Mac Properties

My experience with Mac so far has been mostly good. The apartment is great — floors and tiles damaged upon arrival but mac remedied the situation incredibly swiftly, which was greatly appreciated. There were some miscommunications that confused us, such as we were told originally that the heating was radiator heating when it is not, and that laundry was coin operated when instead we need to refill a card at 53^rd street for laundry (not very convenient). But again, the apartment is great and Mac has been very responsive and nice throughout the process.

I am a current tenant at 5419 s Ellis. Mac is so hit and miss and the longer we live here their shady business practices reveal themselves.
Most recent complaint is the removal of the free internet they provide with only 2 days warning. Upon signing out first lease we were told internet was provided at each property. We renewed and then received an email saying free internet was discontinued. MAC was very careful to not include this service in either lease so their asses could be covered.
It’s also clear they are trying to cater only to rich UChicago students who will be in and out. They keep increasing rents and make the most asinine cosmetic changes to the property without providing changes which would make it better for tenants. I constantly see them laying sod, painting, adding new light fixtures … Meanwhile our gate is constantly broken and there has been a missing window pane for months in another unit. The heaters bang and clang in the winter and its always boiling hot. They spend money on a fancy portal where you can’t even set up auto pay easily. And don’t get me started on the weird way they do utilities.
Two stars because most of my maintenance requests have been filled within a couple days by nice folks and my initial leasing agent Ken was good. However their apparent desire to gentrify and rapidly turn over tenants is so sketchy that this almost doesn’t matter.

Following Anna K.‘s review which will go hand in hand with mine — we both have similar complaints regarding the unfair gas bill that is for «communal» purposes. I already pay gas for my unit for cooking and heating was suppose to be supplied BY THE LANDLORD. But that isn’t the case with hidden fees (which was made apparent to me prior to signing my lease) but I didn’t expect to be charged the full amount EVERY SINGLE MONTH OF WINTER. I used to live in an apartment complex where the gas bill was my cheapest bill to cover. Why am I paying $ 20 – 30 already for cooking gas and then an additional $ 50 on top of that for communal energy when the landlord was suppose to cover the heating? Like Anna said, we cannot control this bill whatsoever to mitigate the cost making the overall rent higher than anticipated and that doesn’t include other utilities.
My reason for the low score is that the rent increase is becoming absurd in addition to this communal fee that each unit pays. I understand that rent goes with fluctuating market prices. But you cannot expect to advertise that monthly rent, expect the gas bill to be $ 70 – 80 a month, a monthly pet fee, and other additional bills would justify the increase. Also, there are indeed many problems with the units that are not told to the incoming tenants. I implore you to do your research prior to living there. Our issues didn’t rise until winter when our heater acted up all across the apartment. See how you feel when you wake up at 3 AM trying to sleep and have an 8 hour work day coming up by metal clanging from the heaters and valves that are loose causing property damage due to hot water spillage.
My next complaint is that there are only two washers and dryers in the complex next door to us. Each complex has six units… Imagine trying not to find a busy washer and dryer. If there were units in each complex, I think our experience would have been slightly better. Who wants to walk out in the middle of winter to get their laundry when it is cold outside?
All in all, I thought I would give MAC apartments a try, but this experience makes me never ever want to sign a lease with them again.

Mac overcharged my rent by $ 200 and charged utilities TWICE. My roommates and I have collectively emailed mac ATLEAST 6 times, with ZERO responses. This is outrageous. It’s been over 3 days since we first attempted to contact them, and atleast 5 days since we noticed the incorrect bill. Who are they trying to trick? We literally have a copy of the signed lease in our hands with the rent/​utilities written on it. Are they not aware that this is illegal?
Just to add: After that comment from the manager, I’ve given my email address, and I STILL haven’t gotten any responses! Good stuff!

Oh, where do I begin…
Mac Properties has a huge presence here in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, which is a pretty decent part of town to live in. I have been living in an apartment (The Paramour) ran by Mac Properties since September of last year, and in these short 5 months I have managed to somehow have the customer service number stored as a speed dial in my phone because I always have to call about SOMETHING…
When I first got the «tour» of my current apartment, it was short, sweet and to the point. The apartment’s beauty and updated appliances sold themselves. It kills me that the property’s amenities such as the laundry room, intercom system and fitness center (which I never knew existed until 3 months in) were never even explained to me. When I did finally move in, after we went over about 3 different rent changes, I was without cable for about a good two weeks. Directv is contracted in my building, and they did their part in getting me all squared away with an appointment, but had to keep coming back because they could not find the AV panel in my unit. When I called Mac to have them locate it, they told me to look around the apartment myself and that the issue wasn’t «priority» for them. After week two, I got an email from Mac saying they found the box and to reschedule with Directv. Talk about great customer service! *side eye*
Ever since I moved in, there has been an odd stain on my bathroom ceiling, indicating a leak of some sort. When my ceiling finally started to bubble up, I called to report the leak issue. About a week later (speedy service) someone came to simply patch the ceiling up and repaint. Awesome job guys putting a band-​aid as a temporary fix on the ceiling. Let’s just say the ceiling has had to be repatched just about every month since the first patch job. Finally, I called with a little umph in my voice. They said they’d send someone to FIX the problem this time. I came home from an international trip to find a super large (check the photos) hole in my ceiling. No note left or anything. Days went by. I figured they’d realize a black hole was left in a resident’s ceiling and that would prioritize the repair. WRONG!!! I called back in to hear the representative say «Oh, there’s a hole in your ceiling?!» Super Professional, guys. Finally the ceiling was repaired and sloppily repainted, eluding to the fact that the problem was solved. Can you guess what happened one month later? Take a wild guess… So now it’s going on Day 6 of having a super large, unhealthy, STILL leaking hole in my ceiling. Called in to issue a complaint to a guy named Irving and inquired about an inconvenience credit off my monthly rent for having to live in these conditions, only to be hit with «Well if there’s a hole there the problem is being already addressed?» …Excuse me? Irving must have many leaking holes in his ceiling too that have left him desensitized to people’s living areas. Glad to know that Mac’s first and only priority is their money. The American way.
Other things that have concerned me:
*People will KEY into your apartment «on accident» while the system shows no notes on someone supposed to be coming in.
*Don’t expect a note when maintenance comes for repairs, just look for the foot prints tracked on your floors.
*The laundry machines SUCK! My clothes are usually filthier after going through a wash cycle.
*Security is non-​existent.
*Mail/​packages are very much so at risk for theft (I have my packages mailed to my job).
I gave them TWO stars because the apartment itself (maintenance issues aside) is gorgeous. I always feel proud of how my apartment LOOKS. But, it’s just a fiscade. I could pay a few hundred bucks more and get an apartment in the Loop somewhere which seems more appealing at this point. You have let me down Mac.

One time MAC tore out our front steps graduation weekend without telling anyone ahead of time. Our heat and water were turned off more than they were turned on. If you want them to do anything, plan on calling at least three times. Spend the extra hour and find an independently owned building, it’s worth it. Otherwise you’ll just end up on the phone with Mac and you’ll feel bad yelling at all the helpless staff but they’re all so clueless you won’t know what else to do.

This review is me imploring you to please please _​please_​NOT rent with Mac properties. Everything about this experience has been absolute nightmare and the company seems to have protocols in place to screw you out of your money. The Resident «Success» team that is supposed to advocate for people renting with Mac is trained to make your life a living hell. Just a small sampling of the crap I’ve had to deal with since stupidly signing a lease with this company:
I’ve had Mac threaten to evict me because of a failure to process a rent payment on THEIR end.
Their rent payment portal has regularly resulted in issues with how payments are handled, and the company willingly lets your check bounce so that they can charge you a fee for it instead of helping you resolve the issue.
Employees are deceptively kind when showing your apartments prior to signing the lease, but incredibly rude once you are contractually bound to them.
Roaches upon moving into a new unit.
While the monopoly they have on apartments in the area makes it difficult to avoid being sucked into an agreement with them, I promise you that it is worth the extra legwork to hunt down a place with an alternative property management company and save yourself a lease’s worth of misery. These people are unreasonable.

Mac Properties is the worst. The hostesses at the front desk and the maintenance staff in our building are great. I don’t have many complaints about the property itself. The Mac Properties front office is terrible. The customer service is piss poor. We received a late fee, and instead of calling us in August when we received the fee, they waited until now (mid-​January!!) to inform us. In addition, we have the option of turning in the rent by the 5^th, which we’ve done. We have received a late fee every month even though we’ve been turning in the rent ON the 5^th! I feel as though we’re being scammed and I’m considering reporting them. This is a total rip-​off. I would never rent any of their properties again, and I cannot WAIT to get out of this lease. As newlyweds, we thought our new home would be perfect. It has been total hell dealing with Mac Properties.

My experience living at the Algonquin has been good so far. I like the location of the building and the updated unit. My only issue has been the residents who smoke weed in the building and the smell gets into my apartment. I don’t know why no one has done anything about it yet.

I have been in MAC property for about 5 months, and so far, I really like it. I actually LOVE my specific apartment because of the location and the floor plan. So besides the actual space being gorgeous — big windows and original hardwood floors– I feel like the team is at least as responsive as I expect in a management company. I have called about a dozen times for various issues in my apartment. I also also get a HUMAN being when I call (you can also report issues online though). They call me back, and the two gentlemen who do the major repair work are timely and professional. Based on all the negative comments I have read, I will say that it is SO important to do you your own research, and put everything in writing before, during and after a lease transaction. My prior experience renting my own property in another city perhaps lowers my expectations. They are in business to MAKE money, and that argument has to be addressed when making requests. Lastly, I try to remember my grandmother’s wisdom: you can always get more done when YOU attract with honey verses vinegar… Translation: Never pays to be rude no matter what the circumstances.

I’m still living here on their E 54^th St building in Hyde Park and can’t wait to get out of here. Their sales agent that showed us the apartment gave us an option to end the lease early because we are students traveling from place to place and he even put it in writing, but when we went to the main Mac Properties office to break the lease they told us that the sales agent should not have told us this information because it is inaccurate and they cannot help us. Luckily we were able to work something out with them but it was a mess. Also, their laundry equipment was probably fully functional only about 30% of the time I lived here. Parking is very limited in this property, so I park 2 blocks away and pay $ 180/​month just for parking. It’s not convenient when weather gets to freezing temperatures with wild winds.
Other than that, some minor complaints are that the floors are always creaking, radiator heater is not always on for use (they control it based on municipal standards), the building entrance doors would not lock or even latch closed and they would slam shut every time people walked in and out of the building before they were fixed just recently, I’m pretty sure I can hear ghosts walking in the apartment above me all through the night, one of the showers is completely tiny, and the door handles in the apartment get jammed in certain positions that don’t allow for proper door closing.

We live at the Shoreland, supposedly their «luxury property». MAC properties has ZEROOOO customer service and really doesn’t care at all to try and accommodate resident needs or requests. They have a monopoly here in hyde park (they own every decent building here), so they know that people have nowhere else to go.
If you DO end up moving into one of their properties, MAKE SURE you don’t have Tracy Velasquez as your leasing agent. If you get her, request a change to somebody else. She screwed up our entire lease, never bothered to show us around the building (gym, conference rooms, etc.) when we moved in… and is extremely rude if you ask her for help with anything.
In general, I’d have to say this place is wayyyyyy overpriced for what it actually is and the services you receive.
Update regarding Greg’s comments: The front desk staff here in this building is not who I have had problems with… It’s the MAC properties office that is a nightmare. If you had read the comments I sent to MAC properties when I was emailed and asked for feedback, you would have seen where I SPECIFICALLY praised the front desk staff, and explained my specific issues with the MAC properties management office. I’m sorry that the front desk staff was misled in your meeting, however I do hope that the issues surrounding the hideous work and behavior of Tracy Velasquez were properly addressed. Thank you for your consideration, Greg.

Bellerive: Kansas City, MO
I really love the location of the Bellerive and the residents that live here. Staff members are always helpful and quick to respond with maintenance needs. If you are patient and nice to the staff they will return the favor. I would recommend MAC Properties to everyone in Kansas City. Plus we have Google Fiber internet and I can’t complain about that! I love Kansas City.

DO NOT RENT AT A MAC PROPERTY
I have been a longtime loyal Mac customer. Until recently I have been a proponent of theirs.
However, recent changes have forced me to change my mind. For example, I called their ‘resident services’ five times and emailed three times with no response. All I wanted was to get my bedroom and bathroom painted. Veronica at the front desk took it upon herself and made it happen. The only employees I can trust and rely on are the individuals at the front desk and maintenance staff. They are truly outstanding.
Then some moron in corporate made the illogical decision to turn the parking lot from reserved spaces to open parking. Since I was the first one to sign up for a parking spot I chose wisely. Now I have gotten numerous door dings because of where I am forced to park. Ridiculous.
The moral of the story is loyalty to Mac gets punished while corporate idiots thrive.

worst experience I have ever had with Mac Properties. They completely don’t care about anyone. I try to get a place and at the last sec (after i pay the deposit) they change the price up to 60 box. I was keep asking them lets work this out since I paid the non-​refundable 50 $ application fee but all I heard was «no, not our mistake,… its free market price… and we will refund you back within 1.5 months». I try to contact their manager and apparently didn’t even want to answer me back in person. Word of advice. DONT TRUST THEM! and do business with another company. Very shady all the way!!! NO grantee on prices! Be very careful.

I have experienced swift response to work orders and good maintenance of building. All MAC staff that I have interacted with have been professional, courteous, and resourceful.

I am not paying for private parking so that mac employees can park in my spot. No matter how often I call to have them towed or call to complain to mac it happens over and over and over again. Not cool. Not okay. Train your employees and stop letting this happen!!!
What will it take for you to make this stop?

Okay, 2 again… for kind of a good reason. (This was an apartment I lived in from June 2012 to December 2013 — and subletted until June 2014.)
Here’s a tip: when you get a very nice, refurbished, 3 BD/​1 BA apartment… in a basement… for $ 1650…don’t take it. Don’t take any garden apartments, ever.
Admittedly a large part of this ordeal was because we were Foolish College Students, but when we were taken to see the apartment it was never mentioned that our heating was going to be electricity-​powered and that, by virtue of being in a basement, we would get no heat rising up into our apartment.
I’m confused how the management/​lady showing us the apartment didn’t know that to heat an apartment of this size to liveable temperatures (I’m saying just over 60 F) it would be $ 250-​$ 350/​month to do this — Hey! Here’s an idea! How about you mention that?
There was also no mention of the apartment being prone to flooding — yes — I know that with Life Experience and maybe some Googling we’d realize it would have flooded easily but hey! They could have mentioned it. This is a company that deals with first-​time renters (college students) and so not mentioning the flooding hazards is a Jerk Move.
Our apartment flooded in September 2013 and I had to spend a few days getting people to scrub the carpets, then manage floor fans to make sure the apartment didn’t grow mold (it still grew some mold). It also flooded again the next spring.
Here’s the plus side: The people at MAC are reasonable (As a reminder most problems aren’t because of evil people but because of the sum systemic effect of many slightly-​unknowingly-​disorganized people). MAC paid for people to scrub the carpets. They also handled installing something that prevented flooding sewage from spewing from the boiler room as quickly.
We had no problems paying rent, and MAC even gave us some rent credits for the electricity (the reason we didn’t realize it was so expensive was because of miscommunication about the meter — we didn’t know to set up the meter with ComEd after it got installed in September (we didn’t get a notification) and so we got back-​billed in May for over $ 3,000).
Also our address on file did not exist with the city. This meant we had to register under Comcast with the wrong address (hooray!) and made life hard when trying to register with ComEd/​etc. It also made things confusing when trying to cancel.
All of that aside: the apartment was really nice (minus flooding and being dangerously cold in the winter).
—
So my main suggestion to MAC is that you need to be more transparent with customers on the utility costs, hazards, and communication with companies as well as any sorts of Address problems. This isn’t even hard, it’s a matter of just making a spreadsheet at some point of «Apartments with flooding hazards, heating problems, or weird address things!» And then you tell the person renting about it, by giving the person showing the renters the apartments a spreadsheet.

People, hear me: DO NOT LIVE HERE.
I made the mistake of not thoroughly looking into MAC property management before we moved and it was a terrible decision. One good thing about our apartment on Drexel is that the workers are pretty good about shoveling the sidewalk during winter. One good thing about the management is that they were pretty helpful (sending pictures and videos of the apartment) before I signed the lease because we were coming from Texas and couldn’t make it up to view anything beforehand.
Now, for the important stuff:
* The walls are incredibly thin and you can hear just about everything your neighbors are doing… THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION. Forgot to set your alarm in the morning? No problem! Just wait for your neighbor’s alarm to go off so y’all can get up together!
* The floors are wood (which is nice for spills and such), but they are also old and super creaky. So, if your neighbor’s alarm isn’t enough to wake you up, his or her walking on the floor will.
* If you complain to management about loud neighbors throwing parties or making excessive noise, nothing will really be done. Call the police and then keep calling the police. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.
* There are rats in the building during the summer/​fall months and management does not really care to fix the problem. They like to make it seem as if they care and will call an ineffectual pest/​rodent control company to put a few glue traps down. We ended up having to set bait and then maintenance did not come to remove the rat (as we were told they would).
* Rent is kind of pricey considering all the issues in the buildings and low quality throughout the apartments. I’ll admit I liked the space but, TRUST ME, you can find a nice amount of space for a much higher quality apartment.
* The fitness center is a joke with a treadmill and elliptical. The multi-​purpose machine for weights is often broken and it may be months before it is actually fixed. If you like the idea of a fitness center, but not the ability to actually use it… this is the place for you. :)
* The front gate is often broken. If a false sense of security is what you desire, RENT HERE! In addition, the directory that people are supposed to use to call you at the gate frequently malfunctions and you have to get up and go let your guests in. Complaining about this to management typically takes 3 – 4 weeks for them to fix.
* So, recently, MAC fixed the front gate and installed a tension type of device that made the gate hard to push open when you’re trying to leave. Yesterday (June 25) MAC «fixed» the gate to where it would not open AT ALL (from the inside OR the outside). I literally had to climb the fence to get in… RIDICULOUS. BUT, if you enjoy unpredictability… move here!
* Recently, there was a new rule implemented that if you submit an online maintenance request, you must allow maintenance people to enter your apartment regardless of if you are home. They do not clean up after themselves and may even leave a gift to indicate they were there… such as pee on your toilet seat! They do some quality work, people.
* The free internet often goes out and you have to be home in order for someone to come to your place and fix it. I guess you really do get what you pay for.
* Management here is very lax and the office staff does not always seem to know what they’re doing. Some of the people are pretty friendly but, let’s get real, being friendly doesn’t make up for all the other hassles that are MAC Property Management.
I’ve since moved out, but will update this review if necessary (like if they coincidentally decide to send me notifications of any charges – which they shouldn’t because I created a document and had the manager sign indicating that I didn’t owe anything).

After posting my review July 31^st, I received a letter TODAY dated August 1, 2014 from a collection company attempting to collect the rent that WOULD have been for the rest of May had that been the VERBAL agreement. I find it funny that these people do not document their own conversations and clerical errors then try to collect from former tenants. Clearly if I HAD owed back rent to them they would have attempted to CALL me after doing so, not send a letter 3 months later from a collection company, addressed to me at the old apartment.
DO NOT RENT FROM THESE THIEVES! I look forward to hearing from the property manager about her mistake. Because there is NO way I am paying $ 733.16 to them for THEIR mistake!