J Michael Real Estate - Madison, Wisconsin

SAGE S.

I've rented from J. Michael for 2 years now and they are by far the best management company in Madison. Every time we have a problem maintenance shows up within 30 minutes and fixes it for us. If you are looking into renting college housing in Madison 100% rent with J. Michael.

AStrid

Renting from J Michael Real Estate in Madison, WI has been an incredibly frustrating experience that has led to a lot of stress in me and my roommate's lives.
The biggest thing to know renting from them is that they will require you to resign almost immediately after your lease begins. Last year, 2022, we had to declare our intent to renew on October 15th. This year, 2023, they are requiring a declaration of intent to renew by September 15th. An egregiously early timeline that puts people at risk. How are you supposed to know how good their maintenance response time is or how the winter goes in your unit by then? You just can't. Though I will tell you, their maintenance response time is SLOW. We have never had anything fixed in less than month.
On top of slow response times, we have had several times were maintenance entered our apartment or did work inside the building with no notice.
If you live by the stadium they will sell your parking space on game days, even though the space costs $75 a month or $900 a year.
They also raised the price of laundry on very short notice (leaving us with no washer and dryer for almost a week). It now costs $4 to do every load of laundry.
All in all, J Michael Real Estate is a despicable example of classic landlord companies that want to gouge as much money as they can from students.

John S.

We sublet an apartment from J.Michael Real Estate from January till August of 2023. J. Michel required our lessors and us sign a sublettor agreement and as part of it we were required to give deposits. When we moved out J.Michael claimed they never received the keys and deducted $300 from the deposit. All they provided was a picture of an opened envelope that they claim arrived that way, however UPS has denied our claims for damages on the package and said the package was certainly delivered intact. They also charged us $350 in cleaning fees. As justification of this they provided three images showing a clean tub, an empty drawer, and an empty stove. They provided no evidence that any actual work was done.

Ian H.

If you are moving out of here soon - take as many pictures as possible and document the serial number on your internet modem. They will try to charge you for the smallest things as a source of revenue for their business that no other landlord in Madison I had in 5 years would charge for - They are terrible, dishonest people and do not deserve your business based on the way they treat their tenants.

Casey O.

If you want a company who communicates properly, is timely with maintenance requests, keeps to their word, is responsive to questions and complaints, and follows the terms set themselves in their own lease agreement, then this is not the company for you! My apartment was broken into and someone was shot on our front lawn before our move in date and we found out through journalists asking us questions before the company even told us. They didn’t tell us until the next day (they said they just found out even though they already had someone fixing the damages). They also rarely respond to maintenance requests. We’ve put in multiple ones for the communal washer and dryer and there have been no responses. There have been multiple occasions where they didn’t tell us people were coming into our apartment or when changes would be occurring. Other times, they told us an hour before. After asking them to communicate with us better when people would be in or house or on the property and they agreed, the problem still continued. Just yesterday I received an email about painters coming after I already saw the painter outside of our house on our porch over two hours prior to the email. We have tried multiple times to communicate, but it’s useless each time. Won’t be leasing with this company ever again!

Jake K.

The only reason I am giving them 2 stars instead of 1 is because I lived in two separate J Michael apartment buildings and was very pleased with the response time for maintenance requests as a tenant. However, J Michael seems to view the security deposits as a source of revenue and tends to take advantage of college students living there. I left my apartment in good condition with little to no damages except a few nail holes in the wall and not only did they keep my security deposit, they also charged me an additional $2000 on top of it. Never have I seen in my life such a scheme for money but I had no leg to stand on as the pictures I took in the beginning of the year and the report I made were clearly not detailed enough and I got charged for every minor scratch in the deteriorating building that I lived in. I highly encourage you take an extremely thorough walkthrough video of every single aspect of your apartment if you plan to be a tenant with this company.

Michael A.

This is by far the worst company in Madison to rent from. They do not care about their tenants at all their only agenda is how they can squeeze as much money out of college students as they can. If my roommates and I can give any recommendation it is to find a different company for your living needs. They did not complete any maintenance in any sort of timely matter as well as provided us with an apartment not up to living safety standards.

Should have been a red flag when the previous tenants last year knocked on our door the first week we moved in and asked to look at the apartment since J. Michael withdrew their entire security deposit and then continued to charge them an absurd amount after the fact. This is what happened to my roommates and I. They made up charges with an absurd price tag. Even after countless emails they real-estate agent did not even try to work with us and the only thing she said, Sarah Ladwig, was threaten to send their lawyer after us for 200$. After they collected our whole entire security deposit which was over 2300$. Absolutely absurd to think we left the apartment with over 2500$ worth of damage, which we certainly did not.

All and all absolute scum bags that will extort college students for their own gain with no recollection of their tenants.

Xander G.

The most critical issues with J Micheal Real Estate is there spotty to down right nonexistent communication with tenants and their overall unprofessional work standards. Expect your maintenance requests to have a response time of 4 - 8 months.

As you can read in other reviews and your lease (assuming you are hoping to sign with them) they will make no effort on their own part to do any sort of cleaning prior to move in and will subsequently attempt to charge you through the nose for your security deposit on move out. If you are moving into one of their places I would highly recommend taking HD videos of your place moving in as you will probably end up having to dispute them for damages. I moved into my place with floors black with grime and solo cups littering the floor, copious damages along the floorboards and doorways, missing/broken blinds, and broken glass along the back entrance.

The real kicker, is that you can often find places in the exact same area with the exact same pricing with far better kept appliances and a higher standard of professionalism. Be prepared to be fighting against your owners instead of working with them if you intend to live in one of their places.