Horrible!!!! They make the college kids sign a lease year ahead of time locking them into a legal contract before the kids even now if they are getting into their majors. They make it seem like there is a shortage of housing so if they do not sign an entire year before they might not find a place to live. Making the kids think they better sign. They say just find a sub leaser if you change your mind. Well that is useless because the original person who signs is legally responsible. My daughter got taken to court for an apartment she never lived in because her sub leaser did not pay. So my daughter who already has school loans had to pay for an apartment she never lived in. So lesson to everyone thinking of signing with Young America DO NOT SIGN WITH YOUNG AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

Young America is a company that claims to be willing to work with students and help and give them a positive college experience... until you actually sign a lease. After that, its all about screwing you over. One of my roommates fell behind on rent, and despite 3 of the 4 of us paying on time every month, they decided to block our internet. When I called and tried to talk to them, I was transferred to Danielle who was honestly one of the rudest employees I have ever talked to. Completely unwilling to help us in anyway, and was just very hostile and aggressive overall. DO NOT SIGN WITH THIS COMPANY. It's a company built on lies to get you to sign a lease. For instance, I was also told before I moved in that the place would be fully cleaned - the place was cleaner than when I viewed it, but it was still absolutely disgusting and filthy. Seriously, look somewhere else for a place to live. read more

Great customer service, respond to to problems very quickly, you get what you pay for,clean apartments freshly painted

I am not quite sure how this company has gotten "excellent" reviews... The only way I can imagine this is they have the students that work for them constantly post "excellent" reviews about the company its self. I live on campus and this is my last year there. Everyone that I have meet on campus has expressed their dislike/hate for Young America's service. This is not about the students that work for them because they are simply innocent bystanders just trying to make money. This is about the actual workings, leases, what you get charged for, how they show you what you get charged for, and how they seamlessly do not fix anything that is requested of them. This is a terrible company that has been threatened to be taken to small claims court many of times due to their fraudulent charges. The only problem is that they hold the best properties on campus therefore making them a falsafied "number 1" reality company in Normal. read more

Run as fast as you can. This company is ruthless. They will sue at the drop of a hat. They're very quick to drop off eviction notices, but yet if you try to contact them, they do not even speak to you about it. Scott Lee, in particular, wants nothing to do with speaking to tenants. Their lawyers specialize in how to use capitalism to their advantage and they are laughing all the way to the bank about how easy it is. Check the court records...literally on a daily basis they are taking people to court. You'll get by fine if you're perfect, otherwise, good luck with these douchebags. read more

Worst place ever! Overpriced, poor customer service and nasty apartments. They could care less about the people that rent from them. Just lining their pockets with money! read more

Flexible with accepting rent from students but TERRIBLE at customer service. The woman who accepts student payments is the only person in which I've had a nice encounter with. Otherwise, I'd suggest you look for another leasing agency. It is pretty much student-run and most times you encounter unprofessionalism with the staff. I would give 1 star, but their maintenance is super friendly and quick to fix any problems you have. Myself (and others who have been customers of YAR) have had negative experiences with this leasing agency. If you're not leasing expensive apartments, don't expect to be considered a priority on their list. read more

My experience with Young America Realty went very smoothly, mostly because Cole Salamone helped me and my roommate out. He helped us with getting a discount for being in the Snow Crew here at ISU, and he got us in and out quickly with very minimal waiting time. I have a great house and I am glad to re-sign with Young America and would do it again every time. read more

No complaints here, was very satisfied living in one of Young America's apartments before I graduated. Close to campus and furnished!

Okay business but they are 100% discriminatory against employees. They had an amazing employee that was exceeding expectations from the moment they were hired, not to mention over 20 years of experience in realty, and YA decided to let them go for "not being a good fit". So disappointing in the lack of compassion and empathy they have to just let a overly qualified employee go without even thinking of how it will affect their life. Their priorities are clearly not for the good of the business. I would avoid leasing with them read more

They are almost one step above slum lords. Don't rent from them unless you would like to rent for a company that will tell you that you don't have bed bugs when you have literally hundreds of bites all over your body. They sent an "expert" out to investigate the problem by shining a flashlight on the walls only to tell me that he didn't see any bugs. I called a real professional and he found a bug within two minutes of looking and only then did Young America offer to do anything about it. Their solution was to pay the real professional instead of sending out their own "expert" who basically told me I was crazy and that I didn't have any bugs. Oh and getting a new mattress from them after my room was infested with bed bugs didn't happen for months. Also, if you value your refrigerator working, don't rent from this place. Sure, they advertize 24 hour maintenance, but it took them two days to come over to fix our refrigeration, at which point all of our food had started to go bad. The first time they came over to "fix" the refrigeration, they pulled it out from the wall, told us we had too much stuff in it and left it at that. When our refrigerator still didn't work after throwing out a lot of our food, we called again and they said that they already fixed it. It took two days for them to come over a second time. My absolute favorite part about renting from these idiots is their stupid utility allowance. Not only do you have an allowance of how much of your utilities you can use, but their less than intelligent employees can't figure out how to use a damn computer to check your allowance in a timely fashion. It took them a couple of weeks to tell us how much of our allowance we had used. At the end of the year, they told us we had $400 left in utilities to use, but they still found a way to take all but $15 of our security deposits for utilities without telling us. If you want a leasing company that actually cares about its tenants, don't rent from these people. They will try to suck money out of you any way they can and most of their apartments are in need of serious repair, remodeling, and cleaning. We paid more for our tiny 4 bed/1 bath apartment than my parents pay for their 5 bed/3 bath house. I can't believe how much they charge for those shit holes! If you're going to charge that much, at lease make them somewhat presentable looking. read more

So far, I like Young America a lot! Cara Hemann has been a great help to us during our process of picking apartments for this year and next year. I wouldn't sign with another company! read more

I have lived with First site, Sami, and Young America and I have to say I was most impressed with Young America. We did have a couple issues throughout the year, (dirty couches, and ants) but with both issues we called in and they were more then willing to help us out. Our apartment was huge and was decently priced. I lived with four girls and we only had one bathroom, but with the double vanity in the bathroom, we never had an issue. If I wasn't graduating this year I would definitely live with Young America again next year. read more

I lived at College Station and it was ok, My Sophmore year at school i decided to move onto campus and looked with a couple different realtors. I decided to live at young america and live their kensington location. The next year I did resign to live in a 2 bedroom apartment and it was not quite as nice but very satisfactory. I give Young America a solid B Grade. read more

Do not use Young America if at all possible. They have poor quality rentals and do not care at all about their tenants. Use any other reality company.....they do not clean their rentals prior to moving in and will stick you with bogus charges. Slumlord at its finest! read more

Just wanted to spread the word about Young America Realty and the way they do business. When my roommate and I moved in over two years ago, we weren't charged the full price for our satellite TV. The company discovered their mistake after my roommate and I resigned the lease for a second year. However, rather than telling us about this mistake and the fact that they were now going to charge us the full price, we found out at the end of our lease when we were charged with an unexpected and outrageously high bill. We spoke several times to Randy, the manager, and explained that if we were told from the beginning, we would have opted out of satellite tv to save money and how unfair we believed it was to not have been informed of this new charge. After several months of trying to get in contact with him, he finally agreed to at least give us a credit towards what we owed. We called several times, emailed, and came in to the office multiple times in order to get this situation solved but every time we tried to get ahold of Randy, he was somehow not available-even when he was supposed to be back from lunch or whatever other random appointment he had. The staff does not communicate with one another at all, in fact, every time we spoke to someone who said they would do something for us, we would get a threatening letter from another staff member who claimed they never heard anything from anyone about any credits or anything. We contacted a lawyer to see what was legal and what was not. Long story short, Randy told our lawyer that he would give us the credit as well as use our deposit to cover our charges. Several weeks went by and we heard nothing assuming things were finally okay. However, now we are being threatened yet again because we have not paid our bill. When looking at the bill, no credits were applied. Once again, we tried contacting Randy to get this problem solved only to have him ignore our calls and emails. We spoke with Scott who was completely unaware of the situation and told us he would "Look into it". Several days have passed and absolutely nothing has changed. This company has had over 300 complains this past year alone. The staff does not communicate with one another nor do they hold up their end of the deal. Please help me spread the news about this company so that others won't have to go through this crap. Thank you. read more

Worst realty company ever, moved in and everything was in terrible condition. They put no effort into turning it into an acceptable condition. Fined us for every little thing they could find. I would think twice before signing a lease with these people. Don't make the mistake that I did. read more

When I moved in they didn't clean up the apartment. They have worst service I've ever had. Now I moved out. The only thing I can say about Young America is they are FUCKING SUCKS. You will get what you paid, or you will get way to less than you paid. I can't believed that this kind of apartment still exists around the campus. Sometimes they asked you to pay rent fee even if you already paid. So if you are already in this stupid apartment, then please make sure that you have receipt from office. read more

Definitely regretting signing my 10-month lease last summer. It is partially my fault for not reading my lease carefully enough, but it's ridiculous that I had to pay a full May rent payment when all of the leases end on May 9th. When I asked why I was paying for the three weeks I wasn't even allowed to be in the apartment, I was told "It's all been figured into the lease", whatever that means. Leasing agents would also only show our unit to future tenants, and would come in without warning. Roaches, wasps, and black mold were also some fun additions.. They try to pressure you into re-signing in September, barely even a month after moving in. The $200 visa gift card for re-signing might sound like a great deal, but you're getting screwed over. So excited to be done with that building and company for good. read more

Signed my first apartment through this company and it was such an easy and smooth process. The agents helped me find exactly what I was looking for and met all my criteria. My apartment is in fantastic condition inside and out. My rent also included three parking spots which also met the needs of my roommates and myself. This company also has an easy system to get any maintenance done if I ever were to need anything fixed. The other day I broke a shelf in my refrigerator and their maintenance service came right out to fix it. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for an apartment! I will never sign a lease anywhere else! read more

After playing telephone tag and numerous phone calls, I finally made contact with property manager Brad. I was looking for a company to manage the day to day tasks involved in leasing my home in Bloomington. We scheduled an appointment for a Sunday at 11:00. I don't live locally, so I made a two and a half hour drive specifically to meet with Brad. I had no other reason to drive to Bloomington that day. I began calling Brad at 11:15. He did not answer the phone, so I left messages both at the office and at the other number he gave me. I also left an e-mail message. Three days later, I have not received a response to any of my messages. On the plus side, I'm glad I found out about their poor customer service BEFORE I entrusted the leasing of my home to them. Obviously customer service is not a priority. I spent five hours driving and $50 on gas, but at least I did not enter into an agreement with them. There are many other leasing agencies in Bloomington. I strongly suggest you try another. This company doesn't value or respect their customers. read more

The people in the office are actually pretty nice. However, when I was shown the apartment, when I would ask a question they would beat around the bush or deflect the question into something else. My apartment was okay, the size of my room and closet was great. They don't do roommate matching AT ALL, which means you get a random person that you know NOTHING about. Even asking the little questions when place two people in the same apartment for the next ten months together, they wouldn't do. Something like asking if the person was a smoker or a "SMOKER" (weed). Even if you complained about it they would tell you to just talk to the person and you two will work something out. ITS FUCKING ILLEGAL, and I shouldn't have had to work anything out with that. Had a problem with a smell in the bed for a while and called to complain and they flat out told me that "We can't do anything until enough people complained about it" WTF 8~| . The floors were soo thin, and I swear I thought I had the Incredible Hulk living above me, they were so thin that if I was in the living room or bathroom or kitchen while the people above me were in the bathroom. I could tell you if they were peeing or taking a crap. They won't paint the walls and been told that they will try to find anyway to keep your deposit. Would I recommend them to people? Hell no, the only nice thing was that it was close to the school and I could walk to class read more

I stayed in a Young America apartment my senior year and they were terrible. They told my roommate and I that we could park anywhere in the entire lot and when we did, my roommate was towed. We went in to get the money for the towing and they told us that they never told us that and it was all on us. A good company would have refunded us after they were the ones to mess up in the first place. Also, our apartment flooded five times throughout the year and the floor started to mold and they did nothing about it. We had to deal with the mold smell and expenses to clean the mess up. Then after a huge snowstorm, they didn't plow so we had to shovel the entire driveway out so we could get to work. At the end of the year, they charged us a bunch of outrageous charges. Most of the charges were small except for the $100 charge for the missing microwave that they didn't provide us in the first place. Everything is terrible about this company from upkeep to common courtesy. I would highly suggest not renting from Young America. I know there are complaints about all realty places around ISU but I can't imagine any being worse than this. In the end, you might be best renting a house from someone other than a realty place but if you do, make sure it's not Young America! read more

Recently I was in the process of searching for a new apartment for My boyfriend, his son, and me. I found some nice apartments in a good school district run by Young America Realty. However, because were not married, they refused to rent to us. They refused to even look into our credit, or background history, or income, or anything else. It really shocked me that this business would go so low as to judge poeple based on their marital status. Just because people arn't married doesnt mean that they are any less stable or capable of paying their rent or taking care of their apartment. The number of unmarried couples living together are made up of tons of types of people including young adults, gay/lesbian couples, divorced adults, adults who can't afford to get married yet, or adults who don't believe in marriage...so a decent percentage of the population these days. Do they even realize the amount of people they are truely discriminating against?!?! Screw you Young America, now everyone can judge you too. read more

Young America Realty claims to be "setting the standard for excellence in student apartment management in Bloomington-Normal IL" and "we assure the satisfaction of all our customers" - but we have NOT found this to be true! Our rental contract was signed in October 2013, our lease began May 10th, 2014. We have had nothing but problems since the day we moved in. Everything was filthy when we moved in. Our contract included new carpeting installed by June 10th. Today is June 22th, and after multiple phone calls, emails, and going to their offices, we have received mainly excuses and false assurances for all the problems we have had. Work orders put in a month ago for grossly plugged tub, provision of kitchen chairs, a living room chair without a broken spring still haven't been handled. If you still decide to rent from Young America, get in writing the exact apartment that they will rent to you (don't trust that the one they show you will look anything like the one they give you!) and get any promises of improvements, cleaning, or upgrades in writing along with a date for completion and compensation for failure to meet those promises, signed by both parties, of course! Simply put -- don't trust them. read more

When I rented from Young America, they had somehow 'forgotten' that people were still living in the place I was renting for another month when they handed over keys to me without even asking for an ID or anything. I walked into the leasing office, said I needed keys for the address I was moving to and they were handed over to me without another word. Imagine my surprise when I show up at the house I was supposed to be renting from them to find that 4 guys were still living there, and one was at home when I waltzed into the house thinking I could move in. Things did not improve from there. There was a giant hole in the foundation of the house, as well as terrible to non-existent sealing on all of the windows, resulting in $300+ heating bills for one month, (and we kept the thermostat on 63). The roof above my room leaked, and instead of repairing the roof they would come and put tar down. The maintenance man even told me when YA bought the house years earlier, he'd TOLD them they needed to replace the roof and they chose not to. We also got charged TWICE for garbage collection because our house could technically be split into 2 separate addresses (renting the upstairs separately from the main floor). The floors were also incredibly slanted, you couldn't set anything on the floor without it rolling, it was like a fun house, minus the fun. read more

!ATTENTION PROPERTY OWNERS! Young America Realty rented my house on Sept. 20, 2011 in Bloomington to a couple with children who trashed my very nice home before they were evicted for non-payment of rent on Feb. 29, 2012. The agent from Young America promised me that care would be taken to find the best qualified tenants to rent my home. Instead, my house was rented to people who had a credit score of 532, had previously declared bankruptcy, owed thousands in consumer debt, and paid rent on time twice. They had to have their wages garnished to get the other month's rent. The couple also had a pit bull dog, and I specifically stated that there were to be no pets on the premises. The walls were drawn on with permanent marker, the blinds were broken, the carpet was ruined by chalk, oil, and candle wax being ground in, they left piles of trash, beer cans, cigarette packs, and pizza boxes in the closet, a door was chewed up by the dog, they tore the window screens, the walls were filthy, they broke tile, left broken furniture,and rotting food on the counter and in the refrigerator. They also took a garage door opener, a full length mirror, and a fire pit. They tried to take the microwave, but could not get it off the wall. It cost me almost $2500 to return the house to its previous condition, bust I still haven't had the carpeting replaced. DO NOT ALLOW YOUNG AMERICA TO MANAGE YOUR PROPERTY!! read more