Eckert Investments

WARNING — take photos of EVERYTHING (including every little vent, light switch, window screen, medicine cabinet, top of the frig, etc.) BEFORE you move in, and then again before you move out!!! These guys plan to keep most of your security deposit no matter how spotless you leave the place. They will try to show you photos of someone else’s dirty apartment and when you show them your own photos, they will claim the others were just «an example» of something. These guys are crooks taking advantage of students and off-​site parents. If you can live without your security deposit, most everything else was okay/​average. Hopefully you can find a more ethical company to rent from!

I measure how sleazy an apartment complex is by how hard they try to screw you on the security deposit when you leave. This place takes the cake. My son rented a one bedroom at the Skyview on Camino Pescadero with two of his friends. They spent almost an entire day after moving out to make sure the place was clean.
First of all, the complex charges the tenant $ 40 per hour for an «evaluator» to look at the place. They charge a painting fee for any scuff marks they find. They also have a worksheet listing fifteen or twenty items for each room and these things are so petty. You don’t just get a charge for cleaning the stove, you get separate charges for each component. For example, separate fees for cleaning the stove top, cleaning under stove burners, cleaning stove hood and light, cleaning inside oven, cleaning the back and side of oven and cleaning the oven racks/​broiler pan. All together, the maximum charge just for the stove can be $ 42. My son lucked out and only had to pay $ 29 for a stove they cleaned before they left. Cleaning the back of an oven? Really?
There is a potential charge of $ 20 per room for washing windows, separate charges (per room) for not cleaning switchplate covers, washing the window screens, cleaning the mirror on the medicine cabinet, etc. If you do stay here, don’t forget to dust the top of the door frames when you leave because that will cost you $ 20. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Then there is the two days downtime they charge for cleaning the place. Another $ 107 bye bye.
This place is ridiculous…

I lived alone in a one-​bedroom at La Loma and am probably the cleanest college student to ever exist. This is not an exaggeration; there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t Clorox or vacuum.
The place was great but I paid $ 1280 for it every month.
The management was friendly but somehow lost service requests all the time. My cable didn’t work the entire year and even though its cost is included in rent, they wanted me to pay for repairs.
Worst is the security deposit. They took $ 575 from mine. What is the reason? Apparently they had to clean and paint everything. This is ridiculous as there was not a stain or scuff anywhere. There were 8 holes from nails… but that hardly merits a $ 575 charge. I was also charged for not mailing in my keys on time. Except for that I moved out two weeks early and there is no way the mail was delayed for 2 whole weeks!
Moral of the story: be extremely cautious with the security deposit. Get renter’s insurance at the minimum.

Eckert was a little ridiculous. The house was nice but they were like Nazis! There were so many rules in the lease including you have to shut the toilet seat after you flush as a precaution to avoid flooding. Oh and did I mention they warned my house of a walk through the day after Halloween. It is ridiculous. I understand wanting to make sure the property isn’t destroyed but the manager knew all of us personally and the house was in perfectly fine condition. I got an okay amount of my security deposit back but I wasn’t thrilled considering we took good care of the house. I would say if you can deal with a lot of rules then eckert isn’t the worst option but it is definitely not the best.