North Steppe Realty

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Last minute chose to lease with this company as they were the only company around campus with available apartments (go figure). When i moved in during summer the central air didn’t work. The extent to which they clean between tenants is questionable - i definitely suggest bleaching and disinfecting everything before moving in. I had a neighbor couple that had some domestic violence incidents and this company didn’t respond when i asked for intervention after contacting the police 3 separate times. They didn’t salt the stairs or shovel during winter.
Overall they’re unprofessional and negligent to the upkeep of their apartments. The staff is extremely rude and don’t seem to value their tenants whatsoever. It appears that the company is run by college freshman in an attempt to save money; a reflection of the service you’ll get if you decide to lease with them. Never again

I rented here while attending Ohio State University. My location was awesome and the building itself was really nice. It was easy doing business with these guys. Definitely recommend.

DO NOT RENT FROM NORTH STEPPE! I know it is hard to find places on campus to rent but it is NOT worth it!

Just like the other reviews said, we were promised a number of things when signing the lease which included fixing holes in the wall, replacing carpets etc. None of that happened. The houses are in terrible condition with many broken amenities. Since it is campus they can charge whatever they want, so we paid a ridiculous amount to live in a hell hole.

Since we had heard rumors about the houses not being prepared, we called prior to our move in date to confirm that our house would be ready. The person on the other line was very unhelpful and said "whatever date your lease says, it will be ready by then" clearly she did not check. On move in day we walked in the house to find a PILE of mud and debris on the floor and all of the carpet ripped up with exposed nails. They were not even close to having the house ready for us. We had to delay our move in day by two days. My roommate from California had all of her stuff here and had to pay for hotel rooms and truck storage.

Any time we had any problems we had to call the emergency line because if we tried any other means of communication they would not respond.

We made improvements to the shambly house, including building a pantry in the closet, and converting a bathtub into a shower. We called the manager of North Steppe to confirm that money would not be taken out of our deposit because we left the house in better condition than which we found it and he agreed. We got our deposit back today and $900 had been taken out of it for damages, all of which were pre-existing.

They know that they can get away with this stuff because they have taken advantage of students in the past.

Let me repeat: DO NOT RENT FROM NORTH STEPPE!! You will be ripped off in every way. Find any other company possible. I have not heard one positive thing from others who have rented from this company.

THE most poorly run real estate company in Columbus, Ohio. The office is run by unprofessional and incompetent staff. The houses are filthy and in disrepair. Also, BEWARE- they will make fraudulent charges to your security deposit upon moving out. I suggest referring to the Ohio Revised Code (landlord tenant act). Majority of the charges are fake (example on mine was a $50 yard labor fee) When asked what this charge, as well as a few others were for, no explanation could be given. My suggestion, DO NOT RENT FROM NORTHSTEPPE.

This company is all about profit. Rent is way too high and many of their properties have fixed utility rates that I'm sure work in their favor. And if not they have tried to come back and charge their tenants more! Look up the law suit filed against them in 2006.

They take old, falling apart properties and glue them together enough to rent out. They will put in new appliances and fixtures to entice you but beware. The maintenance and housekeeping crew are generally nice and helpful people but you are never given a time frame for when they will arrive at your unit. And you will be astounded how often you have to call them / submit maintenance requests. For us, once a month, without fail, something broke or leaked or burst or clogged or went out. A perfect example of their half-measure strategies is how when we complained of purple/black mold around our heating/AC units they came and spray painted over it to "stop the growth" and gave us a dehumidifier. They know full well the real problem is condensation and dripping water from un-insulated pipes but won't actually fix it.

Anytime you call the office you are going to be speaking with an apathetic, terse representative who has NO interest in customer service. Little things like "do you have any other questions" or even "goodbye" are never said. Also our unit was filthy when we moved in. They did not clean as promised in the lease. BEWARE. NorthSteppe Realty is the definition of a slumlord.

*Please read before leasing with Northsteppe Realty*

My roommates and I moved into our townhouse back in August. We are leasing it for $1060 a month. On September 15th we were sent an offer to renew our lease. The lease offer is 14% higher than what we already pay. Northsteppe demanded that if the renewal wasn't signed and returned by November 9th that our apartment would go on the market. So, just a month and a half after we moved in, Northsteppe began threatening us to renew or lose our unit.

My roommates and I really were not sure if we wanted to renew, given some shoddy repair jobs that had been done to our apartment. Also, one of our bedrooms upstairs gets almost no heat and feels as though it is poorly insulated, so we wanted to make sure that our utility bills weren't too high after a month of winter before we decided if we would renew. Sounds like sound economical reasoning right? I don't like wasting energy or money, but Northsteppe doesn't care.

I decided to investigate and realized that Northsteppe has our unit on the market for next July already, and they are asking 50% more than what we pay per month for it. .

In my opinion, Northsteppe is taking advantage of a systematic issue here, because of the high demand for apartments close to campus. I think that they are not allowing tenants a reasonable amount of time to decide if their unit is fit to be renewed, thus allowing themselves to not have to make repairs that may only be an issue in Winter or Spring.

If you need any further proof of the outright poor job that they do taking care of their tenant's requests, come by some time and see our duct taped screens that they gave us when, after we moved in we realized that all of the windows in the upstairs bedrooms had no screens. It took them 3+ visits to our property to break the screens they had (that didn't fit our windows) and duct tape them into place.

If any company doesn't deserve to exist, it's this one. 0/5 stars if I could rate it that low. This is the absolute worst company I have ever dealt with. When we moved in the house was filthy, cracks everywhere, paint chipping, and none of the doors locked. There was a steep staircase with no railing whatsoever and it took 11 maintenance requests and 6 weeks of waiting to just get that installed. The house got broken into and they told us they would replace the front doors with new, solid, all-wooden doors (the old ones had a glass pane in the middle) and after the police left they cancelled that request. When I asked why, they beat around the bush and gave me so much attitude. Instead of trying to ensure the safety of their tenants they denied our request for a security system or new doors (There were already cameras installed around the house but they weren't activated, which of course NorthSteppe also refused to do). Parking out back on rocks costs $300 and when we moved in there wasn't even a light in the back; it took 6-7 maintenance requests to get that installed. The list goes on and on folks but I'm sure you've gotten the message by now.

TLDR: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, LEASE WITH THIS COMPANY. EVER.

My roommate and I were very interested in viewing a few properties owned by NorthSteppe for the 2017 school year. We emailed inquiring about two two bedroom properties. Their email response was a generic email that said only one of the locations was available (even though all online sources had them posted as available for next school year) but included a large list of properties with 3+ bedrooms at prices far out of our budget. After receiving this, we called and were finally able to set up an appointment to tour two properties. The day before viewing they left me a message stating one of the properties was not actually available, but I needed to call and confirm the appointment. I called four times throughout the day and no one answered at the office. Finally someone answered and confirmed the appointment, so we showed up 5 minutes before our scheduled interview time. We waited around at the property for around 15 minutes after our scheduled time before losing patience. I attempted to contact NorthSteppe twice, but again no answer. Finally, we left and decided to stop by their office on our way home. At the office, we asked the receptionist to double check that our appointment was in the system and call the relator who was scheduled to meet us. The receptionist claimed that "since she's not here she must be there". On the phone call she pressed us with questions about the address, if we'd shown up on time, and how long we had waited around. She then claimed to have gone to the wrong property first and have only shown up 5 minutes late for our appointment. She asked where we were standing, still making it seem like it was our fault, but we were standing on the front porch of the property looking around for a relator the entire time we were there. After the call, the receptionist asked if we wanted to reschedule, but we decided no, due to the lack of communication and respect. We removed all NorthSteppe properties off of our potential rent list, then decided to write this review.

Northsteppe realty is the most dishonest, deceitful company in the Columbus area. The business is run off of college students needing a property near campus that are completely taken advantage of. The leases provided scam college students into paying every expense and cover themselves from any issue imaginable. At first glance, the properties appear nice through the walk through and are located in great areas. Unfortunately for the renters, the properties are all actually falling apart. With that in mind, Northsteppe places every damage on the renter and has the worst possible maintenance crew. The company is completely dishonest and will take weeks to fix any issue. For example, our property had a faulty toilet when we moved in and when it clogged, the pipes all burst and flooded our entire bottom floor with sewage and broke the ceilings below. Not only did Northsteppe blame the tenants even though maintenance claimed it was a completely faulty toilet, but it took Northsteppe days to come fix the problem. They promised to be there the following morning but simply lied and never showed up. As unfortunate as the situation already was, they never fixed the toilet but rather just patched the ceiling to make it look fixed, so the entire situation repeated itself a couple months later. In summary, our property was all ruined twice, yet never replaced by the company. Another instance our air conditioning broke due to it being so old and Northsteppe assured us they would come fix it the following day. Now, months later, they have yet to show to fix it. Additionally, these deceitful scammers place outrageous charges quietly on our bill all the time. In one instance, we were charged for "trash cleanup". When we requested pictures of the trash, we were provided a picture of the city trash can spilled over on the sidewalk in front of our house. We did not do that, nor was it like that the night before and the picture was taken at 6 am. I lived with InnTown Homes as well and they were a phenomenal realty company and I highly recommend them. I encourage anyone to never lease with NorthSteppe and to encourage anyone else you know to do the same. I regret ever signing a lease with these scammers and I hope soon these scummy, negligent, and neglectful individuals are exposed for the liars they truly are.

All these people care about are money. We moved to our place in October, and two months after our lease began, they started contacting us about showings for other prospective tenants. They insisted that we sign a lease renewal agreement to stop the intrusions into our home, but they were bumping up the rent $500. When they showed us the place, they told us that normally it went for $1500, but since no one wanted it, they had to move it to $1000. On top of that, the "free" washer and dryer was hooked up to OUR water and electric. (We had the electric company out and they confirmed it.) Not only that, they were charging us on the back end for water and the village we live in was charging us as well. Our living room was sinking into the ground, as the foundation was heavily damaged, and as a result, incredibly drafty. I would not recommend doing business at all with these people, as your stress and anxiety levels will be so high because you will never be comfortable in your own home! The only reason I gave them 1 star was because they made it incredibly easy to get a place. As you can see from all the other issues, it's a double edged sword. These people are slum-lords.