My daughter and her roommate just got a notice from management that is accusing them of leaving a dirty apartment with nearly $1800 in cleaning fees. We cleaned the apartment prior to moving out, and it was cleaner than when they moved in. I can understand a couple hundred dollars in wear and tear, but $1800 is excessive.

They are clearly trying to rip off college kids because they feel like they can. If this happened to your child, please contact me. I have ideas how to come together as a group.

Word to the wise: record with pics or video upon move-in. I did this with my kids on a duplex with Equity. They were going to charge for so much - broken windows, light bulbs, holes in the walls, etc.
I went to the office with my then printed photos, dated, to prove that it was all there upon move in....even though it was also on the inventory sheet. got everything removed except 1 light bulb. The bulb worked, the fixture had a short....but I didn't care at that point. I let them have their $ 15 for the bulb.
These places are mostly all rip off agencies and not property management businesses.

They all are underperforming based on the cap rates now vs when the deal was done. So they are getting their management teams to help improve NOI by coming up with more fees and fines.

It's been a racquet since I was in school
Stopped cleaning after awhile

I have been renting homes to students for several decades.
I love giving back 100% of deposits. It happens more often than not.
What I have found when I do have to hold part of a deposit it is always the same story. We cleaned!
It was cleaner than when we moved in.
I have never had a single complaint when moving in about the quality or cleanliness of one of our homes.
Many have no idea of what clean truly is and not an idea of how to do it.
I recommend to my tenants when moving out to use a professional cleaning service that I recommend.
Might I suggest anyone looking for a rental home try to find a local owner to rent from. Most all of our previous students love my Wife and I. We attend many ring dunks and weddings of our tenants and previous tenants. We see a bunch of previous tenants siblings coming in to our homes.
Having said all of that I am sick of dealing with the city and I am in the process of selling our rental homes. Can't wait to be done with the insanity of what College Station has become.

30 years from now, when those high rises aren't the cool new place to live, how will they keep them occupied?

MS08 said:

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hopeandrealchange said:

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I have been renting homes to students for several decades.
I love giving back 100% of deposits. It happens more often than not.
What I have found when I do have to hold part of a deposit it is always the same story. We cleaned!
It was cleaner than when we moved in.
I have never had a single complaint when moving in about the quality or cleanliness of one of our homes.
Many have no idea of what clean truly is and not an idea of how to do it.
I recommend to my tenants when moving out to use a professional cleaning service that I recommend.
Might I suggest anyone looking for a rental home try to find a local owner to rent from. Most all of our previous students love my Wife and I. We attend many ring dunks and weddings of our tenants and previous tenants. We see a bunch of previous tenants siblings coming in to our homes.
Having said all of that I am sick of dealing with the city and I am in the process of selling our rental homes. Can't wait to be done with the insanity of what College Station has become.

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Curious, with rental homes, how are you dealing with the City and how are they tipping you over the edge to make you sell? I'm a developer and have to work with City in what feels like true hand to hand combat, but curious what your dealings with them are on rental property side. ?

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My problems started with the implementation of the rental registration and the annual fee associated with it oh so many years ago. Can't believe it took so long to get that stopped. I had an issue once with the fire dept. they needed to contact me and could not find out who owned my property. When I asked the Chief why they did not have access to the rental registration he had no idea of what I was talking about. This was many years into the program. A follow up weeks later he explained his department did not have access to the information.
Dealing with the dynamic policies of P&Z is insane.
The ideas on how to deal with parking and the ever changing "ideas".
Treating bulk trash pick up different from owner occupied to rentals baffles me.
The random hassles by code enforcement when my properties make my owner occupied neighbors homes look like slums.
Your hand to hand combat description is spot on when trying to do anything.
The small group of loudmouths in my neighborhoods that influence staff and council have way to much influence for some unknown reason.
Sorry for the rant but you asked.

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Treating bulk trash pick up different from owner occupied to rentals baffles me.

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I was not aware of this and think it is dumb.