MRN Properties

worst business ever!!! stay away! I lived in one of their properties at Woodland park avenue. Tony and his team are crooks.

I also received an unsolicited letter from Michael Nelson offering to buy my Ballard house cash. I looked him up online and sounds like an absolute scum bag! If I were interested in selling my house it wouldn’t be to this slum lord. I have a call into him that he hasn’t returned to find out what kind of offer he is willing to make… no response. My guess is these guys are blanketing neighborhoods with letters hoping to find a few suckers that might be hard up for cash that think not using a real estate agent is ‘saving them money’ when in fact they are low balling properties using cash to obfuscate their methods.

I worked with Jessica and could not have been more pleased with my time with her in getting my apartment.
I called in response a Craigslist Ad I saw and Jessica was prompt to return my message, flexible on timing for showing me the property, and incredibly helpful and supportive as I navigated the straightforward application process.
I absolutely adore my apartment and everyone I’ve been in contact with at MRN has been helpful, willing to answer questions, warm, and professional.

Thankfully, I will not be renting from this company. This application process was the most bizzarre, red flag-​filled process I have ever experienced.
My review is mostly of Jessica, who apparently recently began working at MRN Properties. From the beginning, she was nothing but rude and irritable when talking to my partner and I. I have never encountered someone so unprofessional and plain mean while renting here in Seattle or elsewhere.
When I called after seeing the ad on Craigslist, Jessica seemed irritated to speak to me on the phone. I was just following the ad’s instructions: call to arrange a viewing time. …Sorry?
When I went to view the house, Jessica seemed to be in a terrible mood. She also had never been to the property before and couldn’t answer any of my questions, such as:
–«Who is the person that lives in the random garden apartment in the backyard?»
–«There appears to be a few storage units available out front? Would we be able to use them?»
–«How much are utilities, typically?»
Not only could she not answer those basic questions, which would have been okay since she had just begun working with the company, but she was incredibly rude and irritated that I was even asking. She spent most of her time during the viewing on her phone.
My partner and I were the first to apply and passed all the background checks, so all that was left was to come sign the lease. They insisted that we sign the lease together, in person, at their office. But, Jessica was not even partially flexible on the time we could come by, despite me telling her that my partner would be leaving town for business the following week. We asked if we could come by ASAP to sign it, as in anytime on that Thursday or Friday.
Instead, she insisted it had to be on a Monday or Tuesday between 11AM-​1PM. As a working professional, this is kind of a pain, but I could do it. However, my partner is now away on business for a week. (Again, Jessica wouldn’t let us come by last week, after we were approved but before he left town, to sign the lease.) Instead, Jessica said I would have to leave a $ 500 holding fee until my partner was back in town. And, we would lose this holding fee if they decided it was taking us too long to sign the lease. The whole time we were explaining our situation, Jessica was terribly rude, uncompromising, and implying that we were wasting her time on the phone.
So, given the terrible reviews of this company online and the fact that this was literally the worst series of interactions I have ever had with an apartment manager, we have decided to give up on renting this apartment. I predict we may even have lost our $ 500 holding fee on the apartment because my partner would not be back in town for a week.
I can say this, though: I happily think of our lost $ 150 application fee as a tax paid to never have to deal with this company again.
Oh, and we found and rented a different place this past weekend. Our new place has a very friendly property manager. I’d encourage anyone considering renting from MRN Properties to do the same.

This review is for Jessica and her awesome assistance during my application process. Despite Jessica juggling many properties, she made multiple appointments with me over the week prior to the beginning of my lease. She was incredibly flexible, allowed me to negotiate an early move-​in date, and was very thorough when we did the walk through together. I very much appreciated her customer service and hope to use her as a contact at MRN Properties during the remainder of my lease.

David Castellano is a 4 star property manager; MRN as a whole I will say is a solid 3 stars. David always made sure that repairs were prompt and was always very responsive to my needs as a tenant. Carlos and Ciggy were always great when they came over and fixed whatever the issue may have been.
The only issue I had in two years at my Greenlake Cottage was a pretty steep proposed hike in rent with very little notice. It caused a lot of needless stress for a tenant that paid my rent early month in and month out. But even this was ultimately reconciled to a reasonable place when David returned back to the office.
Overall I’ve been very happy with my time in my place. Swift communication, prompt repairs and a nice place to live. David, Carlos and Ciggy were the highlights however.

These 3 stars are for Lynda and David. If you are dealing w MRN properties ask to deal with David, Lynda is more behind the scene and deals with accounts. I had similar experiences as mentioned by other Unilocal reviewers from other employees. Honestly once David took over as manager for my property everything improved. If I called in to speak to Lynda in regards to my account she has always been friendly and helpful, which puts a renter at ease. These are the only ones I felt and feel confident w doing business w or trusting that they had the tenants best interest at the top of their list. If you see a property and Interested these are the one who you want to do business w. I couldn’t give 5 stars, at the end of term if everything goes as it should I will submit another review.

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!
I made the mistake of renting from them before a cross-​country move. I’d read their poor reviews and thought it couldn’t be that bad. I was so, so wrong and this has been the most frustrating and financially draining rental experience of my life. It is a company staffed by incompetent liars employed by a slumlord condo developer. They will steal your money and intimidate you when you decide to terminate your lease.
MRN lied to me and, I found, MULTIPLE other tenants about property features in order to secure application, administration, and first month’s rent fees and a signature on a lease. This is ILLEGAL and they refuse to refund anything. When they’re confronted about it, they claim to have made an honest mistake, and say that the person responsible no longer works there. This is a total lie, as it is an habitual practice.
They do have extremely high staff turnover, though, which makes it easier for them to deny that any issues were ever reported. Every single issue I ever had had to be reported MULTIPLE times because of this. I was called a liar by more than one person, and a plumbing issue I reported at the beginning of my tenancy was STILL not fixed more than a year later.
Their renewal increases are exorbitant, they refuse to take responsibility for structural integrity problems leading to costly repairs (meaning tenants have to pay and do not get reimbursed), and their poorly-​maintained properties are extremely overpriced.
Believe EVERY negative review you read about this company. I didn’t and I regretted this every single day I lived there. STAY AWAY!

A lot of negative reviews for poor Michael Nelson Properties. I imagine that’s the case with any property management company.
I’ve been renting from them for a while and so far they are pleasant and responsive. If something breaks they come by and fix it immediately.
I’m not saying the other reviews are bitter people whining, but I thought I’d offset some of their complaints. Michael Nelson Properties is A-​OK with me!

ALERT!!! MICHAEL NELSON PROPERTIES IS NOW OPERATING UNDER THE NAME «MRN PROPERTIES» BE WARNED THEY ARE THE SAME COMPANY!
Now that I’ve got that out of the way… I just want to be clear, I never even ended up renting from MRN properties. I was feeling like something fishy was going on today when I got off the phone with a realtor named Nicole (representing an apartment in Fremont) so I did some digging around and found myself here… and boyyy was I right!
I found a listing for a great spacious apartment in the heart of Fremont. I met with the leasing agent, Nicole and viewed the place. It was a little musty but in good shape with a lot of potential. I am a full time college student graduating in March and have been on a look out for a new place to move into with my boyfriend for a while now. While my boyfriend has a great full time job, due to a busy school schedule I do not. Lucky for me my wonderful parents agreed to be my cosigners so that I would still qualify to move out.
While I toured the place with Nicole and my parents I explained the cosigning situation. She said that there would be an online application and 50.00 application fee per tenant. She also said that having a cosigner would be ok and would not effect our rent agreement. Or so that’s what the three of us standing in the room thought she said…
Fast forward four days and $ 100.00 in application fees later Nicole informs me that we will need to pay a double deposit because I have a cosigner. So that’s first month, last month, plus another month, plus $ 200.00 move in fee (??), $ 200.00 for a pet deposit and my dad needs to spend another 50.00 to fill out a separate application. So all together that would be $ 3,835.00 to move into a 750 sq ft musty apartment. She failed to mention the «automatic double deposit» for cosigning applicants before I we already spent 100.00 to apply. This is a joke. A scam. Total BS. I may be young but I’m not stupid. I am SO glad I found this page with all of these honest warnings… they worked. I’M NOT MOVING IN!!!

I have a beautiful Capitol Hill. home that I have lived in for decades and am not in the process of leaving or considering leaving. I came home to my mail yesterday to an envelope addressed to my wife and I and Michael Nelson’s return address.
It was an unsolicited offer to pay cash for my home at 65% of the county assessed value, a value that likely understates market.
I found this tacky and unseemly, so I did a search on his name and realty and came up with his Unilocal profiles. Why am I not surprised. This sort of man/​company is clearly not doing anything illegal but it is disturbing and potentially exploitative for perhaps a homeowner with a lot of equity in need of money who might take the bait.

I lived in one of their complexes for almost all of 2011 into 2012 and moved out a month ago (²⁄₂₀₁₂).
On the upside, I absolutely loved my apartment. Window looks out into green space, 500′ from Discovery Park (fantastic for the dog), fireplace, nice built-​in shelving, decent kitchen, etc.
HOWEVER…
I don’t know this for sure, but I’ve come to assume that the property manager for MRN– Wally– knows someone in a position of authority in this organization, because he sure didn’t get or retain this job for anything resembling competence.
A greatest hits of my encounters with him are as follows:
— First off, my deposit on this unit was absolutely absurd– over 2 months rent when all was said and done. I did wind up getting almost all of it back, though not ’til after the 14 day deadline had expired.
— Almost immediately after I moved in, he asked me to post a positive review of MRN here to balance out the much-​deserved bad press. I told him that I’d need to wait until I had enough experience to judge, as I take these things seriously. Glad I did. In talking with my neighbors, though, he’s apparently asked the same thing of others who have moved in recently.
— Each unit here comes with a storage unit… However, it took a full 3 months (out of 12) of constant reminders before he finally took any action to get mine cleared out. To top it off, when I moved out there was a refrigerator stuck in the storage area blocking access to my unit; I’m a big guy, but wrestling that out of the way in a narrow walkway wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time.
— Where things really went downhill was back in June (2011). In preparation for renting a street-​facing unit in this complex they did a substantial amount of landscaping, including pruning back several sizable junipers at the front of the complex. That was great until I discovered that they’d dumped the resulting pile of cuttings at the rear of the complex, a scant ~10′ from my door. I emailed Wally and he assured me that they’d just run out of time that day and would be back for the pile within the next day or two. A month went by, during which time that pile turned into more and more dry tinder, with no action.
I contacted him again, at which point he claimed ignorance and asked me to send him photos. I did, and heard nothing back. Finally, yet another month later– notably, now we’ve got a giant (~50 c.f.) pile of dry tinder right next to my apartment in the middle of August– I verified with the fire marshal that, yes, that’s kind of a no-​no, and advised Wally of that discussion and the fact that if it was left there any longer I’d put in an actual complaint on the issue instead of an anonymous query. He replied saying that they’d decided to leave the pile there to block off access to the ravine behind the complex for safety reasons, but if I had a problem with it I should feel free to contact whoever I wish about it.
So I wrote his bosses. As if by magic, the pile was gone the next day.
— Both in my experience and that of a neighbor I chatted with a month or so ago, he seems to mysteriously be on vacation any time it’s time to do a move-​out inspection. This couple was moving all the way to Montana and apparently he tried to get them to leave without an inspection; luckily, they too had seen enough of this company to know better and stuck around despite having to re-​work their moving plans because of his unavailability.
In my case, I had a screening agency for my new apartment stuck in neutral because– again– he was on vacation, and as it turns out, even if you call the «emergency» number in such situations, there’s no one else that handles anything in the way of property management for this company. As a result, I was stuck waiting to move out of state for an extra four days.
On the whole, I strongly recommend avoiding renting from them, and, if you must, make very sure to document everything, know your rights, and be prepared to be as big a pain as you need to be to get anything done.

I’ve meant to update since our lease expired and we moved out… Let’s just say it was not painless. My partner is an extremely clean person, and we left the place in better condition than when we moved in. It basically looked and smelled like a gross old motel room. They had the nerve to tell us we left it dirty, and itemized what they were going to charge us for, over and above the nonrefundable cleaning deposit. I have NEVER not gotten my full deposit back from a landlord, and I can assure you the place was cleaner after we left than before we moved in. These people are just terrible people who exploit people’s basic needs for their own monetary gain. Please stay away.

As mentioned before me, I wish I could give them negative stars.
I APPLIED. PAID $ 70 FOR AN APPLICATION!, NO ANSWER NEAR TWO WEEKS, THEN CAROLYN SAY «OH, I SENT OUT AN EMAIL ON SATURDAY!» «WE GAVE IT TO A STRONGER APPLICANT»
WTF no you didn’t!!! But I guess you’re retarded and just don’t want to do your job so you make up a lie?! I’m a independent freelancer, I check my emails every few hours.
She didn’t even tell me that we weren’t approve. Just that she gave it to a stronger applicant.
Now I got the direct review out, more into details on my experience with this horrible company! Just horrible!
First off, Carolyn the new property manager seems like she doesn’t even care! If you call their office, 90% of the time you’ll get the voicemail. Listen to her voicemail, she stutters on the name of the company she’s representing. Its like she’s so clueless.
I called about an apartment listing and left two voicemails within two days and two emails later those evenings to get an answer if the unit is still available.
On the third day she calls me back and says «This is Carolyn and you called about A UNIT?». After I mentioned many times specifically about the unit I was calling about.
I tell her I live across the unit that she’s advertising and she tells me to walks over and look through the window.
WTF.
So I do, being the nice person I am and not going to make into some odd and negative assumption about this person.
I then schedule a meeting with her and my wife. We meet and we then tell her we want the place and we are willing to pay a holding fee.
She then tells us about the application online and a simple website. Then she tells us that she’ll hold it for us and will get back to us on Tuesday if we get the application in today (Thursday).
After looking around the website she provide. I was lost. So I called her up, of course I get a voicemail. I email her, of course no response. Finally later in the evening, I ask her where do I go to fill out the application. She then says, «OH I don’t know, it should be there.»
WTF. I know its there but where specifically! FUCK! So I told her I’ll just call the company and have then guide me through it.
After submitting my application, My wife and I waited until the following wednesday to call.
We calle the following Wednesday, NO ANSWER!
THURSDAY WE CALL, NO ANSWER
FRIDAY WE CALL, NO ANSWER
SATURDAY…
SUNDAY…
MONDAY…
TUESDAY…
WEDNESDAY… «OH I SENT OUT AN EMAIL ON SATURDAY» «I didn’t get any email???» «Oh I sent out on Saturday»
WTF! No apologizes for keeping me waiting for you guys for a fucking week and losing out on other potential things?
Oh yeah, her excuse was «WE GAVE IT TO A MORE STRONGER APPLICANT!»
FUCK THIS COMPANY!

From the Grit City Solidarity site: «This fight against Nelson Properties is now over! For the past five weeks we have postered every week around Nelson’s properties warning potential renters about the company. We also began a tenants’ rights investigation at their buildings, delivered letters to the owner’s neighbors informing them that there was a slumlord in their midst, and held two small pickets in front of Nelson’s offices to warn potential tenants not to do business with them.»
I wouldn’t be too sure. When I tried to do my move-​out walk through, the new property manager forgot about our meeting.
Twice.
TWICE!!! And she didn’t even apologize. I had requested time off of work, because they couldn’t meet with me at a time that fit my schedule.
Eventually (a month after we had moved out), a (maintenance?) fellow met with me, but he «couldn’t find my file» and thus, was unable to tell me whether or not I was leaving the property in better or worse condition. He said that, from what he could tell, the condition was very good, «a hell of a lot better than the people next door who moved out. They left that place looking like a biohazard.»
Those former next door neighbors of ours are some of our closest friends in town.
Anyway, the entire moving out experience was terribly unprofessional. I don’t even know what they charged us for in dummy deductions from the security deposit, but I was certainly disappointed in Nelson Properties as a whole.

Never rented from them but was interested in one of their properties. Called many time over the course of a week and left voicemails. I never got a single call back from them. I don’t really understand how they are a business when someone is trying that hard to get a hold of them and they just refuse to answer or call them back.
After doing some research, it’s probably better they didn’t anser.

Went to small claims against Nelson Properties. We won. We won because we had pictures of every corner of the house. In each picture was a newspaper with the final date of our lease. We also had a copy of every interaction we had with them, every letter they sent us, every letter we sent them (and proof of the letter sent certified), every e-​mail between us and them. If these people are taking advantage of you, DON’T LET THEM! Keep copies of everything, and take them to small claims, no company should be allowed to take advantage people like this. If you are considering renting from this management company, please don’t. It is not worth it.

RENTERS BEWARE!!! These guys are scam artists! I would literally copy and paste what the other reviews said, but here is my story…
My husband and I rented our apartment for about 2 ½ years. Our lease had transferred from Gibraltar USA, then, Samaras Inc. and of course ended up with the property owner himself Michael Nelson Properties.
I knew from the beginning that there were some squirley things going on, so I made sure to file every piece of paperwork that was given to me. Boy, am I glad because it worked out in my favor. Long story short… Michael Nelson Properties tried to screw us out of our deposit.
We took them to small claims court and won our deposit back and then some! They showed up at court and had nothing… not one thing to back up their own side! For example, they claimed that they had no knowledge of our dog and cat on the lease, but I had proof that we paid the pet deposit! They tried to charge us for 3 hours of cleaning, even though I hired a woman to clean the place (had receipt for proof). She even moved the appliances out of the way to scrub the floor underneath! There were a few other BS piddly charges that added up that they couldn’t back up in court.
Anyway…30 days later… we haven’t received any judgment money, and no notice of them appealing (which they said they were going to do).
NOW…I get the satisfaction of sticking them with a lien on the property. They would get off too easy if we took them to collections. We won’t see our money right away, but that’s okay. It’s the principle that counts. I truly believe they thought we would just go away and not want to deal with it.
Moral of the story… DON’T RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE, and regardless of who you rent from, hang on to ALL of you rental paperwork throughout the term of your lease.

I wish I could give 0 stars. These are the most unscrupulous landlords I’ve ever dealt with. Let me say upfront that I am a very good tenant. I pay my rent on time. I am quiet. I am clean. I am neighborly and kind. I consistently go above and beyond to create a nice living environment (cleaning up litter, notifying a neighbor of their car lights left on, etc.)
The first year we rented at this apt it was managed by Gibraltar Inc. I had heard somewhat sketchy things about them, but in 13 months had no problems whatsoever. Our on-​site managers were the best and repairs were made quickly when needed.
Then the nightmare began. In Dec 2008, Michael Nelson Properties ended their deal with Gibraltar and took over management of our property. Within 2 months they had fired out on-​site managers and the headaches began.
The drama and insanity caused by these AWFUL property managers is too long to describe. The short-​story (yea– this is the short version!), macabre list of our main problems is as follows:
–Threatened to evict us without cause;
–Told us we had a credit on our account. Then, months later, we were told we owed them extra money and they threatened to levy late fees associated with the «over due» amt.
–Refused month after month to provide receipts for our rent checks (which is illegal according to RCW 59.18.063). We were made to jump through different hoops every month as they would change what we needed to do in order to get a receipt. Email this person. No no, you have to get it in person. No no, we don’t give receipts in person — you have to make a written request. No no, your written request won’t work you returned check is your receipt. On and on and on from Feb 2009 — Oct 2009.
–Illegally re-​rented and accepted double rent on the apt across from us when folks moved out halfway through the month but had paid the full month (while this did not directly effect me, I choose to include it to show the severity of their illegal and unscrupulous tactics)
–It took 2 months, hiring a lawyer and threats of small claims court to get our deposit back. It was initially mailed to the incorrect address, and they wanted to charge us for having to cancel the check and re-​mail another (ummm no.). Once our check did arrive, I deposited it and they CANCELLED the check! It took two more weeks for them to rectify the situation and get another check mailed to us.
–Lisza Darling, who is the lead property manager with Nelson Prop., is aggressive, defensive and combative in every way. Her customer service and interpersonal skills are nil. Dealing with her was impossible and awful and I wouldn’t wish her on my worst enemies. She tried to pit my fiancé and I against each other lying to me about conversations she’d had with him. She blamed her staff for problems (the other staff were often kind and I had few prbs with them other than slow responsiveness occasionally).
When Neslon Prop took over management of the building in Dec 2008, the entire feel of our little community changed. Nasty notes were frequently posted that were over the top mean and unnecessary. One example: when a bag of dog poop was found outside on the front lawn, a one page letter was posted berating the culprit and said the person was unfit to even have pets and that the dog should be taken away from the owner. How do they know it was someone living there?! It could have been any one walking by!
For the sake of your own sanity — STAY AWAY!!! Save yourselves.

Do not rent from them. If you are going to… read your lease very carefully before signing. They do not understand the tenant law and will try to rob you by withhold your deposit. You will have to take them to court to get back your deposit and deal with the their extremely unprofessional staff.
I have had many interactions with the staff at Nelson, and they have on more than one occasion violated my privacy by mentioning me by name to outside contractors.
I would advise anyone considering renting from Nelson to think again and look for a better place!