This review is a few years overdue; however, my story begins shortly after graduating college and starting my career in Williamsburg. Berkeley has somewhat of a monopoly on rental properties so naturally I ended up signing a lease with them. What followed was a terrible experience; my property manager was incredibly rude and would often be unnecessarily combative about repairs that needed to be performed. I always try to be as polite as possible and it seemed the property manager was not taught to respond in kind. I speculated that this was some sort of entitled classism because I was a kid renting a two bedroom condo. When my lease approached its end, I was told my rent would increase by $115.00 a month if I chose to renew. I'm not sure how they justified this increase; however, I was luckily moving into the next phase of my career and was offered a promotion at another branch in my company which I had accepted. Berkeley enforces a mandatory cleaning expense to the user which is something I have yet to encounter again. On top of that, under my company's relocation agreement, a moving company came and cleared my abode. The property manager came over and we inspected the unit together and agreed everything was good; yet, after I was out of state, I was charged $50.00 because of "items left in the unit" when we uncovered nothing during the inspection. After a few short years, I feel the need to leave this review because I now have some investment properties of my own and only now do I see how abhorrently this company represented itself. I would never rent from Berkeley nor would my sense of empathy ever allow me, in good faith, to let Berkeley represent my properties. read more

Really poor response time. Unfriendly employees. They started strong with a good employee that was our point of contact, but when she left, I saw that all the other reviews of this company were pretty spot on. They weren't the friendliest or easiest to work with. read more

The reason for my review is the agent not showing up for the walk through to close out the lease on the day scheduled nor the following day. I am having to mail house keys and garage door remotes. My daughter flew today out of country for for work requirements! Very frustrating and unprofessional!l read more

Property managers always seem to get bad reviews from upset tenants so I'll try to give another perspective. I've only had limited interaction with Berkley so I may be off, however compared to LA property managers they seem quite good. You can get through, at least as a landlord, to a real person on the phone who will actually answer your questions and tries to help. I also like their automation of monthly payments and the fact that they show their employees online with phone numbers. Most management companies with higher turnover or less personal service couldn't do that. I'm sure they're not perfect but it is a difficult business. In my experience the only way to get perfect attention and efficiency is to buy a house and manage it yourself, rather than rely on an external governing system like a HOA and management company. read more

In the 10+ years as tenets, Berkeley has been great to us. All of the people there have been very friendly and helpful, especially Liz and and Stephanie who havealways handled our maintenance and other various needs quickly. read more

I rented from Berkeley for 2 years. In general, they seem to have units that have fairly cheap rent, but there's definitely a cost to this. They often took a long time to respond to repair requests, and often required multiple follow-ups. I believe some staff may have changed since that time. My main recommendation is that if you rent with them, you need to be very cautious. Take pictures of anything that is not right when you initially rent from them, and also note it on the lease. Examples include: any carpet stains, any rooms that are already painted a color. They don't always seem to have great records on these things, and they'll quickly blame you for this (even for something crazy, like a wall already being painted a color, which they really should know!). They also have a detailed move-out checklist, that I think goes a bit far. For example, they require that you clean behind the refrigerator, and also the stove (as in, moving the stove). And finally, any time you submit a service call to them, I recommend doing it by email, so you have a written record. Also, if they agree to anything with you (such as if they agree to pay for something), make sure this is in writing. We got burned, because they agreed to pay for something over the phone, and then later refused, after the work had already been performed. So, they're an OK rental company, but definitely be careful if you rent from them. I'm glad I don't have to rent from them any more, but would consider doing this again if I had no good other options. This review is all my opinion. You may have a different one based on your own experience, but this is mine. read more

Do not rent from this company! We complained of mold throughout the entire house and their solution was to send someone with a can of one dollar spray paint. They will make things up on move out and steal your deposit. They may seem nice when you initially sign but the remainder of your lease will not be a pleasant. read more

This company is easily one of the worst property management companies I have worked with. Customer service is just down-right awful. They have misplaced my payment now TWICE. When you reach out to ask questions all you get is an automated email sent to you or they make you feel like it's your fault they applied the funds to the wrong account. This is a considerable amount of money we are talking about, the very least they could do was call you to let you know what happened or that there was an issue. If you you can, I would avoid them at all costs. read more

I had the misfortune of renting a property of Berkeley Realty. It is safe to say they are the most unprofessional individuals I have ever had to deal with. They are extremely unorganized when it comes to check-ins/outs, work orders, and payments. The entire team is very rude, unresponsive to emails/calls, and will intentionally take advantage of tenants. I highly suggest you stay very far away from any of their properties. read more

I use the Williamsburg branch for the last 3years renting and love it. So far I had excellent experience straight forward answers etc. I strongly recommend this.And Talaya Spratley is the best ! Thank you Talaya Spratley for your help! read more

My kitchen flooded when the tenets in the apartment above mine ran their dishwasher. I called the "emergency phone number" to report the issue. It has been 24 hours and no response and the flooding continues. I had loved this apartment but this lack of support from property management when needed has soured my view of this property. read more

My review is based on my experiences prior to our move in date which is scheduled for August 1st. Very impressed with how well Elizabeth Walthall took care of myself and family and her willingness to commit to finding us the right home. She was professional and responsive. She approved us for the condo we really wanted literally 2 days after our showings. When it was time to go through the lease contract we literally sat down with her and went through the contract PAGE BY PAGE and she addressed any questions or concerns myself or husband had. I am not going to lie seeing the reviews below made me nervous and was a red flag for me. However, it's almost as if Berkeley Realty has a monopoly in our area because many, if not all, of the listings we were interested in was through Berkeley Realty so they were hard to avoid. Hopefully we don't have issues with any repairs that may need to be made in the future or no issues with receiving our deposit back when it reaches that time we decide to move out (if we ever move out) later down the road. I will make sure to take photos/videos of the unit prior to us moving in. The only reason I rated 4 stars versus 5 was because the property manager who we were suppose to go through in the beginning (Tia Pagues) stood my family up at our showing. However, the way I see it everything happens for a reason. It is a good thing we went through Elizabeth because I truly feel no one would've taken better care of us as much as she has. I can't say enough about Elizabeth and how grateful I am of her. I can't wait to hosts dinners and play dates at our new home when that time comes. Also, it warms my heart to know that my son has ample room to play in our condo and I can't help but think how the holidays will be near that beautiful fireplace. Hopefully their will be no issues later down the line that would cause me to edit my review. So far so good though.. read more

multiple structural problems (rotten roof, leaking window, cracks in doors and windows, moldy ceiling) alongside major pest problems (roaches and mice) from the very beginning. when I moved in, the front floor level window's lock was non-functioning AKA opened easily from outside. these problems took weeks if not months to address ... if they ever did (still mold on the ceiling and cracks in the front door). so incredibly frustrating. DO NOT RENT from berkeley. read more

Can I do 0 stars??? Rented a place in Williamsburg for my son and a roommate who goes to William and Mary. Berkeley is terrible. NO walk through of the property, terribly written lease and charged us for everything possible at move out, including place being dirty though both moms scrubbed the place down and provided them w photos (rust in toilet bowls doesn't clean). Berkeley admitted the lease should have included that we needed to get gas in our name and that was their mistake. Instead of calling us the first month when they realized this mistake and asking us to please do that, they charged our account and then took the gas charges out of our security deposit 7 months later. We never looked at our online account bc we set up autopay for the rent. No one contacted us about the accumulating charges either. Also charged us over $200 for a maintenance call that consisted of lighting the pilot light. Boys called about it being cold. Seems to me the property manager could have told them to light the pilot light but instead they sent a repair guy and charged us! The boys didn't know they even had a pilot light to light bc they never gave them a walk thru or told us they had gas!!! Berkeley also neglected to explain how and when to replace furnace filter (most places have filters mailed to property every 3 months) so they charged us for that too. Instead of contacting the boys to see if they wanted to renew the lease at the 60 day deadline (boys thought it was 30), they just told them they would be kicked out at the end of the lease for not renewing in time. There had been zero complaints about them as tenants. Don't get me started on how rude various people were to me when I called to talk about the charges and lease interpretation. They literally yelled at me and made me feel like I was some cheap, low life trying to lie my way out of my financial obligation. Berkeleys lack of person to person communication is alarming for a business based on customer service for tenants and landlords. But why bother talking to tenants when they can just take your security deposit from you at the end of lease? Needless to say he is in a new place but during our search, we refused to consider any property managed by Berkeley. read more

Worst rental company I have every dealt with in 25 years as a military renter. Run, don't walk away from these people. You have been warned read more

I would give no stars if this were possible. This company and its agent completely mislead my son and his roommates, who are William and Mary students. They were pressured to sign a lease on a property that was in disrepair in February and they given assurances by the agent that the landlord would complete the necessary cleaning and repairs. When the property was not ready for occupancy in August, the company backed out and turned the boys' deposit funds over to the court. Run, don't walk, away from this company and the properties its agents represent. read more

Disrespectful. Ed. Robbins never turned over paperwork to the hoa board for renting. Emails are not returned. I requested the form to rent again and Ed said he would not provide it. Military families are targeted. read more

These people are absolute criminals. I ended a lease with them because I was moving out of state and the month after my lease ended, they took another payment out of my bank account. I had to threaten legal action to get them to return the money they STOLE from me. Then they cheated me out of my security deposit because of "repainting fees" when they do NOT hire professional painters because the owner comes to paint between every new tenant- I've seen her do it. A bucket of paint does NOT cost over $500. Nice try, Berkeley Realty. They do not fix problems reported by the tenants- my roommate and I reported issues with the dryer vent and bathroom fan multiple times and they never fixed it. But they sure decided to include it in the move out charges from the security deposit! It's sad to say that this is the least problematic leasing office I dealt with in Williamsburg, VA but that does not make them good. These people are trash. Do not rent from them. read more

Wow, were to begin. We have been trying to get into the townhomes at Season's Trace for a while. We love the neighborhood and the location. Firstly, the property we toured (in Spring East) was a little dirty - but I will give this one to them because they still had tenants living there (unbeknownst to us, they were present on the day that we scheduled to tour.. and we were not told that they would be present.. We got there before the agent and were very confused as to what was going on. The current tenants were foreign and did not say much accept: "are you touring the house?") Also during our tour, my boyfriend opened a closet door, only to have it fall off the hinges.. the agent just chuckled and said "oh dear" to which my boyfriend looked at her kind of funny and said will this be fixed before move in? She responded "oh of course! They are required to fix it before anyone moves in." Upon finishing our walk through with the agent, Ann, I asked if the owner was allowing dogs and if there were any weight limits. I wanted to verify this was okay with the owner prior to spend $100 on application fees. I was VERY upfront about how much our dog weighed (about 55lbs.) She said that she would double check when she returned to the office. She called us later that day and said that dogs were permissible at this location. I again asked if the owner of the property had any weight restrictions, to which she replied that there was no issue with the weight of our pet. So, we went ahead and applied later that evening. We received a call the next day saying our application was perfect and that they had conferred with the owner and that he was ready to rent to us... I had about .5 seconds of happiness.. until they said that "after telling the owner that we have a 55lb dog, he said that he would no longer accept us as tenants, because he did not want a dog over 35lbs maximum".. SO of course, the agent did NOT follow up with the owner before telling us "oh no, the weight is not an issue at all." The following day, we toured another condo. This time, Catherine helped us. (This place was vacant and needed to be cleaned. We noticed some broken drawers and wood missing from the bottom of a cabinet in the kitchen, not to mention mold on the ceiling in the bathroom that my boyfriend pointed out, to which the agent just said oh yeah, that is just from the shower.. regardless, it is mold.. just cementing other peoples claims of management not taking care/time to have their properties cleaned..) after touring this condo, we began talking about the previous location. Catherine told us that she thought it was sort of odd and surprising that the owner "all of a sudden" decided to put up a max weight limit. She confirmed to me that Ann did not verify the weight limit with the owner before calling us back. She said she would talk to the owner of the home in Season's Trace on Monday and see if he would reconsider us and our dog. We also told her that if it made the owner feel better, we would be more than willing to sign something saying that we would be responsible to any (unlikely) damages caused by our dog, and in that case we would be liable to replace/fix any damages. I emailed her on Tuesday after not hearing from her, just to follow up. I have yet to hear back from her and it is now Friday. In conclusion, don't waste your money. Use another property management team. I do NOT care if it was "as much of a surprise to them as it was to us" about the pet weight limit, WHEN I ASK YOU TO VERIFY WITH THE OWNER BEFORE I SPEND MY MONEY ON FEES, YOU BETTER VERIFY WITH THE OWNER! ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE AND LAZY ON THEIR PART. They did say that our application & fees are good for 60 days and that they have new postings every 1st of the month.. but honestly at this point the thousands of reviews and horrible communication we have received from them to this point have turned us off of ever wanting to rent a property managed by them. So, thanks for nothing but costing us $100 for an application we never would have even submitted had the CORRECT information been passed along to us. read more

If you are looking for a company to manage your rental property, look no further! Berkley will assure that the renters pay for EVERYTHING. You can get your entire house renovated at the expense of those who are renting it! If you are renting through Berkeley, you will be charged for everything. The slightest maintenance, even if it is due to improper construction of the house or improper management by the homeowners, will cost you $120 at least. The contract is so strict and tight that everything will be your fault. College students beware; they will attempt to belittle you and your requests and maintain an authority over you even when you are being reasonable. I imagine that I will not be getting my full security deposit back either though the unit has been kept up with and taken care of; they find fault in anything, take plenty of pictures and keep all documentation. Do not hesitate to take them to small claims court if you feel you have enough evidence against them. All they're good for is taking advantage of renters. read more

Berkeley was a total nightmare to work with. They only want your money and don't want to provide any service in return. Even in 100 degree summers it took almost a week to get our ac unit repaired. They do not treat their renters fairly and on top of that they are inefficient and poorly informed. When showing our property to potential renters, they didn't even know the most basic details about the place and weren't helping potential renters make an informed decision. Plus, they don't paint, replace carpet, tile, or update appliances ever. So their properties are poorly maintained and pretty gross! DO NOT RENT WITH THEM! read more

They provide excellent service and are easy to get ahold of when needed. They take care of problems quickly whenever needed. Have been using them for years with no major complaints. Personal service makes a huge difference! read more

The worst customer service and landlord I have ever experienced. They were all sunshine and smiles when they were looking for us to sign our lease. However, now that we are on the hook...they won't return our calls, they talk to us like we are second rate citizens, and they are generally very inefficient and unhelpful. When you have a maintenance problem, they do the bare minimum. Our plumbing stopped working due to broken pipes while we had family guests during a major holiday. Not only did it take Berkeley 24 hours to find someone to come take a look, but the workers didn't have authority to fix anything! It took another two days before the problem was resolved, and during that time thy continuously implied that it was our own fault that pipes underground had been shattered! They are consistently rude and condescending over the phone even if you are both polite and flexible. They seem to coerce homeowners into adopting excessively strict policies and policies that discriminate against student tenants, even graduate students. They also seem to forget lease terms and add new requirements halfway through lease agreements and then imply that you should have been in compliance with those new requirements all along. All in all, I cannot wait to be done with my lease through Berkeley and I would strongly urge all others not to rent from them...no mater how nice the house might seem. read more

I have been working with Berkeley Realty Property Management and their property managers for the past year and have nothing but good things to say. They are responsive and everyone is friendly (in a industry where that is not always the case). I enjoy helping them do great work for both their tenant and home owner clients. read more

Unfortunately I'm not given the option of rating a 1/2 star so I'll be kind and give "1". Had my house with them for 2 years.......what a mistake!! The problem with Berkeley Realty? In a word...."Pam", I believe she is one of the owners.....no really! Absolutely no people skills at all, doesn't seem to know good property management, and sometimes outright "Rude". I've taken my home and other business elsewhere. Others may want to do that as well, or use Berkeley Property Management at your own risk! read more

I have rented with berkeley realty going on 2 years and I have the best property manager in Williamsburg Va Angela Bailey! Angela is a great person and she does her job well. I rarely have any problems with my town house but if there is a issue Angela is a phone call away and she returns your call in a promptly manner and she is on top of any problem I may have. I would refer my friends and family to berkeley realty in Williamsburg VA and advise them to request Angela Bailey she's the best! No complaints at all. read more

Unfortunately I have to give one star. I would like to give none. We had a terrible experience with Berkeley. The incompetence is astounding. The other review really says it all. Right down to Pam, who seems to know nothing about actually managing property. There are plenty of other great and affordable places in Williamsburg that will treat good tenants very well. read more

tthis company is a scam.... there are several reviews on the yahoo review site for this company. I rented from them and upon my move out I was charged for their neglect to fix things prior to me moving in. I now Gabriel pay them and the owner 3400.00 for his and their failures to up keep. not to mention Pam the director lied about it as did the owner in court. pass the word look at all review sites NEVER rent from this company they will run over you and get away with it! I hope there are more that will come forward in their experiance. I would love nothing more than to give them a taste of their own medicine. read more

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. college students are people too Berkeley... we cook and expect decent living conditions. We went almost 3 weeks without a working stove, and as a result had pretty much no way to cook. Which of course means we were over budget for food that month. We called them daily. There are cockroaches in the house, but don't expect them to send an exterminator. The door didn't close or lock when we arrived, although they did send someone to fix that.... considering in a house with separately rented bedroom you're going to want your door to lock. Now I'm getting a completely random charge for $250 (not late on rent, no warning, no explanation anywhere). They're probably trying to charge for the stove that barely worked when we moved in and stopped igniting....not from anyone in the unit 'breaking/ damaging' it. read more

They offer nice properties, however they are horrible landlords. We rented a house from them for 3 years and during that time they made living there hell. They would not fix anything and we were lied to. The staff are very rude and do everything in their power to keep your deposits. If you rent from them, make sure you take pictures and video BEFORE you move in. Make sure you have the time and dates on EVERYTHING. It would even help to have pictures of the person showing you the properties as well. Make sure you note every single little thing. Markings of any and all kinds, colors of all rooms, carpet, PULL OUT THOSE FRIDGES AND STOVES while they are showing you the house that way you can note how dirty or clean it is. Take note of the landscaping as well. Point out any dead grass, trees, plants because if you do not they will force you to replace them when you move out. It is best to contact them thru email so you have a paper trail and proof of everything that is said, time, dates, ect. Taking their word for it over the phone will not work. Make sure you get everything in writing and I mean everything. At some point we had to even contact the landlord themselves just to get anything done and fixed. I would never rent from them again or even have them manage my own properties. They will charge you for services calls and not tell you. The guy they send out will go back and tell them the item you called on is working fine and than they charge you for the service call. I called on many items that stopped working correctly and the service man told them I was crazy and nothing was wrong. We were charged 100 for the service call. The day we moved out, they came in and REPLACED the items that were no longer correctly working. Funny, how we were told those items were working fine and it was I who was crazy making stuff up and than they replace it because it isn't working. Yeah, they lie just to make MORE money off you. BEWARE! As for the staff, if you go in person and they don't agree with you they will yell and belittle you. There was one person, who will stand there and talk badly about their tenants so the whole office and other tenants can hear it. I walked in one day to pay rent this was before you could pay it online, and someone had called about their move out list and a trash can. The way they were spoken too and than talked about after the phone shocked me. We moved out not long after that and never looked back. Just beware. read more