Walter Wood Real Estate

Rented from them for about 4 years. The place was barely cleaned when we moved in and they were always slow with service, but that’s not especially different from every other landlord I’ve had in the city. My real complaint begins at move-​out. It’s been 3 months since my husband and I moved out and we still have not gotten our security deposit. We left the place in better shape than it was when we moved in, and they had no complaints. However, I had to call over and over and over to get them to send us the check, and then when we got it (a full month later than promised), it bounced for non-​sufficient funds! We still have yet to receive our money! AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

I rented from them for 4 years, and would love to rent from them again. They were absolutely fantastic with the repairs, you couldn’t ask for better contractors, plumbers and everyone that works for them! Took care of any safety issues in the building, reasonably priced with their properties, replaced my entire kitchen to update it. I could not have asked for a better landlord.

Well, I’m probably equally happy and embarrassed to say that I’ve been a renter for the last 21 years in the same University City apartment. About sixteen of those years, the property has been managed by Wood Realtors.
As it happens, one of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to start recognizing people and businesses for great service. It can be so easy to rant and rage when things go wrong. But really, for every one thing that goes wrong there’s a million others that go right that are hardly ever acknowledged, right? «No news is good news,» I guess. Well, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and it kept slipping my mind until today…
A minor drippy toilet that seemed to be getting worse with each passing minute…
I was going to go into the details. But just thinking about it now is giving me PTSD. I’m on the phone with Wood Realtors describing the scene while they’re on the phone with the plumber. It was like a scene out of ‘The Money Pit’ with Tom Hanks or some slapstick comedy. As we’re on the phone the supply tube (I googled it) starts violently spraying toilet water all over me. Now. I’m. Screaming. «Oh my God!» The tube apparently has a poltergeist in it. It’s alive and spraying and following me all over the bathroom as I’m desperately trying to find trash bins to collect the water after I wrestle it to the ground. I seriously thought that I would drown in my bathroom by the time it was all said and done. I must have dropped the phone.
The crazy thing is, though Wood Realtors is four ONE-​WAY city blocks up and two heavily trafficked blocks over, the manager got to the basement of the house and had shut off the water in about 90 seconds. I’m not even kidding. It was like Superman. The plumber got here shortly after that. So the very successful resolution of that harrowing experience brings me to Unilocal today.
Over the years I’ve come to know a lot of the people who work for Wood Realtors; managers, general maintenance, plumber, exterminator, painters, groundskeeping/​trash crew, they have been very visible and responsive. No, I don’t call them for everything. Yes, there are some minor things that I’ll go ahead and try to fix myself (the tiny cabinet door under the bathroom sink came unhinged for example.) But the things that I *know* will cause major damage to the property I notify them about immediately and it gets taken care of. Sometimes I may have to make a follow-​up call but there has never been anything that could have potentially made my place uninhabitable that wasn’t fixed right away.
When I moved to the neighborhood it was not «University City.» It was West Philly and all that that appellation conjures up (still West to me however.) Whatever you call it, I love it… and since I’ve stayed and developed pretty good relationships with my neighbors (we look out for each other but mind our business) and Wood Realtors (I try not to be a pesky tenant) I am now able to live in a great part of the city, in a decent sized (old, yes but well-​maintained) apartment for a really decent price.

I’ve rented with them for almost 2 years.
The one star minus is because they were slow to fix stuff. I was always nice with them, and reminded them about problems. I got a brand new fridge the same day mine just stopped working. They were always polite and reasonable.
First, when I was looking for the apartment, I was picky. I told them «no» to a few places because although cheap, they were not in what I would like to live in. I finally found a place by having them contact ME out of nowhere that if I’m still interested they had an apartment. It was great– HUGE, across the street from the grocery store, safe, clean, and pet friendly. We had access to a yard and laundry was in the basement.
For the amount of rent I was paying, it was a good value. John was always super responsive and addressed all of my concerns. Every time I had a question or an issue, it was attended to. Maybe it wasn’t fixed right away, but they had their guys on the issue immediately.
I took good care of the place and I have a well behaved dog, so I had no problems. I also picked the apartment out with care. I received my entire deposit back without a problem and I can say that most of the negative reviews are probably from people who unfortunately had a negative experience. I know my neighbors have been renting from them for years and they own half of west philly. They have to be doing something right.

I rented from these guys in University City for two years at 44^th and Walnut. I got pretty frustrated with how they consistently blew off my service requests for basic things like a resealing a leaky toilet. Interestingly, the front of the property was always nicely landscaped.

I haven’t had anything bad happen here.
My apartment is HUGE and cheap. Yes, they are a little slow on repairs but when my heat didn’t work, they sent someone the next day.
I had a terrible landlord before so I guess all things considered, I like them and the apartment is nice.

Unless you enjoy chewing on face-​fulls of empty promises and find pleasure in being thoroughly ignored on a consistent basis, I insist that you do not rent properties managed by Wood Realtors.
Broken washer? Nobody cares.
Light switch in the bathroom dead? Nobody cares.
Ceiling leaking again? Nobody cares.
Squirrels holding Thunder-​Dome Death Matches in the attic? Guess what… there’s a pattern here.
I gets’ the anger-​shakes’ everytimes’ I thinks’ abouts’ it.