Discuss These Ratings (6)

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
First off, ignore the positive reviews as they are written by the owner/employees. Like many other reviewers, I moved into a filthy apartment, received false gas bills, and was routinely lied to and ignored regarding maintenance and heating issues. The staff was shockingly unprofessional, rude, and used profanity (a lot) whenever I dealt with them. Common areas (hallways, laundry room) were full of trash, cigarette butts, beer cans, etc. Most of the washers and dryers did not function. The front door did not lock and there was a back door with no lock. This led to neighborhood teenagers partying in the laundry room. Also, there was mice. Many units in my building, including my own, were burglarized with no signs of forced entry, (perpetrators had keys to apartments) yet Trends Capital never changed the locks(and per the lease, would charge tenants if they changed them themselves). The 24-hour phone answering proved useless. It routes to an answering service in Greentree that simply takes messages and faxes them to Trends Capital in the morning (where they are ignored). The worst of my experiences was this: When I moved out, I thoroughly cleaned the apartment, and took photos (by this time I was aware of Trends Capital, LLC's reputation and practices). Yet 30 days later, I received less than half of my deposit, and a checklist citing hundreds of dollars in false claims against my security deposit. Now I have photographic evidence that shows just how deceptive Trends Capital, LLC's practices are! I would advise anyone looking for an apartment in Pittsburgh to avoid Trends Capital, LLC, and Jason Cohen. If you are currently renting from Trends Capital, LLC, here is a good article on how to deal with dishonest landlords (it even mentions Jason Cohen by name!): http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08160/888359-85.stm Other articles about the practices of Trends Capital, LLC: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08160/888291-53.stm http://www.wtae.com/news/16325453/detail.html

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
1401 Mervin	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Jason Cohen's Trends Capital, LLC is absolutely the worst landlord I've ever had. They are unprofessional, rude, and incompetent. They send false bills for huge amounts, they ignore all maintenance requests, and have a reputation for extortion, fire code violations, and a number of other safety/health issues. PLEASE DO NOT RENT FROM TRENDS CAPITAL, LLC OR JASON COHEN.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
1401 Mervin	2.0	5.0	4.0	3.0
Ok, so yeah this building may have had a couple mice during the winter (so do alot of people) and there may be a few broken things through out the building, but I really think the other reviews are unfair I am sure people who have had a perfect experience just don't bother. I have about two months left in my lease and I got pretty much exactly what I expected, a budget apartment in above decent condition. I do plan on moving but it is not about trends, I just want wood floors and hopefully a better location in a more secure building, with better neighbors. Better neighbors? Yes, alot of the tenants of this building are complete trash, they kick down the door if the don't have their key, have seances in the basement, let their dogs piss all over everything throw their cig butts in the hall, they are the really enemy here because my apartment is in really nice condition and has been since move in. maintenance has been slow generally but they are willing to help you when needed. Craig and Jason are both nice people I think they are just in over their heads a bit, they need to stop expanding and take care of what they have. I mean just basic cleaning up after the animals that live here (literally and figuratively), because this place is like half petting zoo. The other reviews are too harsh, its really not that bad, just im sure no one over 30 could stand living here.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
1401 Mevin	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Please Please Please do not rent from this company. I have lived at the Mervin Ave apartments and cannot wait to move out. Many reviews try to find reasons why the buildings are in their conditions, and how they are improving, but the proof is in the result. For example, lets go floor by floor of the condition of my building: The basement door is wedged shut, and many leave it open. The laundry room is a mess, and I never use it. Did I mention the building has mice? The front door has old flyers and rocks to prop doors open inside the entrance. People take their dogs outside in the mulch right by the door, so you smell that every time you come home. The railing is ripped off the wall and laying nearby, and the top to a banister is ripped off, exposing the nails. In addition, the door has been kicked in at least 3 times since I've been there. At one instance it took maintance over a week to fix. The second floor has a womans old bags and suitcases out in the hallway, and has been there for two months. There are also broken lightbulbs and broke light fixture coverings laying in the stairwell. The mopping is non-existant. did ask once, and I can describe the effort as "half-assed". There are several ripped tiles in the hallway as well. Lastly, the apartment on the top floor has cat hair in the hallway. The bathroom in my place is gross, and there are cracks in the walls in each of my rooms. Some of my ceiling came down in chunks too, and since maintance failed to repair it, I plastered it myself. The neighbors are noisy too. The boy who lives on the bottom floor has his buddies over and they smoke and talk in the driveway until late at night. You can hear that, even when the windows are closed. You can also hear the people who sit on their back porch late at night talking. The windows are of such poor quality- old metal ones, single pane, with cracks and gaps around the frames. It lets ALL the cold air in. In addition, there is no insullation. I observed this through the hole in my wall that I asked for 3 months to be fixed. It's just brick wall, then dry wall, that's it. I'd like to talk more about the conduct of the staff, but I do fear they will try to upcharge me when I move out in the fall if they figure it out. When my friend moved out a few months back, they tried to slam her with 1,000 worth of damages, though I have visited her apartment, and she left that place better than she found it. Please save yourself frustrations, and go with someone else. PS: Since I've been there, I saw a girl get beat up by her boyfriend in the back driveway, and called the police. I have seen, on two separate occasions, with two separate apartments, notices on the door left by the police department to comply with turning over a person of interest. Who exactly do they let rent these places???

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
3408 Parkview	1.0	2.0	1.0	1.0
Let me start by saying I am not that picky and as long as something is decent , that is fine by me. I have not even lived in this apartment and am completely turned off. I scheduled an appointment to visit apartment and the employee was 20 minutes late. In this time, I talked with a current resident who stated “run from this place”. She said the hot water lasts for ten minutes and then you have to take an ice shower. Also, she said parking is $100 and they don’t even plow the lot. Lastly, the heat is 180 dollars in the winter, but the realtor will tell you its only like 40 bucks. When entering the main apartment entrance, the front door was broken off the hinges. After going up the dirty staircase, we entered the actual apartment. The carpet was completely stained and the walls dirty. I looked at the kitchen sink and saw it was nearly overflowing with vile fluids. Next to that was the refrigerator that was yellow and from the 60’s and it did not even have a freezer. I then walked to the other room and noticed the 6 inch balcony that you could not even fit a chair on. I then went in the bathroom and saw yet another flooded sink with a dirty band-aid floating in it. The toilet also was completely brown and nasty. Let me just say that if they are willing to show something this gross to a prospective buyer, it must be 10 times worse if you actually live there.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
oakland	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
They are the worst landlords you could ever have. Just look at any other review. Never repair anything, fine you for nothing and always say their going to take you to court! Any good reviews are written by employees. STAY AWAY!

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
331 mckee place	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
This landlord charged my roommate and I for not cleaning parts of our apartment that we did clean. When we moved in, the toilet bowl was stained brown and was obviously not clean. The heat is controlled by someone else in the building, and the apartment would be up to 80 or 90 degrees during the winter. Even though we didn't control the heat, we still had to pay for it being turned all the way up without being able to turn it down. Our refrigerator didn't close on its own, and the oven had no insulation so we would burn ourselves when we turned it on and used it. My window was also falling apart and let in a horrible draft all winter, and I was originally given a key that wasn't even to my building and had to personally go have one made. Maintenance takes far too long to respond to concerns, and, when they say they will do something (i.e., replace a valve control knob on a heater) they never come back to replace it.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
1480 Dormont Avenue	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
I have been working for Trends Capital for approximately 6 months now and I will not stand around to watch this nonsense being posted about them. They are good people, have treated me with tremendous respect, and I owe them gratitude for the opportunity given. I watch them and listen in on just about every confrontation (and frankly there are not many) but they always go by the lease agreement. The people you are hearing from, I assure you in almost all situations (not all - this is not to say mistakes have not been made here or there) are those that are trying to get a different solution than what is agreed to in writing. I challenge each of you to review the following companies: JJ Land Co., Mozart Management, Lobos Management, John CR Kelly Realty, G. Tuckfelt & Associates, E.S. Management, CP Development, Herbert Halsband Properties, Robert Eckenrode. This list can go on and on. All these companies sell the same product. A property in a good location for an affordable price. However, research each of them and you will find that with 100% of them and ALL the other landlords "of significant size" have the nastiest things being said about them. Am I to believe all these people are Scum! Slumlords! Worthless! because the bunch of you say they are? Fact: How many people in this world will go online and say "I love my landlord so much, I'm going to tell everyone about my love for them." Not a chance. But I can tell you countless times that Trends Capital has just held people to the lease agreement they signed and all of a sudden Trends Capital and the Owner are the Devil!! Are they suppose to just let you out of the Lease or the Reservation Deposit that you put down because something suddenly came up? Please. Business does not work like that. I assure you all of the above companies strive to be professional. Some more than others. We (Trends Capital) actually provide services that prove we do (ie. online maintenance requests, 24 hour answering service, fully staffed uniformed maintenance crew, a storefront for tenant convenience, an emergency maintenance crew on stand by 24 hours a day and much more.) Very few on that list offer all these services. If you want some laughs and ooohs and aaaahs keep reading these silly posts. But when you want to get down to business, I know Trends Capital will do what they say they are going to do and will only expect you to do the same. It kills me to hear these insults, but I know they are just jabs and attempts to be more hurtful than truly provide sound advice. Research your company for the services they provide. Dont be blind to the fact that a Landlord of student housing and/or affordable housing will 100% of the time get these nasty things said about them. One bad experience or something that just does not go their way and you get these itchy typing fingers from these youngsters and they just want to let loose. Do not hesitate to rent from Trends Capital. I would and my son does. Hope this helps you. All the best!

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
We moved to Pittsburgh a few years back and didn't have much information about landlords in the city here. Boy do we regret that! We were very naive and were looking for a great location that allowed pets which is hard here. We found a place through craigslist not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. We were and always have been very good about paying rent on time and also tend to make the places that we live very beautiful i.e repairing things, painting, even trimming trees, picking up trash, ect. I've always thought we were really good tenants to have. Trends capital treating us so terribly! When we first moved in we didn't have a key to the door! The person that lived in the apartment before us apparently was so upset with them that they didn't pay the last months rent and now Trends was footing the bill on us! They started sending heat bills to us (when they said the heat was free!) and decided to plague us with eviction notices which to be honest, at first, scared us (although as soon as we actually saw Jason Cohen, we weren't so scared considering he's like dwarf height, in his 20's, and looks like he could be working at Taco Bell) Our hot water went out on numerous occasions which led us to notify the health department and the bbb. Water leaked from the upstairs apartment through a crack in our wall and honestly I was suprised they didn't try to bill us for the "built in waterfall" it created. They towed our car and then made us pay to pick it up when we pay for the spot that they towed our car from each month!!!! Apparently that was an ongoing thing with them... they were in cahoots with the towing company and would tow cars from spots all the time! I'm sure they still do! The tenant below us had a broken window all winter. Another tenant in our building had old pipes burst that ruined another tenants whole kitchen including all the food they had! They blamed it on the weather, completely ignoring the fact that the old pipes where obviously the problem. They didn't turn on the heat until November and it acted up for 2 months before they really fixed it. One morning we woke up and the temperature was 42 degrees! There are cracks in the bathroom plaster, drips from pipes we can hear through the walls(which makes me think there is also mold growing in there) and the pipes make this really weird loud noise when it gets warmer out. They keep the closet in the basement locked where the meter is so dominion can't read the meter. They actually had a Dominion heat notice stating they would shut it off because of an outstanding bill which Trends Capital later decided to bill to the numerous NEW tenants in June who not only weren't using the heat but hadn't lived there long enough to be billed! Other tenants have complained to no avail. Each time we had a problem with them they made us feel like the problem was us and on numerous occasions the office workers were rude and callous when we called. Is it so bad to want hot water after over a week? Is it really that petty to want to bathe? Is it too much to ask for heat in the winter? I think not. I have never in my life experienced a worse slumlord. I really am happy that this site is available so that us previous tenants can let people know so that this doesn't happen to them! Trends capital should be shut down by the city. No one should ever have to live like this. DID I MENTION THEY CHARGE ALMOST 900 DOLLARS FOR A ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT?!? Im so happy we got out of there. NOTE TO TENANTS CURRENTLY LIVING THERE: don't be afraid to take them to court! don't be scared! it's worth it! Read the lease! Watch your back! Call building inspectors, call the bbb, call the health department, and don't stand for this! Jason Cohen has already been taken to court and fined 200,000 dollars! The courts here know he is a slumlord and the city of Pittsburgh has him on file! KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! and don't stand for this!

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
friendship	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
I wish I could rate this slum lord with a negitive number. My electric is out in my kitchen so my refridgerator is unable to work. They told me to plug it in to a extention cord to another plug. The living room ceiling has fallin down. I have given up on talking to them about anything as they have never adressed or returned any calls. ok. they did come and fix my problems since i posted this. the mainenance man is very nice and did a nice job.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Shadyside/Oakland/etc	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
If you Google either "Trends Capital" or their former name "JLB Investment Properties," you'll find numerous poor reviews by tenants who were cheated out of their money and right to quiet enjoyment and habitability. The only positive reviews come from either the owner himself (who often spends most of his "reviews" denigrating other reviewers) or suspiciously glowing reviews that often directly contradict every other review on the site. Their business practices are questionable at best, and they will use any excuse they can come up with to demand and/or keep your money. If you give them a security deposit, don't expect to get it back without a fight. The owner, Jason Cohen, is extremely hostile towards his tenants and completely unreasonable. Stay far, far away from this company. Since it's not always possible to tell from an apartment listing which company is offering the property, do your homework before you give them any money. Ask the leasing agent which company they work for, and/or verify the owner of the building via the Allegheny County Assessment website. If the owner is listed as JLB Investment Properties, don't bother pursuing the matter any further. Also, a bit of common sense that's worth reiterating: never sign ANYTHING without reading it first - leases, rental applications, anything. It's important to understand exactly what you're agreeing to, and you have the right to have any contract reviewed by a lawyer before you sign it. Don't let anyone pressure you into signing a contract you haven't read, don't understand, or don't agree with.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Banksville	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Beware of any company named/affiliated with Trends Capital, Trends Construction, Elrod Investments, and JLB Investments. Jason Cohen is the prime owner of these companies but you also may see Gregg Van Osdol listed with the Trends companies. They are dishonest, unethical people who will do anything to try and get money out of you but will either delay providing service or provide no services at all. Jason seems to run one company into the ground and then start a new company. Also, do not contract with Trends Construction for any type of remodeling/construction project. There is high turnover with employees and they use money deposited for one project to finish another. It is a low-budget, cheap operation.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
331 Mckee Pl	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
No sense in beating a dead horse... They are horrible. and your deposit is probably sitting on Meredith Cohen's ring finger.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
Shadyside	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
The apartment is nice, but it is falling apart quickly. Two voicemail maintenance requests, two phone calls to a real person, one letter with photos, and an online maintenance request, all for one major issue, have gone ignored. Six requests, zero acknowledgment. I mail my rent check to a soul-less machine.

Address	Maintainance	Availability	Friendliness	Overall
1401 Mervin Ave. #22	1.0	2.0	1.0	1.0
These people have a million properties everywhere. the rent is DIRT CHEAP, and that's how they sucker you in. Plus they list all of their units as pet friendly, it's rather hard to find pet friendly units in town. However, they only fix things that they want to fix. I've had a maintenance request outstanding for 3 months because I can't get into the building. Everyone has a problem with a front door, but for some reason they refuse to fix it. Forget getting in touch with anyone, they have an answering service that screens their calls. when someone will finally come to fix something, they don't tell you that they're coming. i came home one day and found the toilet seat up, that's the only reason that I knew that someone was there! gross! my advice - pay a little more for better service. you are paying THEM to live there, they act like they're doing you a favor. I know I'm not focusing as much on cost with my next apartment, i'm researching landords!

Discuss These Ratings (6)