Green means GO!...Greenlight, that is. Martha Bowles makes apartment hunting FUN. If you are looking for an apartment finding service that is emblematic of Austin hospitality and is simply determined to get you the keys to the perfect pad then READ THIS REVIEW (and then immediately contact Martha Bowles).... Martha Bowles of Greenlight Locating was incredibly dedicated to my search for an apartment in the Austin. In fact, she actually salvaged my apartment hunting experience within a day's visit and I'm very thankful to have worked with her. Two days prior to our meeting, Martha and I discussed my preferences for an apartment. Of course, details such as location, price range and size came up in conversation. However, what really surprised was Martha's keen desire to know you as a person and not as a "customer". She asked me what I was studying, what type of neighborhood I would like to live in, what hobbies I pursued-- all of this would be small talk for any other Realtor but Martha put forth an honest effort in compiling a list that was directed by the personal details that I gave her-- every single property "responded" to my interests. Meeting and working with Martha in person was just a privilege. In addition to being incredibly knowledgeable about the housing market, she's truly a sweet, amiable person who really took the edge off my prior frustration with Urban Squared Realty. She personally chauffeured me around to not one, not two...but to seven complexes that were WIDELY spread throughout Austin. Martha's tour of locales gave me an emphatic impression and understanding Austin's neighborhoods in terms of geography and "vibe". Oh yeah: let me just underscore the fact that Martha was totally PATIENT and accommodating throughout my search and did NOT try rush me into just any apartment; she was honest about each property's strengths and weaknesses. I definitely was not looking for a four-figure-a-month loft but Martha gave me quality attention that made me feel like a big spender. Our excursion probably lasted at least 3 hours-- she could've definitely been with other clients who were able to spend major dough on prime property-- but she was just as patient as I was indecisive. She is NOT one of those agents who view you as some inconvenient price range. (Incidentally, Martha treated me to refreshments on her dime in order to counteract my fatigue. Oh yes: she filled her glove compartment snacks and drinks for my enjoyment. Who does that?! She's a total surrogate mother in the real estate biz). Even after showing me an impressive array of housing, I still couldn't reach a decision on an apartment and ended up flying back home...homeless. Yet, Martha was still concerned with getting me into an apartment as she worked with me via email to accrue another list. Though, after consulting Martha for the second time, I ended up finding an apartment through my own efforts: Montecito...a total fail-- an complex that was incredibly bureaucratic and tardy in its administrative work (LONG story-- do NOT look at Montecito). Come to think of it, Martha-- along with other agents-- actually warned me about Montecito. Knowledgeable, I tell ya. So for the third time, I called Martha to help me find an apartment and she was just as gracious and helpful as ever! Ultimately, Martha found an awesome, newly-renovated apartment-- that's in one of Austin's most desirable zip codes-- for a steal! Plus, well after I moved into my new space, Martha called me several times to check if I had moved in safely and successfully. Surrogate mom, I tell ya. To be honest, a beaming yelp review just does not do justice-- please go to Martha yourself. I'll refrain from excessive exclamation marks and repetitive niceties by just letting you experience quality, personable customer service yourself. Don't' waste your time-- Greenlight means GO and Martha will get your into that perfect pad in no time :) read more

I've never posted a Yelp review, though I use it all the time to learn more about businesses at home and when I travel; I hate signing up for accounts and whatnot, just feels like a hassle. That having been said, our (my girlfriend and my) experience with RE agent Sarah Larson was so great that it's overcome my inertia, so here's my first Yelp review. Sometimes when I use Yelp, I get confused by the seemingly manic depressive quality of ratings, ranging from 1-star 'I want to kill you' to 5-star 'I want to have your baby'... for the same freakin' business. Makes it hard for me to trust Yelp. In this case, however, I think things are made easier by the fact that you can name your realtor and that's really who's getting the review, not so much the faceless business. Our agent was Sarah Larson. My girlfriend and I can't recommend Sarah highly enough! Sarah was professional, personable, quick to respond, patient and really listened to what we wanted to find in a rental house - which was admittedly an impossible list of stuff but we weren't in a hurry to find a place and weren't willing to compromise. We use American Sign Language to communicate and though Sarah doesn't know ASL, she was flexible and exceptional in communicating with us; incidentally, Greenlight Realty is located across the street a bit from Texas School for the Deaf on South Congress. Sarah also used Greenlight Realty's house browsing tool (online) very adeptly; she sent us a list of houses that may fit our criteria and we wrote copious notes regarding most of them. She used this information to improve her search filtering and then took us out for HOURS, showing us place after place. We found a house we'd like to rent, applied and were accepted - but started to get the typical second-thoughts and doubts, so we asked for a second viewing of the house. Sarah didn't waste a second; she set up the second viewing, communicated our questions to the landlord and property manager, got us answers and eased our minds. Now we're preparing to move into the house next month and got a follow-up email from Sarah, checking in and wrapping up - really nice! So yes, we'd recommend Greenlight Realty but more importantly, we recommend Sarah Larson. She obviously likes what she does, cares about what the customer wants and gets the job done. So glad we went with her! read more

One of my wife's coworkers passed on Martha Bowles' name when we started looking for a new place to live this fall. We checked out a couple of other locating services and tried wading through the sea of possibilities (craigslist . . . ugh) on our own first, with lackluster results. By the time we contacted Martha we had a small list of must-haves and a much larger list of features that we hadn't really prioritized, so the first step was to narrow down our choices. Martha regularly updated an online list of properties she had found that matched our preferences, and we gradually pared it down to a few good options. The first time we met for a walk through she was there ahead of schedule and prepared for questions about the house. Unlike the realtor I'd dealt with just before her, she responded promptly to e-mails and followed up on updates made to the online list. Our first choice seemed too good to be true - and in fact it was. After verifying the MLS listing and submitting an application, we found that the property manager/owner had suddenly changed the listed price to a short-term promotion, with rent jumping up $200 after a couple months. Martha offered to help us work something out, but when we decided to withdraw the application she was extremely supportive. She was obviously more concerned with helping us find the right place than simply making a quick commission. Just a few more tours later and we made our decision, and we've been here for almost two weeks. The neighborhood is exactly what we wanted, and my wife is still happy with the property (even after we finished the condition survey and painstakingly photographed every little dent and scratch). Everything on our must-have list was accommodated, and most of the would-be-nices are here, too. It's true that we could have found a place to live on our own, or with someone else's service. Instead, we had Martha's help in locating a place quickly and easily, and now we're living right where we wanted to. A side note: working in customer service myself, I know there's definitely a business motivation for making the client happy beyond simply fulfilling the basic expected service. Martha took care along the way to show us that she was personally interested in our happiness, and not just making a sale - the human connection made all the difference. read more

Jason Kennedy is great. He did a great job listening to what I was looking for and showing me the best options within my price range. He spent time plotting the best places for us to go look at rather than just showing me every available property. He never tried to push me towards looking at more expensive apartments and never tried talking up apartments to encourage me to sign something I didn't want. I came in from out of town and only had half a day to find a place and have never been to Austin before. Obviously this was not ideal, but Jason listened and showed me several properties while at the Greenlight office that met my needs. He was able to provide insight as to which places had availability starting in August or September since I wasn't sure when I would be moving down. This was incredibly valuable because we were able to narrow our search down to just a few properties before we went out to look at them in person. After Jason showed me several properties within my price range at the office, I told him I wanted to go ahead and spend the extra money to get exactly what I wanted. I cannot stress enough that this was my choice and Jason never pressured me to increase my budget. Jason made sure that is what I wanted to do and still concentrated on finding me a place that met my needs instead of just a place with a price at the high end of my budget. He was still showing me places that met my needs within my original budget even after I told him I was willing to spend more. It really felt like he was keeping my best interest in mind at all times. I was extremely satisfied with the service provided. I have dealt with a few free apartment searching companies before and nothing has come close to comparing to this. There is no way I would have been able to find a place that is perfect for me without Jason in such a short amount of time. read more

I move around...a lot. 2001-2006: I was in England, 2006-2008: I was in Chicago, 2008-2010: I was in Canada...and because of a wonderful new job opportunity, I'm in Austin, TX. No stranger to moving, I usually just rely on finding the apartment by myself. I really didn't want to have to spend the time looking for places with everything else I was trying to line up. Back in Chicago I used Yelp all the time for discovering new restaurants, hairdressers and pretty much anything I wanted a second (or third or fourth opinion on) opinion and it has always been a great resource. Hence, when I knew I was moving I did a quick search and stumbled upon Greenlight Locating. I contacted Greenlight and heard back via a phone call and email within two hours. All I had done was fill out the website form. They had originally assigned me to one representative (name escapes me), but because of my availability and time crunch made sure to match me up with Lucas Lee, who was available that weekend to help me with my apartment hunt. He emailed quickly and made sure to take note of all the things I was looking for (W/D in unit, a parking space, relatively close to downtown) and provide me with a plethora of options. Being new to town, he even helped give me an overview of Austin downtown after asking what kind of things I enjoyed doing. I ended up with a great one bedroom, gated community, well priced (under the $1000 mark...which is what I was aiming for), pool, fitness center, granite countertops, walk-in closet space and a patio. I couldn't be happier with Lucas' attentiveness, professionalism and all round great customer service! I'd definitely recommend them to anyone relocating to the Austin area. They absolutely "get" it! Thanks Lucas for making the move that much easier on me and helping me settle into my new home! read more

I'm a terrible procrastinator but these guys deserve some props!!! BARRON JOHNSON AND GREENLIGHT ROCK!!! Around late July, of 2010, my friend and I started looking for a place together. We spent about 6 weeks with a couple of other locators, with no success, and found that we were rather difficult to place. I mean difficult, we had quite a few road blocks related to credit, past misdemeanors, (ain't a party 'till the cops show up, lol), and a large dog that LOOKS like a pit-bull to many people. Then someone turned me in the direction of Greenlight Locating, where we met Barron Johnson. We were direct and upfront with Barron regarding our issues, and he was direct and upfront with us about what to expect. He started right away with narrowing down our areas of interest, got into the MLS, and started going through and eliminating properties and landlords/agents that just wouldn't work. Barron was also great about getting in contact with agents/landlords first and talking it out on the phone, if he wasn't sure, before we bothered to waste a trip, or got excited about something needlessly. Barron was a great guy to deal with and very pleasant to run around with while looking at places. Further, Barron was totally dedicated to finding something that would work out, and spent an entire two months helping us until he finally found us a home, and it's a great place, with a HUGE backyard, in a great neighborhood, at a pretty decent rate. My friend and I are still thrilled with what we found, 3 months later, and continually give people this phone number, and Barron's name. If your looking for a place, call Greenlight Locating, and remember to ask for Barron, he ROCKS!!! read more

I made the mistake of thinking I could come to Austin in the middle of the Fall semester and have no trouble finding a place to stay (Central Austin heart of UT, might I add). Well... I was very, very wrong... Every place I went to was booked through the year, and most of the apartment hunters I spoke with either: a) never returned my phone calls or b) completely missed meeting my requirements (literally just throwing properties in my face that were nowhere where I wanted or grossly out of my range). It never even occurred to me hit up Yelp for help on finding decent apartment locators. A little bit of googling around and I came across Greenlight Locating. Literally the second to last day I had to fly back home, I got in touch with Jennifer from Greenlight. She was probably the most, if not ONLY helpful locator out of the bunch I was dealing with from other services. Not pushy at all and extremely flexible, schedule wise (worked around my schedule, and even waited after COB to show me properties). I gave her my requirements and within half an hour she did her magic and nabbed a great place, exactly where I wanted to be in C Austin. I'm still bragging to my other colleagues who also moved to Austin how I can just walk down to Whole Foods for some lunch or grab dinner at literally 15 restaurants on my walk back. Not to mention 6th street is literally at my front door. If you're having trouble finding a place to live, or just a last minute planner (...ahem) then you should DEFINITELY hit up Greenlight Locating. I'm sure the entire crew there is just as wonderful to deal with, but if you can, ask for Jennifer! read more

Hi folks. I was just moving back to Austin after getting out of the Army and in desperate need of a good apartment while going to school. I tried for about 2 weeks trying to track down a place of my own, even trying out one other apartment locator, that will not be mentioned (partially because I can't even remember their name), which turned out to be frustratingly unreliable. Finally, all thanks to Yelp and the wonderful reviewers here, I came upon Greenlight Locating and my luck completely turned around. I got in touch with Lucas almost immediately and was able to set up a meeting the next day. Lucas had an assortment of apartments ready for me to look at and, since I really had no clue of what I wanted yet, was more than happy to take me to each and every one. By the end of it all I had a terrific apartment at an unbelievable location and for a VERY low price. The apartment was originally well out of my price range, but he gave them a call and managed to find out about a great deal they had going on. Thanks to this I am an ecstatic new Austinite. While working on the pricing and paperwork, Lucas continued to help me through the entire process (I'm pretty much clueless about this kind of stuff) and the whole thing turned out to be a very smooth transition for me. I can say with ABSOLUTE confidence that Lucas got me an apartment I never would've been able to get on my own. I cannot stress enough how much I recommend this company and the terrific service they offer. read more

This review is about Martha. She was amazing. My fiance and I are moving from Santa Monica to Austin in February, and my company paid for us to go out for an exploratory trip to find a place to live. I took the shotgun approach and emailed every company (complexes, locator services) i could find on Google. Martha was the first to reply, by email and then phone, was very knowledgeable, understood exactly what I was looking for in my new home, and promised to devote an entire day to our search. She absolutely followed through on all of our expectations. We arrived at her office at 10am on a Friday, and she drove us around, at her expense in her car, to 9-10 different properties. She could tell what we liked and didnt like, and altered the day's itinerary as we went. You could tell she was experience, since every community manager we met with knew her name. The best part about the experience, was despite the fact that she spent the whole day with us, my fiance and I still wanted to look some more on our own the next day. Martha was totally fine with that, told us to call her if we had any more questions, and then left us alone all day on Saturday to look around. (This said alot to me, given that she had spent her whole day on us. She was that confident that she had showed us the best properties for our needs in Austin). Ultimately, we went with one of the properties we saw with Martha on Friday. Good experience all around, I highly recommend her. read more

Mike Ebeling - I found Mike by doing some research on the Internet, and I have to say, he made our move to Austin possible, even given some absurdly short timing needs on our end. I can't say enough positive about Mike and Greenlight! We called him on a Wednesday, and asked if we could find and put a lease offer out for a house on Saturday, 3 days later. He never thought twice, and he immediately started finding us houses to look at online, and when we rolled into Austin that weekend, he met us early on Saturday to make sure had time to look at houses to find one. He absolutely found lots of places which met our requirements and was never pushy in anyway. On top of that, Mike is funny, interesting, and a downright great first person to meet in Austin. Further, the house we picked happened to be leased, but was never reported on MLS as such. So, absolutely no fault of Mike's, we found ourselves back at square one. We were *moving* to Austin the following week, so Mike did it again for us! We arrived late Sunday night the following weekend without a home to move into, and Mike met us first thing Monday to look at another 9 houses. He gave us great advice, and he really knows Austin well. We picked a house that afternoon, and Mike had the keys in our hands less than 24 hours later. I really have to give him 100% positive review; we are very thankful for having met him! read more

Best experience I ever had finding an apartment! I highly recommend Martha! I explained to her all of my specifications: this included preferred locations, preferences from most important to least important/ ideal to necessity. She sifted through all of my likes and dislikes very diligently and narrowed it down to the apartments that reflected this. She sent me pictures of these places for review and feedback. She got me better deals on all the places (versus their normal rates); And due to her determination, leg work, and skill at organization: we found my perfect place in the FIRST property we visited. This particular property I kept coming back to in our emails and it is absolutely fantastic- more than I could have hoped for on the budget I requested. I am very aesthetically driven and extremely particular and Martha was able to anticipate my likes before even meeting me in person; That is no small feat; My closest friends sometimes have a hard time identifying my style so accurately. Martha is a very likeable caring person that has years of experience in this field and despite her hard work, she makes it all look easy. This process was absolutely pain free, and faster than I could have anticipated. Martha is THE best of the best; You will not be disappointed. read more

We contacted Greenlight because we needed someone to quickly market our rental house, screen potential tenants and prepare a lease. We've always taken care of these things ourselves in the past, choosing not to use a Realtor or Locator and save the money. We were wrong. I wish we had contact Barron at Greenlight when we became landlords six years ago. He really knows what he's doing. He did a market anylsis that showed we were initially asking less than the house was worth based on similar homes in the area. Then he posted an awesome description and pictures that really showcased the home on various websites and in the paper. Within a week he found us an ideal applicant, did the background checks, collected the deposit and prepared the lease. I probably needed a bit of handholding because it's hard for me to let go and let someone else take care of things. Whenever I had a question or concern Barron listened, addressed it promptly and really explained what he was doing and why. The only reason this review isn't 5 stars is because of a couple nitpicky things that had more to do with the office staff than the overall service provided. I wish Yelp offered 1/2 stars, because I would rate Greenlight a solid 4.5. We'll absolutely be using Barron again in the future. read more

This was my first experience in apartment locating through an agency. As I prepared to move to Austin, I was becoming very disenchanted with its craigslist scene. (Note: Austin is a much cooler city than its LUXURY!!!...POOL!!...CONDO!...craigslist housing ads might otherwise imply). I was getting desperate, and had found Greenlight through Google long before; less than a month out I finally contacted them. I worked with Barron, who I believe started the agency. He knew the town, and understood what I was looking for (a duplex, maybe a whole house to rent, NOT a luxury condo). He also knew the landlords and how to read between the lines on the various listings. Several places that looked neat to me raised red flags with him, and he coherently explained why. As it turned out, we toured around on the very day I arrived in Austin. The very first place we saw, we were both astonished by, and although the other places we examined weren't horrible, they just couldn't compare. My new landlords are the very best I've ever had (Sunny Day Real Estate...seriously) and the place (a daylight basement in Hyde Park with a massive yard) has exactly what I need. I never felt pushed into a specific category of place, I'm still amazed that it was free (to me). read more

Jennifer at Greenlight Locating took such good care of me... I had exactly two days in Austin, which I had never even visited, to find an apartment before starting my new job. Jennifer listened to all my requirements on the phone, and was patient with the two dozen links i sent her from craigslist as suggestions :) She took that info and put together a huge, fantastic list of apartments to look at based on my taste, and then helped me narrow down a "shortlist" of the best ones to check out when I got to her office. Of course, she nailed it with the first one. She drove us all around South Austin and we looked at four more after that, but there was really no reason to do so - I was smitten with the first one she had picked out for me. It totally surpassed anything I had hoped for - amazing windows, amazing kitchen, huge space - and she found me a great special on the rent to boot! I had expected a really nerve-wracking, awful couple of days, and Jennifer really made it a piece of cake. She took us back out to sign all the paperwork, followed up, gave great advice, and generally just went way above and beyond in terms of making sure everything went smoothly. I can't recommend enough that you work with Jennifer!! read more

Talk about a stress reliever! I have now worked with Mike on 2 occasions and both times he has far surpassed my expectations! The first, I was moving to Austin from Florida with 2 carloads and 2 big dogs.Mike responded to my email with a call within a few hours and emailed places to check out that night since I needed a place fairly quickly (didn't want to stay at my parents an hour away forever) and also needed a job. Well, Mike helped me do both! Now 2 years later, still at the same job but I needed a new apartment and I needed it in 3 weeks. After a couple of days of looking around, Mike found me a perfect little place with a fenced in yard that hadn't even hit the market yet! Talk about going above and beyond. And I must mention, I didn't have to look for places to live for more than 2 days. He listens and finds..... Mike is great, fun and really listens to what your needs are. He helped me find awesome little restaurants, breakfast tacos secret spots, parks for my dogs and little hidden gems all around Austin! Do yourself a favor, cancel out all the other guys and just call Mike. It will save you a lot of time and hassle and make moving and finding an apartment fun :) read more

I worked with Damon who is an employee of Greelight Locating and he was as good as it gets. We literally spent all day looking for apartments and he never rushed us or made us feel like we were taking too long to choose an apartment. I dont think the man even ate breakfast and we felt so bad but we were only in town for a day and had to find an apartment that day. He was very knowledgable about the apartments in Austin as he has been working with them for a while now. He basically took care of everything for us, we didnt even have to say much when we went into the apartment offices because he already knew what we wanted (we told him what we wanted earlier) and presented it in a very professional fashion. He even let us ride in his car which was a great help seeing as though we knew nothing about Austin and probably would have spent most of the day gettin lost and trying to find our way again. In the end he found us an apartment that was perfect for our specifications and even gave us a tour at the end of the different areas of Austin. Not one negative thing to say about him. Totally went out of his way for us. For that reason he deserves 5 stars!!!!!! Thanks Damon!!!!! read more

Despite a disappointing experience with a different locating agency, I decided to give Greenlight a shot. My experience with Greenlight was eons better. Martha helped us find a cool apartment at a very good price, even though we had some requests that really restricted the choices and our price range was pretty low. For example, we required wood floors in the living areas. Not easy to find at our price range. Martha found us a good selection anyway and then toured each place with us. Before our tour, she sent us info on each location so we could narrow things down to those we were most interested in. Martha was nice, energetic, and enthusiastic. Our tour was quick and efficient, Martha already had everything mapped out before we even arrived at the office. A few questions and we were off. We found the place we will move into that day. We haven't moved just yet, but I am excited. Oh, and Martha was very honest about the complexes and areas of town. No telling us "oh, this part of town is just wonderful!" if it wasn't. I really appreciated that. So, Martha was great and when we eventually move (I am hoping to stay a few years!) we will ask for her help again. read more

I found a place through Phillip at Greenlight last month. It was a wonderful experience. I'm brand new to Austin and was sent on a last minute work trip the week I was visiting to look at apartments. Rather than waste my last 24 hours running around by myself I looked here on Yelp and liked the Greenlight reviews. I called that evening and got Phillip. We spent some time on the phone going over my requests/requirements and he was able to fit me in first thing the next morning. When I arrived we went over everything again on the computer and narrowed down the list of places he had found for me. He took me to see several places, including the one where I signed a lease later that afternoon! Phillip was fantastic in working with my VERY tight schedule and some fairly difficult requirements, including needing a place with wheelchair accessibility. I was dreading apartment-hunting and I was incredibly nervous about only having one day to search. Phillip simplified the entire process and actually made it fun! He was also hugely knowledgeable about the city and gave me some great advice about my new city. I definitely recommend Phillip for your move! read more

After weeks of conducting my own housing search online, I came across these reviews of Greenlight. Having already talked to three realtors from as many different agencies with no luck or feelings of rapport, I decided to give Greenlight a shot. I started off sending a huge list of properties I was interested in over to Barron. He was going out of town, so did some preliminary checking around then passed me to Lucas (Barron was most reassuring!). Poor Lucas, when my partner and I came into town from Dallas, we had him take us to 10 properties in one afternoon, and he did so without complaint. He then called around to the ones we were most interested in to find out who would accept us with our 107lb lab, and who wouldn't come near us because of that. Two days later, we had him take us out yet again to look at a few more, and revisit one. All of this with him going out of town the next day, yet he never complained about our fickleness. Once one was selected, he stayed in contact and worked to keep the ball rolling. We move into our duplex tomorrow......Thanks to Barron for getting us started, and many kudos to Lucas for making it happen! read more