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.

I love this organization. I feel like they have made an incredible difference for renters in…read moreIthaca. And, for those who don't rent, the INHS properties have given downtown Ithaca a nice facelift :)

As a local Realtor, I have had many clients take advantage of the great services and support at…read moreINHS. This is a very challenging time to buy a house and though the financial parameters for the IHNS program can be limiting, they are changing the lives of some people who would otherwise not be able to purchase a home without their help. In addition, the education department at INHS provides a fantastic program open to ANYONE. The class offers a solid foundation of knowledge about purchasing a first home. I've had so many buyers come to me from the INHS Homebuyer program and they are better prepared, more confident, and less intimidated by the process. I recommend it to everyone. Within the parameters of what is allowed by their funders and donors, I believe INHS does the best they can with what they have and they are an important part of increasing housing equity in our community.

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.

I was living in a PPM property for the 2025-2026 academic year and the experience was pleasant over…read morethe duration of my residency. When it came time to collect our security deposits, my roommates and I were met with extremely rude staff and dodgey management. They supposedly sent out rent deposits to the apartments we moved out of in June 2026, so they had to reissue the checks. While we were more than accommodating, they began to dodge our calls about reissuing these checks end of June. We resubmitted forwarding addresses and were ghosted until we were repeatedly calling their office. From July-August, they'd say "the checks are being reissued, they'll be on the way" or would be abruptly hung up on. In September, I filed a report with the NY State Attorney General's Office and submitted certified mail on the details of the security deposit's timeline. I received my security deposit in September 2026, but only after an accumulated dozens of calls over several weeks, certified mail, and a report to the NY State Attorney General. For anyone currently living with PPM, be prompt and proactive about your security deposits BEFORE move out and ensure they have your forwarding addresses.

Buyer beware! I signed a contract to purchase property last week (full price cash offer) the seller…read moreaccepted my offer and my earnest money was already deposited. Yesterday I got a phone call and was told if I didn't come up with an extra $6000 the seller's attorney was just going to simply "disapprove" my contract at the last minute so the seller could get out of the deal. This sequence of events raises serious concerns about the integrity of the transaction process and the conduct of the real estate agent (Amanda) and this brokerage. Specifically, the acceptance of my offer, followed by the solicitation or encouragement over the weekend of someone else to hurry up and make a higher offer at the 11th hour, and then the intimidation / "shake down" of an ultimatum. My attorney was flabbergasted and said she had never seen someone do this before. While Amanda's actions may have technically fallen within "legal bounds", they were completely underhanded and contrary to the standards of good faith and fair dealings expected in real estate transactions. This agent was highly unethical and I cannot believe this is how they are conducting business. I would never use this company again or recommend them to anyone. These tactics are very cut throat and the reason why real estate agents have a bad reputation of being shady. I have contacted the broker / owner of this company with my concerns and have yet to receive a response. I guess this is just normal practices business for this company.

Put in a serious offer on a property listed through this company. The showing was a joke. The…read moreowners hadn't even been told to clean up their personal belongings; hygiene products were all over the bathroom; the refrigerator was full of food that was starting to rot. There was a leak in the basement that wasn't disclosed upfront, and I found it in the inspection report later. I was initially told my offer would probably be accepted; less than 12 hours later, the owners changed their mind and demanded more money, and their agent never once spoke to me about trying to reach a negotiation. In fact, the agent, Hickory Lee, never spoke to me at all, despite me trying to contact her at least twice, and having made an offer. Extremely unprofessional and unethical. Would not suggest anyone wanting to buy or sell real estate approach this place. Go to Howard Hanna instead; I've never heard of one of their agents pulling this kind of behavior.

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.