Hey. So I have a few friends moving off campus and they starting house hunting. They've been looking at houses from Investment. I heard that and was all like "no, Investment sucks." They're asking me what's wrong with them... so if you have anything positive or negative to say about them I'd like to know.

Thanks.

Search... but the usual complaints are:

-You won't get your deposit back because they'll find something wrong / it's in the lease that they're going to use it to clean carpet for ridiculous rates or paint.
-They're slow to do any repairs. This depends on who is in charge of your house from what I hear.

My house hasn't needed any repairs, but a guy has come and put in new fire detectors (around september) and then changed the batteries in them today (april). You can get around losing your deposit by transferring the lease directly to the next set of renters and having them pay the deposit to you. Not too big of a hassle assuming you have people that want your house.

Wherever you go, be sure to read the WHOLE lease before you sign it - you're agreeing to it and you're bound by it. You might find some neat stuff in there that they'll do for you or that you have to pay for or whatever... but do it. I'm like the only person I know that actually reads through the crap I sign - when I read through Investment's lease I found the carpet and painting crap and that's all I really remember about it sucking.

pretty much summed it up, we got people to take our house. It was the plan all along, but we had heard horror stories about moving out and charges they give.

I actually got my deposit back but that was because they didn't clean the place before we moved in and we actually left the place in better condition than when we left.

-A2

a few friends and I camped out all night for the brick house behind kappa delta. we had everything worked out with the other groups so that we all got the houses we wanted, so the place would open up the next day and we'd all be good to go. well, we get there, we sign the lease and give it to their CEO whatever dude to sign, and he comes in and tells us we can't have the house. apparently a group of kids had come in the day before and had them hold the house for them overnight so they didn't have to wait in line overnight with everyone else. after raising a big stink with the guy in charge, he admitted that they were in the wrong and we did everything right that we were required to do... but they tore our lease up and wouldn't give us the house regardless. by that time, all of the houses within a three and a half mile radius of campus were already taken, so instead of getting a nice house within walking distance to campus, we end up with some duplex almost four miles away from campus with the end of town as our backyard.
it was mentioned that the emplyee who reserved the house overnight would get a 'rather stern talking to', but I've had my job long enough to know what that means. as they would say on Ebay, "Would not buy from again". That was the day from hell.

yes Drew Taylor, I'm looking at you.


I also hear that once youre moved in its a pain in the butt to move back out, but I've yet to experience that pleasure.

Long story (can't be made) short:

Wife and I moved into an apartment, transferred the lease from the previous tenants who then moved into the upstairs apartment (we were friends from the dorms). Investment refused to fix anything, including leaking windows, molding walls (from the leaking windows), and a door that could be opened when locked due to the huge gap between the door and the doorjamb.

About two weeks before the lease was over, we started to move out. Packing up and cleaning, suitcases, boxes, and cleaning supplies everywhere (mops, buckets, bottles of cleaner, etc.) - also the weekend of my graduation party. We had our phone number transferred to our new apartment, as well as electricity (RMU told us we could only have electricity at one address at a time). We got a call saying that Investment is going to show the apartment, and we told them that we're in the middle of moving out so it's kinda messy.

I showed up the next day, and there were people in the old apartment (which still had more than a week on the lease) moving out our stuff. They said they work for Investment, but they're just loading stuff into an unmarked truck. I told them that's my stuff and to put it back, but they just grabbed more boxes and ran off. I also noticed that they had changed the locks.

Investment had assumed that since the apartment was messy, we had "run off" and left our stuff for Investment to clean up. They hired "movers" to "dispose of" our stuff - supposedly they kept it in a warehouse for some time until they were sure nobody would claim it. They showed us pictures of the apartment "as they found it." The pictures showed boxes and suitcases in the middle of the floor (which we had left in the closet), flowerpots overturned to dump dirt on the carpet and floors (which were full and had plants in them, we just hadn't moved them yet), etc.

They refused to return any of our stuff, since we "abandoned" the apartment and had our phone "turned off" so Investment "couldn't contact us" despite the fact that they had talked to us on the phone the day before, and we know we never lost phone service. We went to the police after we made a list of stuff that was missing (interestingly enough, the valuables were moved out first - the electronics, nice suitcases, my parents silver, my wife's jewelry and her CD collection, etc.) and they basically didn't care when they heard it was Investment.

We looked it up, and they broke the lease and committed at least two crimes. We threatened to sue, and they brought back a couple boxes of the stuff (with no valuables in the boxes), and told us it was everything. We talk to a lawyer, if we pressed charges we could get Investment's realty license revoked by the state. They brought back a couple more boxes of stuff (with some valuables in it), and told us that there was nothing else that could possibly have been taken - oh and by the way you're not getting your deposit back and here's $1500 worth of repairs we had to make to the apartment.

We took the list of repairs, and checked off almost everything as preexisting problems on the check-in list we got from the previous tenants, that was signed by Investment. The few items that were not on the check-in list were things like water damage around the windows and mold on the walls - which we had documented in writing to try to get Investment to fix.

We went back to Investment, and this time they had THREE lawyers and told us that they were going to sue us for making false claims or something - they accused us of lying about the entire thing, especially the valuables that were taken. They made my wife cry.

We get affidavits about the valuables we had from the people who gave them to us (silver from my parents, jewelry from her parents, etc.) and look more into taking it to court. By law, if they were found to have caused us damage through their breach of the lease (and other crimes), they would have to reimburse us TWICE our damages. We go back and point that out, with a list of monetary damages which exceeds the entire years worth of rent. They have another box of our stuff that they "found," containing about half my parents silver (some of which was damaged, including an antique silver teapot which was damaged beyond repair).

Time comes to do final check-out of the apartment as the lease is over, and we take a digital camera to document the walkthrough. We find a few more items in the apartment, sitting on the floor - like her big box of CDs, things like that - which were definitely NOT in the apartment after we finished cleaning it up (we took pictures after cleaning, in case they went back and messed it up again). They once again accused us of leaving stuff in the apartment and lying about it being stolen, until we showed them the pictures of it NOT being there. The apartment was in better shape than when the previous tenants moved in - we even rented a steam cleaner and steamed the carpets - I'm sure it was the first time that happened.

At our last meeting with Investment, they said they found some more of the valuables (electronics, including a pair of nice 2-way radios we had) in the apartment after the check-out walkthrough - but we couldn't have them back, because we "abandoned" them when we left them in the apartment. We showed them pictures, from the walkthrough, with the Investment employee in the picture, of the electronics NOT being in the picture where their pictures showed the electronics. They didn't care.

They settled rather than go to court, and wrote us a check. That still doesn't make up for the family heirloom jewelry that was lost (the electronics were replaced), or the accusations they threw at us.

Looking back, I should have spit in his face, torn up the check, and taken him to court. But I was starting graduate school, and this crap had been going on for nearly a month, and my wife was freaking out - and we couldn't afford a lawyer to take it to court. If I had the chance to completly put the bastard out of business, I would do it in a heartbeat.

good to know. thanks for the heads up, I'll move out all at once. Heads up people, know what you're getting into.

This reminds me:

Some of my friends signed a lease on a place without looking at it. When they came down to move in in June, the found the place infested with fleas. They did the check in stuff and they kept noting things that were in disrepair or damaged and the people from investment were like "I can't see that" to stuff like holes in the floor... pretty shady. They tried to break off the lease because of the flea infestation that Investment never took care of, but Investment wouldn't let them out of it. They ended up having a lawyer friend do some stuff and they got out of the lease + all of their money back IIRC.

Wow you guys have had some bad luck. Someone broke a door on our house and we called and got it fixed for free. We really haven't called them about any other problems though.

I've dealt with Investment before. While I don't have a real horror story, I did accumulate enough aggravation through one summer semester to be cautious of dealing with them any further.

If they are still interested have them call Dale Wands at 573-308-8388. He's got a 5 bedroom place opening up on 17th Street in June, and may have other places open.

He's a pretty good landlord to deal with too. Things get fixed in a timely manner, and while the houses aren't brand new, they are not falling apart either. Out of all the rentals in Rolla, I and my house mates trust Dale's properties.

7 People voted that investment screwed them over, but there are only two stories. What gives people?

My experience with Investment Realty was okay. I lived at Swimmer House (RIP) for 3 years and they were very laissez-faire about everything, almost to the point that they wanted to avoid the house, which they did. Not once while I was there (or ever, really) did a representative from Investment check on the house. Which is good, since the house would have been condemned, i.e. no permanent heating, water (beer) damage, broken windows, and copious graffiti in the basement. The only thing they cared about was their monthly check, always paid on time; so our only contact with them was at the annual lease signing. The idea of having our deposit returned was nonsense not only because of the overall damage to the house but because the original deposit was made in the early 90s and had rolled over for over 10 years and we never really had to pay it. My only 'complaint' would be that they raised the rent my final year by 10%, but that wasn't unreasonable considering it was the only increase since the house was known as Swimmer House. The house was far from good but the friendship (beer) and atmosphere (parties) made it more than acceptible.

The people who live in swimmer house now had to do a lot of work on the place to not have it condemned. I believe Investment visited Swimmer house for the first time in 13 years last semester.

My horror story:

This starts out as myself, my wife, and a couple of other people making one of the biggest mistakes we have ever made.

Myself, and one of my then roommates were getting married over the summer. The following semesters I was going to be working on my undergrad still, and he had decided to go for grad school. We get in on the March maddness line-up to try and find a good deal. The bad part is I already had 2 cats, and that SEVERELY limited our options. We needed a house with 3 bedrooms, and a decent amount of living space since 2 couples would be in the place. The ONLY house we could find through IR that was big enough and "allowed" pets was cost $1250/mo. We should have waited, and I knew it at the time, but I didn't listen to my gut.

We signed the lease, and not even 2 weeks later, the instructor that was going to fund my roommate's grad school submits his resignation. So now he isn't doing grad school, and being a Nuke E, employment options in the area are scarce. That professor went to teach at Penn State, and offered my roommate the same deal for grad school there. Since the first roommate wasn't going to do grad school, the second decided he was ready for work as well, and only wanted to stick around for one more semester. That puts me and my wife in one hell of a pickle.

We pleaded our case to our landlord (the actual owner of the place) who also happened to be the CEO and owner of IR. While he was showing us the place, he went on and on about how he used to go to UMR, and he hated how the rental market wasn't organized at all, and he decided he would fix that problem for future students, aka fellow alumni. He sold us this big story about how he liked to look out for students.

Well, when it came time for him to put his money where his mouth was, he showed his true colors. The situation was valid, my roommates full ride had been revoked after we signed the lease. He couldn't afford the place, and was going to leave Rolla. The other roommate wasn't as valid, but I could see his point of view. All we wanted was to be released from the lease since it had only been about 2 weeks. DENIED.

After that big Cock and Balls story he sold us about looking out for students, he decides that he'd rather not own up to the nice guy he made out to be and put the screws to us every legal way he could. Wouldn't budge on the lease, or the amount for rent. Hell, we paid for 3 months of rent at that place and I never even saw the inside because he wouldn't give us keys (we didn't hook up utilities, and why would we? we weren't there over the summer). I had to rent a storage shed to put my stuff in. He promised to put it back out on the market, but took his sweet time doing it. After the first 2 months of it being on the market (cause it took a few weeks to get it back out there), it wasn't getting any hits ($1250/mo, remember?). So he lowers the rent $250, and adjusts how much he is charging us accordingly.

Luckily, my roommates weren't douchebags, and everyone still paid what was due. Our lease started officially in June, and that was 3 months after we wanted out. Somehow, by August, someone was ready to take it over, and we only had to pay half the rent that month. But after that whole ordeal, especially after the line of crap he shat out his mouth before we even signed the lease, I would probably celebrate on the ashed of the building if it ever burned down. I hate that place as much as I hate the math department here.

Honestly, it wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much if that story he told us in the beginning didn't turn out to be a load of bull, or even if he had never said it. Technically, they did nothing wrong, Psychologically and morally, he screwed us.

ditto, I know a bunch of people who have had good business relationships with dale