I see I'm just the latest to note how unpleasant and incompetent Shelly is. My partner and I life in a condo managed by South Lake Associates. We reached out to Shelly more than a week ago asking about some trees their landscaper had butchered outside our home. She responded, in part, that they'd grow back. We also took the opportunity to inquire for the first time about the "temporary" Ram Board flooring that South Lake laid down in the foyer of our place, after some flooding in our building. It's been there for MONTHS, and has of late been tearing and bowing and creating a hazard and generally making the otherwise very nice building look like shit. Shelly didn't reply to our questions about when that work will be done. When we followed up 8-9 days later, she scolded me that she HAD replied. (She hadn't). She then offered the work "will be done when it's done" and said that since we "are aware of the flooring, it should be easy to just walk carefully through that area." She then refused to provide me the contact information for the owner of our property and took offense at me telling her she has a shitty attitude. read more

Wow. Shelly really needs to take a course on interpersonal skills. We've rented a nice house in Magnolia for the past 1.5 years and have been great tenants the entire time - paying our bills on time, rarely requesting any maintenance, keeping the place clean, etc. Lately we've been working 60+ hour weeks and forgot to pay our water bill for the first time, and got an extremely rude email from Shelly. She then followed up with rude emails in regards to paying our bills. For a property manager, you'd think someone would have better people skills. Go elsewhere. I love the house we're renting, but this company is crap management. read more

I had to warn people about this company. I have spoken to 10 agents so far during this particular search. And I've been renting for 10+ years. The person named Shelly was rude. I sensed a lack of emotional control and fustration coming through the emails. So I decided to skip the showing all together. If you have a bad management. Your life will be hell living in those properties. Adding on to many warnings here. Better give your money to people who actually appreciates your business. I hope the business learns from all these reviews. We all can make each other's lives easier, and why not when it creates more business :). read more

I hired South Lake Associates a few years ago to help me rent out and manage my Belltown condo. Their services were mediocre at best, but I didn't mind it too much since the unit pretty much rented itself (due to the quality of the space and location) and also managed itself (very well-kept, nice high-rise building). When the renter who had been living there for 3 years moved out, I tasked South Lake Associates to put the condo back out on the rental market. It didn't get rented for the 3 months, until my boyfriend stepped in, wrote some ads, and then rented it within a week. What we learned from our experience is this: 1) South Lake Associates does very little work when it came to renting out or managing the unit. After the 3-year renter moved out, I emailed him and asked him if there was any feedback he could provide on his experience. He told me the property management company was very slow and many times unresponsive. He also let me know about a couple items that needed attention, that he had advised the property management company about, but which they never relayed to me. 2) South Lake Associates did not get the unit professionally cleaned at the end/start of a new lease, even though that is part of the rental contract and what the renter pays for. We know this because when my boyfriend took the initiative to help me rent out the unit, we visited it and saw that it was pretty dirty. Also, there were holes in the walls and other things that needed repair before putting it out on the market. 3) South Lake Associates would ask us each year if we wanted to sell the unit, and if so, they would love to help us do this (and get the commission). I think they just want to pocket as much money as possible (while they can still stay in business), versus build a long steady stream of income based on a solidly-run business of satisfied clients and customers. 4) South Lake Associates sent their least experienced agent to try to rent out our place. This agent was an inexperienced salesperson who failed follow-up adequately with prospective renters. We actually responded to an ad they put out, and never got a call back. We even tried to reach them a few times (if you read some of the lower starred reviews, you'll see see this is a general issue with this company). Avoid these guys. They seem nice on email and in-person, but seem to be masters of the bare minimum. read more

We have rented from SLA for 1.5 years and have never had a single major issue with the home or the property management. Shelly and Phil have always answered us back when we reach out and have made the renting process very painless. When our garbage disposal broke (our only maintenance request we ever had to submit), Shelly had someone out to fix it within a day. No problems whatsoever, affordable rent, we definitely recommend. read more

Giving this "company" even one star is incredibly generous. I am a tenant currently renting from a property managed by SLA. They are, without question or exaggeration, the worst management company I have ever dealt with. They are almost completely unresponsive to service/maintenance inquiries and if the problem is ever addressed you can guarantee it will be done the cheapest way possible without concern for aesthetics or functionality. read more

These guys are impossible to get a hold of. When we first reached out to them with a question about what the process was for moving out, John didn't get back to us until well after the notification date. When we did give notice, we were told that they would "take care of the garbage" and "let us know" whether or not we needed to repaint the room we had painted yellow (from the corpse-gray it had originally been). After zero followup, they charged us $400 for repainting the room and $65 for garbage removal, and refused to take responsibility for their communication. Despite John saying that he would talk to Kent who was communicating with us at the end of our lease and have him call us, we never heard from him. A couple of months later, I reached out to John about a bill question, and did get an immediate response, along with a snarky note about this review. Do not rent from these guys. read more

Well my experience is that I get a phone number that no one ever answered its just says "thanks for calling goodbye" and hangs up.. At my property witch is highlander we have no manager as far as I see no phone number in case of emergency we have no maintenance or phone number to call if something breaks. I pay,repair man to come fix my problems witch I'm,not able to deduct from my rent. Frustrated with how the property is managed.. Tired of paying out my pocket and then paying rent.. so I have nothing positive to add..... read more

I rented out my condo through SLA. Phil handled everything associated with advertising the property and identifying great tenants, coordinating cleaning & carpets, the utilities, etc. When issues cropped up, he came to me with recommended solutions in hand, so items were taken care of immediately. Monthly statements to me went out automatically, and I could count on the rent being deposited in my account on a timely basis. Calls and emails were responded to promptly. It was really great having him to rely upon to help communicate between the tenant and me. Highly recommended. read more

They do not care about you. When you have problems that make your unit unlivable the response is basically "too bad, so sad". I have never felt so uncared for. They are very unprofessional, their emails are very short and aggressive even though mine are always polite. I would get fired if I ever wrote emails like them for my job. This is the first time I have ever written a review, that is how bad they are. If you rent / buy their properties, just hope that nothing ever goes wrong. read more

Unresponsive, don't seem to take interest in the needs of your apartment. Problems with apartment were problems that should have been taken care of before we moved in. Leasing agent was nice until she signed us and then has been very unagreeable and difficult to work with. read more

This company was fine until it came time for me to move out, and then they turned into a nightmare. They offer reasonable rates on good properties, but avoid if possible. At the time I signed the lease, I made it clear that I was planning to need to break the lease. I asked about their policy, and was told that I could sublet the apartment and pay a $250 fee or not sublet and pay a $350 fee. That was reasonable, so I agreed and signed. Eight months later, I get in touch saying I'm planning to break the lease and ask a number of questions about their sublet policy. At that point, I'm informed that the person who told me about the terms was wrong, that they do not accept sublets, and that I can either find a new person to sign a full 12-month lease and pay $350 or not find someone and pay $450. They offered no recourse and wouldn't budge an inch despite my signing the lease under the expectation of more lenient terms. They offered no photos or copy for the listing, so I went ahead with my own Craiglist post, and only after people start emailing me back about the listing did South Lake Associates bother to tell me that they actually want to raise the rent on the unit by $100 per month. This was after a number of contacts regarding the potential listing of the property with no mention of a change in the rent. At that point dozens of people had already contacted me, and I had to awkwardly let them all know that the rent was actually going to be higher than advertised without also letting them know that the property management company was unreliable enough that they shouldn't be interested in the apartment. In addition, they got weirdly aggressive about the small number of people who had chosen to contact them instead of me when responding to the Craigslist post, despite the fact that I hadn't listed any of their contact information (they didn't check the actual listing before accusing me of trying to get them to do the work). I thought it was appropriate to let potential tenants know from whom they would be leasing, but I guess they disagreed. They insisted I pull the "Property is managed by South Lake Associates" line out of the listing so that no one else would contact them. Mercifully they refunded my whole security deposit, even though I was sure that after all of that they would find some way to keep a substantial portion of it. If you are renting from South Lake Associates, make sure to get absolutely everything in writing and don't assume anything at any point in the process. They always managed to find way to make things more difficult than they should have been. The actual time I was living in the apartment was smooth and enjoyable, but the process of breaking the lease was way more stressful than it needed to be. read more

I never write reviews like this, but I want to warn others before they make the same mistake I did by getting into a contract with this company. I am currently renting from South Lake Associates, and what a HUGE mistake. DO NOT WORK WITH THIS COMPANY! Don't be fooled by their up-front professionalism. That's how they act until they have your money. Once you're locked into a lease with them, it's a completely different story. I've been in a rental house they manage for 6 months. The outside electricity in the carport, which is on a dark alley, has never worked. I've made repeated requests for it to be fixed because I've had items stolen and it is unsafe to come in at night in the dark alone. They know this to be the case because they told me they had the storage closet on the garage bolted closed due to theft and vandals living in it. But have they done anything about it? Nope. Last weekend, my basement completely flooded because their sump pump was installed incorrectly. Their own representative who came to fix it said that was the reason for the flooding. Are they going to reimburse me for the damages to my property, an expensive rug and several framed pieces of art, not to mention items of sentimental value that were ruined and can't be replaced? Nope. Are they going to take anything off the rent for the hours and hours and hours of cleanup over several days that my spouse and I had to do? Nope. How about the day of work I had to take off to deal with it? Or the money I spent to rent a machine to try to suck up all the water since it would be over 24 hours after the flood before they could get someone out to deal with it? Too bad, they aren't doing anything. I have renter's insurance, but it won't pay anything because the flood was caused by negligence and a faulty pump. South Lake Associates is refusing to give us one dime in compensation. I could hire a lawyer and sue them and win, because clearly my loss was due to their negligence (by their own admission). But they know that most people don't have the means to hire a lawyer, and that is what they are counting on. DO NOT WORK WITH THIS COMPANY!!! Be warned, they are nothing more than scummy slumlords with a nice office and a water view. read more

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY. When you request to have items that need to be fixed they will not fix it, and when they do it will be months later. When I say months I mean they don't even follow up with your request and fix items. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. read more

My husband and I have worked with John on the sale of two condos and purchase of a house. In both sales he was incredibly helpful and the properties sold quickly and for a healthy profit. There was quite a bit of work to do on one of the condos to get it ready to sell, and John went above and beyond by setting up contractors to complete the work. John has a lot of construction knowledge as well as his real estate knowledge, which was especially helpful when we were looking to buy our house. We avoided a lot of pitfalls that come with looking at older houses in the North Seattle area. He could explain what is a real problem verses an easy fix. We recommend John to our friends who are in the market of buying or selling homes in Seattle and have had very positive experiences. read more

I recently rented an apartment through John, and it was a pleasant journey all the way through. He is very professional and efficient. As I just moved to US, he is very kind to offer me help to sort out rental stuff with which I'm not familiar. Anything involved with the apartment, he is right on it w/o any delays. Overall, South Lake Associates is really a great company, they are professional, friendly and helpful. Will be definitely using them for the future; highly recommended to everyone. read more

This company has caused us all kinds of horrors, particularly because they will avoid contact at all cost. Basically that's their method of dealing with an issue. read more

John was awesome. We rented a house from SLA and had a couple maintenance issues that John and his team took care of right away. It's nice to be able to pay rent online and not have to hassle mailing checks, too. read more

I live in a building managed by South Lake Associates, and they are unacceptably responsive to maintenance requests. In the past 2.5 months, I have sent 4 emails requesting a repair to a broken door and and there has been some back and forth but no action. They take days to respond. SLA has an online portal where they claim to accept maintenance requests, but all 3 of my requests in their portal have never once been actioned or acknowledged. The only times they've responded via email is to tell me is that something is out of their control or scope. They are evaders and not problem solvers. read more

We had a great experience working with John at South Lake Associates. My wife and I rented an apartment in Ballard last year. When we moved in, there were some issues with the apartment that needed to be addressed right away. John and Phil were always very responsive (I'm not sure about the negative comments that I have read here about punctuality of responses - because every phone call and email were responded to within 24 hours with solutions -- solutions being the most important). Last piece of note, My wife and I had an opportunity to move back home to Boston to help out with our family abruptly, and John was very helpful to our needs to move out and find a new tenant. In my experience and opinion, it was far above the call of duty to be a good partner and take care of business and do good. It was a very good experience renting from SLA and we really enjoyed working with John from start to finish. read more

South Lake Associates is really a top notch realty company. We've been renting from them for about a year now, and have found they are really as personable and friendly as it gets. We recently had an issue with our oven, and they were out to fix the broken oven within 24 hours! Will definitely be using them as our primary realty outlet for the future. read more

I recently bought a home through John, and it was a great experience all the way through. He listed my old home, and helped us find a new one. He was also the mortgage broker for the loan. I wouldn't normally have a realtor also do the mortgage, but he had the best quote. I shopped around and couldn't find a better package deal. Ended up with 3.25% on a 30 year fixed...sweet! My payment on the new home is about the same as the old one, and it's twice the home. Phil was awesome too, helped us with the Open House. John knows the market, and was strong in the negotiation process on the purchase. Good guy to have on your side. Was able to get us not only a reduction in price, but also a huge deck and landscaping package included. My wife and family are very happy, we got everything we were hoping for and more. I would recommend his team. read more

I have been very pleased with my experience renting from South Lake Associates. They run a truly professional, considerate and smooth operation. John was quick to respond to every inquiry and immediately fixed a faucet issue on a holiday. I would happily rent from them in the future and I recommend them to anyone looking for an apartment. read more

John Jochim has been managing my condo for 19 months now and has found two top notch renters during this time. There wasn't a vacant day in-between the two renters so I had no rental loss. John always responds to my emails if I have a query. I get my rent deposited on time and my tax documents in January. I have never had to "chase" him for anything. I thoroughly recommend John to anybody looking for an excellent property manager. read more

These guys were great. Me and my two roommates are all young guys who were looking for a comfortable spot for the year. We had some friends that had landlords from hell who were always pestering them about one thing or another, but these guys were hands off and always kept the property nice without bothering us or nagging us. Whenever we needed them, they were there. And their billing service was easy - no checks needed (who even uses checks these days?). read more