Ask Rentals

I have been working with Kimmi of Ask Rentals for 4 years and have been extremely satisfied with the outcome of Kimmi’s dedicated and professional approach. Kimmi handles the leasing of all of our vacant apartments including recommending the work to be done to prepare a vacant unit, to advertising, showing the apartment and finally writing the lease. She stays abreast of the always changing rental regulations, laws, etc and makes sure to incorporate these when necessary into my leases.
Kimmi is the consumate professional, always responsive, polite, fair, prompt and helpful to prospective tenants. In the overly heated market that has been the Bay Area for the last two years this is no small feat. I have recommended her to several friends looking to rent in the Bay Area and even when she does not have a rental for them she is very generous with advice and her time. My tenants have nothing but positive things to say about Kimmi.
I recommend her services to both tenants and landlords.

Had an amazing experience with ASK Rentals, Kimmi was great in keeping us in touch and provided daily updates of our application. Would definitely recommend their services to anyone.

Kimmi is great. I’ve worked with her twice now to find and rent an apartment in the North Berkeley area. She really knows this market well and always seems to know what is coming on and off the market. For a local market that moves as quickly as N. Berkeley (it seems most good rentals are gone within 48 hours after they are listed), this is the type of agent you want to work with.

I’m a local Realtor and over the years have found Kimmi to be a wealth of great, current, very local information. She’s helpful, prompt, responsive, and really knows her stuff. She’s no doubt busy (because she’s good at what she does), but she has always been friendly and approachable. I have recommended her to clients and will continue to.

We worked with Kimmi to find tenants for our house last summer — I thought I had already posted a review for her! Whoops.
Our experience with her was quite positive. I especially appreciated how responsive she was by email, phone, and meeting in person. Very accommodating of our schedule. At one point kind of late in the process, she had to go out of town for a few days for a family emergency but was very up front, communicated with us, and didn’t drop the ball.
Initially she came to view the house, gave us an estimate of what she thought it could rent for, and made some suggestions about priority repairs and such.
She advertised our house on several sites, showed it a couple times for different groups of people, and screened applicants for us. We were new to the process and had lots of questions, which she answered patiently. I felt like she brought a level of professionalism and experience to the process that would have been difficult for us to muster on our own.
The tenants that we ended up with have been absolutely perfect. All in all, we would certainly consider using her again!

I don’t understand the negative reviews. I rented my first apartment with Kimmi as the the agent over 3 years ago now. I was moving here from the East Coast and I only had 2 days to find a place and she made it happen. Also, because it was my first apartment, I could have easily been overlooked due to lack of income (I had a job offer, but not a pay stub yet) or lack of landlord references. That shows she is very open-​minded and I do not think it is fair for people to blame their inability to get an apartment on Kimmi when the owner ultimately makes all decisions.

Kimmi is wonderful. Kimmi has handled two leases for me, and on both occasions has been a delight to work with. She has made everything easy; she has both a great overview of the market and is attentive to the smallest detail. Rather than offer a «one size fits all» service, she understood the particularities of my circumstances and worked very effectively within those parameters. Her fees are extremely reasonable. She is respectful and intuitive, sensible and straight-​talking (I like her honesty), efficient, effective, and — most importantly — she has huge integrity. I imagine the complaints below were motivated by sour grapes over applications that did not go the way the applicants hoped. But this was surely not Kimmi’s fault. In my experience, though she gets right to the point (so as not to waste anyone’s time), she is kind to everyone she deals with. Agents have to deal with a lot of crazy people. Kimmi handles her job with grace and integrity. I recommend her service wholeheartedly, and look forward to working with her in the future.

Kimmi is incredibly professional! I highly recommend her business.

I’m not even one of Kimmi’s clients — just a house-​searcher moved by desperation to ask more persistently than might be polite, but she took the time to reply to my many questions, and rather than simply sending a terse rejection email, she personally called me to patiently explain her client’s position. I’ve been house-​hunting for three months now, and I am very aware that most people wouldn’t bother replying to the second email — and sometimes not even the first. The mark of a true professional: someone who’s thorough and kind even when there’s no gain in it for them.

Spoke with Kimmie today. She seemed very attentive and although she couldn’t provide the service I needed (too far away) she offered to give me the name of a group who probably could. Service an integrity is much appreciated in this business.

We used Kimmi for the house that we are renting. We originally had another house we were looking to rent but the owner had pulled the listing. Kimmi was professional and we are very very happy with the house we rented. We had a dog and it was difficult to find an house. I would use the services of Ask Rentals again.

My husband and I have worked with Kimmi K for nearly a decade. We hire her services in publicizing our vacant apt rentals, showing units to prospective applicants,
and making a good fit between the needs of the tenant and us. She is focused, diligent, and reliable as an agent. Tenants that have rented our units often later contract her services to find them their next best living space. We have referred our friends to ASK Rentals/​Kimmi should they need to rent out their homes.
Kimmi is focused, diligent, prompt, and reliable as a leasing agent. She has personalized our lease terms for our specific needs. She assures that any tenant who rents from us has strong financial credentials. She knows the pulse of the rental market — the supply/​demand/​seasonal issues which impacts the rates at which rents may go up or down during certain periods. She is also considerate of tenants’ special requests/​needs, and attempts to have both parties satisfied.
I am stunned by the negative comments posted in some of the other reviews on this site– I have not once ever sensed or heard any word of discrimination from Kimmi during the screening of prospective tenants. She is of course, is a very busy person, thus it does not surprise me that at times, she may appear rushed.
But how many of us are NOT?
I highly recommend her services for both tenants and landlords, and will surely continue contract her services.

Not sure I understand some of these negative reviews. Racial profiling? Seriously? Kimmi rented the house I currently live in to an Indian dude, a Spaniard, and two Jews with no hint at all of profiling. That is a totally unfair accusation to make.
Let me tell you about our situation. My roommates and I are UC Berkeley grad students who desperately needed to rent a house one week before classes were starting. We lucked out and somehow landed upon an amazing house that had just been renovated and was totally perfect for us. We were able to rent the house within 24 hours for the following reasons:
1) We were respectful and showed up on time for the viewing
2) We had all our paperwork in order (Kimmi WILL check all of your references so make sure you aren’t fudging that)
3) Make her know that you are the most interested party in the house. If you show the most interest and pass all of the checks, you will have a better chance at landing the rental as Kimmi will make sure the landlord knows this before he/​she makes the decision.
Kimmi even negotiated with the owner to let us move in a few days before the end of the month without charging us for those days. She is definitely on the renters side and is sensitive to our situations.
A couple weeks ago, one roommate had to move out due to a family emergency and Kimmi handled the lease change without any hassles at all and was very respectful about this.
I had a wonderful experience with Kimmi and Ask Rentals and fully recommend her for your housing needs.

I first met Kimmie when I was seeking a rental home for my family last summer. We were looking for a 3 bedroom home in Berkely and we had an older dog. Out price range was between 3000 up to 4500. I contacted Kimmie to see if she knew of any homes that could meet our requirements. She was adament that it was impossible to find a home in that price range and we would need to seek a home in 5000 range. She was quite certain that no landlord in Berkeley would rent a home to me. She was rude and aloof and very discouraging. I did find a fabulous home under our price range through Korman and Ng, who were extremely helpful and respectful of my needs.
Recently, a friend of mine was seeking a rental home and had the misfortune of having to deal with Kimmie. She had a far worse experience and was mislead by Kimmie which resulted in my friends loss of time and money.
If you see a listing through Kimmie of ask rentals, think twice.

Apartment hunting in Berkeley is near impossible, but working with Kimmi at ASK Rentals made us much more optimistic about the process. She is very professional, prompt and thorough in her follow-​up. She has the tough job of working with dozens of qualified applicants, but her process is fair, honest and open. We have really appreciated working with her during our apartment search.

Kimmi was fantastic at helping us get our apartment. We had seen an apartment we liked a year earlier, but were last in line at applying. When looking for places the next year, we simply inquired via email if we could be put on the waiting list if the unit came up, and she was wonderful at being professional and customer-​oriented. We got the place! We are excited to move in, and she took all of the hassle out of searching for and acquiring an apartment. A+

I have met and utilized ASK Rentals on two occasions. Kimmi was professional and knowledgeable as well as friendly and kindhearted.
Kimmi has gone the extra mile in her work with me and her demeanor has been warm and caring.
Kimmi’s job is to find qualified renters, she shows the apartments and then she gathers all of the credit, income and rental history. She then turns that over to the landlord for the landlord to make a decision. Kimmi does not make the decision as to who gets the apartment, that is the landlords sole decision.
Folks need to remember renting an apartment or house is a lot like going to a job interview. A few tips:
Show up on time for the showing.
Be prepared to document your rental and employment history.
Be prepared to have everyone over the age of 18 be ready to provide this information.
Race, gender, sexual orientation and disability are NOT factors in making the rental the decision as to who rents the apartment. Rather the key components are credit history, income, rental history, employment history for all people who will live in the apartment are taken into account.

Be very careful with this woman specialy if you are a minority.
first when we arived she was walking on the sidewalk talking on her phone, we did not know who she was,
then she came to us with a very rude attitude and said I only have 5 minutes I have to be somewhere else.
Then she opened the door and she pointed the unit and in 30 seconds she was walking us out.
she did not have the education to be nice and anly pointed the laundry.
My wife and I had a very bad impression and we think she uses racial profile to rent the units.
Read the rest of the comments and many have almos the same complains.
It is sad to have persons like that here in the bay area.

I wholeheartedly agree with T P’s review. Kimmi was mute and detached throughout the open house, completely indifferent to people’s inquiries and supercilious in her demeanor. I caught her looking me up and down and sneering at me more than three times while I looked at the apartment, and I was able to see a potential home for approximately five minutes before she said she had to rush to another open house. Her e-​mail responses were slow, her statements demanding, and her tone acerbic.
Does this woman even have a license? I’m extremely uncomfortable with the fact Kimmi has my personal information in her possession.

This rental service was really unfriendly and unprofessional. The agent showed up late to open the house that they were showing and had scheduled everybody to come through at the same time. I was literally bouncing off of the other prospective renters while looking at the property.
The agent volunteered no info about the property had to be prompted to disclose the details and was really rude and short when doing so.
I would not recommend this service