Discuss These Ratings (1)

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
S Mathilda	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Moved out after 1 year with tears of happiness! Where do I start? Rent - OK. Parking - a bunch of random people always parked in the lot with no consequences. Apartment - OK but owners clearly don't give a heck about its condition. Taps are leaking, tile is falling off the wallsю Walls are cracking. Walls are WHITEWASHED over old wallpaper, so you can poke the wall through! At move in, I had to call them several times to come in to fix the bathroom door because it wouldn't close, and the lock in the door. Well, I ended up fixing that lock myself. All that told me that they didn't inspect the place properly after the previous person had moved out. Didn't clean after previous tenant - I had to clean dead bugs out. Oh well, that's because they don't do that - YOU hire someone to clean and MUST present them a receipt at move-out, otherwise you don't get your deposit back! Staff is rude and ridiculous. They always talk to you like you are trying to borrow money from them! And to top all this crap off, they give you a 4,5-month notice to make your mind whether you want to extend your lease. 4,5 MONTHS. Glad it only took me 5 seconds to think about it: I wasn't extending anything! Please avoid this landlord at all costs.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
517 Semple St	4.0	5.0	1.0	4.0
I gave them pretty high ratings, because they always showed up the same day or the next day when we called to fix things. We did have a leaky ceiling (several times in several places) which sometimes had to wait a few days because the roof was covered in snow. I also feel obliged to say a few things and tell one particular horror story. First of all, their office people are totally miserable. Second of all, they do not call when they're showing the apartment with HUGE groups of people, so between 9-5 make sure to be fully clothed! And lastly, our apartment was STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. Had my roommate been lying in his bed, he probably would have been killed. It ripped a huge hole in the ceiling, sprayed plaster everywhere, and fried our cable box, DVD player, and TV. They repaired it the next day (after the storm was over and it was daylight) but weren't exactly apologetic. Overall, however, it was a decent student apartment and they weren't awful landlords. We got our entire security deposit back, even the fee they said they were going to take out for carpet cleaning.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
160 S. Fairmount St.	4.0	3.0	2.0	3.0
I've lived here for a few months now. I'll give my initial impressions. Pro: Apartment is in fairly decent condition. It is not great but it is clean enough. Maintenance people come here once and a while. The front bin where all the mail people trashed gets emptied fairly quickly. I saw them replacing a window for one of the other tenants. They were fixing a leak in another apt recently. So maintenance is fairly active here. The neighborhood is pretty nice and quite except for the kids you'll see wondering at 1am from time to time. Size for an efficiency is decent enough for one person. There are A/C in the room. They have heat. They do allow pets. Mostly students around here. Tons of people with dogs. Good overall area with access to Giant Eagle Market District, Shadyside Hospital, Trader Joe's and more. There's parking in the back of the building. Mostly gravel parking lot. Con: My biggest complaint right now is that they turned on the heater and haven't turned it off. It is scorching hot in my apt while the outside is nice and cool. Other tenants are very unhappy about it too. Office staff doesn't have great customer service skills. I haven't been treated horribly. But you can see that they're just there to do their job and they don't really care about you. While I was in the office, one of the staff got a personal call. She mentioned how it's one of those days and these people are coming in when they're not suppose to--right in front of said people. While maintenance was fixing a leak in another apt, they were going to other apts to see if the leak was originating there. They knocked on the door and yelled out maintenance. If no one is home they'll go in. I was home when they knocked on mine. They seem to be nice people but still. Knowing the possibility of maintenance coming into my apt without me knowing makes me uncomfortable. My bathroom faucet drips and developing rust issues. There's a big ugly decorative fireplace in the middle of my room. The window is old and cracking due to all the layers of paint over it. One of my two windows are painted shut(doesn't look on purpose). Worst of all, there's no screen on the windows. So bugs will fly in. The AC works but it looks old. The AC and window also aren't sealed. Basically, I can feel cold air passing through the window when it's closed and see through the cracks in the surrounding the AC. This might be an issue during winter. The front door slams everytime someone comes in/out. But that's not really their fault and it doesn't bother me much. The caulking in the bathroom looks poorly done. However, bathroom doesn't look disgusting. There's beer cans and bottle outside. Granted not their fault but they could clean it up. A woman's bra is laying outside my window and sadly it didn't come off as a result from me. It has been laying there since I first moved in. You can't call them during the weekends. Only weekdays and only during office hours. Overall, this is my first apartment and I'm fairly happy so far. I'm not disgusted by anything here. I find this place very livable. I'm in a great area and great neighborhood. Just to be a guy, it is definitely presentable for bringing home a girl. However, the walls are thin. I haven't had any issues with the office staff but I don't trust them either. I will pay extra attention to them. I'll review Herbert Halsband again later. Honestly, there isn't too many great landlords to rent from. So I'd recommend my building and my experience for now. It looks like all the horrible reviews are from the same apartment building or from people who aren't objective. Take my review as-is.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
5522 ellsworth ave	1.0	2.0	1.0	1.0
the apartment is lovely, but the landlord is awful. they towed my car from the parking lot (where i was allowed to park) and charged me $100 for the privilege.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
271 Shady Ave	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
A Company Without A Conscience Stay away from these people, they're bad news. Especially Sherry, the daughter of the owner. She's a judgmental bitch who only acts like she cares about you until after she has your deposit. These people take the word "inflexibility" to a whole new level and take responsibility for absolutely nothing. If you're unfortunate enough to have already given your deposit to these people, you might just as well forget getting any other kind of service from them from this point forward. Every other tenant I've ever talked to says the same thing. A good London fog is all it takes to make the roofs of virtually every house leak, heaven forbid it should actually RAIN. The owner is a cheap-assed bastard who doesn't give a shit about his tenants and always comes up with the most confrontational arguments over absolutely nothing. Some people in the office are okay, but not Mr. Halsband and certainly not Sherry. They both seem to get off on humiliating people, and with Sherry in particular it's very clear that you're a nuisance to her. If she could be looking any further down her nose at you, her eyes would have to roll back in her head from the bottom. I pity anyone who rents from these people. It's not just a matter of being strict and enforcing the rules, it's a matter of doing so in the most malicious way possible, and then, only enforcing the rules that benefit THEM. When it comes to their obligations to you as a tenant, then suddenly the rules don't seem to matter. Neither does common decency or respect. I hope they rot in Hell, really I do. And by the way, these are just my opinions. Better state that lest they decide to sue my ass - just about every day, they are suing one tenant or another, and freely use the threat of a lawsuit to blackmail people. If that doesn't tell you something, then you might just as well go ahead and rent from them because you're too stupid to realize just how horribly they'll treat you.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Shadyside	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
PURE EVIL! The staff were ALWAYS EXTREMELY rude to me. The apartments are overpriced and falling apart. Be assured if you live here you will have some sort of repair issues! Also, someone DIED in my building while I was living there and THEY NEVER PROPERLY CLEAN IT!!! It smells terrible and they made the family pay the rent for the apartment until the lease was up because they are such bad people. Please please trust me that any positive reviews on here are made by them and their staff! Avoid avoid avoid!

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Shadyside	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
PURE EVIL! The staff were ALWAYS EXTREMELY rude to me. The apartments are overpriced and falling apart. Be assured if you live here you will have some sort of repair issues! Also, someone DIED in my building while I was living there and THEY NEVER PROPERLY CLEAN IT!!! It smells terrible and they made the family pay the rent for the apartment until the lease was up because they are such bad people. Please please trust me that any positive reviews on here are made by them and their staff! Avoid avoid avoid!

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
S.Atlantic	3.0	4.0	5.0	4.0
I lived in this apartment about two years ago. They fixed things soon after we called them within a day or two. There was one time we called about a stopped up drain. The man came over looked at it and said he would have to come back the next day to snake it. I thought this to be weird because you would think a person would actually come over with proper tools to fix a stopped up drain the first time around. Snaking a drain is pretty standard. Anyway it wasnt too big of an issue. Other than that nothing really broke on us too often. When something did happen, they would fix it in a timely fashion. We had a nice stoop and the apartment was ok. Some of the outlets didnt work and one of the closets still smelled funny from the last tenant. Overall though I would rent from them again considering my other experiences.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Shadyside	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
I see from other that absolutely nothing has changed in the 20 years since I rented from Halsband. Its worth noting that I know live in a building that abuts one of their properties. It has a old, ramshackled two-story garage that they've been trying to rent out for several months now (no takers; imagine that). While they were "refurbishing" this garage (read: spit & polish), their workers thought it would be just fine to park their vehicles in our private lot, clearly marked as private and with a tow-away warning (could a person fit any more bumper stickers about Jesus on just one vehicle, while clearly not "walking the walk" Jesus taught?). When confronted about their criminal trespass, we were offered slurs, insults, and swearing. When I threatened to call the tow truck, they laughed. When I threatened to call the police, they shrugged and said "go ahead." I had to bring out my 16-gauge shotgun to convince them that private property is indeed PRIVATE. A follow-up call to Halsband's office produced an admonishment from Sherry the Hag that we were "unreasonable" and they hung up on me. I'm surprised Halsband hasn't been run out of town by now.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Shadyside	4.0	5.0	3.0	4.0
I am currently living in an apartment I am renting from Herbert Halsband and I am quite happy. The people in the office are generally pleasant, but they seem to be having a rough day more often then not. Sherri, who showed me the apartment, was wonderful. The maintenance has been very good—though less important matters may take a few days to get to. The building is quite old and could definitely be maintained better; however, I’m paying under $1000 (including utilities) for a 2 bedroom in the middle of Shadyside, and you get what you pay for. The heat can get too hot at times and too cold at times, but after paying gas bills last year, I am very happy to let some else control and pay for the heat. They also allow smoking and pets—though I don’t smoke or have pets neither bother me, but consider this when your looking to rent. Overall I have had a very good experience with Herbert Halsband and would suggest them—as with any land lord there will be issues; my biggest complaint would be the quality of the apartment. If I have problems during the end of my lease or with my security deposit, I will post it! Best of luck with your apartment search, and I hope this proves helpful.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
221 S. Millvale	3.0	3.0	2.0	3.0
So my girlfriend and I moved to 221 after a terribly horrible experience with our previous landlord, who's review I also wrote. So when we moved to 221 our expectations were really low, and to be honest, most apartments in Pittsburgh are of absolutely crap quality, this city is filled with slumlords. But we were pleasantly surprised at 221 when we first saw it. We were told it was just refinished, and it appeared to be done in an average condition. However, after a few weeks of living here, we had noticed several things. Most the repairs to the apartment were done in an unworkmanship like manner. The closet door had been hung wrong and would not close, for example. This only took a few minutes of my time to fix, so it wasn't a big deal. We signed up for DSL internet, and I had to scrap the paint out of the phone jack to plug anything in. This is something I've noticed in a lot of Pittsburgh apartments, nobody masks before they paint. Again, not a deal breaker. Our bathroom did start leaking from the ceiling, but maintenance was pretty good about fixing it. It took the poor man a try or two (about two weeks) to get it right, but it was fixed. Our light in the bathroom ceiling is broken now, and there is a slight sag above our bathtub now, but considering our experience in a previous apartment, this is nothing. As for the complaints about heat from the reviewers at the other apartments owned by this company, this building is the opposite really. It's quite toasty here, sometimes too toasty, but we prefer it that way. The biggest issue we have is that this apartment allowed smoking, and after a few weeks, the steam from the shower pulled the tar out of the walls and now is staining our bathroom. It's pretty gross. Also, the windows are leaking a lot of air, as is the back door. Nothing that can't be solved with plastic and tape, but still annoying. The office staff does leave something to be desired, but they don't seem terribly unfriendly. They do, however, forget to warn you when a maintenance person is coming over at all. The hallways could be cleaned a little better, but it's not terrible at all. Overall, this apartment is average. A new renter should expect to have a few weird problems and some drafts, but nothing too bad. Also keep in mind that our apartment was newly re-finished, so this review may not hold for other apartments.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
416 South Fairmount	1.0	5.0	2.0	1.0
Let me just say that I have never been so unhappy in my life. My boyfriend and I both rent from these people, and neither of us can wait to get out of our leases. I have been here for about 7 months and I knew the first month that I was going to be miserable. This building is honestly falling apart. There is a hole in the front of the building and squirrels live in the walls in the 3 floor apartment. My boyfriend is in that apartment and has ants, stink bugs, and squirrels. I am on the first floor and it is ten times worse down here. I am right next to the front door and every time someone enters or leaves the building, I hear them and the door slams shut and rattles my walls and my doors. There is absolutely no insulation in this building and I can hear every single thing that every other tenant does in this building. I cannot sleep at night because I hear every move the guy above me makes. I can't sleep in because of this same reason and because the guy across the hall blasts his music. A man who doesn't even live above me but on the other side of the building yawns.. a lot.. and I hear it.. A LOT. I can hear every single thing in the hallway and I cannot STAND it. There is NO SUCH THING AS PEACE AND QUIET with this apartment. It is either too cold or too hot all winter long because they have two furnaces with no thermostat. This results in either the heat constantly running creating a sauna, or not running in which I freeze my ass off. Because they painted all my windows shut before I moved in, I can only open 2 of them, and only 1 that I can open has a screen. They don't want you to open your windows in the winter because all the heat gets out, but I'd rather they pay an expensive gas bill than sweat to death. They also painted over the light fixtures in the bathroom so I had to practically rip the ceiling open to replace a light bulb. I bet I get charged for that even though it was their dumb half ass mistake since they can't just paint around it. They half-ass every single "fix" they do in this building. When they came to fix my shower after 5 months of complaining that the shower head didn't work, they "fixed" it so that now I couldn't take a bath because the shower head always runs when you turn on the water. The appliances that they so generously provide for you are all so old that they don't work properly. They tell you that they will steam clean the carpets. That's a HUGE lie. Both my apartment and my boyfriend's apartments were disgustingly filthy when we moved in. He had dog hair all over the place from the previous tenants, and we could see the evidence in the vacuum bag. It's unbelievable that they obviously don't even look around the apartment to see if everything is working correctly if their is a mess of stuff under the sinks when we move in. They charge absolutely way too much for us to be living in this crappy neighborhood just because it's withing DRIVING distance to Shadyside. Everywhere is within DRIVING distance to Shadyside. The people who live around my building are trashy and I seriously cannot stand it. It seems that they recently are covering up the messy fleetingness of this building with air fresheners in the hall ways and some cosmetic fixins, but that doesn't change the fact that they building is probably rotting from the inside out. I don't know how this building is even standing to be quite honest, and I wish someone would just condemn it so I could get out. And I better get my security and pet deposit back from them or I am suing their asses because this apartment is in the same condition it was when I started renting.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
300 S Negley Ave	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
I would avoid this realty agency at all costs. I have never in my rental history experienced such neglect, carelessness, and overall unprofessionalism. They treat their tenants with as little respect as they treat their properties. Their buildings are unsafe and unhealthy and will remain that way due to lack of repairs, cheap repairs, or repairs that cause more harm. During my < 7 month stay in one of their small-scale buildings in a reasonably nice area, 4 tenants moved out citing the landlords and building conditions as the reason. I hope that says it enough.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
300 S. Negley	3.0	4.0	3.0	4.0
I've been living here for a few months now and I've had very few problems. One morning I woke up to get ready for work and had no hot water. I called before I left and told them and then called on my way home again to make sure it had been fixed and they told me that the hot water heater had broken and it had been replaced. By the time I got home the hot water was fixed. Nothing else has broken, but the dumpster out back is rarely emptied. I think they hire a man who lives next door to do it and he seems to be some kind of a packrat who likes to dig through all the trash before he puts it out on the curb. Its really weird. Other than that, I've had no problems with the landlord.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
300 S Negley	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
I don't know where anyone living in the building on 300 S Negley gets off giving them any credit for maintenance/repair. All i know is that EVERY single tenant in this building has nothing but complaints and scathing comments re: sherry her daddy and the rest of those nasty office hags. Since i've lived here i've had more things go wrong than any other apt i've lived in. they only repaired the hot water that day b/c another tenant called and threatened to turn them into the city if they didn't have it fixed by the end of the day (otherwise it'd be a code violation for them). To also comment on general tenant satisfaction: I've known at least 4 tenants who moved out in the last few months (some even breaking lease and getting sued by those soul-less creeps) simply b/c their apt conditions were so bad they could not take it anymore. Bottom line: Halsband = SLUMLORD, AVOID!

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
271 Shady Ave	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
i moved into the halsband apartment i am currently renting 2 years ago, and was very excited. my roomate and i were promised that everything would be cleaned, repaired, and that they would recarpet the entire apartment before we moved in. we were given new carpet that was a nice neutral shade, but of the lowest quality, and that was not swept after installation resulting in carpet fiber getting everywhere including food. we moved into the top (4th floor) apartment, and my roomate purchased new furniture from ikea so that she would not have to struggle to move in. she had it delivered and the delivery men said that if their supervisor had accompanied them that they would not have even been allowed to carry the furniture up the stairs because they were so structurally unsound. the first months were uneventful except that our hallway leaked orange water. it would eventually collapse from water damage, along with a five foot in diameter piece of my roomate's ceiling, causing water damage to her property which she was never offered compensation for. my room later became infested with house centipedes which i had to take care of because i mentioned it to a maintainence man who just said call the office. our toilet constantly runs and has had to be professionally unclogged 8 times because it probably needs replaced and they do not seem interested in doing it. the kitchen sink trickles constantly to the point where we have been asked if we have a fish tank of fountain. there is only one washing machine for roughly 40 people and it was broken for two weeks over the summer. they turned the heat off around christmas time when they assumed our building, comprised entirely of college students would be at home. we were not. most of these problems were fixed, and because they were considered emergencies with a reasonable amount of speed, but the maintainence man once screamed at me on the phone until i cried stating that i had not even tried to fix the problem myself. the staff employed by the halsband is not so much unprofessional as they are discourteous. sherry halsband has been very polite to me in front of potential tenants, saying what good a good tenant i am and such a sweet girl, but upon showing my room tells people to "look past the clutter, look at the space" and " don't worry we will have the space professionally cleaned", not only is that terribly offensive it is a lie. my apartment is not messy and they will not have it professionally cleaned, and the reason it is so cluttered is because we have not storage or utility closets. our kitchen has 3 full cabinets and 2 half ones. the halsbands lied about when we could move in, stating it would be much earlier than we actually were permitted to move, and they raised the rent without telling us then wrote a snide letter asking for the back rent. snide letters are common from the halsbands so expect them. in short what could have been a decent living situation was bastardized by a stark lack of respect on the part of this landlord.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
240 South Graham	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
I am in my third year at this address, and I have to say that I have never had any trouble with the landlords or the maintenance staff addressing and acting on any of the issues I've raised over this time. I've had several major and minor incidents over the years, and all of them have been taken care of in a timely fashion and in a professional manner. When I call to report a problem, the staff assures me that they'll have someone look into it, and they always have if not that day then the next. I would highly recommend them.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
shady ave	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Whatever you do, do not rent from this place, the landords here a slum lords. They take full advanged for there reisdence, they every find ways to take your security desposit away. The building where they have there apartments are run down and the really need a lot of maintane. The building are dirty because they do not have a person to clean the hallways of the building, I personally ran the sweeper every chance I got because they don't even cean the buildings. They are in real bad conditions, and the landlords, watch out for them. Sherry Halsband and the other people that run that business will take your money and run, they will do anything to make sure your stay living there is a horrible experince. Sherry will treat you like you are a major problem, and they will take over two hundred dollars out of your security deposit with out giving you proof for what they use it for. BETTER STAY AWAY FROM THIS LANDLORD PROPERTY....... If you are a college person and you want to save a buck PLEASE STAY AWAY...........

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
I almost rented from this company. After paying my security deposit and signing the lease, I was told that I would receive a copy of the lease when I moved in. I stopped back in a few weeks later to get a copy of it because I signed it, it was my contract, and I deserved a copy. Everyone there acted like I was crazy for asking for it and not abiding by their "policy" and then the man in charge got on the phone, said I was "confrontational" and told me he was going to rip up my lease. I got my money back and consider it a blessing that I'm not going to rent from them.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
oakland	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
I'm currently a tenant at one of their Oakland buildings. Calling the apartment substandard is generous. The floors are uneven. The cabinets are falling apart. The fixtures leak. The walls are cracked. The cold air comes in through the windows. The heat is hardly EVER on. The staff is very rude and unaccomedating. They raise the rent 15 dollars every year, even though it was we were told when we moved in that our rent wouldn't raise but any new tenants' rent would. There are two reasons why I am staying: 1) My parents pay the rent and they won't let me move. 2) It's very convenient to school, I wouldn't be able to find a place closer.

Discuss These Ratings (1)