Austin Manage - Austin, Texas

Cath L.

Rented a house through them in my neighborhood while I remodeled my house. Absolutely terrible property manager. Non-responsive for 5 days on a significant plumbing issue which left none of the toilets flushing or sinks draining. Ignored calls to emergency number. As terrible as they are to lease from, I would never allow them to manage a home for me. They are irresponsible as property managers.

Love M.

Austin Manage LLC is borderline predatory in their lease.
They add addendums that go against Texas property code, such as cleaning fees from normal wear and tear upon move out.
They failed to warn me when they were advertising this place to be rented, and I was be contacted on my personal cell phone by agents to come see the apartment. As a woman with a minor on premises, its common sense to give a warning that people will be contacting to view. I was out of town for work when an agent contacted me, and I told them it wouldn't be a good time because I was out of town. But someone showed up on property at 8pm on a Saturday night and let themselves in with no notice to me. I had a guest staying there so of course he was shocked that someone just came in without notice.
They charged me $50 for refusing access, although place was accessed by agent, and refuse to take off of my account. They also charged me a prorated day rent for July although my lease was up on 6/30, and refused to respond to my inquiries about that charge.
The lease addendum for 2bdrm states that the clinging fee is $200 for maid service in which they charged my $250 and $225 for carpet cleaning in which they charged me $550. They refuse to respond to emails or offer an explanation for additional charges. I've provided them all proof, from my lease to lease addendum. I sent a text for them to respond to me emails and this is what they sent back:
Please note the charge levied against the account are final and not eligible for accomodation or request for removal. The fees, charges, fines and assessments are in line with the lease agreements and its addendums.

This is false and I have the documentation to prove it. I also have video proof and an eyewitness account to condition the apartment was left in upon move out.

They are predatory and awful with communication.

Lauren W.

If I could leave no stars, I would.
This company was ok during the 5 years we lived in the rental house they managed. However, when we made a deal with the owners to get out of our lease early, things got bad. We were told by this rental agency that we got the "award" for most annoying tenants. The reasons we were give were these: late payments (we were late once by 1 day), being difficult to schedule maintenance with (we both work from home on the phone all day) and because I wanted my deposit back but they claimed that they had to remove vines after we moved out (these were vines on a fence that were planted by the owner and I kept off the house). They also changed the locks more than 2 weeks before our last day, had a huge dog track mud through this no-pets rental before we fully moved out (I just walked into paw prints throughout the house) and verbally harassed us through-out the move-out process. The very few repairs they did perform were awful, in the end I felt bad for the home owner, too. I cannot more strongly recommend that you steer clear of this agency.

Just look at how they respond publicly to negative reviews. Nothing but deflections, excuses and thinly veiled accusations. If this is how they act in the open, imagine what it looks like behind closed doors.

Sanjana S.

I lived in a property owned by Austin Mange for 2 years. The first year, communication with the property manager was abysmal, however, after Alma Webber joined the Austin Mange team, things improved by a lot.

The first year we had several issues that went unresolved. Off the bat, the keys that we were given didn't work with the lock on our front door, and instead of helping us fix it, we had to make new copies of our keys ourselves. Then, there was an issue with our parking spot that went unresolved, so we gave up trying to fix it and came up with a solution on our own. One of the taps in my bathroom sink just stopped working after the water in our building was shut off without notice, and maintenance told us that it was a plumbing issue that couldn't be fixed until we moved out (at that point, our move out date wasn't for another 1.5 years).

After Alma joined the team, things went a lot more smoothly. She was very responsive (via email and phone) and provided us with her personal phone number to reach her more directly. I had reported issues with my sink numerous times, but once I contacted Alma, she apologized for the delay in getting it fixed and put in a maintenance report to get it fixed immediately. She also made the move out process very easy, and was readily available to answer any questions I had regarding move out procedures. I left something in the property before turning my keys in, and she went out of her way to help me retrieve it. Her kindness and patience really enhanced my living experience in a property owned by Austin Manage.

I was also in contact with Alex a few times, and he was also very kind and patient with all of my questions. He was very responsive when it came to maintenance issues and always followed up to ensure that the issues were fixed. He also helped with the whole move out process, and that made moving out less stressful. Overall, I had a great experience living in the property owned by Austin Manage despite the initial bumpy start.

Savannah M.

We've been renting from an Austin Manage property, a duplex house, for a year and a half. Our experience has been mostly negative.

When we first signed on, we were actually taking over someone else's (a stranger's) lease and were promised before signing that the pet deposit the previous tenants paid would carry over to us. Well, it didn't, and they slapped on a $1000 pet deposit with only $500 of it being refundable. Since then, our impression of them has never really changed. We were harassed about the front yard's appearance being unruly after we completely cleared over half of it from the massive tangles of weeds the previous tenants left. It just reinforced that these people have very little actual knowledge about the state of the place and how it was left to us.

Our house is from the 30s and is in rough shape so we've put in multiple requests for service and have been mostly ignored. Some of those are a fairly significant, like our front porch rafters decaying precariously, and our back door being so old and ill-fitted there's a 2 inch gap between the bottom of it and the floor, so lots of bugs and terrible for cooling and heating the house that already doesn't have central air. This all just kind of adds up into an overall bad experience, and coupled with the detached, impersonal way Austin Manage communicates with us, we haven't enjoyed it.

And two weeks after the freeze, we still have no notice on when our burst pipes will be fixed, and no hot water. Truly not as bad as many other Austinites, so we're grateful, but still shows something is lacking here. We sent them the contact information for other plumbers we were recommended in case it was a matter of not having enough plumbers to go around. Austin Manage completely ignored us. It seems to me they are making tenants wait because they don't want to hire more plumbers. They just want to overwork the ones they already have.

In summary, I will never, ever rent another property that isn't managed by that property's actual owner ever again. There's something to be said about a working relationship with the actual person who owns your house. There's more opportunity for collaboration and compromise, and more incentive on the owner's part to be diligent about the state of their property since they're the ones managing it.

If I could give 0 stars I would, but just consider the 1 star as being for the convenient online tenant portal for payments, but that's literally the only positive here.

Hunter K.

Rent from these people you will not get your deposit back and they will charge you for extra fees. We have documented receipts and pictures for leaving the property clean and holes and walls fixed by a contractor but yet we were still charged. House was left in prestigious condition but in total held $2400 and charged an additional $1000.

When I tried to contact them I never heard anything back. Never once was I contacted personally by this company before the additional charges were sent to a debt collector.

Sheri J.

I have been living in one of Austin Manage’s properties for 3 months. In that time I have had leaks in the ceiling, the lock on my front door stopped working, and a dryer that was out for over a month and a half. There is also a massive bee hive of aggressive bees just outside of my front door and I am allergic. The hive was there upon move in.

While I realize none of these issues are their fault and none of them would make me not renew my lease, the response of Austin Manage has been an entirely different story. They have a phone number but never answer it and never return voicemails. They also don’t respond to their emails and when they do it is literally more than a month later. Going over a month and a half without a dryer and having to go to a laundromat without any discount on rent is insane yet they won’t even answer an email about it. The bee hive has also been there for the entirety of me living here and and is a danger to my health. When the lock on my front door stopped working it took them a week to fix it. It is a keyed smart lock that they don’t even give the tenant access to!

Of course, the actual land lord’s information is nowhere to be found in the lease so I can’t contact them to let them know that their management company is not properly managing their properties. Which is exactly what is happening. Austin manage wants your rent check. They want the contracts with owners. They do not actually manage. Don’t rent with them and don’t let them manage your properties!

Danielle B.

Writing this review just to to truly inform (warn) future tenants that are thinking of renting from them. This has easily been the worst renting experience that I have had. Short version: they are extremely unresponsive, they are unprofessional, they are quick to take your money without reason, you will have to fight for your rights as a tenant when you are living here. There are probably things that will make your living situation unlivable, but they will not be concerned until you are consistently attentive to getting them to complete their duties and responsibilities.

Long version: The most accurate representation of this establishment can be seen through my roommates and I's situation with rats in the house. For months we heard scurrying in the attic. We sent in a maintenance report about this, and for weeks didn't hear anything back about it. Finally I called asking for an update, and during that conversation I was told to submit a maintenance request. I told them that I have already done this weeks ago, and I am calling because it was unresponsive. Sure, they had systems in place, but no body was actually taking care of anything that was sent through them. It took another month to get the exterminator to come out to our property, and even after that another chunk of time to get something to actually happen. There was no urgency to fix this problem as the situation only rapidly progressed. At the end of the day we had 7 big rats (not mice) caught around our house from our attic to our KITCHEN. Even the exterminators were shocked, but Austin Manage dismissed it as if it were normal. If rats are normal in their properties then another reason I would stay away. We received no apologies and no compensation. These conditions made the premises far safe and livable, but Austin Manage did not care at all about this duty that they owed us as tenants.