Check the landlord before renting an apartment .... Especially if it is Robinson Properties(http://www.robinsonrental.com/). Their slogan seems to be 'What property management should be?' where they do not know what property management really should be.I went through apartmentpeople.com when I was looking for an apartment in Evanston back in July. Apartment Peopledid a fairly good job of showing apartments in the rent range I was looking for. Finally I found an apartmentthat I thought would suit my purpose (close to NWU, walking distance from Davis railway station .. and all that). It did not have a laundry but that was ok. My car could take me to the laundry I thought.I signed up a year long lease immediately. This was when I did not know what I was getting into. When I signed up the lease I was ensured of a professional service and care when I needed some for the apartment.I soon moved in to find out that the apartment was not in the best of shapes and had reporteda few maintenance problems immediately.But the problems as simple as fixing the window bug nets were not attended to. Soon I came to realize the problem with the property managers.They were just happy to get rid of the apartment and make money of it.
I discovered a leak in the bathroom ceiling which started with a drip and then culminated to a steady downpour. After the problem was reported a few times in couple of weeks the plumber was sent to fix it..(or sothey said), When I checked again the leak had worsened and after a lot of pestering managed to get a plumberto visit the place and discover the root of the leak. He tore down the ceiling only to make a big hole which stayed foranother 3 days before it was completely fixed. After all this I wanted to get out of the lease(which I thought I had the rightto given the negligence of the landlord). I finally had to pay 2 months rent and forfeit the security deposit(one month rent) to sign out of the lease.
So I would NOT recommend leasing with robinsonrental.com and would also warn all those that might fall into this trap.
Here are some pictures as proof of the substandard treatment of the apartment.
