SMC East Bay

My 3 roommates and I viewed a home yesterday through this company. We had Claudine as our realtor and she was phenomenal. Very kind, open and welcoming. She made us feel completely at home and is a huge part of the reason we are choosing to live in this house. Thanks Claudine!

Yesterday was my first experience viewing apartments with SMC East Bay and it was definitely a positive one. Claudine was great. She was very professional and extremely informative. I can’t thank her enough! We are very excited with the apartment!

Claudine by far is one of the most professional leasing agents that I’ve worked with! She is super friendly and provides detailed answers. I’m looking forward to being a tenant at their property. The unit was immaculately remodeled :) I would highly recommend Claudine to anyone searching for apartment in Oakland.

I had a chance to view one of the properties by SMC and Claudine, the lady who showed us the place, was AMAZING! She was nice, professional and willing to work with us on our moving date. She just had a great energy about her and we cant wait to be a tenet at the new place, thanks to Claudine and the amazing price for the place!

We had Claudine, a sweet woman who showed us houses next day upon request! We’re looking for reasonable rent and SMC in particular goes the extra mile to prepare the houses properly. There’re new laundry machines on site, hardwood floor always, granite Kitchens, dishwashers and ovens. All aboard the perfect home! We could not have been more happy that we’re applying with a company we trust.

Claudine was so helpful and easy to work with when viewing a property in Oakland. It was a great space and she was very attentive to our needs! I really appreciate her help and they have a great business going here.

Today, my wife and I had the plan to see as many properties that SMC had to offer that fit our budget and needs. Claudine was able to show us four living spaces in under an hour. Although they were relatively in the same neighborhood, Claudine was able to host us at each location fast and efficiently so that we were able to get back home and have enough time to make our decision. Not only did Claudine have an answer for every question but was also able to relate to our specific situation as well as provide some anecdotes of her own personal experience renting and what we should look out for. Also SMC keeps it consistent with all of there spaces (at least the four we saw) as far as kitchen appliances and bathroom. A plus for me!
If using SMC, I’d recommend Claudine show you the available spaces. Personable and knowledgeable.

SMC on the WORST oakland property management.
«Neil Sullivan, the owner of SMC also owned REO Homes LLC (and REO Homes LLC 2 and REO Homes LLC 3) and practically owns half of West Oakland. Fuck that guy.
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he is also the master of the world’s worst „remodels“ wherein historic Victorian details are completely erased in favor of shit-​ass vinyl siding. All of his homes looked better before he defiled them.
Also, he knows unsavvy transplants will be willing to pay more than they should and will overcharge out the ass on any house in West O. Fuck that guy.»
What are you doing for west oakland? Claudine you are just the TRUMP of the business, ready to uphold the creation of borders within the east bay, by running out the residents who have been here the longest with high rent and difficult application process, onto of messy process & rotting homes. Keeping capitalism and systematic oppression alive.

Love love love ! Claudine is the greatest! The property was immaculate and clean. Right in west West Oakland too, All the windows were updated and very open floor plan with nice hardwoods woahh love at 1^st sight!

Claudine is absolutely the best! We are moving in to our 2^nd SMC home in 3 years and she’s always been extremely helpful showing us homes when we decided we wanted to live in a larger space.
Maintenance department resolves most issues in less than 48 hours.
Very thorough, but also very low interference property management company. If you pay on time and treat the property right, there will be no issues.

Claudine was so kind and helpful, and the application process was so great. I can’t express how much I appreciate a company that still thinks of people as people in the bay area rental world. Most renters are so cut-​throat and heartless, but SMC is fair, attentive, prompt and considerate.

Great experience with SMC. Scheduling an appointment was quick and easy over he phone. They were on time and professional with the showing, and the online application is simple and straightforward.

Great experience w/​SMC Rent. Looked at a couple properties before submitting my application. Professional and on time in showing their properties!

If Unilocal would allow me to rate a business zero stars, I would surely do so for SMC East Bay. I rented an apartment at one of their properties in Oakland for 3 years before I moved to Chicago. I have lived in apartments most of my adult life, and I have never encountered before SMC a maintenance manager who was as totally uncaring as Katherine. It all started when I moved in and tried to use the free Wi-​fi service in the building. It would go down multiple times. Each time I called Katherine, she never picked up the phone. Each time I had to leave a message with an answering service, and she never (and I mean NEVER) returned my phone calls. So, I had no idea when the Wi-​fi service would come back up. No return call to give an estimate of how long it would be down. Eventually, I grew too frustrated with using the Wi-​fi, and I had to resort to getting my own Internet service.
Next, I had a problem with my extremely arrogant downstairs neighbor with his playing music with the bass turned up extremely high. All day long I would hear «BOOM, BOOM, BOOM». Katherine refused to do anything about it as it was occurring outside of the «quiet hours», and that no one else was complaining. I had no choice but to hire an attorney, who, after threatening to sue SMC, finally got them to evict that tenant. By the way, my lawyer told me that Katherine’s excuses were pure nonsense.
Katherine continued her habit of never returning phone calls on any maintenance request. Thus, I never knew when the maintenance man would show up. She once gave me the lame brained excuse that she couldn’t return calls because of many properties they take care of. Too busy to return a phone call which would take her under a minute to do?
Save yourself much aggravation (an in my case, lots of money for attorney fees). Never rent an apartment from SMC.

A friend and I were shown a home we were interested in renting by Claudine and we were so grateful for her helpfulness and kind demeanor. Would recommend!

SMC East Bay are terrible. Not only will they surreptitiously raise your rent, never respond for repairs, drag their feet for literally everything requiring their attention, but they will illegally evict you, with less than 24 hours notice, after having paid rent faithfully for over a year. They will also keep your security deposit.
These folks are displacing people all over west oakland. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM THEY ARE SLUMLORDS.
Beware of Claudine in particular; it is her that managed to make 6 people homeless with less than 24 hours notice.

My experience was regrettable. SMC was rude and condescending, acted like they were doing me a favor instead of just doing their job. I got the impression that they were all about making a quick buck and had disdain for the people actually paying them. Until they start treating people with respect, I will stay away.

Awesome experience with SMC! Received my keys to my new home today! Mario was early, friendly, professional and thorough.
From the moment I set an appointment with Davina my experience was nothing short of fantastic. In today’s rental market I looked at so many disappointing places. Claudine showed my the rental and from there on out provided outstanding customer service! She made the experience seamless and easy. She was quick to always reply and answered all my random questions and more importantly made me feel like she really cared about me getting the new place to live!
Can’t wait to move in this weekend! I highly recommend SMC — their staff is terrific!

Another good experience with SMC and Katherine.
The front yard of our apartment building was looking a little rough. There were a lot of prickly weeds and a little grass and everytime it was cut weeds would grow back FAST! I have a two year son who really wanted to play out there but couldn’t.
I talked with Katherine about it and the possibility of adding grass. She came up with a great idea… Because of the drought … Mulch… Came home today and couldn’t believe how nice it looks. Dark mulch expertly put down.
Thanks again Katherine.

Had I seen these reviews before making an appointment to meet with Claudine today I probably wouldn’t have bothered. But I called and set up a meeting to meet at 1pm to see two houses. I arrived 5 minutes early and waited. And waited. I tried to call a couple times and left a message but never heard anything. I stood in front of the house for an hour and chatted with the neighbors, but Claudine never showed up or returned my phone calls. As far as I know something terrible happened to her, and honestly that is the only excuse for such a blatant lack of professionalism. I feel like I dodged a bullet with this one.
Too bad the house was cute.