Grant Properties - Bloomington, Indiana

Michaela K.

I lived in the 1209 N Grant St units with Grant Properties for three years (Fall 2020 - Summer 2023) during my undergrad at IU, with two other female roommates. Overall, we had a great experience. Highly highly recommend (evidenced by the fact that we stayed in the same unit for 3 years).

Pros:
- stellar location to campus
- always felt safe
- rent/utilities very reasonable
- free parking (although I think they just changed this)
- very responsive maintenance
- gave us our entire security deposit back
- fixed water fee
- great water pressure in shower
- office is very communicative about routine maintenance checks and other updates (such as re-striping the parking lot)
- only pest/bugs we ever had were kitchen ants and seasonal gnats (aside from the occasional spider/beetle or that one time a hornet flew in the front door)

Cons:
- smoke detectors are super sensitive and went off every time we used the oven
- they ask you to re-lease for the next year about a month after you move in
- no guest parking (had 2 friends get towed across 3 years)
- they increased water/rent by a very small amount each year
- [minor con] the external laundry unit takes quarters. This was inconvenient for my roommates who didn't have a local bank location where they could withdraw coins.

More on maintenance: They responded in a timely fashion and never charged us for anything (granted, none of the repairs were our fault). The only "bad" thing that ever happened was a weekend when our downstairs toilet majorly overflowed (the unit next door had it WAY worse). Even though it was Labor Day, a maintenance worker came out to our unit and helped contain it. Grant Properties reported that there were tree roots in the pipes causing backups. I thought for sure that we were going to have to deal with plumbing problems for the rest of the year (it was shortly after COVID and construction prices were insane). Wouldn't you know it, they had construction people in our back yard fixing all the pipes just a couple weeks later. We never had a problem with a toilet after that, and I was very impressed with their response time.

PetHub

I didn't realize how good Grand Properties was until years later, when I had much worse landlords. If you need repairs or services, they are always extremely responsive. I also appreciated their pet policy.

With that said, the other reviews about their handling of deposits are true. And it's not uncommon to have random maintenance people show up in your property early in the morning without much warning.

K B.

If you rent with Grant Properties, you will NOT get your security deposit back. They have a process in place that is dishonest and takes advantage of the college student renters. They claim to have ongoing conversations and a final check point with the renters but they do not disclose everything and do not convey how harsh and unrealistic their process for walk through/move out is.

We requested receipts to show how much they actually paid the painting and cleaning companies but they were not provided. There is no way Grant Properties paid what they charged us and if they did then they should have provided us with the receipts. I believe they inflate the costs paid and take it out of the deposit. We complained and they reduced the painting charge and said it was in good faith - I think they wanted to shut us up and make us go away. Appalling!!

I'm the co-signer on the lease and I was in the apartment a few weeks before move out and we should have received the larger portion of our deposit back. Instead we received approximately $460 out of the $1,700 paid. Yes I typed that correctly!! And before we complained they actually were only giving us back $60!! You would think there were holes in walls and broken appliances. Nothing was broken, no holes, nothing other than dusty base boards!! We didn't hang curtains and only hung a few pictures.

This should be enough to keep you from renting here but I'll also add the lack of lighting outside the apartments/property, the dirty doors (from move in to move out doors are filthy), the slippery stairs, the lack of any maintenance on the grounds, no electronic payment options (check or cash) and the ongoing lack of respect whenever dealing with someone at the office. I personally experienced this with the "VP" of the office who wasn't able to find the time to call the college students back but some how was available for me the co-signer & parent. Didn't do any good because she was just as rude and dishonest with me. Total waste of my time - Don't waste your time or money. Stay away from Grant Properties.

Ceymone K.

My first impression moving in was great, the price is what caught my attention along with the location. I stayed at the 304 E 20th st location. Another pro is that Maintence is very responsive. While living there, I discovered that the pests/bugs are outta control. They have pest preventative come once a month but it was not effective. Every morning I would wake up to tons of ants in my tub. They eventually came to patch it up & the amount of ants did decrease, but the entire apartment was very difficult to keeps bugs out. There would be new dead bugs around my apt daily & this is coming from an extremely clean person. Furthermore, the appliances are outdated and I did not get good WiFi connection in that area. During the peak of Covid season, they had many people come to tour my home almost every week. They informed me they had a rotation of apartments but I constantly felt like my risk of catching covid risen every time a stranger would come to view the apt. They did the in-person tours instead of virtual tours. I felt very uncomfortable for the last 3/4 months and did not stay there often. Typically the staff were really nice to deal with, especially Valerie and former employee Brad & the owners were always pleasant. My move out date was July 20th. My biggest turning point was that they require you to order carpet cleaning from a specific company, although I was aware of the necessity of carpet cleaning, the PRICE was outrageous. Furthermore, they require so many extensive things for move out that costs you to get charged regardless of how well you leave the place. Recently I did have an encounter with an employee named Lisa who was not helpful, I had to practically ask her to do her job and check things that she answered “I don’t know” to. My best advice is to read your lease THROUGHLY and know that the price of rent is for a reason. Neighbors were nice and respected privacy but there is very minimal parking for your guests/family members in town. Overall, make sure you overlook all your options before settling. Attached are a couple pictures from my apt, I made the best of it! Will update you guys once I receive my final direct deposit refund

Update: I received my whole refund back!

Michael C.

My experience with them was brief but unpleasant. I was helping my girlfriend move out of her apartment and was there for the inspection. The employee was very critical of the cleanliness of the apartment to the point that the average person would say it was clean or suitable for a 30 year old apartment and she described it as filthy and dirty. She was also very rude to me when I asked a simple question at the end to ensure my girlfriend had all that she needed. I will not rent from them in my lifetime, nor would I recommend them to anyone.

Olivia Z.

(1) The entire unit smelled like cat urine when I moved in and there was a piece of cat feces in the corner of a closet. When I notified a representative of this, all they did was say sorry and that they didn't know why it wasn't clean. My apartment still will smell after being here for months if I don't constantly use air freshener. I have cleaned the carpet multiple times and brown stains still remain. (2) Took maintenance over TWO MONTHS to come fix broken blinds. (3) My car got stuck in the snow directly behind my parking space as I was trying to straighten my car out before parking. My car was in front of another car and blocking the small parking lot. When I called maintenance for help, they told me I should call a tow truck. A tow truck would not be able to fit anywhere in the small parking lot to move my car. I understand that normally car issues would not fall under the responsibility of a landlord, but given the fact my car was directly in front of the parking space and stuck due to the fact maintenance had not plowed yet, I assumed I would get help or at least more compassion.

alissafaith

Grant Properties always super responsive, reliable, and everyone on staff was super easy to get along with. As a college student without a lot of time on my hands, it was nice to know that if there was ever a problem they would take care of it asap. I would definitely recommend one of their houses for anyone looking to rent a home!

J M.

My experiences with Grant Properties were fine till they decided to push me to sign a lease before the 1st of the year literally 4 months after my new lease had been signed for my attendance, the constant lack of communication with management and its attendance, crime not being dealt with in the area making my attendance an unpleasant experience, lack of quality with customer service. I have many more issues I could describe about Grant properties, but the fact I payed rent on time, always communicated and was willing to work with manage when they had reached out to me, and always tried to be absolutely pleasant in bad situations which where caused by not letting me know when handy men came to my apartment. Grant properties also lied about the security deposit and what the terms of repairs would be in a living situation for 2 years of wear and tear that I could have fixed if I knew that it would cost me way more money to let grant fix them instead of myself, I am horribly unsatisfied with the treatment I’ve received after my move out which was 5 days early and I still got penalized for “unpaid utilities” after my move out day. If I have any advice to give a new coming resident, you might expect to be taken advantage of by the new hires at grants office, because treating honest and fore-coming customers with disrespect because of greed will never give you a good review.