Summer of 2010 I moved into an apartment in Ithaca newly managed by James Orcutt Real Estate. I…read morewas living in New Mexico and needed trees and water, research on the internet showed me a building that just "popped" for me, so I emailed James. We set up an interview a few days later and I arranged to be in Ithaca for a look at the apartment he was kind enough to hold for me. I am still in this apartment! I consider myself an expert as I have lived in apartments all my adult life and my father owned some rentals when I was a child, Orcutt Real Estate provides the best treatment this renter has ever experienced. Plus, he always knows my name and takes time to speak and smile if he passes me in the parking lot. Rare indeed. J. D.

I needed to rent an apartment in Ithaca while living in California, relying entirely on the…read moremanager's information because I wouldn't be able to visit before moving. James was extremely helpful, and provided great photos of the place. I am super happy with my apartment for the price I'm paying, and with James' management. My only gripe is that he can be tough to get in contact with unless it's an urgent matter. But he's a busy man and he'll get back to you quickly when you need it.

Absolute worst renting experience ever! The initial property manager was arrested for stealing…read moremoney from tenants, and the new manager then told me I wouldn't have a parking spot after being guaranteed one in writing. It took two months just to get my parking pass. I was lied to about the apartment being vacant and less than 24 hours before move-in I was emailed (not even called) to advise that the previous tenant hadn't moved out! I had movers hired and everything. It was almost a week before repairs were complete. The "cleaning" staff left the apartment with black grime and mouse poop all over and I had to hire a separate cleaning team to make it habitable. There was one problem after another, including a maintenance tech breaking my stone bathmat and leaving it there in pieces, heaters not working, bathroom leaks, etc. The last straw was when they rented to a very mentally ill drug addict, and I had to arm myself to go downstairs or do laundry. I was unable to sleep as this person screamed at all hours of the night and smoked marijuana inside, also against the lease rules, and harassed myself and other tenants. They won't return my security deposit (I moved out early with 90 days notice due to uninhabitable conditions) and I have had to resort to legal action. None of my written concerns were EVER addressed or replied to. Do not rent from this company!

You'd better hope nothing bad happens to you while you're renting with them. During my two-year…read morestay at Ravenwood, I had problems with the thin walls and the leaking roof (from the toilet upstairs) multiple times. In addition, they took away over $700 of my $1000 security deposit by the end and nothing was wrong with the apartment. I would recommend you renting with someone else ethical :)

Broken dishwasher for over a month, unable to replace or fix- This is the management company. When…read morewe called after a month, told us to not call them back and hung up the phone rudely. Wifi is for the namesake only doesn't work. When we came in, it was super dusty and dirty. Basically, they are everything that you don't want in a management company. So stay away from them. Note to landlord: please find a better service management company for your housing needs. Thank you,

Please stay away from this company. Some of their business practices are not legal. They do not…read morecare about their tenants, they only care about being paid. They have displayed a total lack of concern for the health, safety, and well being of myself and a number of their other tenants on multiple occasions. The staff treat you not as a respected customer, but as an unwanted burden. They get away with their behavior because so many students in Ithaca do not know their rights as tenants. If you are already a tenant and you are reading this, please find a copy of the NY tenants rights guide NOW!

Mismanaged. Avoid this property management company, they are terrible, and have a bad reputation…read more The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing in this poorly run agency - they lack integrity and decency. Management companies work for the owner of the building, not the tenants, who treat tenants like second class citizens. Its the second rental I have lived in that they managed and in both cases their performance is poor and with numerous bad experiences. As a responsible, conscientious tenant, I will not tolerate being bullied, disrespected, and intimidated. Or routinely ignored with a lack of communication. Double check that they receive rent payments, insist upon a receipt, and regularly request a tenant ledger record from them to made sure that your rent payment are being recorded.

Certified Properties is the most unprofessional, scummy company I have ever witnessed. I got bit by…read morea rat in my bed while I was sleeping, and the Landlord did not reply to my emails or calls. I got bit by the rat because when we moved in the house was not even attempted to be cleaned. There was food from past tenants still in the kitchen. We lived with rats for 3 months til it was killed. We cleaned the house thoroughly before we left and the landlord took half our security deposit. When I fought with him for months, showing pictures and threatening legal action, he never contacted me when he said he would and it took me 6 months of fighting to get a refund. It is not worth living here.

Was mislead into thinking I would be able to sign a lease by the leasing manager, Rob. I was…read moregullible and relied on this commitment until Rob deleted the lease, deactivated my profile, and refused to engage with me further. Rob is not good for his word, don't trust him.

This is a long review, but I feel it's important for other future tenants who rent from PPM. It…read moreconcerns not only a rat infestation that persisted in the home throughout a large portion of our lease, but also PPM's response. I'll start by saying that PPMs maintenance staff was always very quick to respond when we entered an issue on the online portal. We had a great relationship with PPM homes leading up to this issue, however their lack of response and way they treated us throughout the process led us to make the decision to report this. We started having rodent issues in December. We were aware that this can happen during the cold months, and made efforts to keep our kitchen clean and floors swept. The problem persisted as we routinely found droppings throughout the kitchen and containers of food bitten and clawed at. We had an issue with our sink leaking and reported it to PPM who sent out a maintenance worker. The worker fixed the sink and let us know that one of the lines was chewed through, most likely from a rodent. Not long after, we out in another maintenance request for our dishwasher which was not receiving water. The PPM worker who came by once again fixed the issue and let us know it was most likely due to rodent activity. Finally, this spring we were woken up in the night to our dogs barking at a rat that was caught in one of our glue traps we set in our kitchen. I called PPM the next day to report this and the woman I spoke with told me it must have been the same rat they had been trying to catch for weeks. After some time had passed, we reached back out to PPM to see what was being done about this. The same woman who told me that the rat we captured was probably the same one they had been chasing, then told us that they did not have any record of a rodent issue, and that if we didn't put in a maintenance request for it, that it wouldn't be documented. We had figured since the maintenance requests we had put in were then found to be caused by rodents, that the maintenance staff would document this. The owner of PPM (Rob) responded the same way, saying that they had no record of this. They then sent out a crew to set up traps around the apartment. Our upstairs neighbor spoke with us about her rodent issues, also mentioning that PPM had failed to properly address the issue. We felt gaslit by PPM, first when they told us that the issue was likely because we weren't keeping the apartment clean enough, and even more so when they claimed to have no knowledge of the persisting issue even after their own staff pointed out to us that it was the cause of our dishwasher and sink problems. We are hoping that by reporting this issue, that we will save other tenants from the stress it caused us. We also hope that PPM will address these issues in a more professional manor.

Because of Elvina Amati, our move was as easy and good as it gets. Elivna helped us with every…read moreproblem we faced along the way, was always available, and was always on our side. Thanks, Elvina!

I called Christina a few times prior to putting in an offer with zero response to me and very…read morelittle response to my agent. We were told incorrect information which didn't get my offer even reviewed. Because of this misinformation my deposit (which after speaking with the law firm they work with; I was told should not have been required) has still not been returned after five months! Their contract required cash, money order, or cashiers check for the deposit instead of personal check. I would never recommend this agency to anyone. I have called many times and spoke with the receptionist who only said they will try to reach Christina and have her call me back. So after five months I have still not received a call. My agent I worked with only received one call back and a few email responses. Horrible.

Staff is friendly, but the owners have terrible policies. No guest parking, high rent, expensive…read moreparking passes, amenities that arent commensurate to the prices they demand. There are far better options for comparable or lower prices.

Beautiful property, but that's all you're going to get. Oh, and the gym looks nice. That's all…read more Just because you're paying the highest rent in town doesn't mean you should expect customer service to match. You certainly won't get that here. When we informed the office that the A/C was broken, the staff told us that it was cold outside, so why do we need it? We cab open the windows anyway... no joke. When the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, no one came to shut it off. After we brought this to the staff's attention, they asked us if we had seen or smelled any fire, and if not, we were okay. And then... the staff asked us 30-year old grad students if we've ever lived outside our parents homes and in apartment complexes... they then explained to us how fire alarms worked. Are you kidding me? It took an entire month to get a hole in the kitchen floor patched up. Oh, and if you live here, you will enjoy the pleasure of having the Casella garbage trucks arrive at 4:00 IN THE MORNING every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to pick up the garbage. The engine motor, reverse beeping, exhaust fumes, glass breaking, and dumpster noise are what I look forward to every other weekday. In fact, I'm writing this at 4:42 am right now because the garbage trucks have been here since 4:03 am waking the entire complex up. The double pane windows don't muffle the noise whatsoever. This is great because if you have a presentation or exam at 8:00 on campus, you're guaranteed not to miss it. Morning wake up call anyone? The best part is that we've been asking Novarr Mackesey to help us move the garbage pick-up times to normal business hours since we've moved on this summer, and their response is... "but the garbage has to be picked up... you chose to live here right?" They literally said that to us. You chose to live here right? So because we chose to live here, we have to endure ask the burdens that come along with it. This is absolutely the most infuriating staff I've ever come across. Unhelpful, ungrateful, unfriendly. Scowling, rude, and unrelenting in attitude. Live somewhere else if you can. Save yourself from the trouble of dealing with these people.

Cool place. Cool people. boom. only complaint is it lacks…read morecats

it has been over two years, since having my 14 rentals under Rick Pauls REP property management…read morecompany. I have waited patiently for Rick to refund me the $213.00 he still owes me, that i paid for and never received the services for. Rick informed me that he would not pay me , unless I signed and notarized a form stating that I would not speak badly of him or his company. I told him that I would not be signing any paperwork to get the money he owes me. He then told me that I could take him to court and it must be under my LLC name. ( meaning I have to have a lawyer representing me) why is there a stipulation on money owed? He over saw my rentals for 2+ years, my rentals conditions went downhill, rents not collected, overly slow (10 months +) on redoing apartments. I have decided that I am going to state something about him and his company until he pays me in full. I'm tired of waiting to get paid. Rick will come back on this review and say that I was a dumb girl that didn't know how to run my rentals.or he wasnt hired to do as I expected . even though I ran them myself for 13 years out of the 18 years owning them. (He was hired to fully oversee the running of my rental company, and I signed his form stating this upon hiring him ) in the end he tried to make it like i was the one that didn't understand. Plus the way the rentals were being run, I decided to sell each place off. I lost lots of money in the end. due to conditions, lots of tenants owed rent and once the property was sold, it was lost rent forever to me. all i wanted to do after the properties were sold , was walk away. i had never planned on doing or saying anything bad about Rick Paul. But he brought this on himself. Please pay me and I'll delete my very bad reviews and you'll never hear from me again.

Needed a property manager and found Rick. Professional in the beginning but once I gave him the…read morekeys and signed the contract he was difficult to get a hold of. My tenants and I could never get a hold of him and I constantly got calls from them with their issues because they were not being addressed with Rick. He was very invested in getting his money from me every month and making sure my tenants gave me their money. But anything other than that he couldn't be bothered to handle. Might be good as a real estate agent but as a property manager I would definitely not recommend this company.

I've had some ups and downs during my tenancy at Belleayre apartments. I am a big fan of its…read morelocation, which gives you the flexibility of walking to class (up the slope) or waiting at either of the two bus stops right at the intersection. My corner apartment on the top floor had a great view of the lake as well as the Cornell clock tower. The unit was remarkably spacious with ample closet space and high ceilings. The maintenance guy, Mark, was so on point all the time any time I needed him. On the flip side, my hardwood floors were extremely creaky and caused the tenants below me some grief at night. They got the property manager involved and requested that I either go to bed at an earlier time or spend more time in the living room. WTF? How about you replace your floors so they don't creak under pressure instead of telling me when to go to bed and where I can be in my own apartment? Overall, I would still highly recommend Belleayre Apartments to any faculty or grad student going to Cornell. In fact, I should add that the only thing in the way of a five-star rating is the manner in which the property manager addressed the creaky floors issue.

New ownership since March 2018; very respectful, responsible ownership that responds promptly to…read morequestions, requests and concerns courteously through both phone and email. Was happy to be a tenant in this building.