Birwood Property Management - Madison, Wisconsin

Finnian O.

If there was a 0 star option I would use it. Birwood is the most unprofessional, unorganized, and rude company I have ever dealt with. I do not have enough characters to describe the problems with our property, I will add pictures of what our "cleaned house" looked like.
A maintenance request has been in for 42 days, with 3 reminder requests and they have not gotten around to it (when the company said this issue would be fixed pre-move in). Hopefully when they see it here, they can fix the water damaged rotted wall and the holes in the floor around the shower for us within the next 42 days! If you are looking for mice infested properties that come with no locks (or doorknobs) and have insane water damage you found the spot! If you want to move into a house with actual pee sitting in the toilet after Birwood claims they cleaned it sign right up!
If I could give any advise to an underclassmen it would be to run as far away from Birwood as possible.

Oksana L. R.

Megan at Birwood is wonderful to work with. If the apartment you are looking at is managed by Birwood, rent it! They carefully and meticulously screen all renters, and are on top of issues that arise with living in an apartment. I had to sublet as I finally found a home. Megan worked with me to help find a subletter and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to leave when I did. I loved my apartment in Sun Prairie on Market Street. I only moved because I finally purchased after selling my previous place. Birwood Property Management is highly recommended!

Miranda A.

Well, I used to like birwood... Then the thing with the dryer happened. Our dryer needed to be replaced, and for almost a month birwood repeatedly said they were bringing in a new one, only to, err, repeatedly fail to measure its dimensions? They literally ordered multiple dryers only to fail to get them downstairs.

That's fine on it's face. What they did NEXT was say "actually, we just fixed it!" Hilarious, because it does not work AT ALL. We have been weeks without a dryer now, they have not been communicating with us, they closed the maintenance request - it's hard not to see this as trying to pass off a broken dryer as a functional one. Honestly I would love a reason to take this review down, I hope they wake up and become more professional.

Braxton H.

I was with Birwood Property only for a short time and needed to sub lease. They were able to help me with the process the whole way and made the situation as easy as possible! I would recommend to anyone as they seem to truly care for their tenants.

Jacob G.

I will not recommend Birwood to anyone.

One positive thing I will say is that they do have a few employees that are extremely nice and helpful, but that’s not enough to curve my overall experience.

I started a sublet in 2020, there was furniture from the previous tenant all over the apartment and storage locker, nothing was clean. I spent months cleaning and removing furniture. There was damage all over, blinds missing, blinds broken, the garbage disposal didn’t work, etc. but because this was the height of a global pandemic I only had essential repairs, the garbage disposal was fixed, there was substantial water damage in the bathroom. They were made aware over the phone of how much damage there was in the fall of 2020, we still have our move in notes even though they never asked or told us to.

Everything that wasn’t fixed, I just received an invoice for after moving out.

How is that you couldn’t provide these changes before I moved in, but then you’ll bill me for them when I leave?

We were billed for the removal curtains and blinds. There weren’t any blinds or curtains in one bedroom at all so why would I take them down and not be courteous to the next sublet? I was charged for one lightbulb even though that same one was burnt out when I moved in.

I was billed for cleaning but it just lists all the rooms it doesn’t state what was cleaned. I spent 15 hours cleaning prior to moving out (I took pictures of almost everything) so I find it hard to believe that there was $160 worth of cleaning. The premise of what they even considered clean was inherently subjective and it also WAS NOT CLEANED before I officially took over the lease.

Beyond my apartment unit, the common places were disgusting. We found dead mice in the basement, in the sink, in front of the washer/dryer, there was tenants random furniture placed in front of the electric box (fire hazard, not legal, I had people over that would point it out as well), general upkeep was not done in common areas.

The only draw was that it was cheap but from experience in my honest opinion I would not recommend anyone using this Property Management.

Maya B.

I have a pretty nice one bedroom apartment near the UW hospital that costs a lot less than the average rent for one bedroom apartments in Madison. I also get an off-street parking spot for pretty cheap. My apartment allows two cats for no extra charge which I really appreciate. They're usually pretty quick to respond to emails (1-2 business days). I like the online resident portal that I pay rent through - it's very convenient. I asked my landlord if I could get my kitchen remodeled if I paid more on rent the next year and I wasn't sure what kind of answer I'd get... To my surprise, they said yes. I came back in January to a brand new, super awesome kitchen! Thank you Birwood!

Giving 4 stars because when I moved in, the apartment had not been cleaned very well. Secondly, there have been times that they could be more professional in their email and text communications.

Overall, it's a decent company to rent from.

Listening T. R.

Discriminatory lackadaisical application process. Brandy was the person that was processing my application.

I am black, - with great rental history, verifiable income and references.

I made 4x the rent and had great credit.

I met with a very aloof lady named Brandy when doing the showing and I can tell she was more concerned with my skin color than actually showing me the apartment.

Needless to say I was denied. I called the references listed, and none were called, my job was never contacted to verify my income nor was my credit ever checked.

I had to have my old landlord call birwood / brandy, because they refuse to process my application.

If you’re a person of color please be aware, these people will discriminate, and if you have been discriminated against please reach out to me so we can discuss ways to remedy this issue

Matthew M.

Birwood was a nightmare to deal with. They act as though they are on top of it, responsive, and care about their tenants until you move in. There were multiple times service techs came to the house when we were not given any advance (working on things we had not called in). Their employees become extremely rude once the lease is signed and you are locked in. Don’t sign up for auto pay right away. I signed up and was charged an extra $300 the first month on “accident” until I noticed and had it fixed. Also charged an extra fee the first months rent after renewing the lease until it was noticed and brought up. I rented for three years because I loved the location, but would never recommend this renta company to anyone. When moving out almost half of my security deposit was taken for “cleaning fees” the place was spotless and much cleaner than the dusty apartment that I had moved into. I bought a cleaner for the carpet and went over it before moving and was still charged for cleaning that. Also charged for normal kitchen wear and tear like replacing the burner catchers. Moved in to a new spot that is not with Birwood and everything is great. I have been renting for 10 years and this is the worst rental company I have dealt with. Would not recommend unless you would like your rental property manager to speak down to you through texts or email every time you have an issue.

To your response, there were two times we were not notified at all. One instance maintenance people were actually in the property and the other they used a ladder to get on the second story balcony. This was review was not written to get a response or reach out to anyone with your company, rather warning future tenants about issues that were not resolved with your company.