Mo2 Properties

I’ve lived in a MO2 Property over the past year. It is by far the best apartment property management company I have ever experienced. Since the day I applied for the apartment, the company has been efficient, attentive and helpful. Their online payment and maintenance system makes living here really easy. The buildings are well maintained and cared for, and if there are any issues, they address them and remedy any problems within 24 hours.

They sold our building. During the process, I my bike and another item was stolen from WITHIN our locked building. Finally got a hold of Michael Motew and he promised to look into a security camera… A MONTH AGO. No one since from MO2 has answered my emails. They don’t want to ‘waste’ the money or time with us, even though they’re still technically managing the building. They’ve been continually disappointing with almost every interaction we’ve had.

My boyfriend is currently renting from Mo2 and it has honestly been the absolute worst experience I’ve seen with a rental property. Anytime there’s been an issue with something not working properly or something needing repair they take forever to have it fixed or they just don’t fix it at all. We’ve been having an issue in the winter where the back end of the unit gets extremely cold and it seems like there is absolutely no insulation. The wall in the kitchen is brick and is shared with the outside there is a hole in it where you can see directly outside and there’s air just seeping into the house, he sent them a request last winter to have it repaired and their «solution» was to take some paper towel we had on the counter and press it into the wall to stop the air flow and to this day it is still this way. Out front they laid wood-​chips upon us moving in and when it rains they produce massive amounts of mushrooms we have two dogs and have asked them on three occasions to come spray something to have fungal removed they say they’re going to send someone and they never do. Also there are barely any wood chips left as it’s now been two years and they haven’t sent someone in the spring to add more to make the property look nice, the porch and stairs as I see someone else has stated the same thing was added and it’s just wooden slabs laid down it looks undone and tacky. Last week a new tenant moved in and mo2’s labor company took the trash and material they used and dumped it into the back near the dumpsters it was completely taking up half the alley the neighbors were complaining asking why it was like that they called and made complaints to the building management and the city even put a notice stating they wouldn’t be picking up the trash because of how it was placed out there and what was placed out there. A few months back the city inspectors came to our property and met with a representative from Mo2 we had overheard the city inspector advising Mo2 that they were against electrical codes and regulations and that the city wanted to do further inspections but Mo2 said they were just going to pay the fines. On the lower level of the building there are sliced wires lying all over the ground along with scrap metal and screws. I constantly am finding screws lying around everywhere like I stated above I have two dogs who could easily eat the debris, there are children living within the building that could easily do the same or injure themselves. Within the past six months we have seen both tenants in the couch house behind us move out and the tenants on the two floors above have come and go within months. Unless they have a special contract made out with Mo2 I’m not sure why tenants are constantly coming and going unless they’re just as fed up as we are. The tenant in the coach house who just recently moved in a month or two back told us how he has no heating or cooling in his unit even though he’s suppose to and that he’s contacted them numerous times for them to address the issue and they have yet to do it he also stated that he too believes there is no insulation in his home and that he’s just taking matters into his own hands because they have ignored his requests. He said he feels that he’s just going to need to report them as do we because that seems that’s the only way anything is going to be resolved. It’s very upsetting when you choose somewhere to be your home and it’s anything but that. To go to work and to have to come home to a place you don’t even want to be at because there are issues beyond your control is ridiculous. The tenants living here chose to do so thinking that this would be a good place for themselves along with their families and then to be misled and basically trapped because of a binding contract and to be taken advantage of as so many people on here seem to be is very sad. And I don’t need nor do I want a response from Mo2 in regards to this all I have to say is to do your part in being a property management company and address your tenants issues and concerns.

I must be in the twilight zone reading some of these reviews. My experience is that Roxanne, Sheila and Molly have all gone out of their way to help, and come up with some creative ways to ensure I’m taken care of. (And I’ll admit, I’m pretty high maintenance.)
I fell in love with my place on first walk-​through and knew I needed to live there. My credit could use some help, but instead of making me feel like a heathen; MO2 worked with me. We came to a reasonable solution that we all felt comfortable with. This unit is a great find, in an awesome neighborhood; so they could have easily shown it a few more times and found another tenant… one that didn’t require as much effort.
Then I did the Unilocal search because I was spoiled by my previous landlord and didn’t want to get into a bad situation. Boy did these reviews make me nervous. So I asked the MO2 folks what the heck was up with all this feedback. The common thread seems to be making sure to overly communicate; and make it easy for them to keep track of things by doing maintenance requests via the portal, and emailing the office if you have a non-​maintenance issue. (It can be difficult to get through via phone sometimes, but I have yet to wait long for an email to be returned.) I think Stephanie is gone, it sounds like she might have been a common thread in some of the communication issues.
Here’s a great example of how the team has jumped in… I grabbed my keys as soon as they were available and ran over to my new place. It’s got a garage. (No more scraping snow!!!) The previous tenant was using it as storage so I couldn’t «test» my car in the spot at the original viewing. I checked that it was wide enough that first visit, but wouldn’t you know when I move in… my car’s an inch too long. Here I am day 1 of a 2 year lease, moved from my other place primarily to get a garage, and THIS is happening. I really thought they would tell me there wasn’t much they could do, especially since I was already locked in at this point. NOPE! MO2 was trying to change the entry door to open out of the garage instead of into it to make more room, asking others with shorter cars if we could switch, and really helping me try to figure out a way to make it work. Mind you, I got a response back within 8 minutes on one of their busiest days of the year.
I have a few of these odd ball stories, but in every case I received return emails within an hour or two. And so far, they have all included a resolution suggestion. And never have they made me feel as high maintenance as I actually am. I’m going to update my review a year into my lease for consistency purposes and really believe I’ll be taking it to 5 stars.
For the record, I don’t know anyone at MO2 personally. I am really a tenant. One that has received great treatment and want Unilocalers to know that if changes have been made at MO2; they are positive and you should at least talk to them before making a decision based on some of these reviews. I’m really glad I did.

While searching for a rental recently we went to an open house for a place in Wicker Park and when we said that the unit wasn’t what we were looking for, the MO2 agent, Roxanne Johnson, stepped up and asked what we were looking for and came up with several options — and she hit the mark! The next units she showed us were perfect for our needs and we are so happy that she will be our go to when we are ready to look for a new place this December. Thanks Roxanne for your patience and willingness to make apartment hunting so much easier!

Love the Mo2 family. Thanks for my place. Quick find… easy process… new home!!!
You guys are awesome… No problems here!
Xo,
Happy living gal

Update: I have been living in one of their units and I keep getting estimated bills from ComEd that do not reflect accurate numbers of my electricity usage. I have finally realized that the room where the meters are located is always locked and inaccessible for a reading and engineers are not present to unlock the door, unless I call MO2 ahead and make an appointment to ask for the engineer to leave keys in a lock box. It’s been such a hassle, and though I hope that the problem resolves somehow in the coming months, I strongly encourage anyone considering renting from MO2 to check how MO2 deals with utility matters of the apartment. I do appreciate the fact that Sheila has been trying her best to respond to my questions via email. Her responses have been fairly prompt.

If I could give these people 0 stars I would. I knew these people were horrible from the day we signed a lease.
Let’s begin. Upon moving in, we had to pay over $ 800 in «move-​in fees». Given we had a dog, that was an extra $ 100, but still, this is a little ridiculous for «moving in». When we asked why the fees were so steep, they explained that they were going to deep clean and paint the place, which we assumed meant that they would paint the new porch since it was left as raw wood. When we finally moved in, nothing was clean, nothing was painted, it was pretty gross actually. My roommates and I cleaned up what we could, but we asked if someone could follow through and clean the place. Two days later, unannounced, a group of 5 people barged in at 7:00 AM and literally cleaned for 10 minutes and left. I actually saw a lady cleaning the wall with a swiffer, it was so weird.
The first couple months were fine, and then everything went downhill.
The first big no-​no was when they said they had to come cover our pipes so they didn’t burst in the winter. We were like, «okay, cool.» Some guy came over for literally 2 minutes, so we thought, wow maybe it wasn’t a huge job. 2 weeks later we found a toppled over space heater in the shed connected to our coach house, which was supposed to warm the pipes. IT COULD HAVE BURNED THE PLACE DOWN!
The second big issue was plumbing. The downstairs toilet began giving us trouble, then all of the sinks started backing up, and the plumbing just went down the drains (ironic pun totally intended). When a plumber was sent over, they apparently found a huge backup of tampons and condoms. The property manager then sent us pictures of the sewage and was extremely rude as if we had shoved tampons down their toilet. (I later found out my two female roommates use pads and not tampons, so this couldn’t have been us). After many no-​show appointments, which forced us to stay home with the dog to let maintenance in, we got very fed up. The toilet didn’t work for about 6 months, and we never got any prorated rent.
On top of that, we caught them up-​charging our late fees by almost 100%. I called them out on that, and they fixed it, and claimed it was an honest mistake, even though our lease CLEARLY explained the late fee situation.
So it’s late winter, one toilet doesn’t work, our sinks barely drain, the yard is overgrown and filled with garbage, we were getting rats, a pipe bursted and caused mold to start growing, and we had just about had it. When we demanded they fix our toilet, they asked us to MOVE OUT FOR 2 WEEKS. Where am I supposed to go for TWO WEEKS? We thought that was the most absurd request, and asked if we can terminate early. They said we could terminate early for a $ 1000 termination fee. This just drove us through the roof. We had to start throwing around legal terminology. On April 28^th, 2015, they sent us a termination request to move out on MAY 1ST. THAT’S 3 DAYS to find a place and move out. They said they would let us leave early, but in March, we weren’t allowed to leave May 1^st, we had to pay $ 1000. So we basically begged them to let us out on May 15^th. We found a place and got the heck out of there.
Mo2 is a money-​grubbing horrible company. They don’t care about their tenants, they are just bad. Our place completely fell apart, no accountability was taken on their end. All-​in-​all, they gave us $ 50 off rent for the trouble this caused us. NEVER rent with them, even if it’s your dream home. Just don’t do it.

these guys are impossible to get a hold of. they just purchased our building & it has been nothing but a nightmare.

DO NOT RENT FROM Mo2 — I currently live at an Mo2 Properties building. Getting basic maintenance is an absolute nightmare because the staff is totally unresponsive.
Today, I came home after work to find our laundry unit uninstalled and obstructing our hallways. We were given ZERO notice from the Mo2 staff, and they did not tell us when they plan to fix this inconvenience. This is pretty par for the course for these guys.
A few months ago, the entrance to our building was damaged such that it was always left open. My bike was stolen and I consider this a MAJOR security concern. Furthermore, then entrance had been «repaired» before, but the work was shoddy so it kept breaking. Here’s a summary of my dealings with specific Mo2 employees:
Contact 1: Stephanie Konow (
), Head of Maintenance: Didn’t respond to my emails for weeks. After cc’ing some higher ups and threatening further action, she called me and apologized and promised to be better about communicating. In the meantime, I had contacted…
Contact 2: Mike Shenouda (
), COO: Even though I told Mike that Stephanie was unresponsive and was consistently dropping the ball, Mike had zero interest in helping me. He advised that I email their generic maintenance email listserv. So then I tried…
Contact 3: Chris Clancy (
), Head of Construction Mgmt: Chris promised to meet me onsite so I could explain the issues. Chris never showed up. Then he emailed me and promised nonetheless to have repairs made within a few days. 10 days later and nothing was done, so finally, I try…
Contact 4: Ken & Mike Motew (
;
), Managing Partners: Despite clearly laying out all the problems I’d had with their staff, Ken seemed to think that just because the entrance had been fixed with shoddy work, everything was fine. These are the TOP 2 PEOPLE at Mo2, and they wouldn’t acknowledge that the REAL problem wasn’t the entrance, it was their staff. All I was looking for was some recognition and a pledge to do better going forward… nada.
This is just one example of dealing with them. After this instance, Mike Motew promised me we’d be turning a new leaf. WRONG — the laundry incident today, waiting days or weeks for basic repairs since then, etc., etc. etc. These guys just don’t get it.
Stephanie Konow is no longer with Mo2 — I can only imagine why. Several of our neighbors have moved out in the past few weeks. This building has been available for less than a year, so I can only speculate that they broke their lease because they were so frustrated with these people.
As for the building itself — it’s a disgrace to say that it was recently renovated. The work was shoddy. They’ve been showing the building a lot lately and I presume they plan to sell it, because they clearly can’t manage it. People are leaving this property in droves.

I have lived in a MO2 property about a month now and have chorline bleach fumes pumped into my unit from other units below and above from clogged or poor dryer vents. Have emailed their maintenance compmapy and zero reply. Have spoken to their building super and nothing he can do. I am a landlord and never would never disregard my tenants concerns. Especaly when it involves noxious fumes coming into the unit. Only a month into a MO2 property and not getting a great feeling? . I think it’s more of a communication problem and they need a better way of informing the tenants of issuses. It’s an old building so you have to expect some problems I get that .
The unit is fine and good neighbors, I hope they can get this resolved and corrected ASAP .
Update to follow: Mo2 came through on this problem and got it resolved. It just took some time to reach out to them and get someone on the phone and understand the issue. I suggest always just calling if it’s a matter of real importance than just emailing the maintanance email they provide. Once I was able to speak to them about the problem we got on track for a solution. The construction people showed and did the very an excellent job re venting the entire system. They did more in one day than I thought was possible. Fumes are gone and hopefuly for good. Again I think it’s just about working on good communication between Mo2 and their tenants so small problems don’t become big problems down the line .
Thanks for getting this corrected !!!

DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!
We’ve had so many problems with Mo2 that I don’t even know where to begin. They bought our building from another management company and did not inform us that we had to start changing our checks to send to them until several months later. They were doing construction on the building and caused a lot of damage to our apartment from falling sawdust, which also made our pet sick with eye and lung infections. Several maintenance issues occurred in the apartment and it took days to get someone over to check on it and resolve the problem (s). It also took a lot of phone calls, emails, and texts. They shut off the water several times and gave a 24 hour+ notice only once — the other times were all within about 20 hours of the water shutoff time. Oh, and their way of dealing with a leaky, old, molding pipe was to put tape on it.
Overall poor company, poor customer service, and cheaply renovated apartments. Avoid them at all costs.

OMG!
I should have read these reviews before arranging a showing with these people. Stephanie is the one that showed me a property and it did not look as the photos described it. First of all they should show the laundry facilities for the units. She seemed like she didn’t even want to show me when I asked. Yes, the apartment had a nice kitchen but everything else was old and for the price it was ridiculous. After I asked her about repainting, she said that i could at my own costs but I’d be charged a the end of my lease to have it painted back. I was okay with that until she said that it’d have to be professionally redone. After that she just seemed really rude about any other questions I asked.
Stay away from these people, they’re rude and unprofessional.

This management is the worst I’ve ever come across. The agents are not attentive to the tentants needs and the apartments are extretmelu over priced. They basically mocked up the kitchen and tagged on an an extra $ 600 monthly price tag. If you don’t mind a rude and neglectful management company, then this is definitely who you want to rent from.
Also, I wouldn’t base anything off half the positI’ve reviews for this company because at four of the reviews are actually agents/​managers that work for MO2.
If you have any other option for housing in the area, I’d go with that. Sadly MO2 seems to be buying up many of the properites in the Humboldt/​Wicker area and are grossly taking advantage of renters.

Mike and his staff have been great with our customers. They’re very attentive, prompt and efficient. Thanks for taking care of us and our clients. We appreciate it very much.
The Professionals Moving Specialists highly recommend Mo2!

Mo2 Properties is probably the best company I have ever rented with. The unit I rent is in the same building as their offices which probably helps but they have been great none the less.
When we came to view the unit the one we looked at wasn’t what we wanted. They had another unit in the building but it was not ready to show because of repairs etc. that needed to be done but we wanted to see it anyway. We ended up taking it and they dropped the rent slightly since we were willing to look at it in that state. They processed our applications in less than 5 min and the apartment was ours. The unit was truly a mess when we looked at it but on moving day it looked brand new!
Paying rent is easy as we do it online, they even have the option to pay with a credit card if you need to in an emergency. No worrying about mailing checks or getting cash or money orders. You can also submit maintenance requests online and you deal directly with the maintenance team as opposed to going through the landlord. Anytime we needed things fixed, light bulbs replaced, appliances replaced they were out quickly and worked efficiently.
I recently decided to move out of state and needed to sublet my apartment for the remainder of my lease. They were under no obligation to help as I am locked in to a lease until August anyway but they were very helpful in moving the process along and getting people approved to rent.
All in all it has been a very positive experience and I know we have all had landlord nightmares at some point in our lives! I would definitely recommend renting with them.
P. s. In the year and 4 months I have been in my apartment I have never seen a single ant, roach or rodent! A first in my renting history and HUGE plus

Renting from MO2 properties has been a dream compared to my former rentals in Chicago. My apartment is condo quality and anytime I need something maintained, they are quick to come by (within a few hours) and take care of my every need. Honestly, the response to service calls is exceptional which I appreciate because my schedule can be very busy! All of my appliances are up to date and very good quality. I could kiss them for putting a washer/​dryer inside of every unit! When I first moved in some of my blinds were a bit beat up and I asked them if a few could be replaced — they came by and replaced ALL of my blinds (way above and beyond what I asked, so I thank them for that!).
I don’t know about their other buildings, but mine is in a fantastic location and they pick out great tenants. All of my neighbors are great, respectable, and look out for each other. Rent payments can be done online (thank god, I hate checkbooks).
I only have a few constructive criticism complaints… the common areas are not maintained consistently by MO2. The hallway of my building gets pretty dirty and I’m often the one picking up trash and sweeping a bit. Also, in the winter it would be nice if they could come by and salt our stairway (!!!). Luckily it’s only 3 steps… but it’s still dangerous when it’s iced over! The one other thing that is a bit irritating is that rain gets into the mailbox on the building and sometimes I end up with soggy mail :-/​
Other than those few things, my living space has been lovely and renting with MO2 has been a very pleasant experience.
Thanks, MO2!

I moved into an MO2 property in July 2012 and have lived at this location for 6 months. I’ve rated this property management group with 4 stars, as they have fully met my expectation of a landlord.
My roommate and I worked with Mike Shenouda through the rental process, which moved along very quickly and smoothly. We have a dog, and MO2 waived our dog fee and has been very accommodating about notifying us before they come to the apartment when we will not be there. We’ve been very appreciative of this, as we traditionally do not crate our dog unless we are expecting someone she does not know to be in the apartment with her without our supervision.
My landlord requests have traditionally been routine maintenance (unclogging drains, changing lights, etc.) MO2 properties has always been at our locations within a week and notified us what day they would be there. We traditionally contact MO2 via e-​mail; however, they have been very receptive if we contact them via phone as well.
I would certainly rent from MO2 properties again.

I have lived in Mo2 properties for about 7 months and overall they were a very decent management company. Anytime we had maintenance issues, they would come fix them very promptly. I am moving out this months for unrelated reasons to Mo2 itself and their quick response to all my questions has been very helpful and convenient.
The building I lived in was an amazing location. I probably wouldn’t live an apartment that small again for three people, but that is just personal preference.
The only thing I would suggest to them is an appliance upgrade. The washer and dryer in the apartment is so old and it doesn’t work very well.

I’ve lived in a Mo2 property for over a year and I’ve had a great experience. Had a minor issue with some plumbing but it was fixed next day and haven’t had a problem since.
Also, the online payment option is fantastic and you can set it up for autopay.