Craig Tolbert Realty

[Current Resident]
I cannot speak highly of our apartment that is through this company in Uptown (New Orleans) and I would definitely classify this company and its owners to be slumlords. They do not maintain the properties. The electrical boxes are outdated and a major fire hazard. A railing fell of our porch and a friend that had been leaning on it almost fell off the porch and could have been injured. Management is very unprofessional and will not answer phone calls or fulfill maintenance orders.
Rent at your own risk!

If I could give zero stars, I would. I have had countless issues within the three short months I have resided in a Craig Tolbert property. Not only have I had issues with my apartment, such as our driveway being under construction for over a month when I was told it would be finished by the time I moved in (off street parking being reflected in the price of rent), both the front door to the building AND the door to my apartment having issues with the locks and falling off their hinges, but the treatment I have received from their office has been undesirable at best. The secretary in the office is condescending and rude, acts as if it is my fault whenever things clearly under their care go wrong, and belittles me when I ask questions to clarify their vague information given. Though it is hard because Craig Tolbert has ownership of much of uptown, including several areas generally populated by Tulane students, I highly suggest finding a different landlord.

Craig Tolbert is both an excellent landlord and an incredible human being. This company went above and beyond to assure the safety and comfort of me and my roommates and I cannot recommend them enough.

I think it is horrible that Craig Tolbert is blasted as a landlord by unreasonable tenants as well as his secretary. I have been renting from Mr. Tolbert and he has been wonderful to me as a landlord. What is this world coming too:(

!!DO NOT RENT FROM CRAIG TOLBERT!
Apartment is tiny, but that’s what I expected when moving into a studio. They made me wait a few extra days to «make sure it’s ready for you.» When I moved in, the place was filthy disgusting. Roach corpses everywhere, trim pieces splitting and swollen from water damage, and a smell that took months to get out.
The office is a joke. Kelly never answers the phone or returns calls/​emails. If it’s the weekend you’re screwed, and have to call a number for their emergency maintenance guy. I think they have less than 5 people that actually work there… if you have an issue and try to contact them, they’ll tell you flat out to stop calling.
I got home from work today to discover the power has been shut off to the entire building because it’s not up to code or something. (The apartments are still on a ceramic fuse box btw, so that’s not surprising.) since it’s Saturday there is nobody to answer the phone in the office, and there are no contact numbers for the owner (Craig Tolbert) or any sort of management staff.
Oh and we haven’t had a washing machine in over a month. They simply refuse to fix it.

If you have to rent from this company be sure to take pictures and report the condition of the space right when you move in. They will absolutely take advantage of you when it comes time to return the security deposit. We were deducted hundreds of dollars for issues that existed before we moved in and it is highly doubtful that our money will even go towards fixing these issues for the next tenants.

I rented from Craig Tolbert for two years. We mostly stayed out of each others’ way because I am a DIY guy, and only called in when I really needed assistance. For the most part, they did okay and the job got done. The secretary lady is quite moody and prone to quickly becoming upset or snippy if you try to call again after nobody has come to service the apartment. The kicker for me, which really left a sour taste in my mouth, was the way they handled the security deposit. When I moved into the apartment, it was absolutely filthy. Everything needed to be cleaned, it was covered in grease (from the kitchen with no ventilating hood) and dust and dirt. When we left, as a thank you to our landlord, my three roommates and 8 of our parents (12 people total) all spent an entire day cleaning the hell out of the house. My dad got heavy duty bleach and lifted stains out of the bathroom tile that had been there for years. We scrubbed and mopped every floor and wall. The house was spotless. We all actually took a lot of pride in our work and felt good about it. My dad and I even patched a piece of drywall that I had damaged.
When we got the security deposit back, it was so clear that they didn’t even look at the apartment. They cited the master bathroom, charging us $ 80 for cleaning the tub, sink and mirror — all of which my dad had scrubbed until spotless. They cited numerous other random items that were complete BS.
Why did they do this? Because they could. All my college roommates had moved away from New Orleans. Nobody was there to fight the deductions. They knew that they could probably ding us for a few random things and get away with it. It’s just a dishonest and slimy way to run a business. My dad is a landlord, and he knows what is expected of tenants about moving out and cleaning. We deserved almost the entire deposit back, but instead they took about a quarter of it. I called the secretary and said I’d like to discuss it, and she quickly cut me off and said she needed to take down my number and refer me to someone else, «who was going to call me». Of course, that was a month ago, and I haven’t received any sort of communication.

I am so glad to finally be out of that apartment.
Absolutely DO NOT RENT from these people. Slumlords is too good of a word for them. My apartment was barely livable. There was absolutely zero upkeep on it. Which is so sad because it has really great potential.
When I moved in they hadn’t even been in to clean the place, I walked in, after a 3 day cross country road trip to find the place inhabitable. There was mold growing in the freezer! Despite them knowing I was moving in that day they had «forgotten» to come clean it. There were giant whole above the bathroom sink and in the cabinets below. They had obviously never even looked behind the stove. It was in bad need of being repainted and kitchen tile was peeling off. Then on top of that they hadn’t turned the electricity on.
I ended up having a professional cleaner come in every month because I never felt like I could get the place clean enough. And even they had issues.
The garbage and recycling was almost never picked up. It would spend days, even weeks, out on the curb. I highly doubt they pay the bill.
My mail was stolen on a regular business, which granted is not entirely their fault, but they were not helpful at suggesting alternatives either.
Upon moving out they deducted $ 75 for painting which is laughable since they clearly didn’t do anything for me when i moved in.
They are lazy and inattentive.
You don’t make your rent checks out to Nola Apartments, you make them straight to Craig Tolbert which that right there seems suspect.
I have moved and I am so much happier. My new landlords check in with me, the attention is amazing! And the cleanliness and upkeep?! SO worth the change.
Seriously, do not rent from these people. You will regret it.

Other than the general dumpiness of the apartment as a whole (tiny, paint drips all over the molding/​door frames/​everywhere there shouldn’t be paint…) they refused to fix anything and blamed us for a bed bug problem despite the fact I could prove it was coming from the building and we did not bring them in ourselves. There is also a hole in our bathroom ceiling and water damage in the bedroom that they have refused to fix for more than a month.
They are useless and inattentive to say the least. Highly recommend NOT renting from NOLA Apartments or Craig Tolbert.

Getting fucked over by the TSA and police not good enough for you?
. Craig Tolbert will fuck you over worse.
Be prepared to get screwed at every possible turn.
We split the water bill with the bottom tenants and were suppose to be reimbursed for half, as states by the lease. He refused to pay and stated it was our fault on behalf of our negligence. His assistant Kelly is the most oblivious useless piece of lard as well. Good luck getting any help. Avoid at any cost!

I wish I could give this «company» zero stars but one is the best I can do! Please, please DO NOT rent from these slumlords! I know it may seem tempting, especially when you’re new to the city but save yourself major heartache and look elsewhere for a rental.
We tried renting two properties from them last year and the first one reeked of toxic floor chemicals, so we waited for another one to open up Uptown. HUGE mistake. The area was nice, but the apartment building (on Napoleon Ave.) is straight up falling apart. We had a huge hole in our bathroom floor and sewer gas was leaking into our home — this was confirmed by the gas company, who I called to investigate. A major health hazard! You can actually die from breathing in toxic sewer gas so that building is just a time bomb!
There was chipping lead paint all over the walls and windows — we bought a home test kit for lead and it was ALL OVER the apartment. That place needs to be renovated because all of that lead is a major danger. They let us move in there with a six-​month-​old baby knowing full well there was lead. We got totally yelled at my the incompetent office staff lady when we told her we had lead.
We went to visit my parents for a week to get away from the lead and figure out what to do and our apartment was ROBBED, ROBBED by the staff. The manager, Denny, told us that someone had gone into our apartment to see «if we were still living there.» WTF? SO I know without a doubt that they stole our stuff — tons of kitchen items that we needed, a laptop with all of our baby’s pictures on it which we’ll never see again, my husband’s homemade jewelry that I cherished — you name it, it was gone. We filed a police report but had to move to another city right away so couldn’t follow through. Kelly, the crazy office lady, hung up on us when we called her to tell her we’d been robbed by her staff. What a sweetheart she was, LOL. She was the worst person we had to deal with there — just straight up rude and unprofessional.
There is more but avoid this realty at all costs. They go by other names so be careful and do your research. They are also called
. Their phone number is 504−891−7777, I hope this helps at least one person from making a huge mistake!