I lived at 702/704 W Elm St in Urbana for a year. I have no complaints about the management. Maintenance requests were always handled quickly, and because my apartment was not the "show apartment," I didn't have to worry about having tons of people in and out of my apartment throughout leasing season. I do, however, understand that it is nice to see the exact apartment you'll be living in. They were fair with returning the security deposit. My roommate and I had been overcharged for "missing furniture," which had been removed by Roland earlier in the year, but there was no trouble getting that money back. Your choices are very limited if you want to live in Urbana, and my apartment itself was hit and miss. I loved the large bedrooms, and because it's a little further from campus, my rent was fairly low. Elm St is really pretty, especially in the fall, and the area was usually very quiet. However, the building only had a window AC unit, which was miserable over the summer. I moved my bed to the living room, right in front of the AC, and still could barely sleep at night. I didn't mind not having a dishwasher, but a garbage disposal would have been nice. There were only two washers and dryers for the building, and it wasn't rare for one set to not be working, so doing laundry was a pain. It was relatively cheap, however. Despite my issues with the building, I almost stayed for a second year. I would definitely recommend living with Roland. read more

If I could give 901 South First and Roland Realty zero stars, I would. I moved into a studio about six weeks ago, and the condition of this property has been absolutely disgusting. THERE IS TRASH EVERYWHERE. I've seen used condoms on the floors of the buildings, found cockroaches, and constantly seen trash throughout the property. After submitting multiple requests about the cleanliness, it seemed like the property was only finally cleaned once people started touring apartments. I find that incredibly misleading because it creates a false image for prospective tenants of how the property is actually maintained once you live here. My apartment was filthy when I moved in, and I had to deep clean it before I could even unpack. There are holes in my floor, kitchen cabinets that don't close, an unbelievable amount of rust in the bathroom, and the wall inside my shower is cracking to the point that pieces fall into the bathtub. The laundry situation is also ridiculous. There are only about five washers and six dryers shared between four buildings, and multiple machines have been broken since I moved in. I've literally had to wash clothes in my bathtub because I can't rely on the machines being usable. I have emailed, called, gone into the office, and submitted maintenance requests, yet weeks later, multiple issues still have not been fixed. I repeatedly get told they'll take care of things, but nothing happens. Affordable housing does not mean tenants should have to accept unsanitary conditions and broken facilities. I would never sign a lease here again and strongly recommend looking elsewhere before signing with Roland Realty. read more

Roland Realty - Nasty bathroom - Apartments Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

903 S. First St. Apartments are poorly kept and no maintanence is done for move in day. Choose another place to live. Stairwells were filled with cobwebs and garbage on the first day of move in with a bad moldy odor. Not well lit. Garage space was also poorly lit. Apartment was absolutely filthy. No cleaning was done after the previous tenant as there were dirty clothes left in the bathroom. Bathroom tub and toliet had visible grime and dirt. Carpet and living room furniture were stained and dirty. Management was asked to have this professionally cleaned and one week later, this still has not been done. Bedrooms had broken desks and closet doors that did not slide. Also not cleaned after previous tenant. Walls had black grime and ceiling had handprints on it. Kitchen drawers had crumbs and other debris in it. Floor was dirty. read more

I have lived at Roland for two years and have had the best experiences with their team. Colton along with all other maintenance staff have always been on top of completing any requests in a timely and professional manner. I would recommend all my friends looking for affordable housing with a team who cares about their tenants. read more

Colton's a cool guy and good at what he does! The other maintenance men are great at what they do too!

Conway and Mark quick and efficient work. Hell of a job. Mark gave me my first tour and really changed the way I looked at apartment buildings. Amazing work. read more

I lived at 901 and 905 S 1st for 1.5 years total and can only recommend Roland. The staff are friendly and professional and all service requests are handled quickly. My move in/out was always easy and they are fair with security deposit return. read more

Usually in Champaign, you hear nothing but negative things about on campus apartment groups. When I started looking for a place 2 years ago, I only looked between Roland and Bankier because they both have good reputations, but I have friends who complained about Bankier sometimes. I could not have been happier leasing from Roland Realty. They have a lot of tenants, but the people in the office (somehow) still know you by name. As opposed to a lot of on campus apartment groups, they don't treat you like jackass college kids, and as long as you are respectful towards them and their property, they return that. I stayed in the same apartment over 2 years, and I do not have a negative thought about management or maintenance. It's never taken more than 24 hours for a maintenance request to get taken care of, and they have no qualms replacing the appliances if needed. My dishwasher wasn't working well, and they tried to fix it once, and when it still was working (just not optimally) they installed a brand new one. Sometimes the receptionists don't come off as the brightest bulbs in the box, but overall everyone who works there is on the ball, knowledgeable, and very nice. I cannot recommend them any higher, they're wonderful to work with and lease from. read more

DO NOT SIGN CONTRACT WITH ROLAND REALTY. When I left, I made sure everything was clean and I wiped down everything from the fridge sections to every corner in the bathroom. I still got charged $461 out of my deposit. I heard from other tenants that Roland was notorious for ripping college kids off their parent's money so I made extra sure that won't happen to me. It doesn't matter how hard you clean the unit. You will get charged. This company is absolute nuts. When you see Roland, turn the other way and run. read more

I'm reviewing Lofts. I was looking for a sub-lease to start in May of 2013 and to end in August 2013. I found an ad on Craigslist and signed a lease in November. The wait time just to get a lease drawn up was pretty long. Once May rolled around, I had been selected to study abroad. My dad was awesome enough to drive 6-7 hours just to move my things for me. Before I left for my trip I gave Lofts 54 my share of the rent for May and June according to the agreement between the girl I was subleasing from.When my dad came to the leasing office to pick up my keys to move my things in, Lofts 54 claimed that I hadn't paid rent. Long story short: I had paid rent. Turns out they applied the check I gave them in May as a credit for June's rent. What kind of sense does that make? It was a VERY stressful situation to be thousands of miles away and thinking that you won't have a place to live and knowing your dad drove all that way just to deal with some B.S. I was lucky that I bought a cell phone in Costa Rica, otherwise my dad would have had to sort it out without any input from me. I kept telling Lofts that this was a sublease situation, but they claimed the tenant I was subleasing from needed to tell them this was a sublease. So frustrating! I signed a lease in NOVEMBER! The time from November to May was more than enough for you to tell the tenant that she needed to send an email stating that the rent would be paid by two people. It took 4 phone calls from myself and phone calls from the girl I subleasing from just to sort the situation out. Pros of lofts 54: washer + dryer in the unit dishwasher plenty of cabinet space for 3-4 people Cons: Lots of the tenants don't take any pride in where they live so expect a lot of trash in the elevator or in the stairwells Sometimes people are up late at night blasting music with no consideration for their neighbors Many people in the leasing office have no clue what they're doing I'm just counting down the days until I can move out. If you have a lot of patience, move here. If you want to deal with a company that has their ish together or want some peace & quiet, I suggest you keep on looking. read more

Most inconsiderate money hungry company on campus. They took away my security deposit because someone vandalized my window after I moved out! Sign a lease here if you like throwing money away. read more

Terrible company. Our apartment (907.5 S. Oak) had several issues that needed to be fixed by maintenance, and we followed the correct procedure in requesting that they be fixed. Roland consistently blew us off for months after several complaints. The lot next door was under construction, and our private driveway was constantly used and blocked off by another realty company, to which Roland showed no concern. This company does not give a damn about their customers, they only care about collecting overpriced rent checks. read more

I lived at 903 s first and I loved living there. I had a really positive experience with this company (one of the best leasing companies on campus) and I would definitely recommend. Great service and people. read more

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We have had a very positive experience with Roland; more specifically with Kurt. We needed some special attention to our lease situation and Kurt was extremely fair and helpful. In fact, we will be renting from them next year. read more

Hands down one of the best leasing companies in the Champaign-Urbana area. I've lived in Champaign for 8 years now and leased from Roland twice. Their staff is wonderful - Kurt, Alec, Dustin to name a few! They're responsive, fair, and extremely friendly. They are very prompt about maintenance requests and have a great team. If you're deciding between Roland or another place on Campus, definitely go with Roland!! 6 stars if I could :D read more

Roland strives for customer satisfaction, so on the surface they look great. Dig deeper - Roland will charge for things such as cleaning the ceiling fan out of your security deposit, along with a bill for 'carpet cleaning'. During the 2 years I lived there, glass doors on the property were broken countless times by drunken residents and their visitors, yet Roland did nothing to control it and just quietly replaced them over and over. The front door to the building is rarely locked. My apartment almost got broken into once off my first floor patio, since the premises are dark and very accessible. Noise complaints were ignored; I was never given advance notice that my apartment was being shown and it happened almost daily during certain times in the year. Take pictures and notes when you move in and write detailed comments in the apartment check-in checklist - oh, and make sure to clean the oven before you leave, because they'll charge you for that too even though it was never cleaned when you moved in. Aside from all that, Roland was easy to deal with and I agree that they are better than most, I did stay for 2 years after all. Good Luck! read more

Lofts 54 Review: Lofts 54 was single-handedly the worst place I have ever lived. For starters, the elevator never worked. And I truly mean, never. Sure, taking the stairs every day is good for your health, but when you are paying for an elevator and it is always broken it gets a little frustrating especially on days when you have to lug bags of groceries up several flights of stairs. Not to mention that the stairs were sometimes covered in crap, that would not be cleaned up for days (Picture attached). Second, the maintenance staff was awful. To be honest I only saw one maintenance member in my year at Lofts. He was not the most pleasant of people. And I can't blame him for always being pissed off, if I was the only worker taking care of an apartment complex full of college kids I'd be pretty pissed off too, but that's his job. His job is to help and service the people that are paying rent and living in the apartments. We as a unit called in several work orders to fix our AC early in the year. We were told over and over that it was fixed, but nothing was ever fixed. It took nearly a month before our AC began to work. Imagine living with no AC during August and September, not fun. Also, we were told that our refrigerator did not come with a light cover. That was something that really made no sense to me. We constantly experienced large amounts of precipitation that accumulated on the top rack of our refrigerator. This excess water would drip down and ruin food. It all could have been avoided with a refrigerator light cover, yet were not suppose to have one? I have never seen a refrigerator that did not come with a light cover. Makes no sense. Along with that, the mini fridge in the room that came with the bar constantly overheated. It was a piece of junk. The windows in each room were also junk. They did not do their job of keep moisture out resulting in disgusting amounts of mold along the sides of the window. Even if you kept the window closed for extended periods of time, the mold would still show up. This was not a problem only I experienced, but my three roommates also had similar mold problems due to the windows in their room. Along with that, the grills on the roof were garbage. It took an arm and leg to get those things started. They were awful. The keypad outside the front door was almost always broken, which forced you to run down and open the door for friends and family. A lot of the things they are selling you, so you will sign a lease, don't even work. My roommate and I took summer classes, but our lease forced us to move out three days before classes ended. The Lofts staff could not have been any less helpful. We were forced to rent a hotel for 3 days because Lofts wouldn't allow us to stay and finish our classes. I understand we signed a lease that had a specific move out date, but you'd think a company that caters to students would be a little more accommodating. Maybe take a look at the summer class schedule and make sure kids aren't left without a place to stay. Added stress during finals is always fun. Lastly, you will be forced to pay an entire month's rent for August, but will only live in your apartment for two weeks of August. Explain that one to me. And when you move out watch out for their sneaky charges. My roommates and I were all charged upwards of $80 each in order for them to repaint something. I would love to see what part of our apartment had $320+ worth of paint damage. Thanks for everything Lofts! I will never be back and will never recommend this place to anyone. What an absolute joke. Overpriced and ungracious staff. Wish I could give it 0 stars. read more

This realty company is honestly one of the worst ones I ever had. Our security deposit was docked for things that were either there before we arrived or things that were in the house but accused us of stealing it. We were robbed twice and they showed no sympathy or sorrow for us. They only care about the money they can get and are not understanding/listening. I would never recommend anyone live with this company unless you like losing money for no reason. read more

The worst part of my college experience was dealing with the run down houses that Roland Realty calls "property". My friends and I paid much more than we would have at any other university to live in a old, decomposing, shack on Daniel St. for a very unfriendly price. After we moved out, we lost our security deposit, which was a hefty chunk of change and still had to pay more on top of that. Maintenance requests from the previous year were never fulfilled and our group moved into a house that looked like it had been hit by a disaster. Holes in the decrepit walls, a disgusting and old fridge and sink, a broken kegerator that was not repaired until halfway through the school year after maintenance requests, the list goes on and on. The bedroom that I was lucky enough to live in had a locked door with the furnace and water heater that made repetitive loud noises and turned on every single night. This is a scam and joke of a realty business. Even the worst people in the world should not have to deal with Roland. Huge thumbs down. Would not recommend to anyone living on the U of I campus, you might as well live in a cardboard box on Green Street. read more

Not the best realty company on campus but they are definitely far better than most -especially considering how large they are. I did have bugs in my apartment but it was just ants, and they did the best they could to get rid of them. I was a bit messy in college so I don't really know if it was entirely their fault. They took care of any other problems I had and the place was pretty clean. I rented through Hunsinger and liked them better but I wouldn't not rent through Roland again. read more

My son lived in a Roland one bedroom apartment for which he had a 49 week lease, despite the fact that he paid rent for 12 full months. The apartment included a desk, a bed, a couch, a chair and a coffee table, the bare minimum to be considered furnished. The day he arrived was really hot, but his air conditioned apartment had no air conditioner. They did bring one by the next day, but it was a pretty unpleasant night for him. These things were not impressive, but what earned Roland a one star rating from us was how much he was charged for cleaning the apartment, $183.75, and this was only for partially cleaning the apartment. The times listed on inspection list were inflated, at minimum double the amount of time it would really take. For example, according to Roland's list it takes a half hour to clean the inside and outside of a toilet, which would probably take about 10 minutes, for the price of $17.50. Similarly, we were charged $17.50 (a half hour's time) to clean two windows and sills. I pushed back and was able to get Dustin to refund $17.50 (the cost of cleaning the kitchen floor) since the living room and kitchen were the same room and $5 off of the cost of cleaning the refrigerator ($17.50), so the net security deposit deduction for cleaning was $161.25. Mind you, this is for partially cleaning a small one bedroom apartment. Dustin told me that "To simply just disagree with our rates our assessment isn't fair." Well, I think what is really unfair is inflating cleaning costs to generate additional profit on the backs of students. read more

champaign illinois infamous scam artists don't go with them unless you have zero intention of receiving your security deposit..not to mention upwards of 700-900 for "move out charges" they tried scamming me as well as each one of my friends that rented under roland this their bs move out charges when the condition was left the same if not better than originally purchased also the service is horrendous..lived in the same apartment for 3 years and the same issues that we had called in about for each of the 3 years were never addressed and then they had the nerve to charge us hundreds of dollars at the end of our lease read more

I live in one of Roland's smaller buildings in Champaign. They are the best landlord I've ever had. They respond very quickly to maintenance requests, and if the guy couldn't fix the problem, boom, new appliance. You can pay the rent online and submit work orders online. The office guys are very nice and helpful. I would rent from them again in a heartbeat. read more

UNPROFESSIONAL. RUDE. Completely unacceptable. On multiple occasions I have had trouble with trouble and their policies. Including but not limited to the one that has forced me to write this review. On June 16, 2016 a random man enters my apartment while I was sleeping and began turning on lights and walking through my apartment. Once I realized what was going on and confronted him he began questioning me about water leaking in my apartment, which there has not been any leaks to my knowledge. Even when I told him this he still questioned me like I was lying to him. I was treated very disrespectfully and as he was questioning me he was also going through all my cabinets and even opening my fridge and freezer. He apparantly works for Roland and was investigating water on the ceiling of a lower apartment, which is fine. However, no effort to contact any of the Tenants of this apartment was made and when he probably knocked (I did not hear a knock) and no one answered, he entered anyway. THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. This is absolutely unacceptable and unless Roland fires this guy and reevaluates their procedures I DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY. read more

When we toured the 309 we were falsely led into believing we would be living in one of the nicest places on campus. It should be considering how new this place was and the high rent we paid. However there are numerous problems that ruin everything for this building. -The provided internet is very slow. -The cable is not adequate and I recommend upgrading immediately. -There is no space in the parking garage. It's hard to drive when someone passes you on the way up and vice-versa. -The entrance to the parking garage is a rocky path that is broken and needs work urgently. -The balconies also hum when the wind blows making a loud noise throughout the apartment. -The heating/cooling unit is an uncovered pipe that makes a loud noise when it runs causing everything to be turned up to be audible. -The furniture is also used and much of it has damages. My couch fell underneath me because the legs gave out, and the dishwashing machine broke free from the wall. -However the worst problem is the elevators. There are two elevators for 24 floors, and you're lucky if one of them is working. Having to walk up and down all those flight is the worst experience I've had here. If Roland would fix these problem the building would be as great as appears to be, instead of the poor upkeep this building has shown. read more