TMG Management

We have had nothing but a great experience with TMG Management! We found our dream apartment in Bucktown and they were so helpful and professional throughout the entire application process and lease signing. All the information about the lease start date and expectations for the move was communicated clearly to the previous tenants, and we were able to pick up our keys quickly and easily the morning of our move. We were a little nervous about the condition of the apartment moving in (since we technically re-​leased, we were told that they weren’t going to paint or have a cleaning service) and to our surprise we walked into not only a painting and maintenance crew, but also a cleaning service! Chelsea said she wanted to make sure that everything was in good shape for us, and didn’t want to take any chances. That said, we moved into a very clean and freshly painted unit.
Beyond the initial move-​in process, we have continued to have a wonderful experience with this company. They are on-​top of all maintenance requests (which can also be submitted online) and extremely responsive to emails, calls, etc. We can also pay our rent online which is a huge plus. We feel really lucky to have found this apartment and to work with such a great management company. We hope to stay here for many years!
I would definitely recommend TMG to anyone looking to rent in Chicago. I’ve lived in several other places in the city and can honestly say that they have been a pleasure to lease from.

As someone who works in the Real Estate field, it is my general opinion that no one shares good Unilocal reviews of their landlord, so I’d like to give you the absolute truth about TMG from a renter’s opinion.
My boyfriend and I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in Old Irving Park just over a year ago and renewed our lease 2 months ago after deciding to stay for a 2^nd year (so they can’t possibly be as bad as some reviewers say).
However, our move-​in sucked (this is the main reason for 4 stars instead of 5… it left us very salty). This is 100% honest. They completely dropped the ball. We were moving in as the unit was being cleaned even though it was vacant for several days prior to our lease start date. The cleaners had their two children helping… who were probably 8 – 10 years old and while very cute and well mannered, did not do as adequate of a job as an adult. Our cabinets were disgusting and were sticky to the look and to the touch in cooking grease and the apartment reeked of curry for several weeks. I asked what cleaning product that we could use to get this off of the cabinets without ruining the wood, but no one ever responded to me about this or the crappy cleaning job. I probably used 5 different types of products and even still some spots remain gross, but nowhere near what it was.
For any maintenance issues that we have brought to their attention since moving in, it has been smooth sailing. TMG has been quick to get someone out to our unit to make repairs. I just wish there was more communication on when they were sending someone out as they usually just show up at the door, but honestly I care more about getting things fixed in our apartment.
When the washers and dryers in the building have been down, they were quick to repair and they keep this common area pretty clean.
Some reviewers may not understand that when there are large issues, that managers have to take it up with the ownership for approval before sending someone to come out and fix an issue.
Keep up the good work, TMG.

Chris and Chelsea facilitated getting my curtain rods installed for me and painted over the work. They really worked getting the necessary touches done so my home could feel like my home. Thanks so much guys!

Don’t rent from these people. They are consistently terrible and all the negative reviews are true. You can find a better company. Don’t sign a lease with them they are TERRIBLE. Read the reviews that are «not recommended» to understand what we are talking about.

Not helpful. At all. With anything. Couldn’t even confirm what our exact address is with the post office or where we get our mail.

I was initially excited about living in a building owned by TMG Management. My fiancé and I loved the unit. Our excitement faded, however, when we realized that we had been given keys to our unit but the previous tenants had not turned in THEIR keys. We entered our unit only to find their furniture still in the unit. Then tenants walked in a few minutes later and were clearly unconcerned about the situation.
Unfortunately, we did not experience better things while living there. The carpet and walls of the communal areas were stained and gross. Bikes (not ours, thankfully) were stolen from the lobby where they were locked up. We often entered the elevator to find animal urine and spilled beer.
While there is a parking lot, it is not large and some of the spaces are extremely small.
The units are spacious and modern (or at least they were in my building), but you could do much better for your money elsewhere.

I’ve been a TMG resident for 1.5 years now and I have to say that this company has made amazing improvement. When I was first looking to rent with them I looked up their reviews and was a little wary. The apartment size, layout, and location were great, though, and so we decided to take it anyway. Since we moved in the company, and particularly Lisa and now Charlotte, have been extremely responsive to our needs as tenants, often going the extra mile in asking for feedback, working to fulfill maintenance requests in a timely manner, and improving our living space. I have already renewed my lease once and am thinking I might do so again!

I have been living in a TMG managed apartment for 2 years and I don’t have a bad thing to say about it. They changed office managers and everything has been great every since. The Maintenance staff has been on top of every request we have had. When reading about TMG look at the dates. I believe the new Manager came in late 2011. I must say before her I wouldn’t have had anything glowing to say, but I didn’t move out because of them either.
Honestly when looking at an apt to rent from it comes now to the maintenance crew and how difficult it is to get things fixed or repaired. And they are wonderful and speedy. I hear lots of horror stories about APT companies and I feel lucky that I don’t have one of the bad ones.
Hope this helps.

I rented one of TMG’s apartments in Uptown last year. It started out okay at first. Then I had a bit of a plumbing problem. It would periodically «rain» from a vent above the toilet in my bathroom. It took them over three months to figure out what was wrong and several attempts at fixing the problem. I’m still unconvinced that the problem was actually resolved and am pretty sure there is a mold problem in that unit because once the problem was «fixed» I would still see water dripping down the wall between the drywall and the paint.
The building also had some serious security issues. People who were not (or no longer) tenants getting into the building, packages being stolen. They were installing security cameras about the time that I moved out although it was another tenant who informed me that that was what they were doing. I never heard anything from TMG about installing cameras. Complete lack of communication between TMG and the tenants.
TMG only deserved 1 star while I was a tenant. It gets two because it is under new management. I hope things will improve now.

As the new property manager, Lisa has been working hard to improve the tenant/​management relationship. I give her credit here for having the guts to pick up the pieces and try to make things better.
Lisa has shown MUCH MORE interest and responsiveness than previous managers. She has listened to the latest issues, addressed and resolved them in a timely manner.
I think that if Lisa were given more tools and resources she could make this apartment building all it could be.

Not going to lie, the beginning of my lease, I became pretty skeptical of the company after reading terrible reviews. I had to mail my lease from Pennsylvania in order to get it there on time before I was able to arrive in the city. I had spoken to one of the ladies when I had been at their office a few weeks earlier and she said it would be ok to come in on the Sunday I arrived back to get my keys as long as my lease was signed. I called on the Saturday beforehand to confirm someone was going to be there the next day and I’m going to assume it was that «Todd» fellow who was incredibly rude and told me I can’t expect to just drop in without an appointment to get my keys. He tried to go off on a rant but I cut to the point, throwing attitude right back at him. Only then did he give me a straight answer that I could come in to get my key. When I came in that Sunday, I was met with a very nice receptionist who gave me no problem at all.
I moved into my apartment at the beginning of February and my radiator was leaking and hissing. I called and it took about 3 days to get it fixed which isn’t great in the middle of February but they had to get a new part for it. Besides that, I haven’t had any real issues with the company. I spoke to the new manager, Lisa, once to discuss getting a cat and she was totally cool and wiling to help me with any paperwork the shelter needed for proof that I could have a cat in the apartment.
I can’t speak for other buildings but the maintenance men in the building I live in are great. They are friendly and helpful. It’s not the greatest building but they keep up with everything and I always seem them doing improvements. I’m giving the company 3 stars just because I don’t think they are incredible but I don’t think they are terrible.

My experience with TMG was wonderful!
They were very helpful, they were quick to repair, they always returned my calls ASAP, and they were very understanding.
I’m sorry about the people who had bad experiences with TMG, but I’ve lived in my apartment for over a year and I’ve had no problems. I deal with Lisa, quite often and she is great! Lisa really made my experience a good one.
Keep it up! Do not hesitate to work/​rent with TMG! :) :) :)

Good News. TMG has a new lady working with the tenants and cleaning up the mess left by others. She is nice, considerate, and non-​threatening. I hope this is the beginning of great things for TMG.

They are the single most rude and inconsiderate people I’ve ever dealt with. I am a current tenant, but not for long. After moving in, we asked that several things be fixed several times including missing handles on cabinets, broken doors, etc. None of which was ever fully resolved.
Our roof began leaking in May when we moved in and they have done nothing but lie to me and brush me off. At this point it has affected our entire living situation. The water has begun leaking into my bedroom and they’re still not helpful at all.
DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. IT HAS BEEN HELL.
I also had the same exact Comed problem with them that you see below.

So, I have lived in Chicago for 5 years and have lived in 5 different apartments. All with different companies. None of them even come close to comparison with TMG Management. Please, avoid this company at all costs. You will save yourself headache after headache. I only wish there were an option for less than one star.
This is literally the worst management company I have ever dealt with in my entire life. They are rude, inconsiderate, slow, and condescending. They guy i deal with, I don’t know his name, «built» the building I live in so when ever I mention a problem, he refuses to acknowledge it because he «built the building» and he doesn’t believe that something could be wrong.
The lady who answers the phone is rude and condescending as well… Instead of answering my questions, she spent the majority of the time telling me how she went «above and beyond» getting comed to set up electricity in the building, also adding that she didn’t even have to do that. However, readying your building for electricity seems like something that should be a priority and figured out before you begin leasing units in your building. My lease is up in 6 months and I CANNOT wait! I will never, ever lease from this company again and can only hope that you will never either.
At the end of my last call (in which i was dealing with an ongoing issue of trying to get electricity set up — and by ongoing in mean 6 months) she had the gall to drop her ranting and belittling tone to tell me that she wants to do what ever she can to make her residents happy because «Happy residents make a happy management company.» She immediately then told me that she has no responsibility for electricity and that comed is «hard to deal with.» I totally get that it is my responsibility to call comed and start my electricity service, but when comed doesn’t even know that my building exists, and I call TMG and I ask if my unit could be listed under a different number, and then get patronized like I am a misbehaving teenager, that does not make me a happy resident. So, you, TMG, have failed miserably.
She also claimed that yesterday was the first day she had any information to give to tenants about the situation with comed, yet somehow, my lease ended up at comed 13 days prior, meaning it was mailed at least 15 days prior. I only know this because I sat on the phone today with comed, only to find out that «someone» had set up an account for me under my name for electricity… The only person that has my lease besides me is TMG. So clearly, 15 days ago, they should have told me they were mailing my lease, which has personal and private information on it to comed. I had no idea that something like that was legal…
Please do yourself a favor and never rent an apartment from this company. They are worthless. I am about 2 days away from calling the BBB.

NEVER RENT FROM TMG.
They are rude, demeaning, inconsiderate, disrespectful, and didn’t care that their tenants are so extremely unhappy.
TMG overbooked our parking spaces in the back of our apartment. Every month, like every tenant does, we pay our rent which includes parking. In the month of July, I could not park my car in our spot because they oversold the number of lots, which resulted me in parking under the el or having no parking at all.
After MULTIPLE failed to return phone calls, I received a call back from them on JULY 21^st! 21 days after the issue started…
They told me there was nothing I could do about not having parking, they would not reimbursement for the days I had nowhere to park, nor would they cover for the rust that spilled on my car from parking under the el.
They told me I could not speak to upper level management because management doesn’t TALK TO THEIR LEASERS. Nor could I do anything about the issue, so I should just «give up». I told them i would take this issue further, I WAS LAUGHED at and told good luck.
What bad business people.

If I didn’t have to give any stars I wouldn’t. This place is a joke. Has the BBB been contacted yet? If you need to rent an apartment or condo, you’d be better off doing business with the 3 little pigs (or Lucifer himself) than with these fools.
Todd Lawrence– my nemisis… the reason I will never name a kid Todd. He is awful. Is it even legal to lie as much as he does? He has threatened his lawyers and lawsuits at least twice in the 1 year I’ve lived in one of his properties.
I don’t care if to them our broken ice maker is a matter than can wait 2 months. It’s one of the many amenities that attracted us to fork over $ 2,000 a month in rent and to upgrade from an old vintage apartment with outdated appliances to this little condo. So when it’s broken, fix it. Or reduce my rent by $ 25 for the month I’m out an amenity I am paying fair and square for.
For the first few weeks we lived here (close to a month) we had no working keys to get into the building. We had to rely on a not so dependable code to punch into the buzzer box to get in the building. When we finally got keys Todd screamed at us. Apparently we were wrong to want a reliable key with which to enter the building. Pardon me for caring about my safety.
Our repairs have been minimal thus far as we are renting a condo– a new condo in a new building. So most things are working just fine. But when we do have something broken it shouldn’t take 1 month for them to return my call to schedule an appointment. And that’s when they bother to call ahead to schedule.
Many times they send the repairman and don’t tell us ahead of time. I’m always surprised when I get a 2pm phone call in the middle of the workday from someone who is standing in the street outside our building trying to get in to fix XYZ… and they get ANGRY for us for being at work. Then call ahead to schedule an appointment to ensure someone is home to let them in! DUH!
Once Todd told us that because of us the woman who owns the actual unit we live in was being sued by our condo association. It turned out to be a lie– just like everything else that comes out of this mans mouth. He was simply trying to manipulate us to do what he wanted. The man is so messed up. Either he is highly medicated or in dire need of meds, therapy and a padded room… and anger management classes. I am an adult and he has NO RIGHT to speak to me this way or treat me like this.
Before we moved in he gave us the option to move in something like 5 days early. We couldn’t (as our movers were already booked and paid for for a week later) so instead he agreed to have a cleaning service go through and scrub the place. He lied. They never came. And when we called him out on it, he lied again.
At one point we had brokken smoke detectors which is a FIRE HAZZARD TODD! The man took 2 weeks (maybe 2 weeks plus a couple days) before they were fixed. To me that’s an emergency repair. The place wasn’t flooded, and there wasn’t a racoon loose in the apartment, granted, but we had no working smoke detector! Guess what? When the place goes up in flames my family will sue your ugly butt off Todd!
He will yell at you. Lecture you. Lie to you. Their «emergency maintenance» guarantee is a total joke. Thie entire company is a total joke. I promise you will have a terrible experience with these people. And the funny thing is they treat you like they are doing you some huge favor allowing you to live in one of their units– like they are graciously giving you a free place to live.
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE LYING, ANGRY JERKS!

According to TMG Management, *I’m* costing them valuable dollars by not moving my stuff out so they can take a week to tear down the dry wall and replace the carpeting. I’ve offered them different comprimises which did not include me and three other people paying for but not living in our apartment for a week, such as moving our things from the front while they did work in the back and the back while they did work in the front. I complained to the Better Business Bureau and TMG responded that they have tried to send contractors in and we’ve turned them away (not true) and that their building is in jeopardy because we’re not moving our stuff and allowing them in to do work.
… Well… my lease (at 2833 W Medill #1) ends 2÷28÷09… so… they can do the work soon.
but… no… the apartment is shown as available 03÷01÷09 on craigslist!
liars.

Once… and never again. Let’s rehash my experience:
The apartment postings said the apartment was $ 10 – 20 less per month than it really was. I show up to sign the lease, and it’s $ 10 more than I was told… and appeared in their posting! I realize $ 10 isn’t significant, but they can’t even get that right!
First I was told it would be the first month’s rent upfront plus a security deposit, the amount contingent on credit score. Then, I’m told by the property manager it would be TWO month’s upfront, plus a sec. deposit. That was sprung on me, and rental agent claimed ‘he didn’t know about it.’ Thankfully they agreed to follow through with what was initially discussed.
Second, the agent was quite condescending. Asking me of my co-​signer –my Dad – «Are you sure he makes enough?» Are you kidding me? WHO says that?
Third, just fairly pushy. All they want is to get your money in their hands… quickly.
Avoid like the plague. Don’t live through my nightmare.