole. Don't rent from them. I'd rather have lived in a much farther place for higher rent than to deal with these guys again. TL;DR: raised the rent, pressured us into signing (we were young), entered the apartment without permission multiple times during our tenancy, shitty customer service, unresponsive, and STOLE OUR DEPOSIT (we purchased our own carpet cleaning and we NEVER made a mess or destroyed anything). DO NOT RENT FROM PREMIUM PROPERTIES. Read the filtered reviews for this business. read more

I don't understand why people don't think they are the best guys in town , I had the chance to work with Sam and he was just wonderful to work with, easy going and very honest and open. He explain everything and make me feel really good , he clearly knows what he is talking about .highly recommended. read more

I had the displeasure of meeting Lillian P. White Literally she is the most entitled person in the world. Doesn't respond to emails in any acceptable timeframe, and when she does, she acts like she is "on top" of you and will act as if you are the last thing she could spend her time on. Their deposit policy is shit. There is no guarantee when you will receive your deposit back LOL. We found a property we were willing to commit to but literally she was the only reason we are choosing a different real estate agent. If I could 0/5. read more

Bottom Line: I believe Premium Properties (hereafter referred to as PP) does attempt to operate in a professional and efficient manner, but ultimately falls short. Though your contact with them will probably be tolerable, you may experience low levels of tact, respectful behavior, efficiency and sincerity. They will do what they are legally obligated to do, and what they are legally allowed to do, which is to say, this is a give-and-take relationship in which they will give if they have to, and take if they can. PP does give tenants the benefit of the doubt in some situations, but has also demonstrated the ability to manipulate ambiguous situations to their benefit. Don't expect them to go too far out of their way to help you. Note: Due to issues arising during the move-out process, I engaged in frequent contact with a specific member of the Berkeley Rent Board, and was told I have just cause to file an IRA petition with them. Though I began the process on behalf of my party, it has become clear to me that we will not be able to complete the necessary paperwork within a reasonable time frame. This being the case, I hope what follows can serve as a cautionary tale for others. Highlights: -Pressured to sign a new lease; month-to-month contracts pre-existing a foreclosure not honored -Failure to install a carbon monoxide alarm when requested by tenant -Will complete all maintenance they are legally obligated to do by the City of Berkeley and the State of California -Failure to plan maintenance in a manner that respects the privacy and valuable time of tenants -Refusal to reschedule select maintenance or inspection appointments at the request of tenants -Variable capacity to admit accountability -Duplicitous advertising on the Premium Properties website -Contradictory (or deliberately vague, if you want to be cynical) information regarding tenant obligations in the move-out procedure; which ultimately meant being coerced into agreeing to cleaning service fees (deducted from deposit). It should be noted, however, that outside of these fees, the amount of our security deposit returned was reasonable. -Failure to include necessary receipt (which was specifically requested in writing, by phone, and in person, and is legally required) in itemized list of deductions from deposit. -Refusal to acknowledge that occupants were asked to relinquish days of their tenancy; this allows PP to avoid returning prorated rent; in other words, we were asked to leave early and denied a refund for the days that we gave up, but had paid for. -Chose not to report observed errors in paperwork filed by my party (in person) until two months later, in an e-mail accusing us of "fraudulent" behavior -Overall, total communication breakdown (and I'm not talking about Led Zeppelin) -Provided us with the names and phone numbers of the people moving in to our old apartment...forgive my lapse in professionalism, but that's just CREEPY I have a detail oriented narrative to accompany this, but at this time, there isn't space for it. read more

Premium properties has always been fast to respond to any maintenance calls and has been friendly to deal with. We appreciated the time we spent renting our apartment over the last years. Maybe nobody loves their landlord in reality, but thats ok, as long as they are fair that's what mattered to me. read more