Urban Property Management

So far, all of our dealings with Urban Properties have been A-​1. While I don’t always trust negative Unilocal reviews (they’re usually written by folks with an axe to grind), I was a little hesitant, but our bills get paid on time, the maintenance is spot on and the staff (Micheal, Bill and Amanda) has always been courteous when we need to contact them.

The maintenance workers are good, but the management is awful — we own two condos that are both unfortunately managed by Urban. They can’t get their scheduling correct to save their lives. Don’t expect any of your requests such as gas shutoff to be completed on the day you schedule contractors and plumbers to come in. Don’t expect snow and ice removal on common areas to happen until someone falls and goes to the ER with a concussion. Expect the trash room to fill up to its bursting point before someone empties it. If you are looking at condos in South End, and you find out it is managed by Urban — run away, don’t walk.

Property management is often a difficult and thankless job which is why I’m all the more happy to recommend Urban Management. I’ve lived in a building run by Urban Management for the past four years and have only great things to say. Their management staff are professionals who I’ve found to be trustworthy and friendly. I feel good knowing that these guys have the keys to my building & my apartment.

I’m actually surprised by some of the reviews… I’ve only had good experiences with them. When I’ve had issues, they’ve been responsive and attentive. But I’d expect that from a management company. Unfortunately, I’ve had some really asinine problems and they took the time to work on and handled them with the empathy of a saint. I’d even say they were way more proactive than reactive as many of the other management companies tend to be. I also appreciate working with a small company — on the one occasion I had to stop by their office, it almost had a family feel to it (somebody even had their dog in that day.) This being a Unilocal review, I will say that Gaslight around the corner has a much better beer list.

Rude, unprofessional, and condescending (one of their staffers — Michael Palomo — made a snide and condescending remark to me about the «big deal» buying a condo in one of their condo buildings this summer; mind you, this is to a resident who bought in one of THEIR condo buildings). Another time, Bill Kasper (the president of Urban Management) completely ignored two residents’ requests to have emergency services be sent out to the garage because the garage door had broken at 11pm. The request was ignored, and we were told to physically haul the metal door up to let our cars in that night. Awesome service, guys. Just spectacular job on that front.
Should a friend be shopping around for a condo in the area or for a company to manage his condo, I will vehemently argue that Urban Property Management NOT be included in that search. There are management companies that treat owners like what they are — owners in the building. This company treats them like underlings to be kicked around for fun. Stay away.

Bill is your typical property manager, who passes responsibility whenever possible.

I have been in the services business my entire professional career and I have NEVER worked with a services company that is as awful as Urban Property Management.
We hired Urban almost a year ago to help us manage a small owner occupied building. It has been a constant struggle getting them to answer, act, and deliver. I am not trying to be hateful but I honestly cannot say they execute on anything and want prospective buyers of their service to be warned.
They do not pay the building’s bills on time, which has caused a strained relationship with our contractors. As a result our service suffers because our contractors are not paid with any degree of regularity as they should.
Urban does not fulfill the building’s requests and we have to constantly hound them to get things done. Despite our constant badgering they still can’t seem to get the job done — and these are simple tasks such as hanging a sign or two or even changing a light bulb.
What’s worse is that they have authorized payments without consulting the building’s board of directors. This has amounted to a situation where we are constantly asking Urban to provide us updates on how we are going to get our our money back.
Unfortunately the communication is non-​existent as well. They never provide status updates and even when we ask them for an update it takes weeks before you hear back.
I will warn you that you are asking for trouble if you sign up with Urban.