Merchant Property Management

Please avoid this business. They are the worse of the worst. I had to deal with them for my previous apartment. They discriminate against to people from different backgrounds and they hostilely treat people. They charged us $ 900 for a completely clean place at the end. Don’t even bother cleaning the place when you are evacuating, they will charge and keep the full amount of your deposit anyways. I am surprised that they are still in business and property owners are still giving them business. Stay away!

I have to say my experience with Merchant Property Management has been nothing more that Amazing! Since the beginning they made my transition to San Diego as easy as possible. I moved here to finish my Master’s program and I needed to find a place fast. Angel was extremely professional, kind and helpful throughout application process. They were very understanding and sympathetic with my financial situation knowing I was living off school loans and worked with me. Thank you Angel for being Amazing and MPM for helping through my master’s!

Just horrible!!! Hope nothing breaks and you may be fine. But if it does plan on countless phone calls, maintenance guys showing up without notice, and they leave a job half done until you call again and again to remind them. Don’t even get started on moving out. They can’t wait to because that deposit is all gone. They use crappy companies who gouge on all services. Did I mention that they sprayed for spiders around our place but really was just the same guy who user the leave blower except he had a rusty can of poison. Choose another place quickly.

Ok I don’t know how this place got such horrible reviews — I applied for a cute place in North Park on Pershing– they were very stringent with what they needed to complete my application. My friend actually took it in for me so I didn’t even go in there — but they needed my original signature and would not accept a pay stub dated for the same month that was for the previous 2 weeks ! I also got my application in at like 2 pm the day it was posted– so when they told me there was an application ahead of mine I thought it was totally hokey — and expected to get the run around like the other reviewers. I was surprised when both Angel and Brenda always called me back right away– I called them everyday until the unit was rented and then … They actually sent me my application money back!!! I couldn’t believe it– no other prop mgr has ever done that — I didn’t even have to ask — so for that they get 5 stars. Even though I didn’t get the place — my interactions with them were very professional

WATCH OUT!
BEWARE!
CAUTION!
I would not rent from them if my life depended on it! Angel who is in charge of the office who answers the phone under different alias’s… Is only available when it is convenient to her… Otherwise she will avoid you like the plague! I moved out of my unit as per our agreement and she kept my deposit and filed an eviction notice on my credit report for no reason! She had all my forwarding info and chose not to contact me… False advertising at it’s finest… Angel would more appropriately be called Devil! I am not sure how she has kept her job since from other reviews she had made an art of screwing people out of their hard earned money! I rented back in 2009 and currently in 2014 am still haunted by the actions of Angel… I work in retail and my background is customer service and I am horrified by the actions of this company and in particular ANGEL! I am baffled at how a human being (Angel) can look at herself in the mirror knowing how horrifically she has treated other human beings! 1 star is a compliment to Angel and her team after there HORRIFIC behavior ! I was just notified that Merchant Property tried to report me and my post so that Unilocal would remove my review and their request was denied. I see nothing has changed and instead of fixing their horrible service they try and sweep things under the rug… Yet another example of how this company operates… My complete review stands 100%.

Had a similar experience as others reviewing MPM. that is, a terrible one.
Contacted an owner of a single family house to initiate negotiations for renting it, turned out that he was using MPM to run background checks. Long story short, we provided information to them for the credit check, was told it was insufficient and provided further information (at least 4 times). In the end, they told the owner that we were denied rental (after they took $ 100 of credit check costs from the 5 of us). Guess what the reasoning was?
Insufficient information on applications. If we have insufficient information, why not just work with us? Why do we need to continuously call and ask if we have provided enough references (they requested at least 2), paystubs, AND banking information. Furthermore, two out of the five applicants could hold the rent on their own, yet they demanded financial information from all applicants!
They didn’t work with us, didn’t provide sufficient instructions, took our money and left us hanging when they also knew we needed to move out in a few days! Terrible, terrible company. Please save yourself the trouble and potential heartache.

4222 Alabama St. The place was disgusting when we moved in. Toe nail clippings, hair, soap scum, dirty carpets. NOT clean. They sent out 1 lady to come clean with NO vacuum days after i complained.
Someone made entry into my apartment without asking and put my mail on the floor. WTF? That’s illegal.
The counter tops, drawers, and under the sink are gross. Just old, no upkeep. The wood under the sink has clearly been wet many times before.
The wall plugs don’t work. If you plug something in, it just falls right out. I was told i had to bend my plugs so they would fit. One of my plugs started to pop because the fit wasnt proper. The maintenance guys came out but would only fix 4. WTF?
The windows were so dirty, moldy, broken screens.
Closets are all off track. The guys came, drilled some new holes, left all the drywall all over the floor, and left.
I had no knobs on my stove for over a month, and no knobs on my AC.
One of the pipes under my sink busted and flooded my kitchen and dining room. Then the neighbors sink water ran in to my apartment too. flooded the carpet.
I was told the 24hour plumber couldn’t make it out until 12 to 13 hours later.
So just know that there is a VERY long list of poor service complaints on here.

Here’s the situation, it all started from the second I signed the lease.
The men in the unit below me smoke cigarettes in their apartment. The smoke travels up into mine so it smells horribly, and I also get congested. I even have developed a cough. I sent in a formal complaint but they told me that the men lived here before they were managers, and their original lease didn’t restrict smoking in the unit. Can they legally market this place as «smoke free» but allow them to smoke? They won’t even allow us to move to a different unit to avoid the smoke.
In case you’re interested, there’s more! As I was moving in, my neighbor introduced himself asking if I was [forgot her name]‘s husband. I said no, didn’t know her, and he said the woman moved into my apartment three days prior. Weird, because 10 days prior they accepted my application and were to run a credit check. They told me I was first on the list. I didn’t hear from them for about a week, no returned calls, then one day they called and said I have been approved (later I did the math. They moved someone in after I submitted my application, lived here 3 days, called me). My guess is because my boyfriend has a bankruptcy and the people who applied after us didn’t. Oh, and they accepted our deposit check with the application.
The worst part, though? They didn’t clean the place after those people lived here three days. Hair in the shower. Splatters on the mirrors. Footprints and furniture marks on the carpets. I have the pictures to prove it.
The screens have holes in them, the carpet has to be at least 10 years old, the hood over the stove doesn’t have a cover (leaves literally fall down into the place). Aren’t they supposed to replace this stuff? They refuse.

I have rented from MPM twice. The first time when I moved out they held money from the deposit to clean the window tracks– I didn’t like it, but whatever. I despite the reviews I decided to rent from them again because of the cheap rent– it wasn’t worth it. The despite having a no-​smoking lease, the live in property manager smoked in his unit and told me he was unwilling to enforce the policy for the other tenants even though the smoke literally was coming up through my floor. The secretary /​manager at the main office also turned a blind eye essentially covering for him.
Here is the really Scary Part:
After 6 months of complaining my apartment «flooded» while I had guests there and we were all out. The property manager had harassed my guests prior to this despite me actually introducing them and getting his permission for them to stay there. I was told that the water flooded the bottom 2 units and the company they called had to install fans and cut out sections of the walls. When I talked with the tenants below they verified that non of that work was done. The management company originally said there was hundreds to thousands of dollars of damage and then changed it to a hundred ish dollars magically. Looking back I can now see lots of times when the manager coincidentally had to gain entry to «fix» something that wasn’t broken nor did I request to have fixed. I know I didn’t leave my tub running and my guest’s say they didn’t– so what you do think happened?

I lived in one of their properties in Hillcrest for 3 years. The property was a bit dated, but it was clean, in a great location, and the price was right. In the 3 yrs i lived there, they raised the rent 25 $ which I think is very reasonable. I had a few issues over the years with minor repairs and they were always very quick to respond. Just got my deposit back and there were no surprise charges. Overall a very positive experience.

I lived in the 4333 43^st St in North Park, back in 2010 – 2011 and MPM properties doesn’t care about their customers only your money. I lived during one of the coldest winters in SD with no windowsills just windows sitting in them for MONTHS of course during rainy season! Told them about seeing ROACHES and had to handle the situations myself because my words were discarded by Angel. Anything wrong with the house I had to fix yet the whole house had at least 10 coats of paint on EVERYTHING; cabinets, bathtub, interior, exterior, counter tops, sinks, and some areas bugs were painted over. I liked the potential of the house but of course nothing could get properly fixed. However the state it is in is horrible and so is the cheap rude staff. Stay away from renting any of these properties and find someone else. These people should get reported or just shut down period.

I lived in a MPM property for over a year and never had any issues. Their places are affordable, and the employees seemed friendly enough, I got a fair amount of my deposit back. I would rent from them again without hesitation.

Ok, here we go!
I’ve lived in one of their triplex cottages for 18 months. So I look at the apartment online, find the address, go check it out. I immediately notice the shower is peeling off the walls all over. The bathtub is peeling. The shelf in the shower was actually ½ inch away from the wall, with water collecting inside the wall. There were also huge dirty stains in the carpet. Clearly old and used. Well, they’re gonna fix it, right?
Two workers were sent over to repair the bathtub, shower, etc. All he did was put ugly white plaster over the peeling, moldy areas. Basically covering up the problem, and making it look worse. So for three days we showered at a friends, no advice from the management on where to bathe. The walls began peeling again. Twice after this, the same maintenance workers randomly showed up without calling. I wasn’t able to let them in, as I was leaving, so they got pissed. They said «Okay, well, we no help u no more.» Completely dumb and ignorant…
Finally got the shower wall fixed, months later. But the tub itself is still peeling. Bath repair lady says that’s another day. Meanwhile, nobody has informed me of where I should be taking a shower while the sealant cures. Angel the manager — unreliable.
The crazy thing is, we moved in February 25^th, 2012. Well before the first of March. Angel said we «have to» move in if we wanted the apartment. The shower was never repaired before we moved in, and was finally done yesterday. 18 months later. Half the job, mind you.
Well here we are today, December 27^th, 2013. No new carpeting. The manager says it’s new!!!
Looks like things are getting done, but so slowly. No communication and zero effort from these people. Sure I could just move, but why should I? I love the area and location. That’s the lame part.
Also, they replaced the roof shingles with like, a day warning. Next thing I know there’s debris all over the walkway outside, and men hammering on the roof. Oh, and particles were falling in through ventilation shafts in the ceiling. Rude. In order to replace the shingles, they had to remove the rain gutter and various electrical wires. After the roof was completed, nobody ever came back to put on a rain gutter. Not the end of the world, but it’s another problem with reliability. The electrical wires were hanging all over the house, very ugly and dangerous. Many neighbors asked me what the deal was with the wires. Then, about seven months later, the wires were gone, but still no rain gutter. It’s all very strange to me.

I lived in an apartment managed by MPM for several months. I did not have any particular problem with the management during my stay there. They were usually quick in responding to my request (such as fixing the garbage disposal, etc). I see some bad reviews that people have given to MPM, but my experience has been that if I interact with them with respect I get the same back.

I lived in an apartment owned by MPM for about a year, from spring of 2011 till spring of 2012. I would say that overall, my experience with them was, for the most part, positive.
I saw an ad for an apartment in Hillcrest on Craigslist, which was open house. Went to check it out, liked it, filled out an application, and submitted it. It didn’t take long to get approved and eventually fill out all the paperwork. I remember communicating with Angel, and although she can be a bit brusque in the way she talks to a customer, she still gets the job done. It wasn’t long until I was able to move in. The apartment was great, cheap, and in a perfect location.
There were very few problems with the management during the time I was living in their property. There were a few times when I or my roommate had to call their office for a lockout… thus, we had to wait until the end of the day (around 5pm) for them to be able to let us back into the apartment. Well… that’s real life. Don’t lose your keys! I also once had to call in for a non-​emergency maintenance request, and they got it fixed within a few days.
One thing that really did bother me about them was 1) the parking and 2) the security. When we moved in, they told us there was enough space for two cars. Nope… not really. Yes, we could park two cars in our spot, but then it left one car sitting on the sidewalk. A car on the sidewalk equals a ticket. Don’t do it. Alas, me and my roommate ended up taking turns parking on the street. Luckily, we never had any serious problems with that. Second, the security of the area could be better. The complex that we were at was gated, but more often than not, the gate wouldn’t close properly. What’s the point of having a gate if it can’t shut itself? Secondly, the cable boxes in the back (where the internet companies put in their cables) wasn’t locked. We once had an issue with out internet, and after hours of troubleshooting and talking to customer service and having an agent come to our complex, we found out that a cable had been stolen from the box, which is the reason we didn’t have internet. A simple solution would be to put a lock on that particular box, but to this day I don’t believe they’ve done that.
Overall, I had a good experience with MPM. Like any business, it could seriously improve in a lot of respects. I have no complaints with where I was living, and would be willing to rent with them again should I ever move back to San Diego.

Overall I had a good experience working with Angel to sign a lease for my new 1 BD apartment. I dropped off the application Sun night, and was approved by Thursday afternoon, signed the lease Fri AM.
She promptly called me the morning after I dropped off my application in their night drop box, leaving a detailed message of additional information needed before it could be processed. After emailing the info, she replied back the same day clarifying that I needed to send more detailed info than what I sent. No problem, I sent it off.
Being that San Diego is so competitive with many people looking to rent, good places go FAST! I did have to call a few times during the process to confirm my info was received and complete. It was important to ease my nerves and ensure I was still next in line for the apartment.
When I visited their office I saw how tiny it is (2 maybe 3 staff?) and saw the large stacks of papers on Angel’s desk. I think the workload is too much for 2 – 3 people, hence the delay in responding to me. Although Angel was quick in the beginning and replying to my email, I had to call her a few times — to confirm all info was in place, and after anxiously waiting all day on Thursday to find out I was approved after all!
So my only criticism is that, from a renter’s point of view, I like to be promptly updated throughout the process so I feel my information is complete and to ensure my placement while waiting to be approved.

I applied for a property with them 2 weeks ago. I provided everything they asked for. I would call to check on the application and they would NEVER return my phone calls or messages. When they would pick up they would «accidentally» hang up on me… This happened NUMEROUS times! When I called them out on their shenanigans they would give me «Attitude.» They waited until the last day I had to move out to tell me they accepted my app. They’re reason to take so long was because they couldn’t get a hold of my previous landlords. which is complete BS. I spoke with my previous landlords everyday and they would tell me that they NEVER received any calls from merchant properties. After all of that they tried to up my security deposit from 850 $ to 1100 $ because my credit score is 618. I gave them a big hell no and so should you.
Moral of the story– MERCHANT PROPERTIES=THIEVES and LIARS.

Eh you know what these guys acted fast when I had a few issues with the cottage. The cottage is old but we expected maybe a few issues possible. Angel is nice and very knowledgeable. That’s the truth and that was our experience.

Lets see, where to start!
Yes they never get back to you, they are hostile, and rude, and lazy… etc etc etc. But they actually stole from me!
I was charged $ 60 to replace the lock when i moved out, despite having turned in my keys. I left my 500sf apartment clean and spotless, but was charged $ 120 for two maids to come out and clean it again. And when i added up my expenses on the bill and subtracted it from my initial deposit, they shorted aka stole $ 10 from me. Not a big deal… but i have since called and emailed Angel several times, and was promised the $ 10 would be returned to me… but that was over two months ago.
You make your own luck in life… and they will have their turn

This means negative infinite stars really. Check this one out, if you thought you heard worse, this fits right in. MPM is the same name found in Craigslist. I put in my application on a Monday, Angel says I just missed first application (a nice guy, blah blah blah) a few minutes ago so I am the back-​up. He got a conditional offer on Tuesday afternoon, I called everyday since, courteously asking the status. Wednesday Angel referred that applicant was a she and I was like what, wasn’t it a guy, then she did some coverup maneuver for that story. Anyways, on Thursday, I called at closing time, applicant had no call no show to sign the lease, and it was a no go. I was assuringly told by Angel, authorized by her boss that my application was to go through. I gave Friday and Monday morning for them to look over my application, yet no messages anywhere.
I call 11 am the following Monday only to hear from someone else that the lease was signed! I was like WTF!?? I confronted them and called them out. Their answers were lame and do exercise poor business practices.
On Tuesday, after a futile call back from Angel, and short conversation with her power tripping boss who hung up on me (she won’t even state he name clearly, like she scrambles it when she picks up the phone), I know any business with them would be regretful.
So essentially they were willing to bend over backwards and break the rules of ethics for one and push me aside after telling me my application is up for review. Wow!
Imagine that after all my courteous calls, they were expecting me to receive a rejection letter in the mail stating «rented out» by Wednesday or later! How weak.
I took a more expensive offer which took less than an hour for application to review, process, and be approved! You get what you pay for.