What have you heard about these apartments? (Madison, Mineral Point: rental, tenants)

[Muse28]

(I posted this in the Wisconsin forum by accident, but it's about Madison, so I thought I'd re-post here.)

Hi! I'm Monica, and I'm moving to Madison in a couple of months. I'm in my 20s and going to the UW for graduate school, so I'm looking for an apartment nearby that's not too expensive, but that is in a nice area (same things everyone says, yes?). I have several showings scheduled soon at some apartments on the west side, but I wanted to ask about a couple more that I'm unsure about.

1. Karen Arms Apartments. This seems to be in a nice area, but I can't find ANYTHING about it online. Just wondering if any of you know of it.

2. Isle of View Apartments. Again, not much info online, except that it's on Mineral Point Rd.

Thanks!

[7G9C4J2]

Well, Isle of View Apartments is owned/managed by Madison Property Management, which is definitely one of the bigger landlords in the area. They would know what the tenant/landlord laws are, use up-to-date lease forms, have maintenance staff employed, and generally be familiar with the process of renting. Their website is here: Madison Property Management, Inc.. For myself, I would rather not be that far away from the university (the 6200 block of Mineral Point Road is almost to West Towne Mall), but the property managers should be at least reliable.

The Karen Arms Apartments, in my opinion, would be a much better location for an easy commute to the UW, but the fact that they have essentially no web presence at all suggests to me that the place is probably owned by a little mom-n-pop place for whom that may be their only rental property. That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, because often those landlords are a little more forgiving and ready to work with a tenant, but chances are they do their own maintenance rather than having maintenance crews on staff, which has the potential to be a problem under some circumstances. And sometimes the little independent guys either don't know the tenant/landlord statutes very well or choose to ignore them, which can also be problematic.

What I would suggest you do is to contact the friendly folks at the Tenant Resource Center to find out more about both possible landlords. The TRC is primarily a mediation provider for tenant/landlord disputes, and in the process of doing that, they figure out pretty quickly which landlords are reliable and treat their tenants fairly, and which are scummy slumlords. They also have comprehensive knowledge about tenant/landlord statutes that are unique to Madison as well as the state laws, and can offer you advice and counsel if you need it. Do be aware that the TRC is an all-volunteer organization and sometimes they are a bit slow to respond to emails; you may wish to call them instead.

Good luck in your search, and do come back and let us know if you have more questions. Hope to see you at the Farmers' Market this summer!