River City Rentals is the worst rental company I have worked with in 15 years of renting. The are unprofessional, rude, and disrespectful. I traveled hundreds of miles for showings that I was told I was accepted for. I confirmed these showings and acceptance multiple times. They cancelled on me via text an hour before my showings and never responded to my inquiries following. read more

This place will take no responsibility for what happens within there properties I've complained about suspicious activity the didn't care told me to just report it to the police and the police didn't care either read more

This is my personal experience with them. Rented from them for a year and a half. Rented a 1 bedroom apartment. I would have stayed longer, but my then-partner/roommate at the time and I ended up having an altercation in which I had to break my lease for my own safety and mental well being. For that reason, I am using a different name here to kind of preserve a little privacy. When we went to look at the apartment, we were told it was being remodeled, which was clear to us when we looked at it. They were in the process of installing a new kitchen sink, as well as patching holes in the walls, and repainting cabinets. The apartment was about what I expected, small place in a college area. Smelled like paint. I was a little put off by the pack of cigarettes' and ash tray sitting in the open bathroom window but the place didn't stink like smoke, so whatever. What I didn't understand was why they painted the cabinets and then the wood floors in the bedroom with a type of paint that wouldn't allow me to wipe any liquids off of it without taking the paint with it. I tried to swiffer mop the bedroom floor and took paint off with it. DX Super annoying! The cabinet doors also seemed to be mounted a little strangely, they rubbed against the adjacent wall when you opened them and couldn't open all the way. It was all manageable to live with, though. Better than not having a place to live! At one point during my rental time with them, we had a sink that had a barely-visible leak underneath it. It took me a little bit to catch on that it was there. I alerted their maintenance guys and told them it wasn't a big deal. It was a slow leak, and I put an old ice cream bucket underneath it. It did take them a little while to come out and fix it, though, but everyone's human and I'm sure they were prioritizing other issues first. They fixed it a month later. By that point, the leak was a little more serious, but the ice cream bucket was still coming in handy, and we weren't paying for it because our utilities were included. So we just updated them with a text, and just waited for them to get back to us about when they could come out. To my understanding, they had a lot of properties at the time. I think they have since been growing, so they have more. I'm not sure how many maintenance guys they have, but I do know they have a 24 hour number in case of emergency. I wouldn't have considered the sink an emergency, so waiting was no issue. Another repair we ran into was our heat not working when winter was about to start. We didn't have access to the thermostat in our apartment. It was in another unit in the triplex, I think? Which was a little odd, but this was a cheaper apartment with utilities included so we didn't mind. When we didn't seem to have any heat coming to our place, though, we did tell maintenance and it was quickly taken care of within the week. Again, it wasn't really cold out. There was no snow on the ground. They had the issue taken care of within the week and they let us know what was going on as they were coming out and figuring it out. We had issues with some downstairs neighbor being really noisy, as well as not picking up their dog's poop but the office gave them a few warnings and did what they could. Overall, I think I had an okay experience. I think if you have any issues, if you just sit down and have a conversation with any of the staff in the office, they'll do what they can to take care of it. I suppose I could have mentioned all the issues with the cabinets and renovations they did, but I was just thankful at the time to have a place to live. I think it's common sense to get any changes to your lease or any sort of permissions from them regarding pets or fixing anything yourself in writing, though. People forget things and sometimes the system swallows things whole and they get lost forever. I'm not sure how exactly to rate the experience. 2-3 stars. The folks in the office really were kind and helpful. Just, functionally, things in the apartment were weird. The cabinets. Painting the floors was really weird. Thanks for being understanding when I had to break the lease. I would have stayed with the company, but I was unable to find an apartment I could have afforded myself at the time. read more

Great support staff! They have a team of people to take care of the rental units, and they are all very helpful.

Best rental experience of my life! Nate and his staff are amazing! I had a place on Cass street. The staff were so helpful and friendly! I loved how close to downtown it was for work. Sooooo convenient!! My pet loved living here as well. haha But in all seriousness, you can't go wrong renting from these guys. They will be there for you. They are easy to connect with and as long as you are a reasonable human being, you will be completely content and cozy in one of their spaces. read more

Nate Brooks is an absolute scam artist. He is the slumlord of La Crosse. His apartments are run down and maintenance is hard to come by. I had a broken window FOR MONTHS in the winter. I moved out of the apartment before it ever got fixed. He keeps your stuff and sells it to other tenants. He shows the apartment to other potential renters with less than a 24 hour notice (illegal). He wants his tenants to abide by the rules but doesn't actually like to do that himself. He's an absolute garbage landlord. Rent from anyone BUT him. His apartments are cheap for a reason. If I could go back and not rent from him, I would. An extra $100 a month in rent is worth it to not rent from this guy. Negative stars. read more

If I could give negative stars I would. Thieves, liars, and crooks is what I would describe. I lived in one of their trashy apartments back in 2015. First off, I was told that the apartment I was being shown would be painted, new flooring because it was shredded, and of course cleaned. I was told I could paint the walls no problem. I agreed and when it was time to get the keys it was absolutely disgusting. The shower wall was peeling and clearly had mold. It was dirty, the carpet stained and shredded still. The walls were disgusting. Kitchen and bathroom too. I had to sanitize the entire place first. I painted the walls a very nice elephant skin grey and also did a Venus green color. When I went to move out, I made sure to clean before I left. I went to paint the walls back to white and was told to stop. They tried to charge me for the paint and the carpet and basically take my entire deposit. I took photos before I ever moved in and basically had to tell Nate that I had no problem taking it to court. I ended up with most of my deposit back. A year or so later, I found an ad for my old apartment and guess what colors the walls were! That's right. Elephant skin grey and Venus green. Liars. I could've taken it as evidence but decided they weren't worth the time. This yelp review was though. Horrible rental company. read more

If I could give 0 stars I would. If you want to be completed cheated and scammed out of your security deposit, I highly recommend renting from River City Rentals. They are scam artists and will falsify photos in order to charge you with ridiculous "Cleaning and damage" costs upon move out. My parents and I cleaned our apartment utterly spotless, including fixing up holes that were in the apartment prior to us moving in, scrubbing the oven and stove as good as we could (which was filthy upon move in, and the oven didn't even work, at all), completely mopped the floors and left them spotless, and was told that there were paint splotches left on the ground (completely a 100% lie). Maintenance is an absolute joke and whoever the maintenance guy is, he is completely incompetent. His "repairs" are what you would expect from a middle schooler. We asked for the seal in our window to be put in as it didn't have one upon move in, so what does he do? He completely caulks the main window shut, as he was too lazy to do the actual repair. Didn't fix our oven after multiple requests. If you have no other options and absolutely must rent from them then I HIGHLY recommend taking intricately detailed pictures of the entire place, every inch, inside the fridge, freezer, oven, all cabinets, drawers, toilet, every square inch of the apartment. Make sure they are timestamped, and then be sure to repeat the same process on move out day. This is apparently the only way to ensure they don't pull some phony scam in an attempt to rip you off of half of your security deposit or more. They are the epitome of what you would expect from a college "slumlord" apartment company. Dishonest, Scam artists, who prey upon college kids knowing they won't have the resources or forethought to prevent their scams by appearing to be nice to you in person. Hopefully you won't make the same mistake I did and rent from them, it's 100% worth it to pay a little extra to find a different apartment, because you will regret doing business with these cons. read more

Rcr is the best property management company in wisconsin.They cater to all the hapless nitwits when they cant figure out how to turn on their heat,shovel their own sidewalk,unclog their mcdonalds filled toilets,n fix their window blinds when half hanging from ppl who dont know how to pull a string. read more

Horrible. Nathan Brooks is an absolute slumlord. I have rented through this company for the second year in a row now, the first year they had a brand new renovated apartment pictured for every property owned in the building except they would literally only renovate only one apartment. I lived in a fully renovated apartment unit last year .... now the new unit im living in next door, the tub is completely full within 5 minutes if showering ( should have been taken care of /checked during the time of review of damages for the previous year) the drawers in the kitchen dont work and fall into the cabinets below each drawer, the bathroom faucet has holes in the piping that leaks down into the cupboard below anytime you place anything upon the nozzle to soak a rag/etc., the stairs outdoors to get to the second floor of the unit feel as if they may break through at any moment, there are extremely large holes in the bedrooms (I also had the pleasure of seeing a mouse run out from underneath my bed today!), we have outlet sockets hanging out in both bedrooms, both bedrooms have absolutely zero closet doors, cabinets in the kitchen dont fully close, the windows are not insulated whatsoever so good luck trying to see outside, the carpets are abosolutely disgusting. I Used to live next door ( I moved from apartment 7 to apartment 6) and they had double mirrored doors and now we dont even have doors, the closet is a hole in the damn wall. We were told that if the tenants break the closet doors they will still take money out of that specific tenants security deposit but they dont use that money to replace closet doors. They pocket the money of college students that are stressed and working their asses off just to make a quick buck. Im absolutely disgusting with the living conditions Im being subjected to. Nathan Brooks loves to be an asshole and reply to these posts acting insanely unprofessional and downright nasty. I did a walk through of this apartment before agreeing to the lease, however the apartment had all walls covered with tapestry, wall art, etc. All units are listed online as brand new renovations, and all come with a microwave. Ours came with nothing and we had to end up purchasing it all. Parking is never guarenteed, the laundromat next door to the apartment building is absolute trash and none of the machines actually ever work. Spend your money elsewhere laundromat and rental service alike. River City Rentals steals money from college students. Also Matt who is a property manager told me that I agreed to an apartment that was not renovated at all in order to keep the same rent price as I had the year before. They did absolutely nothing to the units in the past year yet they increased the rent $50 for everyone else. I know for a fact theh kept my rent at the same price because they knew that I was moving into a significantly grosser apartment. They dont do renovations whatsoever, DISGUSTING. Have you ever heard of INTEGRITY?!? read more

**Update** In response to the owner's well-worded defense (a position which he seems to take a lot according to reviews here and on other sites), I think it's quite clear that there must be some truth in all the negative reviews he's received (his rating is poor, everywhere). Given my complaints (included below), one would think that an upstanding businessman would a) reach out to he who complained, acknowledge it, then try to fix it- it's a fairly simple formula; b) rather than assume the tenants are fabricating some elaborate lie, perhaps the owner should question the work ethic of himself and those he hires (ignored complaints from tenants, a maintenance man who was unable to fix a leaking pipe, and who fixed the water-stained ceiling tile with spray paint instead of replacing it, a neglected order from the fire department to fix various code violations (they thought they could sell the place before having to make the repairs. But, our new landlord made Nate fix it after the sale). Of course, while these points might be obvious to an honest person, thy might not be so obvious to Nate. My advice to him: rather than spending time online defending yourself, you should probably work on paying more attention to your properties and clients. If you did, there'd be less negative reviews to defend yourself against. **Original post** The people at this place are negligent and unprofessional. Upon move in we were left with what appeared to be a puddle of cat urine in one bedroom; a soaking wet carpeted floor in another (which also had some other unidentified substance soaked into it); atrociously dirty windows and sills which were also loaded with innumerable spiders; stains on the walls; a puddle of dried wax on the living room floor, and floors that were, in general, in severe want of sweeping and mopping. Further, we attempted to complain to our landlord about the matter three times. Each time we were told someone would get back to us. No one ever did. read more

I'm stating my experience to HELP others look for a place to rent. In our second apartment we had 3 baseboard heaters, which ONE worked. The one in the bathroom, which was the smallest and farthest from the other space. And NO we didn't say the heaters were our reason because we didn't want to cause problems while being a tenant. As for moving into our 3rd apartment there was mud, dirt, and stains all over, I don't have bad OCD, BUT i didn't think it was a huge deal to have the floors cleaned before we moved in (which we were rushed to move since the new APPLIANCES were late -Stove, microwave, fridge- NOT the toilet or shower) and as for Cody changing his story? Get real. (As nate would say) He does remember that he left Cory a voicemail asking her ABOUT the notice, not LEAVING her a notice. It's unfortunate Shannon is no longer with this company, she was willing to help the tenants out and didn't want to argue with everyone. *** ORIGINAL REVIEW*** My fiancé and I rented with RCR for a total of about 2.5 years. The first place We moved into was alright, there was sand all over when we moved in and a mouse living in the kitchen. We had horrible neighbors and they had a dog who attacked mine, Nate was informed and the dog left for about 4 days but came back and we were just told We werent allowed to take our dog out to the front yard of a shared apartment complex. During the winter we didn't have heat in that place so we were given 2 small space heaters and one had a missing wheel so it would fall over, they finally got it fixed 2 weeks before we moved out. We eventually moved to a second apartment and upon move in the place was a mess, I had to clean before we moved our stuff in, there were holes all over the walls, the floor was slanted at an angle, there was a leaking faucet, unknown sticky residue stuck to the bathroom sink, the floors were ripped, and the shower drain was plugged. I wasn't excited to live in this apartment but my neighbors were nice, winter came along and my floor board heaters didn't work. Nate and the maintenance crew were informed but nothing was done, We had moved out into a new place because of this. We had a few showings at the apartment that were unannounced and unprofessional. At the time I had a small dog who had anxiety when It came to unexpected new people, and my fiancé worked 3rd shift so this woke him up during his bed time and he was told to leave and that he shouldn't be there. We were scheduled to move in to the duplex November 1st, but the place wasn't finished until November 8th. We moved in, but the crew remodeling the place had left a big mess for us to clean up and all their tools were left in the garage. This place was great after I spent 8.5 hours cleaning up what should've already been done. My fiancé and I had purchased a house 4 months before we moved out of our duplex. We told Cory in the office 2 months before our lease ended that we would not be signing another lease, unfortunately for us, and conveniently for Nate, there were no notes taken on this so we were charged a $200 fee for no notice. Our lease ended October 25th and I had returned the keys in their drop box the night of the 24th after I was done with work at 6pm. We were charged a half month of rent because Nate claims he didn't receive the keys until November 1st. I spent 12 hours cleaning the duplex before we moved out yet we were charged $85 for cleaning fees. Out of a $995 security deposit we received $155. I've tried contacted Nate but he's just not interested in hearing anything about it, I didn't want this to be a company I would no longer recommend, but unfortunately it has come to that. I have informed all 3 of my friends who I recommended RCR to, who still currently are tenants with him of all of this so hopefully the same doesn't happen with them. read more

Can't say enough bad things about this company. Theyre slum lords. The apartment we had didn't have heat all winter, which never got fixed in our time there. It was impossible to get anything fixed. Getting the keys to the place was a giant hassle. The landlord I had after River City said he used to be partners with Nate Brooks, the owner, and didn't seem to miss being in business with him. read more

Sadly I cannot add photo or video evidence through yelp reviews but I signed the lease for an apartment through them weeks before my scheduled move in date. It was promised to me that I would have my keys by noon on June 1st before I signed my lease, during, after, and the morning of when I texted them like they asked before I left to come get the keys and to make sure everything was ready to go. In that text they said I could pick up my keys whenever today (06/01/2021) but not able to go into the apartment until noon. I arrive for them only to tell me the apartment was still being cleaned and they don't know where the keys are(because the old tenant must have taken them they said). I was allowed to bring the frozen foods I brought with me to the apartment and come back later for the keys. When I arrived to the apartment nothing was done, the old tenants things were still there, a kitchen sink leak so bad you couldn't pour anything down it, the bathroom ceiling fan coming off the wall, the toilet seat broken, the microwave not operable, the floors trashed, walls disgusting, and the cleaning lady seemed as if we were the ones at fault even though I was reassured that morning I'd have the keys by noon. Well we left and only 30 minutes later I get a text saying they have the keys and are ready to be picked up. I responded to the text immediately that I tried to call and to give me a call back. No answer. So I ended up calling another 8 times before I gave up and just went to the office myself. They gave me the keys and explained I would have maintenance coming the next day while I was moving things because they didn't have everything done. I didn't agree with that but still took the keys and said that would be fine. When I arrived it took less than a minute to realize how disgusting the apartment still was. Over half of the things I listed previously weren't even done. I took photos, videos, and tried calling the office again but they were closing soon so I ended up going back to the office for the third time today. When I arrived all the lady said when she looked at me was, "what did you find?". I replied and showed her the photos and video evidence. She at first agreed because how couldn't she with photo and video evidence. Then it turned into a list of excuses to get the blame off of them. I ended up leaving the keys with them and not moving in. I couldn't. I couldn't move all of my belongings into an apartment that wasn't even clean. Throughout the entire experience it was lies and excuses to put the blame anywhere else they could. I was told from the beginning and even that morning that my keys and apartment would be 100% ready to go by noon today (06/01/2021) but instead I ended up wasting a whole day, over half a tank of gas, three trips to the office, no communication from them other than the text in the morning and text saying the keys were ready, the trailer and people that took the day off to help waiting, and now paying for all of the bills and rent when I'm not even able to move in yet. The only answer they could give me was that they would try to have someone come in to clean it tomorrow and try to have the boss call me back tomorrow as if that wasn't the absolute least they could do. Everything was "oh we'll see if we can have them do *blank* tomorrow or the next day" as if it wasn't their responsibility in their own contract to have the keys to me by noon on 06/01/2021 with the apartment completely ready to go. Then had the audacity to tell me how I could fix some of the issues on my own when I should NOT have to be the one to do that when I was promised everything would be done and ready to go by the exact date and time which she then agreed on after I explained that wasn't my responsibility. This is just the small amount that I could share of my experience in a review. The old tenant didn't even move out until the day before and apparently none of the office ladies were made aware until I was there. I was not notified of this. They obviously didn't know because they didn't start cleaning until the day of. read more

If I could give them ZERO stars, I would! Nate Brooks is nothing, but a crook! All he cares about is money and nothing else! Do NOT rent from them! He bought some duplexes from my previous landlord, raised the rent from $710 to $1,100. We refused to sign a lease with him because of that and all the horrible reviews I have read and heard. It was nothing but a headache to get our security deposit back! He also came into the duplex with no notice! We we're out by May 2nd and he still kept half of our security deposit. Beware! read more

One star is too kind. Living in a building owned by this company has been, to date, the most unpleasant experience of my life. Keep in mind that this review probably won't be around for long, because every year, they change their office address to clear their bad reviews. The manager is -hostile- He will shout at you and threaten legal action if you so much as respectfully disagree with him. You can expect your rental property to be falling apart, dirty, possibly infested, and most assuredly not up to code. Don't try using the many legal violations as ammo against them, though. The manager actually admitted to me, on the phone, that he has deals with the city so that they look the other way. when we moved into our apartment, we had no screens on our windows. If you've ever lived in la crosse, you know that it is awful hot and muggy. Opening the windows is a nice relief from this weather, assuming you have screens to keep out the onslaught of mayflies. To date the property I lived in doesn't have screens. There was no back door for a week after we moved in. and then after they put the door in, after what they would call "bitching" on my part, it took them a month to install a doorknob! There was no toilet in our property for 3 days after we moved in. The manager laughed at us when we suggested that this was an inconvenience. Their buildings are crumbling. The landlord recently painted over a brick building to hide the crumbling bricks, which were not only unsightly, but illegal. If you are unfortunate enough to have to rent from these criminals, make sure you get everything in writing, but don't be surprised if they are offended and hostile to your request for written agreements. They offered us reduced rent because of some of the problems with our property, but when rent day came, instead of reduced rent, we were threatened with eviction and legal action if we did not pay the full months rent, written agreement or not. Do yourself a favor and stay far, far away from this company. If you MUST rent from them, get everything in writing, BEFORE you sign the lease. Always save your rent reciepts, and take pictures and videos of your property before you move in, and the day you move out. And don't expect your deposit back, under any circumstances. these buildings are so beat down, that even if you had them professionally cleaned, the manager would have resonable cause to withhold your deposit, and if you're living in these buildings, chances are you can't afford to take him to court. But i promise you he can take you to court, and he will if you give him reason to. For your own good, stay away. read more

I seriously can't believe all the negative reviews for these guys so I figured I'd give a minute to give them a half decent review... they really have been great landlords to us. I don't know what you all expect.. the guy is running a business and has a ton of units. He isn't going to wipe your butt and serve you tea but every time we've had an issue maintenance has come immediately- never had to wait more than a half hour. When the washer broke at our complex it didn't take more than a few days for them to have it fixed. When our pipe started leaking he put us up in a nice hotel for the night and made sure my kids had access to the water park there. Our kitchen had to get ripped apart to get fix it but was put back together by the next morning. Their office has great hours, they are easy to reach and have even met us during hours they are closed. They allow pets in most units, and they are willing to negotiate. We had no rental history and I had not established credit so we kept getting turned down from many agencies- i was pregnant and we had 3 kids so we were living in hotels until we could find a place. These guys even let us pay early and move in a few days early saving us hundreds of dollars. The units are updated and while it is mostly cheaply done stuff (which is why crap gets ruined easier) I'm guessing he isn't willing to put in more quality stuff because he obviously has a lot of ungrateful tenants who probably don't take of their crap! Pay your rent on time, follow their clear policies, don't be an asshole and these guys won't even bother you unless you need them. read more

My daughter rented from River City Rentals. She made a verbal agreement when moving out with the manager of River City Rentals. She was told she'd get her security deposit back. The owner fired his manager before my daughter. and her roommate got their security deposit back. He refused to honor his employees word since he had terminated her. Along with not returning the security deposit, the conditions of the apartment while my daughter was in the apartment were not good. I would not recommend renting from River City Rentals. I regret that my daughter didn't have writing from Nathan Brook's manager, but you'd think he would have done the right thing and returned their security deposit. Shame on you. read more

this renting company is horrible. there apartment are horrible, not maintained at all. they charge you up the ass and take your entire security deposit and still want more money for stuff that was worse when we moved in. I have heard from many people how horrible they are, the only reason we moved where we did was because it was an emergency. The house could keep about 67 degrees (which is a Wisconsin lease violation) so our pipes froze and their fix was giving us SPACE HEATERS to run on our pipes. This not only shot our energy bill WAY up but it is also a HUGE safety violation. DO NOT RENT WITH THEM. read more

Negative five stars indeed. We put money down on an apartment, twice as much as what was required in fact, the full deposit. They set up the date, the 20th. In the mean time i had broken my collar bone. Called them to see if we could wait until the 30th and they said we would he charged regardless of when we moved in. Broken collar bone or not I packed up two car loads of stuff and set off from winona on the date agreed upon to a no show renter, not even a call back, ever... Had to take them to court to get just half of our deposit back, and thats just because my girlfriend and I wanted to just be done with the situation. If we had pushed it may have gone either way. The mediator new the guy by name and acted all "buddy-buddy," about the only reason we got any money back is because we had a written agreement to rent and they re-rented it without contacting us. These guys own the place that collapsed downtown that was being rented out but not inspected to be a rental. I write this to hopefully help anyone considering from renting from them, dont even consider it! Terrible people thatrun a shoddy "business" and I use the term business extremely loosely! These people are the definition of slum lords as well, their properties are in aweful shape but we were looking for something on the cheap to get us to la crosse so we decided "what the hell." More like WHAT THE HELL?! read more