Winnemac Properties

When making the first maintenance request in a new place, you don’t know what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised especially by Mas and Reuben.
We’ve lived here one month and after just moving in I’ve had a great experience with maintenance in the apartment. We put together a list of 11 maintenance requests ranging from very small issues (e.g., noisy fans in multiple rooms) to slightly more important things like installing our AC unit, fixing the dining room light fixture, and replacing a cracked shower head. We emailed our list of requests to Mas and received a reply within 12hrs that included notice about maintenance people arriving to the apartment the next day.
Three maintenance people, Mas, Reuben and George, arrived on time during the 3 hour window within which we had been notified they would be there. Almost all of the issues were resolved within an hour but Reuben stayed longer to follow up on a variety of smaller things like replacing dimmer switches to keep the fans more quiet.
We had three outstanding issues that could not be resolved on the spot, and Mas called and hired an electrician, Stan, to come out the following day to repair the light fixture that needed more attention and special parts. I received follow up phone calls, texts, and voicemails confirming the arrival time of the hired electrician the following day, as well as the timing that Rueben would return the next day to replace a GFI outlet with a new part he had to go buy. I’ve read the previous reviews, and my experience suggests that the property management company has been responsive to improving their practices around providing notice. I wasn’t just provided notice, these appointments were scheduled around times that I could be in the apartment to discuss the issues and oversee the repairs.
Through out the process, I interacted with Mas, Reuben, and the electrician, Stan, the most. Mas and Reuben were thorough, and reviewed our list of requests with me multiple times through out the couple days it took to get the parts for the repairs, and considered their work done once I had agreed that everything had been completed to our satisfaction. Not every request was possible, for example, smoothing the tracking in the 3 kitchen pantry drawers wasn’t possible because the shelves are old and weren’t built with the tracks I would have expected. But the issue was revisited and reassessed more than once by both Mas and Rueben to verify this, and explain the issue, which I appreciated.
Stan was also really helpful and went beyond what he needed to do by helping me with extra questions about our air conditioner before he left after fixing the light. Even though it wasn’t what he was called in to do, he helped me resolve a question about the AC unit by assessing the outlets in the apartment and identifying an outlet that work work for our 115V unit (it was too powerful and blew a different circuit, which incidentally also turns off the hot water heater for the whole building until a maintenance person comes out to turn it back on). Stan offered some advice that could probably help other tenants in the same situation: usually an outlet in the front of the apartment by the window, or in the bedroom by the window as in our case, is better suited for an AC unit and can handle a higher power appliance. As a side note, in our building I can reset the breaker if a circuit blows (unlike in a previous review in a different building) and I was shown how to do this by Rueben.
In all, Mas and Rueben have been responsive, pleasant, and have done great work.
Our apartment is great: pest free, spacious, and generally in good condition. We love the character of the vintage built in cabinetry and fixtures, the two private outdoor spaces, shared yard, and parking. The bathroom window is cracked, the bathtub appears to be painted with latex paint, and one window in the kitchen does not open, but neither of these issues affect the functioning of the window or bathtub.
The process of viewing the apartment, corresponding with the management company, and signing the lease was satisfactory and went smoothly. During the signing of the lease all of our questions were addressed and we felt there was plenty of time to ask questions.

Whatever you do, DO NOT RENT FROM WINNEMAC PROPERTIES! They are negligent and extremely difficult to deal with. If I could give Winnemac Properties zero stars, I would. After sharing stories with many other renters I know, Winnemac Properties is BY FAR the worst rental company I’ve encountered in Chicago. I am a current tenant and have lived in my building for 3 years, but am absolutely not renewing again. While my actual unit looks nice and was clean when I moved in, it has been a nightmare to deal with the people who work at Winnemac, specifically Allen Smith and George (one of the maintenance people).
When I first moved in to my Lakeview studio 3 years ago, I had a number of issues I requested to be looked at or fixed, but no one came out for at least 2 months. Here’s how they dealt with it: George showed up with 2 other maintenance men at 11:00am on a Saturday morning, completely unannounced and without giving me the legally required 24 hours notice, right after I had just gotten out of the shower and was not yet dressed. George knocked once and began unlocking my door immediately, I had to yell to get him to stop entering the apartment. His response was «Don’t you want me to fix the issues in your apartment?»
George repeated this — entering completely unannounced without my consent — at least 2 other times. Meanwhile, I complained to Winnemac and told them this behavior was illegal. I finally had to get my father, who is an attorney, to call and threaten legal action for Winnemac to take it seriously. Despite this, George entered my apartment again unannounced while I was away — my kitchen table was moved to the center of the room, so I immediately thought someone had broken in. After calling Winnemac I found out there was an emergency in the unit below with water leaking, so they had to enter my apartment. Still, they failed to give me notice before entering (legally required) and did not bother to tell me someone had been in my apartment.
And on to the snow removal, or lack thereof. When it snows, the back of the property stays covered in snow and ice until someone calls and repeatedly requests the area to be shoveled and salted. Because of an issue with water and melting snow dripping from the roof, the back steps and path to the laundry area in the basement get covered in a thick sheet of ice. Winnemac claims they know about the problem, but in the 3 years I’ve lived here they have not fixed it. Last year, I fell down the stairs and injured myself because the ice was so thick, and only then did they come and dump large piles of sand on the property. This morning, my boyfriend fell down the stairs because of the same problem.
Finally, this week, a maintenance person came to fix my bathroom sink and left my bathroom a huge mess with rusty water splattered everywhere. Some of my expensive items that were stored under my sink were ruined in the process. When speaking with Winnemac this morning, they said «Hmmm, that seems odd — my guys would never do that.» I am in the process of attempting to get reimbursed for the ruined items, but fully expect Winnemac to ignore the issue based on their past performance.
If that’s not enough, the water pressure in the building is terrible and the washers and dryers break often. Please, please, do not rent from Winnemac Properties — especially if you are a woman living alone and don’t like the idea of a middle-​aged maintenance man entering your apartment without notice.

I’ve been a resident in a Winnemac Property since July of 2014.
Here’s the good: The apartment is beautiful… spacious…nice finishes… they keep up the grounds very well (ie. lawncare & snow removal.) The building does not have critters (bedbugs roaches or otherwise) that I’ve seen other reviewers complain about. They have a convenient autodraft of rent payment so I don’t have to remember/​go out of my way to mail a paper check every month. Everytime I call the office, people are pretty pleasant and easy to deal with. The application process was very straightforward, and they were accomodating for me to move in the day before my true move in date because of my overzealous previous landlord wanting me out on the 30^th. I’ve had to call the 24 hour maintainence line twice… once for my hotwater heater that stopped working, and the second time for a leak in the sink/​dishwasher which was gushing water. They were very responsive.
The bad: Getting maintenance for non emergency issues is like pulling teeth. I called on Sunday (¼/​2015) because I smelled gas when I turned on my oven and the drain stopper in my master bathroom won’t stay down so water won’t stay in the tub. They told me to turn the stove off, someone came by and took a quick look at it and said they’d get an appliance tech out to look at it and a plumber to look at the stopper. As of today, 1÷8÷2015, I have yet to hear back from them with a time for the service guys to come out. I’ll update when I finally do get to use my oven again… which stinks because I am an avid baker.
The last non-​emergency issue I had: maggots in the stand up master shower… took two months for them to come out to address :-(.
If it were not for their lack of attention to maintenance requests, I would have given them 5 stars, but that is a huge part of an apartment rental.

I have never met a landlord so accommodating and attentive as Mas. We had a few small issues to take care of and we called on a holiday figuring no one would answer… Mas called us back within an hour and was at our apartment within two hours!
He resolves the issues he can resolve ASAP and looks into the longer term ones as well. I really don’t think you can get any better than Mas. Truly a 5 star landlord!

I rent from them now. Two old Sweethearts, Esther and Betty, owned this building before, and I wish they still did. Dealing with the maintenance guys with Winnemac has been a nightmare. The attitude coming from George is incredible.
Just signed a new lease with them and my apartment is a wonderful huge old studio, so I’ll probably stay a few more years. My advice? Just refuse to deal with George. Everyone else is above board.

DO NOT RENT FROM WINNEMAC PROPERTIES! Especially the 1545 w fargo building. I’ve been here for 4 months and I already know I will not be renewing my lease. When I first moved in the maintenance man, George, told me my lock was broken and that if I wanted they could fix it. Seriously? Yeah, I wanted it fixed. However, it is still broken. When I called them they said they needed to order a new doorknob plate and that it would take 2 weeks at the most. It’s been over a month!
I can’t open my windows because of all the mosquitos. My screen door for the back is all busted up which lets in more mosquitos. They still haven’t fixed the wooden step that’s loose in the back. Yet that’s not the worst of it, THIS PLACE IS INFESTED WITH ROACHES! At first we had water beetles, now it’s cockroaches. They’re everywhere. The gigantic ones roam the hallway that smells like a dumpster. They’re probably living in the carpets that have never been cleaned and the little ones are adventuring through my apartment. I find them taking leisurely strolls across my floor which are laminate flooring, so every mark I am suspicious of. They’re coming up my drain and hanging out in my bathtub. Now when I shower, I’m constantly staring at the drain. My downstairs neighbor told me she woke up to one under her pillow. So, now I’m waking up in the middle of the night and checking my sheet with a flashlight. Can you tell I have a massive phobia? The last time I called the property manager, Allen, he had the nerve to chuckle and send someone over with glue traps! I have cats! Glue traps are the worst when you have cats. I had to throw one out because my cat kept throwing his toys into the trap. SOMEONE PLEASE CALL THE DAMN ORKIN MAN!

This place runs a rental application scam… Their buildings smell like cat pee and the rental agent told me they have had problems with bed bugs… Don’t trust them!!!
I dot all my i’s and cross all my t’s when looking for an apartment. I know it is tough competition in Chicago, especially in the spring and summer months. When I contacted the rental agent, Brian, he told me to bring a check for the application fee and the first months rent to an open house in Rogers Park so that I could be ahead of the other applicants. The lobby of the building he wanted us to rent smelled like cat urine. When we disapproved he sent us to another nicer building that «had just opened up» that day. Since we were the first and only ones on the open house to have everything ready to hand in at the end of the showing I was certain it would go to us… He took 1 week to get back to us and said someone else had an application in before us that was approved. The only unit open was the one with the cat pee lobby. Check had been cashed on the same day as the open house.

Incredibly rude and unprofessional. After asking for further information, I was no longer interested in a unit and the representative literally just hung up on me. I will definitely not be looking to rent in any of these units if that’s how prospective tenants are treated.

I had a very pleasant experience renting from Winnemac Properties! Diane in the office is very helpful, and any required maintenance was always completed quickly. I’ve rented from several management companies over the years and Winnemac is at the top of the heap for sure. They even helped us find new renters when we purchased a home a couple months before our lease was scheduled to end, which we thought was really kind. We were in our apartment for two years and would have stayed much longer had we not decided to buy instead of rent.

Please beware of Kevin Mudd/​Lakeside Street and/​or Winnemac properties. I rented through Winnemac properties from an owner (Kevin Mudd) and he is the worst owner/​landlord I have ever ever had. Our back door was broken (literally coming off due to rain-​damaged hinges) and it took him a month to fix it. Our other door’s lock got stuck in the open position and so we couldn’t close it for almost a day before someone came to fix it. And there were drive-​by shootings less than a block away. So, due to this lack of urgency, we had to keep our door open to the world for a long time before the problem was rectified.
I understand that these shootings and the crime of the neighborhood is not in the hands of a landlord/​owner, but I’d hope that any landlord/​owner would fulfill some basic safety precautions. These were just two of the many problems we had. Many problems.
I repeatedly asked the owner to fix the doors, he didn’t even respond. I had to send him the «Rent Reduction» notice in order to get him to fix the doors (but he hasn’t fixed anything else).
Please be aware of this agency and this owner, this situation has added soooo much stress and anxiety to my life. I’ve never been treated with such neglect nor ill treatment.

My experience living in a building managed by these asshats was miserable.
They have a pattern of entering your apartment WITHOUT NOTICE and their maintenance crews get nasty and threatening when you assert your rights and tell them (for the fifth time) that they need to call at least a few hours before.
The apartment was beautiful but needed some repairs. Every time we would request repairs, out property manager would respond with, «It’s vintage.» Vintage or not, our windows were cracked and unsealed.
In addition to that, I blew a fuse by accident and an hour later than my landlord said he’d fix it, called me and asked if it was working. I said no, and he asked if I was at XXXX Hermitage. Uh, no, buddy, you just flipped the circuit breaker at the complete wrong apartment. I hope you didn’t kill anyone’s computer.
Overall: maintenance is terrible, does quick and illegal fixes, and the property managers only respond when you use your rights and threaten to pursue rental deduction via city code (had to pull that one when the one single heater in our 3bed wasn’t working).
Seriously, regardless of how wonderful the apartment is, do not deal with these people. They’re unscrupulous jerks who could not care less about anything but that rent check.

These guys are bastards and have no qualms about demanding co-​signers at double the cost and then pitting their applicants against each other in a bidding war so that they can profit. Their job is to read the applications, check the references and then find the best renters — not to take the application fee and then up the rent to the highest bidder. This happens in the real estate world but is not common in the rental world. These are just greedy people taking advantage of their clientele. Run the other way.

I loved the apartment, hated the company. The agents would enter my apartment at any time and without notice. Once when I complained about this and asked for at least a few hours notice, I was told they were within their rights and emailed a copy of the Chicago renters rights which say they need to give me 2 days notice which they never did. Another time when I complained I was told that they had no idea who had entered my apartment. The maintenance people were slow to get the work done and did a poor job.
I wouldn’t recommend this company to an enemy.

I love my apartment managed by Winnemac Properties. I’ve rented with them for over a year and have had nothing less than an excellent experience. The 2 other tenants who live here (1 for 5 years and the other for 4 years) said the same thing when to me when I moved in. The landlord and office staff have been both friendly and fair. Maintenance responds promptly and gets the job done quickly and correctly. I recently locked myself out of my apartment and they got there right away to let me in and were nice about it to boot. The entire group at Winnemac have exceeded my expectations.

Where to begin? 1557 W. Fargo Avenue. Had to ask numerous times for the heat to be turned up last winter and I got tired of wearing a hat and scarf in my apartment. Should have called the city. Also, woke up once to the first floor resident beating on his door, drunk, his wife having locked him out. The man started breaking windows, I called the police. There was mold in the bedroom walls. The repairman damaged my curtains and furniture when he tried to repair the wall. I told Allen not to send him back to my apartment, but he sent him anyway and made another mess. My bikes were stolen from the back. Every Sunday a man loads his scrap truck with metal cans and garbage from the basement, loudly. And now that my lease is finished and I am in the process of moving out, the building caretaker enters the unit whenever he likes, they show the apartment without notice, no call, nothing. Allen is a hands-​off property manager and he says one thing, but doesn’t follow through with it. I would tell my friends to stay away from Winnemac Properties.