These people are polite and pleasant on the telephone. They're also rigid, uninformative, slow, and unhelpful.
Ogburn company didn't meet my desire for rapid turnaround, and their paperwork requirements seemed onerous to me.
Cara advised they would not accept full payment in advance for a one year lease. The rationale may have been a requirement to treat everyone the same.
They declined to consider a co-signer to guarantee payment.
I inferred from Cara also that AppFolio, their property management software, drives many of their practices.
They required a $45 application fee, plus intrusive burdensome documentation, from each prospective tenant. Understandably they want tenants who can afford the rent, with a track record of reliably paying on time, and avoid cheats or deadbeats. At least they didn't ask about foreign travel or criminal record. But the $90 fee seems steep, as did the demand for security deposit equivalent to rent for two months.
Cara represented on Wednesday they'd have an answer Thursday or Friday, and that they'd call me. They didn't.
They require payment from rental applicants they don't accept electronic transfer from them via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or ACH transfer. I didn't ask about wire transfer, credit card, or debit card, but they too are probably non-starters. (It's possible they accept plastic or cash in the office.) From out of town, I resorted to a paper check via US mail.
Close paraphrase of conversation with John 14 December 2020, abbreviated:
Q: What's the status of my rental application?
A: It's in process.
Q: What does that mean?
A: It's under review.
Q: Where?
A: On someone's desk.
Q: Whose desk?
A: Someone who works here.
Suspect the hidden "someone who works here" was company president Sam Ogburn, Jr.
John and Cara also disclosed the outsource credi reporting and the like to a third party. read more