Seminary Properties and Managment

Besides our entire house being low-​quality and run-​down, their customer service is awful. After submitting a maintenance request for a broken light fixture, I requested to be alerted of the day they would be coming so I could be home. Not only would they refuse to tell me (which has never been an issue in the past) someone came when I was unaware, left dirt all over my bedspread from standing on my bed, and the light fixture was not even fixed. I will never rent from seminary properties again after this.

I guess my experience was alright. I lived in a two bedroom with a friend in a garden unit. The units are newly renovated, poorly insulated and the heating costs are insane but not so bad overall. When we first moved in our bathroom showers were sort of busted. But they came to fix it within the day. Otherwise never really had any problems or had to deal with Jeremy much. What sucked was our next door neighbors were partying all the time and would spill beer right next to my ground window sometimes stinking up our apartment and making t hard to sleep but not a seminary problem. Rent is fair.
But they do schedule showings last minute when you’re going to move out. However, co Tracy to these reviews as long as you leave things clean and in good condition when you move out/​replace the light bulbs, you get 98% of your security deposit back.

I’m a 3 ½ year resident of Seminary Properties and very satisfied overall. The apartments are cheap gut rehabs, but if you can get past that, they are actually pretty good places to live. Amenities are great (we have a dishwasher, in-​unit washer/​dryer, central heat/​air) and located in Chicago’s best neighborhoods. The layout is big and open and I know people who pay way more for less space. Maintenance is always responsive (our pipes froze last winter and this winter — and they were here at 5am to thaw them). Each year the rent increases are very reasonable (generally under $ 20). They definitely stick to the books and if you pay rent even 1 day late, you’ll be charged. However, by in large you can do much worse with other landlords in Chicago. Keep up the great work, Seminary.

Recently finished up 2 years with Seminary Properties and was very pleased my whole time there. They were responsive to maintenance issues, usually having someone take care of the issue the next business day. They only increased rent by about 1% each year vs. national avg. of 6% so that was nice. We subleased out our unit to some friends so didn’t have to deal with any of the security deposit issues that some of the other reviews had to deal with (friends had to pay us our security deposit back). The only negative I could point out during my time was one of my roommates had pretty bad water damage after a really heavy storm and they weren’t able to come in for a couple of days. Even after they «fixed» the problem the next time there was a really heavy storm my roommate’s room got some water damage on the walls, but not as much as the first time. The second time they came by they did a better job of addressing the problem as he never had any more issues with water damage.

If it wasn’t for their $ 10 convenience fee for paying rent with a credit card I might have a different review. This is a serious inconvenience to me and their response is «just write a check.» Like it’s that simple. First off a lot of people don’t even have checkbooks anymore and secondly most people take advantage of the 30 days of free interest offered from a major credit card for their monthly expenses, then pay that off out of their checking account each month. Seminary needs to get up to speed with the times and drop the convenience charge like most other companies have done.

I wish I could give this place zero stars and I am serious. Unlike most of the college folks who rent from these people, I have been around the block, and let me say, I have experienced MUCH better. As a matter of fact, I think some homeless people get better service living in government housing that my taxes help pay for.
Simply put, these guys are scammers who live by contracts and let you talk to the hand in any and all situations. Not very «Seminary» like. I think God would be ashamed! For example, our basement flooded one lovely evening and we called the emergency number only to be told that we were not in fact experiencing an emergency. Really? Not an emergency? How would you know? We are the ones smelling human feces in our basement, NOT YOU!
When we moved in the place was trashed and I don’t mean a bit messy-​trashed. We called and were told that we had higher standards of cleanliness than most people and to deal with it.
Now, finally, we are moving out and requested to have a walk through in person (per the lease). However, we were told that due to time constraints we would have to either move out a day earlier than our lease is signed through or agree to their findings and charges.
I can’t put into words how much trouble I have had in dealing with these uneducated yuppies that own the joint-​two brothers who have no business sense. I mean if I owned a property that was flooding in human shit I would be over immediately to protect my investment, but these guys turned a blind eye to the entire situation.
PLEASE-​SAVE YOURSELVES and do NOT rent from the seminary scammers!

Current Seminary Properties renter here. Since 2011, I’ve only had one notable interaction with the company. When our heater failed in the middle of winter, they immediately brought over emergency space heaters & had the regular heater repaired in short order. Also, when the lease was up for renewal, they barely raised the rent at all. So despite the number of negative reviews, there are certainly some happy (if less vocal) renters out there! I’ll update this review if things change in the future, but so far, so good.

If I could give negative stars I would. I had an absolutely terrible experience with seminary properties. I had an appt. set to view an apartment. We all know that good apt’s in Chicago are hard to come by so I set an apt for the very day of that this apt came on the market. I told them that I wanted to be the first person to see it because I would be signing for it THAT day. I showed up 20 min early. I waited around for 30 min and they were late. A guy named Sam shows up late ans says that, «oh, sorry. Someone showed up and is already signing paperwork on it.» Long story short, someone just walked by that didn’t have an apt. and got it. Ok so maybe i’m being over-​dramatic but I am outraged because I went to measures to make sure that 1. i had an appt, and 2. i was the first one. They didn’t even apologize or take the time to call me and tell me not to come.
Bottom line: unreliable and unprofessional. I’m glad I didn’t rent with them.

I didn’t realize how good I had it with SP until I moved. And now, I wish I had stayed.
I never had much interaction with them — which is a GOOD thing. Having the experience be pretty uneventful is also a GOOD thing. You want a management company that manages, which also means you shouldn’t really notice them.
Next time I move, I’ll definitely be looking at to what they have open.

Somehow all the bad reviews for Seminary Properties have been filtered, including mine. Please me sure to check the filtered revies fot this company. It definitely should have 0 stars.

Seminary did have decent response time to maintenance issues.
I think the rent was reasonable and they did not increase for the 3 years we lived here. Our place was «rehabbed» but yes it was cheaply done, obviously catering to the cheap renters in Wrigleyville.
Over the three years we lived here I’ve noticed they don’t screen other tenants very well, most young college students who’s parents are paying for the rent so they have no desire to take care of the shared interior spaces or exterior spaces.
I’m more concerned with their lack of any customer service for issues outside of maintenance. My roommate and I don’t have problems ever paying rent, yet whenever we asked to give us an extra 2 hours to move out they came back at us with paying double or triple rent and contacting credit agencies, just let me pay for an extra 2 hours.
I own a town home that I rent out and I typically will let my tenants make changes that I feel will increase their value and mine, I want them to pay and also be happy with what they are getting. I don’t think Sam Martin cares about the tenants, just the money. I actually get better customer satisfaction from Bank of America than from Seminary, so much for supporting small businesses, I’m all for big corporations gobbling them up.

I’ve lived in three different apartments of theirs and would rent from them again. As management companies go, they’re pretty good. The response time to issues is reasonable. My biggest complaint would be some of the different neighbors I’ve had over the years. Some have been great neighbors and considerate. Other’s seem to have no clue how to live or treat others. As far as some of the complaints about deposits go, each time I’ve moved out I have received an itemized list of any problems with photos and receipts. I’d love to say I leave places decently but I haven’t been able to argue with what they have found.

Never. Ever. Rent from Seminary. We were told we would get most of our security deposit back but ended up getting a couple of dollars. Their repair charges were absurd: $ 50 for missing ONE key. $ 20 to clean a toilet? These people are crooks. I would camp under the tracks at the Fullerton stop than rent from these guys again.

A 3 year tenant. You can kiss your deposit goodbye. They take pictures of every nail hole, scuff, dirt, and things left behind and charge you for each individually. Out of generosity, I left a fireplace screen I bought for the wood burning fp, and they took a picture and charged me for the removal. Same thing for cleaning supplies left, extra furnace filters, and window treatments I put on the street facing windows (where there were none previously). I have had friends experience the same with this company. They charged them the entire cost of the hardwood flooring for scratches on the floor (they ended up fighting them and getting out of it).
Maintenance was bad too. The front door handle was routinely broken and stairs rarely (if ever cleaned). Every fixture was cheap and had zero upgrades to anything (kitchen, bathrooms, floors, etc).
I applied for a home loan following my rent and they would not give me a recommendation since my roomate was late a few times on his rent check. Since they would not give me a recommendation, I faxed them a letter stating that I had never been late on a payment and had them sign it. Then fowarded that to my loan officer and he was shocked to see that they had signed the letter but wouldn’t give me a recommendation. They gave me the loan anyway and have not had to deal with these guys since.

Just finishing up a year of renting from Seminary.
My roommate and I thought they were great. Reading these other reviews sound like these people were renting from a totally different company.
We always had prompt responses to maintenance issues, even on holidays, like when our heat stopped working on New Years Eve and someone was there fixing the furnace less than an hour after we called.
We did have some issues with third party rental agencies showing our apartment with little to no notice beforehand to us but after talking to Sam at Seminary that all got taken care of.
Not sure about being nickeled and dimed just yet, but I’ll update after the security deposit is returned.

I rented from Seminary for a year — my first lease in Chicago. I was not pleased with them at all. They didn’t pay attention to regular maintenance issues, and then they nickled and dimed us upon moving out. The doorknob on the front door to the building kept on falling off — and when it fell off you couldn’t exit the building. Major fire hazard, right? I called multiple times about this, and I often got the response «just use the back door.» Not acceptable in my book. Instead of replacing the doorknob, they kept on «fixing» it, only to have it break a short time later. This happened at least 5 times over 3 months.
Their rent was above market, and we decided not to renew the lease when they upped our rent by $ 125 a month. Strangely, the apartment sat vacant for 2 months and they eventually brought the rent back down to what we paid.
One of the Seminary employees repeatedly showed up unannounced to show our apartment — one time when I was IN THE SHOWER. He figured that since it was a weekday my roommate and I would be at work. (I was sick that day). So much for privacy.
My current landlord just owns a 3-​flat. While he doesn’t have the quickest response time to problems, at least he has an excuse — it’s not his full-​time job.
I agree with Desiree’s review — the rehabbed units look nice, but they’re cheaply done.

Seminary Properties has been my managment company for two years and I’ve had no complaints. I’ve delt with my fair share of sleezy landlords in the past, but I’ve been so impressed with Seminary Properties and their commitment to their tenents and to quality apartment living in Chicago, that they stand in a class way above the rest. They’re quick to respond to emergancies (we’re talking within hours-​or even less – not days or weeks!) Their buildings are clean, well maintained and a place I am proud to call home.