Milestone Properties

Okay. this is going to be long but I feel people MUST know what they are getting into. Jim is rude. The quicker you realize that the better decision you can make. I seriously do not understand his problem. I tried every time to be as nice as possible and he will shut you down, yell over the phone, and hang up on you. Its not that he is having a bad day he just IS that way. Call him about a house. he’ll be rude.
My fiancé and I rented a place from him and from the very beginning it was difficult. We were scheduled to move in on a Monday but since it was a holiday he was going to be on vaca so he told us we’d have to wait until Tuesday to move in– which posed a problem because I had to be out of my apartment by 4pm on Tuesday & we were just using a truck to haul multiple loads. We asked if he could just give us the keys on Saturday and he said if he did that he would have to pro-​rate us $ 40 for each day. We thought that was ridiculous, said no. reluctantly agreed to tuesday & gave him his check (two months rent & deposit) and what is the FIRST thing he did? Cashed the check. Which to me was a little unprofessional seeing as you are making us wait for your vacation time when we’re on a time crunch. We let that go.
Tuesday came and he wasn’t in the office. My fiancé called him and asked when he’d be available to give us the keys– he said not until 3 and hung up on him. I was flabbergasted so I called him and explained my situation very kindly and he screamed over the phone «I SAID, I’LL BE THERE AT 3, I’LL BE THERE AT 3, I’LL BE THERE AT 3.» And hung up… my jaw dropped. He then called me back 30min later & said if we hurry he can hand off the keys. We went. we were not happy– he handed us the keys and the check list paper.
Well…after all that we had pretty much gotten a good feel for Jim. He is a little crooked and doesn’t mind showing it. SO we made him the check list of a century and if you rent there I suggest you do to. We made him TWO whole pages of stuff wrong with the house to make sure he wouldn’t try to peg us with any of it after the lease was up. We took pictures, made copies. the works!
So time goes by and he never seems to bother us. We pay rent on time every month. never have a reason to contact him. Then our AC won’t blow cold air so he send his very rude repair man to come change the filters. well the filters Jim bought for the house didn’t fit. So I called him, he said give them to the repair man and I’ll have him get new ones. So we did.
Fast forward to May of this year. Our lease is up– we’ve moved all our stuff out– cleaned the house like MAD MEN– we got rid of stains that had been there WELL before us– & are ready for his dreaded inspection. Again I take pictures. Jim comes in with his check list and turns the place upside down. firstly ACCUSING us of STEALING the filters. We argue… tell him the story of how we called him & he TOLD us to give them to the repair man. He gives up. After his sweep he leaves us with a check list. some minor cleaning duties like «get on your hands and knees and scrub the base boards» blah blah blah but then. slaps us with this. The yard.
The yard was fine… mowed.edged.the works. We did all this the day before because we knew the lawn is our responsibility. He said the lawn isn’t edged and therefore I will have to pay someone to do it it’ll be $ 40 the first hour and then $ 30 every half hour after that. I asked how long it could take he said… hours. So he left and we did the rest of the cleaning– went to walmart bought a weed eater… edged then sold it to our neighbor. took pictures again, called Jim and invited him to come take a final look– he refused– so we very plainly said.“we took pictures.” He said «oh. Fine.» And that was that.
It took him a month but we finally got our deposit in full (minus carpet cleaning) which we had questioned when we first moved in (the carpet smelled like animal dander, pee & cigarettes) so attached to our deposit was a receipt for carpet cleaning. :0)
I do believe Milestone is one of those managements that will try EVERYTHING to keep your deposit. But you can rent there worry free if you do what we did. DOCUMENT everything. & let it be known that you are.
Good luck, happy renting.