New Land Enterprises — Attraction in Milwaukee

We lived in the Royall Villas for 6.5 years; moved due to job change in a new city. We loved our apartment and location but needed to get out of the city. Here are some pros and cons (last few cons are important):

PROS -Great location; parking is not as scary as it may seem (we always found parking on Royall, Farewell by Ardent and Zaffiros, worst case scenario on Cambridge / Oakland). -Great for trails near by or walking to any restaurants on Brady or North -Events such as Brady Street Festival could not be heard at night -Dish washer : ) -Huge living room, lots of great windows and light -Maintenance ALWAYS responded fast and serviced fast -Tons of kitchen cupboard space -Heat in winter was very, very warm : ) -Almost all tenants in 1533 were happy and friendly. Aside from loud upstairs neighbors the people were great -1/2 block away from New Land offices -Pet friendly -Wood floors -Storage locker in basement is great (not sure if all units get one) for AC units / summer stuff like coolers/ chairs / etc.

Cons -Our windows were on the alley side - dumpsters smelled awful on hot summer days -Neighbors at end of Royall and Oakland are loud daily; constant police and Fire fighter presence (which might be nice for the extra safety) - though they're rowdy, they were never violent from what we knew -Sterling across the street's garage is loud and constant. Also every Tuesday afternoon for ~1 hour they have a very large air filtration system that is loud. In addition, they get their plants watered in the summer which is also extremely loud -Any responses from anyone IN the office took forever, requires multiple follow ups -Rent is very high for how old these buildings are -Tiny bathroom On a 2nd floor we always could hear neighbors upstairs; be kind if you have a dog take a lower level! -Only 2 washers and 2 dryers; for a 12 unit building there was constant waiting for them. Better hope they don't need service too. And they're small. $2 wash / $2 dry -If you notice any common areas that need maintenance don't assume someone else sent in a request - we felt like we were the only ones sending them in. Also, for some reason tenants love leaving trash in the halls / by the mail boxes / leaving spills. Nothing major, just annoying. -If you're ever missing an amazon package it's likely at the sterling -Every summer expect the Royall / Farewell sidewalks to be torn up. We witnessed them bust out the concrete and refill at least 5 times throughout the years -Windows are VERY old and never cleaned, we could actually barely see out of our windows due to how dirty the outsides were. They're drafty too. Screens and storm windows are very hard to get out or move up and down for AC units. -Our entire cupboard set actually fell off the wall; though they did come and fix it pretty quick, we lost ~$200+ worth of glasses and dishware in which we were only given a $50 rent credit. -Not allowed to keep bikes in basement, apt is too small to keep them in. They installed a bike rack in the alley, but after 1 week both of our bikes were stolen, do not put your bike out there. -If they offer month to month after your lease is up, know they won't let you do month to month for long. We got 1 month of it before they said we either need to move or sign. Luckily they worked with us on a move out...

I really loved my apartment and the location (Row House 31 in Riverwest). Big spacious apartment with nice finishes and heated parking at no extra charge. The location of the Beer Line Trail also in my backyard was a wonderful as a dog owner and avid walker/runner.

Unfortunately however, I have to echo other tenants' dissatisfaction with regard to maintenance and the checkout process. When we first moved into our (literally brand new) apartment, there was an ongoing major leak they couldn't find the source of. Maintenance was constantly in and out of my apartment leaving footprints all over my clean floors. This was all okay because I negotiated lower rent during this time.

However years later, this issue cropped up again and they straight up just never addressed it. At some point I stopped reminding them because it was like, "okay well if you don't care that water is just sitting in the ceiling then I don't either," especially since I was about to move out.

The clincher was that they kept most of my security deposit. "Damages" they listed included broken drain stoppers for the tubs (never sent a pic, and I know for a fact they were functional because I would take baths once in awhile), broken drain stoppers for the sinks (which apparently I broke when I was cleaning the drains -- a task I asked for help with but they told me was my responsibility), broken window pulls (the handles on the windows were cheap plastic that broke the first time we used them - something we notified them of), they even tried telling me I would be charged for painting the walls (something I got advanced permission of and regardless, I lived there for FIVE YEARS they would have had to repaint anyway).

I was disappointed with the way I was treated after being a great tenant for five years, keeping my place sparkling clean, always paying my rent on time, being patient with their inability to maintain the apartments properly as well as their disrespect for my space, e.g., always traipsing through with wet salt ridden shoes in winter, etc.

I found some of their staff to be quite unprofessional as well; Brandyn...

I have been a New Land tenant for almost a year now, and we have not had any decent internet options the entire time. Spectrum and AT&T offer laughable speeds in this building (which has 72 units), so I introduced New Land to a very impressive internet company I work with at the condo building I manage. I was able to get this company up and running in my 147 unit condo building within 1 month. It has now been 5 months since New Land finally agreed with me that super fast, cheap internet is a win-win. That was after many emails and discussions between myself and the rental department. When I spoke with one of the installers 2 months ago, they had everything figured out and were waiting on minor paperwork allowing them to install in the building. After another month went by without any response to my inquiries, I decided to stop by New Land's office to see if I could get an update. The PROPERTY MANAGER, Michael, met me in the lobby and told me a bunch of nonsense about how difficult it is to get paperwork approved and he has no influence, but he certainly agreed we deserve good internet. Unfortunately for me and my roommate, we already signed our lease renewal with the expectation that real internet would soon be available. I had so far enjoyed my experience in this apartment complex and New Land gave me no reason to believe they could not make this very simple, yet necessary, improvement to the building, so I did not bother to ask for the internet to be a contingency upon my renewal. I now feel I will come to regret the decision to renew because I am left completely in the dark as to when, if ever, the internet will be installed. I guess the managers don't really care about keeping their tenants happy. It's not like there's any cloud-based technology in 2019...