I'm going to add my voice to the chorus of former renters who were dissatisfied with their experience renting from Ray Roberts Realty. The main problem with this company is that they will not take care of any problems in the unit. As others have noted, the receptionists are incredible rude, The company's reactions to any problem you might have are to 1. treat you like you are stupid and 2. blame the problem on you.
We called to tell them that the apartment unit had termites. Now, termites were kind of a nuisance to us as renters, but we were really just trying to inform them that one of their units had a problem which could make it physically unsound. Their reaction was to send one of their handymen with a bottle of Ortho Home Defense, which is a chemical available for consumers to purchase at Home Depot. Termites are a problem that require professional intervention. I told the guy that if we needed to spray bug spray, I could have done that myself. He checked to verify that we did, in fact, have termites. They supposedly sent an exterminator while my wife and I were away from home, but the problem never went away. I think this happened in our first month living in the unit.
Within the next couple months, the unit below ours caught on fire. I am not going to blame them for the fire, because even though I know they don't maintain anything, I don't have any evidence to indicate that the fire was caused by their negligence. I am mentioning it, though, because the fact that one would suspect that the property management was to blame is telling. There are other factors which strongly suggest that the tenant of the unit may have caused the fire, but I still have my suspicions.
As time went on, any complaints we had about the unit essentially went ignored. Sometimes they would send somebody out to do a half-ass repair job, but eventually we gave up even calling them for anything. It got to the point where if it was something small (repairing the crappy caulking job they did in the shower) I would do it myself. If it was something big (the appearance that the balcony might fall to the ground if I stepped on it), I didn't even bother.
Regarding the precarious balcony situation: the company did eventually notice that the balcony was unsafe. Their solution was to send a dude to my house with a drill to screw the door shut so that we couldn't go out onto the balcony (we didn't go out onto the balcony anyway; it wasn't safe). I told the guy that my baby was napping and I didn't want him to wake up. I asked him if he could come back in an hour. He said he would just come back the next day. I promised not to use the balcony. He never returned.
They actually had the nerve to raise the rent on a unit which they weren't maintaining. The wife and I decided to move out and come to Portland. It was the best decision we ever made.
These couple examples are just anecdotes about how terrible this property management company is. I could write much much more, but I'm not going to waste my time. I am simply taking satisfaction in the fact that the apartment I was renting is still available 4 months after I moved out (and they've lowered the price to less than what we were paying). read more