Amazing people that care and have heart to listen and help their tenets . Have some wonderful property in the Burg

I had a truly unpleasant experience in my 6 months residing at the Equity-owned Brix at 26 apartment. A few of the experiences below underscore my entire time there. I've lived in several apartments over my 15 years of adulthood and Equity has by far been the most frustrating and disappointment of landlords, showing little remorse and providing no recourse for their behavior. - Safety concerns: please see email below from October 17, 2018 to the former building manager and management company for which I never received a reply: Good evening- I returned to my apartment this evening at 7PM to find my door left ajar with no members of the apartment management nearby. Per a letter we received this week there was an inspection to be done yesterday and today before 9AM-4PM so I can only imagine that my door was left open for the past 3 hours. Erin- as you know this is just one of a number of frustrations I have had with my living experience at the Brix these past 3 months. This unfortunately simply adds to the lack of professionalism I have received from this building and it's management. I feel incredibly unsafe to have known that my apartment was left open with access to anyone. I have only begun to examine my unit to see if anything could have been taken and plan to file a report if there isn't any clarification received as to why my unit was left open. Thank you. Noise concerns: hope this message finds you well. I am writing to bring your attention to a noise issue that I have been managing throughout my time in Apartment 212. As you likely know, the 3 Minute Fitness center is located right below the building, and seemingly right beneath my unit. The classes in the fitness center are helf throughout the day, starting as early as 6AM with the last class after 8PM. Not only do the lyrics and bass of the music in the class sound and vibrate clearly in my apartment but even directions from the instructors in the class. Over the last few weeks I have tried a number of ways to deal with the noise- ear plugs to sleep with, noise-cancelling headphones to work with and even sleeping in a different room - none of which have been effective in managing the sound. I am particularly concerned as to how I will deal with this when working night shifts and having to sleep during the day. I understand that it will be challenging to change a whole fitness center's programming but I do hope there is something that we might be able to do to address this in a timely fashion. I look forward to hearing back from you or to meeting in person to discuss further. Cleanliness on move-in: please see email from July 16, 2018 to the previous building manager related to the condition I found the apartment in upon move-in: Dear Adam and Erin- I hope you had a great weekend. Thank you for all your help in making my move-in this weekend incredibly smooth. My family really enjoyed seeing the building and the neighborhood and I am excited to start the next part of my career here. On Saturday, I had briefly mentioned to Adam that there were a few items left behind in the master bathroom (i.e Drano, toilet bowel cleaner, a toilet bowl brush and plunger). Unfortunately when moving around the apartment a bit more we were disappointed to see that in addition to the cabinets under the sink in the bathroom, the majority of the cabinets in the kitchens were also quite dirty, left with food residue and stains. What was especially discouraging was when attempting the use the washing machine we noticed a rim of what appears to be black mold. I understand it might be challenging to get a cleaning crew in now that I have moved some of my furniture into the apartment but I wonder if it would be possible to have the rim around the washing machine either cleaned or replaced as we were unable to clean it off the mold ourselves. Unresponsiveness to maintenance request: please see message from September 19, 2018 re: ~2 months it took to respond to a maintenance request: Hi Erin- Thank you for your message. The sink works well and I appreciate Carl's help. As I mentioned in my note I had made this request prior to you being away last week (on August 28th) and actually before then I had sent a message to Adam back on July 17th about the sink. I would still like to know if I will be considered for a rent reimbursement check? 3-8 weeks without any communication was quite a bit longer than the 24-hour service response guarantee. read more

My wife and I have had an extremely positive experience with Equity Real Estate. The administrative staff is kind and courteous when we call, and our building manager, Dave, has been extremely responsive when there have been any maintenance needs. My wife has lived in our current apartment for close to 8 years and we can't recommend Equity Real Estate enough! read more

Non-responsive property owner to rat infestation, held back initial deposit money after the unit was thoroughly cleaned. They claimed it was not after 3 people worked on the cleaning after the move out. There is no recourse with them as they hold the money and make it difficult to dispute their claims. My advice would be to find an alternative place to live if it is with Equity Real Estate in Pittsburgh...it will save you some money in the long run and significant grief read more

An extremely unpleasant experience with them - and I wasn't even a tenant! Do not even apply with this guys because if you do and decide to withdraw your application because you went with a different spot, they will keep your deposit as damages (despite them keeping the listing up and continuing to show the place). Simply put, they are crooks. As bad as you may need a place to live, stay at a hotel for a month and continue searching if a property managed by these guys is your only current option. Based on my experience as an applicant and the other ~10 reviews posted by tenants, if there's one thing to learn about these guys, is that you will have a bad time. read more

I think you have to take into consideration that most tenants who take the time to write reviews of their rental companies usually have some serious beef. What you don't really get as much of are reviewers who have okay experiences. With Equity, I lived in the same Squirrel Hill unit for three years. My studio was very roomy and very convenient to all the businesses on Murray Ave. The unit was well-maintained but showed its age in some ways, most notably the very creaky floors. I had a few minor maintenance issues, but my property manager always got back to me promptly and most problems were resolved within a few hours. If I had stayed in Pittsburgh long-term, I might have gone searching for an apartment that was more up-to-date and that had a few more amenities. But as a solo grad student who wasn't planning on settling in the city, I was satisfied with Equity. And despite the intimidating list of moving check-out requirements that originally came with my lease, I just got all of my deposit back. read more

We rented a townhouse at 2606 shady avenue and it was a great mistake. Unnecessary bills, I don't know how many "water and sewage" bills they have sent to us.They didn't return a single penny of our security deposit(1100$) stating that they spent it on cleaning house.On top of that they sent a additional 300$ bucks bill, god knows why ? threatening to take legal action. We were asked to pay for pest control but it was never mentioned in lease and we were not shown any receipt that pest control was done before we moved in. No single point of contact Property managers keep changing. WTF Slow at responding to complaints. If anything breaks down you have to pay no matter how old or what condition it was in.We had free laundry machine and when it broke (super old machine)they asked us to pay about 300$ Huge bills Room Heating equipment were old and rusty and the insulation inside house was so bad that we ended up paying atleast 500$/ month on gas without even having comfy temperature inside the house. If you rent this house i have simple advice for you inspired by "Game Of Thrones" ---"BRACE YOURSELF" because "WINTER IS COMING" read more

I loved my apartment and building owner but, with Equity as a property manager, I was unable to renew my lease after a year. Equity's employees are unprofessional and unresponsive. Two of the most remarkable experiences are (1) the fact that I lived without a working smoke detector for 6 months due to their unresponsiveness and negligence (2) I had water leak in my apartment for two days before it was stopped and then it took a week for someone to come check for mold even though I was assured they would come after two days. I'd like to say that they were at least pleasant individuals to work with, but they were demeaning and abusive to young renters. It is not worth your health and safety to rent from a property managed by this company! read more

I really would take caution to rent from this company. Everything looked good until I moved into my apartment. The deck was rotting though, half the closet doors came off when I opened them, the deck door didn't lock, none of the windows had screens, the oven door broke when opened, there is a huge air gap around the front door, among other things. Whenever it rains the bottom of the stairs to all the upper apartments floods and water stands still until it evaporates. People leave the door open so the water will evaporate and we wont have to wade through several inches of water. They were prompt about fixing some of the apartment issues above, and they seem somewhat reasonable and nice. But I was in a hurry when I rented this apartment, and I know that I will not be resigning this lease, or renting from them again. They don't really seem to care about the over all care and upkeep of their property. Update: Right as the cold weather was starting, I realized my heaters do not work! Although within about 2 weeks they brought me space heaters, they took 1 1/2 months to fix the heater, and they only fixed one. The doors let in so much cold air and moisture ( ya mold) and the lock keeps sticking, I almost broke my key off in the lock. The water at the bottom of the steps freezes, free ice skating I guess. ha. I can not wait to move out of this apartment! read more

The Goods: -landlord was prompt with fixing/addressing property problems -rent was pretty cheap! but you get what you pay for The Bads: -Property was in terrible shape -They totally gouged me on my security deposit, incredibly unjust Advice: -Make sure to do a complete walk through of the entire property with a video camera the day you move in. Since it is probably a shitty apartment, make sure you make note of all the damage/stains/missing paint in the initial walk through video. This will help you fight them when they try and gauge you when you move out. -Make sure to do a complete walk through of the entire property with a video camera when you move out. See above. -Make sure you pick up your security deposit from their office. They charge a 37$ fee for cancelling checks they "send out." If you do need your security deposit mailed, request that they make a receipt! Honestly my relationship with Equity was decent up until the end when they totally screwed me. Make sure you keep records of everything if you rent from this company. read more

Great landlord very helpful great service, always willing to help and always available for any request . Very happy with them ! Highly recommended! read more

I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with these folks for more than 10 years on a commercial property lease that was initially signed with another company but was taken over 8 years into our lease. I could write a novel about our dealings with this company, or lack there of, but they most likely don't care about their online presence anyways as they still do their accounting by written ledger. I have been in business nearly 20 years and I have dealt with many different people in my life but these are the most dishonest people that I have ever encountered. I have never written a review before and I most likely will never again but I don't want others to have the same experience and this is the most benign way I could think of to help others before they land in the same position as myself and my business partner. read more

I live right next to one of their buildings in Squirrel Hill. Being neighbors with them is a terrible experience: I wake up at 7:30AM a few times a week because that is the time they pick up the trash and cut the grasses. I get that for maintenance that will take long a lot of companies start early, but they only need 10-20 minutes for this. As an example, my management company has the trash picked up around 10AM. I just do not understand why Equity keeps doing it at this time and wakes up everybody. It looks like these people do not have any respect for others. The next time I look for an apartment I will definitely make sure that Equity does not have a place nearby. read more

I gave it 6 months to see how this real estate agency would be as a property manager. I was right from the start...they are still awful. We had a tree limb fall during the wet snow storm we had a few weeks ago, we called Andrew to let him know and he said he'd call a groundskeeper to have it removed. 5 days later, the limb was still there and people were tripping over it as they tried to get around it with their strollers. We called Andrew back and he had yet to call anyone to get the tree limb removed. Luckily 2 days later, someone finally showed up. I will continue to tell everyone how awful this agency is. read more

VERY BAD EXPERIENCE OVERALL! Terrible management people. They charge almost every maintenance cost to the tenant. If you call them to explain an issue with your apartment, the first thing that they will tell you is that they are going to charge the cost to you. They do not respond to some of the maintenance requests at all. They will steal your deposit no matter how clean you leave the building. They have a long checklist of items for calculating the cost. Even if you completed every item from the list, you can expect a $200 cost listed under "other". I definitely do not recommend their properties. read more

STAY AWAY. VERY BAD EXPERIENCE. Horrible business. Horrible customer service. I wish I could give 0 stars. Rented from equity for 3 years. Multiple issues occurred. Called our landlord (who I will not say his name starts with the letter V) MANY times for issues and would never receive a call back. I actually had to contact our landlords BOSS for a phone call back. **Equity Real Estate uses Microsoft Word to type in what bills you paid or unpaid. After 5 months I received a bill saying my account had a past due balance with a huge amount. Equity was actually billing me $50 a month due to a "late water bill" and never mentioned to tell me. After going back and looking at my checks I actually did pay a water bill on time and was not late. I called equity MULTIPE times until receiving an answer. V my landlord refused to remove the charges. Future equity tenants beware of this! Its 2018, I believe Equity needs to come up with a better system for paying rent, sending out water bills, and recording when rent is being paid, not a false Microsoft document that anyone can record on. Also Equity is very behind on sending out water bills, which they turn this around on you making it seem like you paid the bill late. Don't expect to receive your security deposit back. read more

Very bad management, unresponsive when it comes to maintenance requests, very impolite landlord (especially if you are an international student), charges you with ridiculous and arbitrary penalties when you are leaving the apt even if you leave the place better than you found it. Stayed at Phillips ave apartments, at Squirrel Hill. read more

I rented two different apartments from Equity, one with a rooommate and one without, for a grand total of five years. They were always courteous and pleasant, quick to respond to maintenance requests, and aboveboard in communication and service. Once I locked myself out of the house at a ridiculous hour and they were able to get me back in promptly, even though it wasn't technically "business hours." Most importantly, the rent increases, when they came up, were both minimal and fair - considering the amazing Squirrel Hill locations, I was pleasantly surprised at how low my rent stayed, even over the course of five years. If I hadn't purchased my own home, I would definitely still be renting from Equity, so please consider them first when you are searching. read more

I wish I could give it 0 stars cause I would. :( I also wish I would have read the reviews before I decided to fill out check in their name, only for them to deny me and keep my 40 dollar application fee. TOTAL FRAUDS! Beware people. Just don't fill out the check/money order unless you know for sure that you got the place. Lesson learned but horrible experience and shady dealings at that real estate. read more

DO NOT GET INVOLOVED WITH THIS COMPANY. Equity Real Estate is only out to take advantage of both their current and potential tenants. Their leasing agents tell you everything that you want to hear, take your security deposit, and then 3 weeks later show you a lease that does not coincide with anything their initially told you. Their leases have so much fine print written into them, you would have to be a lawyer to figure it all out. Their agents will do nothing to help you and will glady let you walk away, but under no circumstance will they give your security deposit back. Please save yourself the time and frustration and do not deal with these people. read more

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES RENT FROM EQUITY REAL ESTATE ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A STUDENT LIVING IN OAKLAND. Equity Real Estate is not only the worst landlord I've ever had but they are easily the worst company I have ever dealt with. First and foremost you should understand they do not care about you at all. It doesn't seem to matter that you are handing them thousands of dollars you will receive no customer service and you will be treated rudely every time you contact them. When I moved into my apartment several of the windows were broken, as well as few other things (drawers, towel rack, etc). It took them over six weeks to finally send someone in and it was only after we threatened legal action. In the same vein it took them two weeks to fix our furnace in the middle of winter and, again, only after we threatened legal action. Despite this extremely slow and poor service, if your rent check arrives a single day late you will be charged the $50 fee. Fees are the only thing they are on top of at this company. We moved out a few days early which gave them time to pain the place (something they didn't do for us). The place was cleaned top to bottom before the painters arrived. The painters made a mess of the place and I alerted David Tkacik of this problem and I was assured that they would clean up after themselves. When we received our deposit back they had taken over $650 out and marked that nothing in the place was clean. Additionally they charged us for "bulk item removal" which could only be referring to the electric radiators THAT BELONGED TO THEM that were brought over when our heat broke (again after legal action was threatened). And to top it off they charged us $75 to "re-key" the place. I turned in the keys 4 hours late which is, apparently, unforgivable. I would almost be okay with this except THEY DIDN'T RE-KEY THE PLACE!!! I had an extra copy of a key which I made myself (because they didn't provide us with enough keys for all of us until over a month into our lease). I went back to the apartment, knocked on the door, and got permission to try the old key in their lock. The locked turned over. That $75 went directly into their pockets. These people are crooks. And let me underline, again, how unbelievably rude they are. I dealt with both David Tkacik and Victor Novotny. If you live in Oakland these will likely be who you have to deal with. They treat you as though you are an idiot and without any rights and make petty and nonsensical threats when you confront them about their robbery (i.e "well we found an empty one gallon plastic gas can in your house so we're all lucky there wasn't a fire" which they told me after I complained about the ludicrous charges on my bill as though we could be charged for damage that didn't occur). This company is disgusting. Do yourself a favor and steer clear. read more

I would not recommend any of my friends to rent the units under this real estate company since I had a very bad experiences with them. We lived in an apartment on 5552 Covode st. This building's landlord is Margie Ungar. She is a private landlord but with at least this building is managed by the Equity real estate. Because of the switching location of my work. I have to move to another city and when I know this, it is already less than a month from my starting date. Then, I have to terminate the lease because of this. That is where my nightmare starts. After I told my landlord that I have to move out because of the work, she starts to ask a two month rent payment as a penalty for early termination (BTW, the security deposit is two month rent, and it is higher than most other places). After I check the lease, it is listed on it and I think it is reasonable. I also did a little research about the lease of other leasing contract from different real estate companies, it seems like a two-month penalty is quite normal. Then, the next day, my landlord reply another email says she needs two month payment as the penalty plus a third month charge for the late notice. I check back on the lease again, it does say that I have to inform them 30 days ahead and simultaneous pay two month penalty. But it does not say anything about paying the 30 days if we fails to inform her ahead of time. After consulting my lawyer friends, they also think the lease presented a penalty of two months and this was consistent with the penalty of other leasing companies. Obviously, she needed more money. We just want to pay two month as the penalty. This is not the end of the story, we moved out, cleaned everything. Later she reached out for us and told she wanted to charge us for 600 to 700 bucks for cleaning, We are shocked!!!!!!! We did clean and took picture, but she said it is not clean enough. She needed professional cleaning personnel and that will cost a lot. She also said the carpet needed to be cleaned and it will at least $250 in total for two carpets. The thing she called carpets were actually two pieces of rugs placed on hard floor, one in living room and one in bedroom, which you buy at price about $50 for a new piece in Walmart or HomeDepot. We have nothing to say but offer her that we will come back from another city to clean in front of her. The equity real estate company seems just want to sell their products and later they will not be involved in the issues between you and the landlord. Such a bad management style and harsh leashing contracts. That is what taught me to review any contract before I sign it with anyone. I hope you guys keep an eye on this. If it is possible, not rent any service or place from this Equity real estate, especially the landlord named Margie Ungar. read more

Nope. nope. nope. Ok, let's be real, a lot of the properties in Oakland and Squirell Hill are POOP! I moved to this apt because I was coming from NYC so I didn't drive, it was convenient to work and not lying I was seduced by the space. A dining room and a living room? Whaat?! Yeah, that's where the greats end. First off: general prop manager was hostile in the beginning, really if I wasn't desperate I wouldn't have bothered. Living in this place was like living the plagues: -first there were mice, then there was a bat who came in through the hole for the cable when I was away on vacation, the plentiful and fast moving centipedes, the neighbour who sounds like a wild turkey and her hyper kids who wake up at the a$$ crack of dawn on the weekends, the ants when the garbage doesn't get picked up, fruit flies that appear in Summer, even if you have NO FRUIT in your house, a toilet that regularly backs up and makes weird noises at night. They do respond to service requests but nothing's ever fixed. I looked like an Eskimo in Winter and was never warm. The 2 winters I was in Pgh, I ended up in the ER for respiratory distress. Now, after moving out and leaving the apt SPOTLESS, trust me, I was the best thing to happen to this place; they stilll didn't refund my full deposit. I had no other beef with this company, I paid my rent and they didn't bother me. read more

DO NOT have equity manage your property! They are completely incompetent and will squeeze every last dime of positive cash flow from you with expensive repairs that were not requested by either you or a tenant. I honestly believe this is where they are making their money and that's why they can offer you a better % than some other management companies. I switched to a new company and it's like night and day. They are wonderful and make me regret the day I ever signed with David and Connie. RUN!!!!!!!! Note that they receive an "F" rating from the BBB. read more

After years of owning property and having it managed by another company I hired Equity to manage my property this was a terrible mistake with lasting consequences. They did not respond to tenant request in a timely manner including plumbing issues. The maintenance people are lazy and do not follow through with their jobs in a timely manner and in some cases never. The subcontractors they hire over charge and on many occasions I have been able to prove where something I was charged for did not actually take place. They are very disrespectful and unethical in their management practices. read more

I have rented a house from Equity and my property manager is Savana, needless to say she sugar coated EVERY thing, won't get anything fixed (leaky roof, mold, etc) after many attempts to contact her! This company is very difficult to deal with and even though all the repairs are listed in the lease they still refuse to do it, therefore breaking their own lease. I would never deal with this company again and can't wait to find a new place!!!! read more

I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy. They do not make repairs in a timely matter, or at all for that matter. Got numerous late notices even though never late on rent. The move in condition of my apartment was TERRIBLE, yet I was charged excessive amounts for cleaning fees when I moved out. I believe this company cares very little for their renters, and making money is the only objective. This is my honest opinion, I hope others will listen to my advice and choose another option when looking at an apartment. read more

Horrible on all accounts. I dealt primarily with Dave and he's a horse thief in a business suit. Very friendly when I was a prospect but once I signed the lease it all changed. If I had any issues suddenly he was nowhere to be found. There are 2 secretaries who are both rude on the phone as well as in person. With the small amount of work the secretaries actually do I don't understand why they need any at all! Equity will STEAL YOUR DEPOSIT and laugh all the way to the bank. I was charged for the most ridiculous things: dirty dishwasher (I never even used it), dirty counters (impossible since I covered them with aluminum), dirty oven (I self cleaned it then wiped clean- I'm pretty sure 800 degrees Fahrenheit is enough to clean something), etc. They mailed me a checklist at the end of the year that doesn't match the one I signed in my lease- they added a bunch of things (including a blank spot for Other, which they can use to dock anything). I confronted them about this blatant illegality and was told to take it up with a judge. Equity also has no respect for privacy. No notice is given before they show up, nor do they even knock when they come in. There are so many other housing options in the area, AVOID THESE SWINDLERS and spend your money somewhere else. read more