I own a property in Round Rock and have had Darwin managing it for the past couple years. I recently decided I was going to move into the place. When the tenant left and I got keys to the house the place was in unlivable condition, they had been smoking cigarettes and weed in the house, the carpets were stained, there's a good sized hole in the drywall in one of the rooms, and the place was overall filthy. I've tried to contact Darwin about getting the security deposit back from the tenants to compensate for the cleaners, painting, and repairs i've had to pay for to be able to move in. My point of contact, Juliya, has all of the sudden stopped responding to emails, and phone calls from me. I had no problem with them until how they handled this. Very unprofessional. read more

this company is by far the worst company I've ever dealt with. Can never talk to someone on the phone they never answer back through the portal. No service maintenance is ever get done moved into a house that had zero appliances or running water. Still waiting for them to call back, this is not life-threatening because I'm a diabetic and we have nowhere to store my insulin. Honestly, this company needs to be shut down. read more

Poor response to inquiry and request for meeting . No reply to follow up emails . Wonder how it would be if anyone signed up with them !! Start up wonderboy enthusiasm with 0 service level and a HR team response time . read more

Maintenance can be awkward as they said they completed a job once and my cameras never showed them come to my place at all. Another time they left me the part to install myself as we couldn't connect on a time for me to be there. They have a web portal and it has a place to contact Darwin but they never respond. They don't provide a number to contact their office for questions and you end up just getting calls or messages from some random person in the office. I left my apartment clean with lawn cut and ready to rent but they took money from my security deposit saying it was not clean and the lawn needed to be cut. Obviously they just wanted to take some money back for no reason. And they still haven't responded to me when I tried to explain I have photos and can prove them wrong. read more

I had somewhat of a unique situation a couple months ago. My current Property Manager was ripping me off by marking up maintenance bills. For a simple screen door fix, he charged me $400. Enough was enough and I decided to search for new Property Managers in Austin. I chose Darwin after interviewing 3-4 different companies. The transition and on boarding process was easy, and I really like their online portal. All the bills and invoices for maintenance are uploaded and provided for me to see. 5 stars for the transparency, responsiveness and low management fee. read more

This company is a mess and they do not take accountability for their mistakes. In January their updated portal system took two months of my rent instead of one that took almost a month to fix with my account and my bank so when I mailed my next months rent to them not wanting to trust their portal system again they don't bother to tell me for weeks they never received my rent check and want to charge me fees for being late. When I show proof I mailed it they advise that it was not to the correct address (even though this was the address listed on their website to this day) they then want me to stop payment on my check which is $35 and to overnight a new one another $26.35 for them not having their address information correct it's supposed to cost me $60 more after dealing with issues with their system last month, I am a single mom that always pays on time and they are treating me like a delinquent tenant. I could also mention that when you have a maintenance request Good luck getting anyone out there promptly and the same job may need to be done twice due to the subpar workers they tend to send out which costs money having to be Home during work hours to let them in. I just sent my landlord an updated list of the top ten property management companies in DFW in 2021 and no surprise Darwin homes was not on that list. Please consider all your options when choosing such an important decision. read more

First off I've never done a review or anything on a company - I'm not a Karen... but this place is disgraceful they truly deserve 0 stars!! On March 11th 2022 I was double charged the initial prorated rent fees in the amount of $1964 by this Rental Company. After spending an entire afternoon on hold I was told to leave a voicemail which I did and later received a call from a representative asking me to detail my complaint which I did and I was asked whether I want to be reimbursed or have the amount added to my account. During this phone call I explicitly stated I would like a refund and was assured that the next steps would be put in place to make it happen and that it would be handled "as soon as possible". I called again on Monday March 14 (of course no answer) and this time a Darwin Homes representative texted me apologizing for the long hold and asked how could they help. I texted the service that I was double charged for rent and asked that the funds be returned to my account immediately. They simply asked for my name and the property address which I gave them and then was reassured that the "request to refund the overpayment was processed" making it the 2nd time Darwin Homes acknowledged how I needed the situation to be handled - refund my money ASAP. After waiting 7 whole days for the money to show up on my account and seeing nothing I emailed back March 21st 2022 demanding to know what the status of my request is. A Darwin Homes rep responded to this emailing saying that they've been trying to contact me via email and voicemail (LIES) because they weren't sure if I wanted the money back or the amount added to my account (BLATENT LIES) to which I replied for the 3rd time that I need the money back on my account ASAP. It is now March 31st and I have not received my money back and bills are due tomorrow. It's absolutely disgusting. It takes them no time at all to steal your money and 3 weeks+ to return it?? read more

I currently am renting a home through Darwin homes and my experience has been horrible. I'm currently 7 months pregnant and in the 2 months of living here we have experienced raccoons in our attic that we're able to come in our laundry room, black mold on ceilings in multiple rooms, no heat or A/C, and a GAS LEAK that the hvac company they sent not only didn't catch but never called back to fix our AC. I have been sick for weeks only find out i had been inhaling gas for weeks on top of the black mold growing in our home. Darwin homes has done NOTHING to fix these issues and have not returned any of my calls or emails. That have not even offered me relocation and will not respond after my insurance agent, lawyer and myself let them know my home is inhabitable. I am trying my hardest to get out of my home for not only my health but my child's and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone and will be sure to let anyone looking for a home to stay away from this company read more

Very unprofessional, unresponsive, was told would get my deposit back within 30 days and we are now at 45 days. Getting the runaround or not responding, no one can give me an answer, and no one knows anything. They are very punctual collecting the monthly payment and adding $25 every day that it's late but sending back the deposit- not punctual at all. Very bad customer experience with this company would not recommend it to anyone, look else where. read more

We're current renters of a Darwin-managed property in San Antonio and the experience with Darwin has been difficult. They struggle to keep up with service requests and their portal payment procedures change without notice. We've had issues with them charging us for repairs that were clearly covered by our rental agreement, charging us late fees for rent that got held up due to technical glitches on their website, and are currently going around in circles with them about why we need our move out inspection to take place on our last day in the home with us present. My confidence in their ability to fairly assess the home is very low since they've proven to be so unreliable in the last two years. If you can avoid this company, I would recommend doing so. As a landlord, you're going to end up having to step in to work out issues with your tenants since Darwin is unable to provide adequate service. As a tenant, you're going to waste your time trying to reach a human who can help you since they only respond over email and do not check their text line. This has been a poor experience and that's coming from someone who's lived in a Balfour Beatty military home on Fort Carson. read more

I own a property in north Austin and I wanted someone that I could trust to mange my rental. I did some research and decided to give Darwin a try. They make signing up super easy and Jessa made the onbaording process painless. Over the past few months, rent has always come in on time and they have been quick to respond to any maintenance requests. Jessa has also been super responsive any time that I have had a question about anything! read more

How is it that a property manager cannot be reached by phone? Totally unacceptable customer service for tenants.

Charged me rent after I moved out and was taken off lease, then tried to charge me a REVERSAL FEE for their mess up. SCAM CITY. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH DARWIN HOMES read more

I think this company is a SCAM! I am currently looking for a place for my parents who are Senior citizens. I found a property that interest us and under this company. I reviewed the criteria which states: must make 3x's the rent, credit check, etc. Well first off- We put in an application which was $55/adult so we pd over $150 in app fees. They declined the application the next day! I asked why- they tell me do to my parents credit score! My parents don't use their credit because they really have not needed to! They are great tenants- pay their rent early every month, no evictions, never had a bankruptcy, any thing like that. They havent had to apply for a rental place in over 10 years. I asked 'Why wouldn't you all consider these factors?' Or at least give them the option to pay a higher deposit? Only then, they start throwing out credit score numbers! This is what they said 'My parents didn't meet the Resident score-the Standard Score should be 630 and for the score to be considered with additional deposit, it must be 610. Now, why wouldn't this be displayed in their criteria so people wouldn't be out of application fees! My parents don't have bad credit, they have thin credit. I feel like these companies collect application fees on these properties for an X-amount of time before they approve someone. Straight RIP-OFF! read more

They followed up with me, provided a refund, and apologized for the difficulties. I appreciated this.

If I could give negative zero i would. Darwin homes is the WORST company Ever! They tell you to open maintenance requests an they send non professionals to the home who don't have a clue. They sent one guy for a leaky shower , well this person was not a plumber so after he stood there looking crazy he said I needed a new shower head to stop the leak . He leaves for a few and comes back with a new shower head an guess what its still leaking over a month later. I reported this inside 2 weeks of moving in along with telling them the tub would not drain . Well the vendor guy removed enough hair to build a wig from under the drain , hair that belonged to the last nasty tenant's because remember its been less than 2 weeks since I moved in and Darwin homes had the nerve to charge me $100 for a shower head i did not ask for and for the guy they sent to unclog the drain. If Darwin homes is in charge please run . They don't answer the phones, it takes days to respond to emails, they are nonchalant and their business practices are shady. Run they suck! read more

I just started renting from Darwin Homes back in November.  They've provided superb support for every question that I've had, especially when there's been a maintenance request.  For all my friends that are moving to Austin, I've been referring them to check out any homes managed by Darwin. read more

We sold our house to an Investment firm and they allowed us to rent back for a couple of months until we transfer to another state. We had to sign a lease with Darwin (the name fits the bill 100% - these people are dumb as a box of rocks) and they have consistently screwed with our lives by not applying rent correctly and by mixing up our property with other properties and making arrangements to transfer our utilities our of our names and put in theirs. they never caught the error - I had to have my realtor go after them and when Ashley called me from Darwin (again like Apes) and was laughing about the errors But if you read here: Darwin Homes Property Management | Complaints | Better Business Bureau® Profile (bbb.org) you will see that this is common practice because these imbeciles don't know what they are doing. NEVER NEVER AGAIN! WE ARE EAGER TO GET AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY AS FAST AS WE CAN!! read more

I usually don't leave any bad reviews, but in all honesty, if I could give them a zero, I will do. It was such a horrible experience from the beginning to end, that I feel I have to write a review for other homeowners to be aware of this management company. During the short few months that they have managed my property, they managed to rent my property to people with bad credits and tenants who did not pay rent and broke the lease without notice. They did not even run a background check on them but they were always quick to charge me for so many unauthorized expenses. It is a large company, so it's very difficult to reach the right person and they keep changing various representatives who keep promising for improvements but at the end everything is turns out for worse not for better. Very slow on communications and responding to emails and phone calls. They did not maintain my property as was agreed in contract, the lawn was completely neglected, but they kept charging me exuberant amounts of money for the work they have not performed. If you're a homeowner, be aware of who you're going to deal with and find a smaller company in the local area that are honest and reliable. read more

The absolute worst experience with any company I have ever had to deal with. They've been overseeing us as renters since March and I've never dealt with such unprofessionalism. We've had a broken window, which is covered in the home warranty, that we were told we had to fix ourselves. We've had issues since February, such as broken ice makers and lights, that are only just now getting replaced (in July). The worst is our broken refrigerator. It stopped working Friday, we put in several emergency maintenance requests, called them, emailed them, texted them, and no one answers! Finally, when we do get an answer (nearly a week later) they send out maintenance people without giving us a heads up!! Who is just sitting at home waiting for a service person all week?! Then we were told they'll send someone out in a few days since we missed that service person. Why is someone not coming today?? Why is no one replacing the $100s of food that have spoiled while we've waited for this issue to resolve?! The absolute worst service I've experienced. If your home is being covered by them, STEER CLEAR!! Darwin homes= THE ABSOLUTE WORST!! read more

Active duty military who has rented properties around the world for the last 15 years. Absolutely the worst rental company I have ever dealt with. For two years, they have been non-responsive and failed to get maintenance dispatched to our property in a timely manner. Their subcontractors did poor work. When the hot water heater blew up, the repairman got frustrated and literally abandoned the project before it was complete without telling us. We notified them in February that we would be moving out 2 months early, and provided military orders. They never gave us move out instructions until I reminded them again at the start of April. They then claimed they didn't know we were leaving, and drew up our notification paperwork saying we failed to give them 30 days notice. They are refusing to allow me to be present at the move out inspection, and are also claiming to have never received the move-in inventory sheet we sent in after we moved into the property. Around the time we started fighting them on this, our rent suddenly didn't go through on autopay (it's gone through without problems the last 9 months - convenient that the autopay didn't work after we started complaining to them about the move out process). They never notified us that they didn't receive the autopay, and simply started to assess late fees. Their San Antonio number does not work - it gives you options, but every time you choose one, it gives you an error message. You are never able to talk to a real person. They respond sporadically to emails, and it's always a different person responding each time. We thankfully had the actual owner's contact info, and had to go through them on almost every single repair or issue. The only way Darwin responded to us was if we contacted the owner, who would then call and yell at them. Do not rent a property managed by Darwin - they are the worst property management company I have ever dealt with, and they have proven to be dishonest in their dealings with us. read more

After a week of the original leasing agent ghosting my husband, I requested to be shown a property via the Trulia app. No one ever called me, and a couple days later I started receiving emails to "finish the application I started" for the home. I never started any such application but started receiving these emails every day. After a week of no contact other than the pushy emails, I responded to one stating that I could not apply for a property I didn't own and requested for someone to contact me to schedule a showing. After a couple more replies complaining that no one would contact me, someone finally reached out and gave us a code to enter the house for a self-guided tour. Once we entered, there was an alarm that no one mentioned that was armed and started going off. We could not reach anyone with the company to get help. The house itself was in horrible shape and the photos on the app did not accurately portray the pitiful state it was in. When contacting the company they just apologize for the inconvenience and say they contacted the leasing agent. The whole experience was absolutely ridiculous. As a tenant, I would not rent a property managed by this company, and as a home owner, I would not recommend using this company if this is the way your property is going to be managed. read more

I own apartments in San Antonio and prior to signing on with Darwin, I was promised that I would have a property manager based in SA. In fact, the PM assigned to my apartments was based in Austin and completely mis-managed my property. She was not able to be on site enough to gain the tenants trust, nor manage the the property appropriately. I also caught the property manager being untruthful on several occasion. In one instance, a tenant moved out and she did not inspect the unit for 5 days, during which time there was a water leak that left standing water on the floor. When I tried to contact her and the office to speak about it, nobody was available. She refused to give me her mobile number, so I could not contact her directly without going through the office where nobody answered the phones. Further, she and did not communicate effectively despite my repeated requests for information. I was only given tiny bits of information when she felt like it. One of the many shocking aspects of this incredibly negative experience was that Darwin deducted the contractual late fees from the rent paid by the tenant and never attempted to collect them from the tenant. So basically, I paid my own late fees directly to Darwin and they did nothing to recoup them on my behalf. I could go on and on about the mis-management, but suffice to say that I lost thousands of dollars under their management. This was a profitable property and they ran it into the ground. My new property manager is now helping to recover from their mismanagement, but if you are considering using Darwin, I highly recommend against it. I would not recommend Darwin Homes for property management under any circumstances. read more