This is a horrible, extremely sketchy, and unprofessional property management company! I would NOT do business with them or sign anything with them as they are extremely dishonest, play games, and you can NEVER reach anyone by phone or email.
I was a prospective tenant with them and trying to sign the lease once they offered me the apartment on 2/13/23. They were extremely pushy sending me multiple emails demanding that I give them a response the same day when I hadn't even been able to talk with anyone to ask them about who lived in the unit above and also shared a wall with the unit (this was a bottom/first floor unit) and noise was a concern of mine, and most would people would wanna know if there's a family and children or more than one person living above them. The realtor who showed the unit was unable to provide any real info. on the unit and answer these questions, so I was trying to get ahold of Selborne, the property management company the entire time as I was applying. I was considering their unit and another property management's unit who also approved me, and I ended up going with Selborne and letting them know I would take the apartment, but I still had some questions regarding the lease and the unit.
While I know they cannot give specifics on any tenants that live the building, I asked if there was a family/children or more than one person that lived in the unit above, and they repeatedly danced around the question claiming that they had no ability to know who lived in the units (when that's a lie and makes no sense since they are a property management company and would know who was on the lease).
I also noticed in the lease they provided that renters insurance was required (this was never brought up by the realtor who showed the unit) and I also asked them to adjust my move-in date to an earlier date, since they asked me when I wanted to move in and also adjust the lease to a year (wasn't sure why they had it for more than that). They agreed to this, but never sent me a new lease or followed-up thereafter.
I called and also emailed them repeatedly telling them I would purchase my own renters insurance and asking for an updated lease to sign, and still no response. I also tried to have the realtor reach out to them.
Finally, on 2/17, I get this response below:
"Sent: Friday, February 17, 2023 at 12:54 AM
From: "Property Manager" donotreply@appfolio.com
To:
Cc: craigslist@andrearentals.com
Subject: Re: Re: 359 Grand
Thank you for your email. We just started managing this building and although lease records could say one thing, we can't be certain how many people are in each unit - people have kids, after they sign a lease etc. There could easily be a kid, someone else, etc nearby and we could not be 100% certain telling you information based on the lease.
Please also note that we have not heard from you in few days, and have had other people who have applied and been approved. If you want to be put on a waitlist behind them, please email info@selborneproperties.com and craigslist@andrearentals.com letting us know.
Thank you again for your interest in the property."
Not only had I not been able to get a response from them the whole time, they lied and claimed they hadn't heard from me in days, when I'd been emailing and calling them the whole time with cc's to those email addresses and contacting the realtor, and they gave away my unit to someone else, and I lost out on a different apartment I should've gone with in the first place given the extremely sketchy and poor communication and behavior throughout the process with this property management company.
They've also reposted their ad even though they claimed they had all this interest and applicants on Trulia and Craigslist:
https://www.trulia.com/c/ca/oakland/lantz-building-10-359-grand-ave-359-grand-ave-oakland-ca-94610--2220477101
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/d/oakland-cozy-and-affordable-1bedroom-in/7582843556.html read more