Excel Real Estate Management

This company was sketchy from the start. From the time I signed the lease till the end, it was a bad experience. It started when Sara lied about random roommates being put in our apartment. Worst of all was the end of year bill we got. We each were charged $ 300 for cleanup and bogus charges. They charged us to remove items that were THEIR property. How bogus is that to get charged to remove their lamp? Their ice tray? And worst of all, their outlet Cover! They tried everything they could to nickel and dime us, including actually taking a picture of penny left in the apartment. They took three weeks to actually clean the apartment, which resulted in dust forming, which resulted in us getting charged for the dust.
When asked for the pre-​inspection sheet, Sara had no interest in providing that to us. Once the manager got involved and realized we caught onto their scheme, magically the price went due by $ 100 each. If it wasn’t the bill not getting postmarked, we would have gotten a full refund because they did not send us the bill within the 30 day window that the State of Illinois requires all landlords to provide to the tenant. So basically what they did to us was illegal, but they came up with some bogus excuse that the post office magically took 17 days to deliver a letter to a destination less than an hour away…
Earlier in the year they wanted to charge us to change the filters in the air conditioner. WHO DOES THAT! What college kid would ever do this? They also tried to charge us for bogus things like holes in the stairway, dirty hallway carpets, and broken heaters. The funny thing is, they never turned on the heaters in the stairway. It was almost a set up for extra income for them.
I did enjoy living close to campus though.
In conclusion, when you deal with Sara at Excel Realty, be ready to read all the fine print. Also, when you are doing your pre-​inspection sheet, make sure to write every little thing down. You might as well write down that there are is a front door, because they might charge you for leaving it there… They plan on charging all tenants for copies of the pre-​inspection sheet, so keep your copy before they try and scare you out of paying for a new copy!