I applied to rent a property managed by Douglas Residential. Despite providing proof of income exceeding the listed requirements by about 3x, and after going back and forth for about a week, Douglas Residential (Cathy) demanded an additional $10,000 above the listed deposit (and a cosigner!) in order to approve my rental application, which I refused. I'm moving to Austin for work in two weeks and this was a huge waste of time. If you are looking to rent in Austin, avoid properties managed by Douglas Residential. response to realtor comments: Joel is I believe misinformed rather than lying, but his false statements should still be corrected. I start work on the 8th, as stated in the signed offer letter on my application. That is in 13 days. One of the other applicants starts work on the ~12th. Our incomes both individually are well over 3x the rent, and combined are around 8x. (2/3 applicants had offer letters at the time we submitted our application. We are moving to Austin for work.) Douglas Residential made no attempts to be reasonable. I offered either the increased deposit or a cosigner, and they refused. It's no surprise that the property has been listed for 40 days and that they have been forced to drop its rent from (according to Zillow) $5,500 to $4,800 (not $3,900, as Joel claims, but perhaps he is planning for the future) in that period. If you are renting a property and want to do so at current market rates, Douglas Residential seems like a poor choice Also of note is that the rental listing was grossly misleading. They say that residents can "enjoy the fully fenced lawn area in the backyard", but they do not mention that there is an active AirBnB there. Strangers having access to the property is something potential tenants might want to know, just like they might want to know the actual deposit requirements. Please consider being more honest in your business dealings going forward. read more

Liz is just the best of the best! We feel so unbelievably lucky that we happened upon her to help us find our forever home in such a tricky and overwhelming market. She's patient, communicative, responsive, relatable, knowledgeable, honest, hilarious and oh-so-much fun to be with! Throughout the process, we always felt like she not only listened, but really HEARD us. Over several months, she guided us to fine tune our search in such an honest and helpful way so we would know when we found "the one". And we did! My husband and I both agree that Liz has far exceeded our expectations! We never knew how valuable (and enjoyable!) a amazing real estate agent could be. We highly recommend Liz to anyone! read more

My fiancé and I were planning our relocation to the Austin area for July for work and we needed to find a rental until we felt comfortable with the area. We knew very little of the area and started to explore the market back in April/May. After numerous email and phone call inquiries with little to no responses from other agencies I received a very warm and welcoming response from Liz King from one of her listings in Brushy Creek. Liz was amazing! Her communication and follow up went above and beyond. Working with her helped us not only learn about the listing but also helped us learn about the greater Austin area and what each neighborhood had to offer. Liz's knowledge, expertise and professionalism did not go unnoticed- she is awesome! We were able to secure the home we wanted and we will be using Douglas Residential and Liz when we are ready to buy! Thank you Liz we really appreciate what you've done for us! We look forward in meeting you once we settle into our new home!! -Megan and Michael read more

After months of incompetence, Cathy sent a grossly incorrect Owner Statement. Her initial reaction when questioned was to pretend that the statement was correct. When we set out to remove her from management of the property she attempted to extract two months' addition fees and had to be reminded that our contract allowed us to take over management. It then turned out that she had written a lease that entrenched Douglas Residential Realty as the manager. Cathy made no offer of compensation for this blunder (or self-dealing) and had no suggestion or plan beyond making whatever concessions the tenant wanted in exchange for agreement to the change of management. In subsequent correspondence she repeatedly dodged the key points and finally ignored us completely. read more

Bill Ervin was a fantastic realtor! He was communicative and thoughtful, he asked great questions to understand our needs. He was super organized, and he pulled together some great rental options and organized efficient trips to view properties. We are very happy with the rental, thank you Bill for helping us find the perfect Austin home! read more

Joel was the best! He spent so much time with us, heard our requests, and followed through with thoughtfulness. He has negotiation superpowers! We ended with a home we love and a neighborhood we love even more! We had an ideal home-buying experience and hoping to spread the word about his experience in the industry. Couldn't speak more highly of him and his team! You're the best Joel! read more

My wife and I (like so many others) moved to Austin from the east coast. We worked with Bill Ervin and he was FANTASTIC. He was extremely responsive and always on time. He listened to our requirements and helped us find the perfect rental in just two outings. He knows a ton about the Austin real estate market and I won't hesitate to work with him again. Highly recommended! read more

Douglas Residential is the best! Joel is so friendly and answers every question you may have. Their ads and website are so modern, it makes me feel confident that they'll always know the best properties to check out. Great communication, awesome work ethic, and really efficient with everything I've experienced. Joel goes out of his way to help and really cares. Call him today when you're looking for a new home, you'll be glad you did! read more

My wife and I had been working with Joel for a few weeks now. He has been wonderful to work with. He just sold my son and his wife their first home in Austin. And as of last night, we jut bought our first Texas home through him. Joel will go out of his way to help you find just the right home for you. Be sure to give him a chance! read more

What do you do when your air conditioner goes out on a Sunday night, and it's supposed to be over 100 degrees on Monday? You fill out an online maintenance request and spend a sleepless night wondering if the request will be seen. What do you do when the air conditioner repair company calls at 7:45 Monday morning, saying someone will be there between 9:00 - 11:00? You sit down to write a rave review of the company that manages the property you rent. This is my first rental experience in more than 50 years, and I was unsure of how issues would be handled. Douglas has handled the issues the same was I would if the property were my own - promptly and to my satisfaction. I could not be more pleased - and I could not be more comfortable in this heat as I sit in my cooled rental home! read more

Liz King helped us find the perfect rental for our family in our dream neighborhood. She went over and beyond on our search to find what we were looking for and welcome us to our new home. Would highly recommend her to anyone looking to rent or buy in the Austin area! read more

Joel is the best real estate agent I have yet encountered! He is extremely knowledgable, straight forward and honest which is so refreshing in the real estate business. There were many houses that we looked at and were ready to put offers on and Joel often stopped us from buying what he thought was the wrong house for us for of all kinds of reasons (too close to a freeway/railroad for noise, too close to shady streets, boring neighborhood for couples with no children, foundation issues, etc). He could have easily made a quick sale on many of these places, but he actually feels his duty and responsibility as a realtor is to put you in the best house for you in your budget range. This includes the best house for you to resell later if needed (hence the not buying too close to a freeway). We were definitely a challenging couple to find a house for coming from NYC and not being in town very often to check out houses in person. Joel brought maps to our first meeting to show us the lay of the land and took the time to get to know us including all of our interests, hobbies and priorities for the house we were hoping to buy and set up email alerts based on our criteria. This and all of the driving tours he took us on helped us to quickly narrow down neighborhoods we wanted to live in. Austin is currently a hot seller's market so you need to move quick to get the house you want. Joel would do facetime video tours with us as soon as a new house that might work for us came on to the market. He spent countless hours chatting and showing houses to us with the utmost patience and a sense of humor. We ended up in the perfect (for us) renovated house in the Zilker area which we are so in love with and happy we didn't settle for just any house. I should mention getting us this house is where Joel's decade plus of experience in real estate came in handy. This house was an off-market listing in some obscure real estate forum that was shown for only a couple of days. Multiple offers (including all cash offers) were put on the house within 24 hours and the owners wanted to close the deal asap. Through his connections, Joel was able to help us navigate the bid, inspection, loan, and closing processes quickly getting us the lowest interest rate available on the market at the time and we closed the deal in 12 days! We are so grateful to him and his team and I can't recommend him highly enough. read more

I had spent many weeks searching on Zillow for a rental in Austin. After many attempts of inquiring about a listing and either never hearing back or learning it was no longer available, Bill Ervin replied. He informed us that the particular rental I was inquiring about was no longer available but instead of that being the end of the conversation, he took initiative to reach out and offered his services to help me and my husband find the perfect rental. My husband and I were moving from Houston to Austin, and could mostly only communicate by email or text. Bill was great with always sending potential listings that fit our needs by email, and was always available to answer all of our questions via text as well! The one weekend we were physically able to make it to Austin view homes, Bill spent his Saturday with us showing us homes. He was very knowledgeable of the Austin area and has great relationships with other leasing managers and realtors! He was so helpful and honest when describing to him where we would be working and how far we would want to commute. He found us the perfect rental that was close to work and zoned to a great school for our daughter. Working with him was amazing and took all the stress out of finding a new home when relocating cities. I would recommend him to anyone moving to the Austin area! read more

Bill is a dedicated, responsive, and bright realtor who knows the downtown condo/apartment area very well. He has good connections with the complex managers and is able to ensure that you get the best move-in specials. Bill listened carefully to what we needed and within two weeks we had found the right space with his help. AND he is a really nice guy :-) read more