Advantage Plus Inc Property Management

"Everyone warned me not to rent from her. I only saw the landlady twice, when we viewed the apartment & when I signed the lease; very difficult to get a response to my phone, email, or text communications. In newspaper because of a lawsuit against her by multiple tenants for substandard living conditions. City officials recognized her name, never had anything positive to say. Only one open parking space allowed; substandard covered parking spaces must be rented for $50 per month. Every repair visit required a $100 payment from the tenant. The water pressure was very low, never improved despite my noting it in the walk-through forms & emailing the landlady about it. There was a gap in the floor between the toilet & the sink when I moved in that never got repaired despite my communication about it. The outdoor garbage bins filled up quickly, often overflowed, and garbage pickup sometimes didn't happen. Update March 2018: contacted lawyer bc landlady violated the Illinois Security Deposit Return Act. He attempted to discuss situation with her but she deflected, delayed, ignored him. Lawsuit to follow. Update Nov 2018: lawsuit filed. Efforts to serve subpoena resulted in info like "known avoider", "can't be reached", "won't answer the door", etc. Update Dec 2018: won lawsuit against this person. Update Dec 2021: still haven't been reimbursed any of my security deposit, despite lawsuit ruling. Will need to return to court in order to even start trying to get it."

"Do not rent from this company. They do not make repairs or do any maintenance. They find ways and loopholes to keep your security deposit when you are entitled to getting it back. Mary Brown is a financially dangerous person that should not be in the rental business. She will rip you off the first chance she gets!"

"Absolutely HORRIBLE. Rent from Mary Brown if you DO NOT want to see a portion of your security deposit returned; you will NEVER hear from her again after you move out. Rent from Mary Brown if you want to move in days after your lease begins and be ignored when attempting to get in contact to receive keys (should have ran far away after that red flag), want to be ignored despite attempting to contact her via e-mail (which she claims she responds to), text messages, phone calls on cell phone and business phone, and mantience e-mail. You will not receive a parking place which she guarentees when you sign your lease, making you park in city parking 2-3 blocks away, and again, ignore all of your efforts to receive a parking spot. If something is broken, she will expect you to attempt to fix it first; BUT will not tell you this until DAYS after attempting to get in contact with her regarding a broken water heater (only one that contributes to 4 apartments where we were living), a bathtub that is not draining and spitting back mud and dirt, causing you to shower in ankle deep of disgusting water and going almost 3 weeks without a bathroom light because the light fixture broke and AGAIN, no response to attempting to get this fixed. There will be no apologizes, only passive aggressive e-mails from her as if she were a child. I only wish she were a child to explain her behaviors but that would not be good enough reason for the fact that Mary Brown is a manipulative, evil, and dishonest person. Do not make the mistake we did and rent from this woman."

"I have leased from Advantage Plus on two separate occasions. I was very happy with both apartments and the locations. In one apartment, 408, I had a faucet that started leaking. Management had someone out to replace the faucet immediately after reporting the leak. I had the opportunity to meet many of the other tenants and made some great friends. In my first lease I was a not so happy when I was docked $50.00 for not cleaning the stove after move out. In all fairness I had forgotten to clean it. Both apartments were immaculate on move in so I can understand why they would want it back that way. I recommend Advantage Plus to all of you who are considering renting from them."

"You will never see your deposit again. No joke, dust on a light fixture was what she charged us for. Got less than half of a 1300 deposit back for that, a screen that was ripped when we moved in, and other miscellaneous nonsense. Tried to get two months as security plus first months rent but our realtor said we would walk over that. So we could have lost a lot more. Run, don't walk, no matter how nice the place is and how nice they seem, they aren't. Trust these reviews. I wish I had read them first. Live and learn."