Being International students our hands were tied because we had limited time to find a place.When we were given a virtual tour the house seemed absolutely perfect and we were promise all the fittings to be in place by the time we arrive.It’s been almost 2 weeks and even after raising multiple work orders, physically visiting First Choice Housing office and constantly calling them we so far are still on square one. We just get one answer IT WILL BE DONE SOON!Our smoke alarm has low battery and it has such a sharp sound that none of the flatmates have been able to sleep in a week!The bathroom door doesn’t close, so privacy is out of the question!Half of the bulbs don’t work, our main door is still struggling to get locked from the outside and when we were promised AC’s and a Microwave, that still seems distant!Being an agency which deals with students, they are insensitive and very laid back. They do not understand that we are students who need to study and sleep in a peaceful environment without any disturbances! It has been a horrible experience so far. If this is how the services are even after paying all our dues on time then their professionalism is deeply questionable.

Our unit was full of problems when we first moved in. We called first choice housing at least three times a day just to get the service needed to turn the unit into what was advertised and what we were paying for. The people who answer the phones are arrogant and rude. On top of the fact that they are incapable of dealing with the property issues that shouldn’t have existed in the first place, they are also unaware of their properties and lease agreements. It shouldn’t be this hard to do your job. DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS AGENCY!

This has been the most poorly run rental companies I have encountered in my life. The company clearly takes advantage of the fact that there is limited supply around the USC campus but plenty of demand. They also prey on students who do not fully understand tenant rights, or have the funds to sue this company.Issues Ive encountered in the 2 years I stayed on First Choice property around the USC area:- Washer/dryer machines had multiple issues during the year and needed repairs. Management ignored 3 request for repair emails, and then finally responded with a curt one-liner, suggesting I reach out to the washer/dryer leasing company and get things fixed myself.- Lights in the hallway and basement of the building went out and management took more than a month to replace the bulbs.- Had a leaking faucet that I requested repairs for. Management responded 2 weeks later and outright lied saying they had fixed the problem (nobody ever came to the apartment). Finally, after following up 2 more times, someone actually was sent and the problem was fixed.- Electricity went out 4 times in a month (for several hours). Management did not provide any guidance until half the building complained. The response: someone wrote something to the effect of we apologize for the inconvenience on a piece of cardboard, and stuck it on the front door of the building.- Management/maintenance took over a month to take action on another maintenance request, and I had to physically go into the office at least 5 times before I was finally given an answer.- The icing on the cake is that the company held my security deposit for over 21 calendar days - violating California tenant laws.

STAY AWAY. DO NOT LEASE FROM THEM.THEFT. DOUBLE CHARGE UTILITY. OVERCHARGING WATER BILL. NOT KEEPING PROMISES.I stayed for 1.5 years at a studio I was leasing from them at 1147 W 24th St. and they handled themselves in a VERY horrible way.2021: My stuff in my apartment gets stolen after some maintenance was done at my place when I was not there and they DID NOT ASK ME. Whether it was the maintenance people who stole it, or they left the door open, doesnt matter. I am not accusing ANYONE. What matters is that this leasing office did NOTHING and did not care. They could not even get me the name, number or company that did the maintenance at my place. Only until I went in and said my story for the one millionth time and they said they will get to the bottom of this and PROMISED they would call back and promised they would not charge me for the extra days I will keep the keys until filing a police report. Guess what? NO response from them ever, I sent an email asking for a follow up, NOTHING. Oh and I got my deposit and they deducted the extra days I had the keys for (~$800). After calling them with so much anger after all these issues with them, I get a why are you angry? Well give you the money. Gas lighting at its finest.2020: My first year with them, I was being charged double for trash and sewer, from LADWP and shared utility with the rest of the compound. I was asked to handle this with LADWP on my own. After calling LADWP and them telling me over and over again that I need to pay them by law (my studio was considered a single house dwelling, not an apartment and the leasing office would not understand this even after LADWP sent me documents) and should not be part of the shared apartment charge, I had to keep calling this leasing office to fix this issue because I could not do anything. I didnt OWN this property so I could not give LADWP the information they needed. For more than 8 months, countless emails and phone calls, I was paying double for the sanitation fee (sanitation fee was $35 a month, so not a small amount) and sewer chargeLast I heard was that all of the tenants where I was staying were all complaining of a sudden sky rocket in their water bill. Like a sky rocket. It looks like they are charging the tenants for the water used to water the plants around the property and I have been on the email chain and this leasing office, did not respond to anything,Save yourself a headache. SO unprofessional. Horrible customer service and at the end of it, gaslighting?

Water, sewage, and trash were not included in the monthly rent.Last year during the pandemic when many apartments were empty, water and sewage charges tripled. Trash collection charges doubled.This is the kind of response to requests by my lawyer for transparency on the charges: we are under no legal obligation to furnish the communitys utility bills to a resident.

Work order processed very slowly. plumber came over but failed to repair. He just left and never came back. Then the work order was marked as completed. And our kitchen faucet is still broken until now. VERY IRRESPONSIBLE!

Terrible experience renting from 1st choice. Unprofessional. Only care about money, not the satisfaction of the residents.Maintenance requests can take extremely long compared to other places I’ve stayed.Emergency maintenance (lockouts, other issues that need immediate fixing) was basically unresponsive the 3 times I’ve needed them. Had to spend my own money to hire someone to get into my apartment after getting locked out.Decided to do renovation, which is fair, but scheduled the construction (loud jackhammer and hammering that could be heard throughout the building ) at 7AM!!!!! Every morning !!! For a month!!!! Woke us up every morning and too loud to fall back asleep to. Honestly should be illegal . At least have a little consideration for the tenets and start at 9, 10, 11am....

The most irresponsible leasing company I have ever seen.They charge $100 extra for parking but do not provide basic maintenance. I got stuck three times in the parking overnight because the gate is broken. And it is not enough for them to do something about it. Their emergency numbers wont pick up and their office refuses to even apologize.

They’ve been doing construction on 3 of their units for ~6 months starting early each morning. No regard for tenants or neighbors. Very inconsiderate.

Good housing company. Nice landlord (Mehrdad Koupai is his name).

This should be your last choice after hell.

Experience with them beyond terrible. It started bu receiving a DIRTY house! Windows are cracked and broken! Spiders would get in!Leasing office does a terrible job!I have left my apartment for a month now and they haven’t processed my check yet after lying about sending it!!! They wouldn’t even explain why nor get back to my emails!

Horrible horrible customer service. The manager was EXTREMELY rude to my fiance on the phone and I gladly shut him up!! Please save yourself time and don’t waste your time with these people. My fiance had no choice but to sign their lease. Horrible horrible HORRIBLE is all I can say. I wish I could give them zero stars!!!!!EDIT: The audacity of this business to have a reply for every single review on here and write fake reviews for themselves is hilarious. And the fact that they know who I am based on their reply just shows that they remember how rude they were on the phone. My fiance is literally the nicest person you will ever meet, so to be so rude to someone so nice just shows that this happens very often! If you’re considering first choice housing and reading this: my fiance had no other option but to sign their lease, as every other apartment was taken and the clock was ticking for him, but thankfully he only has one year of his dental school left and he will be out of there in the blink of an eye. If you need an apartment for the long term, please stay away from these rude and arrogant people! Note to manager: if I see you speak to my fiance in a rude tone just one more time, I will take action. Perhaps it’s time to open your eyes and start being nice to your fellow citizens, after all, your business does only have 1.9 stars.

Towed my roomates car in his own parking spot since it wasn’t registered (he briefly switched cars). He had to pay a couple hundred bucks. For his sake, I’d like to suggest a name change for this agency. Perhaps, “Last Choice Housing.”Everything is non-negotiable with these guys, which makes everything more difficult for college students. Knowing this, I would have gone with another leasing agency.

0/0 If you are a USC student looking for housing, please whatever you do avoid First Choice Housing at all costs they are so incredibly terrible at managing their properties. Literally anywhere else, no matter how much you like the property it is not worth it to live there if it is managed by FCH. I am writing this review before I have moved in, we have needed to do simple things like replace someones name on a lease and they just never help you. They have insane renting rules and policies and crazy overpriced fees for ridiculous things.

0 stars. Worst experience working with this company. The building manager was very nice though, for the most part, except for when he hosted a little get together in the central parking lot (right next to the building) that went until 2am on a Sunday night or when he did not respond to multiple calls and messages during work hours.When we first came into the unit it was dirty and smelled of mildew. My roommate and I spent the first day just cleaning it ourselves. There were paint splatters all over the ground - there was ZERO effort in making it ready for move in beyond just keeping it empty. Also when maintenance came in to redo the bathroom, they didn’t clean up after themselves and left dust and paint everywhere. Honestly pretty shocking.Never told us what the move out process entailed so we were just guessing. This company definitely does not prioritize the satisfaction of their tenants. If you want to know something basic to the moving in/out process, you have to call the office and specifically ask. Very often the leasing agents can’t help because they aren’t familiar with the various properties. This company is just a mess. If you are forced to stay at an apartment through this company for whatever reason (as I was), plan it to be temporary because you will want to leave almost immediately.

These people are the worst. please do not ever lease from them. the worst customer service ever.

If you referred a person that signs up and leases, you are suppose to get a $100. I referred a fellow student over two months ago, he signed lease, gave them my name. I never got anything so I sent emails, I paid a visit to the office downstairs and still they have not paid or even responded to my inquiries. Now in this heat-wave, my AC has stopped working twice. Its been 2 days, no maintenance, but they responded in one day to a shower stall needing a handle to be re-glued....DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. OVER PAYING FOR NOTHING....

Absolutely horrible customer service. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM AT ANY COST. Multiple calls, emails, and visits to the office will get you no where. The people in this office are rude and incompetent. I now work at a law firm in Beverly Hills, and if I had understood more about their lease agreement etc. before I signed I would never have done so. Take my advice, first choice housing will give you headache, so many hidden costs, and waste your time and money.Also, they definitely dont look into their tenants. Our apartment was broken into by our housemate among other incidents. And they can try and reply to my review and say “it’s not a safe neighborhood we are doing what we can” but the reason he got in was because their window was broken and the bars were removable. I called 911 and had to get the police and campus security involved multiple times.DO NOT RENT.

Old Apartment + Terrible consumer service.They wont take action against loud tenants, theyll laugh at you when you complain about poor water qualities, just generally terrible people.Reply to the owner:Yes, I did contact DPS, multiples times. They will stop when the DPS come. The thing is, without any tangible punishment like a fine, they will just keep partying on the next day. And that is why I am leaving an one star is because you guys just kick the ball to the DPS.

Don’t fall for the scam. They hide the fact that utilities aren’t included until you sign. All year there has been a construction project next door from 7AM Monday-Saturday. And it’s not ending any time soon because there are still two more lots next door for them to complete. After many residents spoke to the manager requesting something be done like getting soundproof windows installed, he ignored us and even laughed at me. And if there are any problems in your apartment, they won’t get fixed. We still don’t have a door handle on our microwave after asking for months.EDIT: The audacity for this leasing office to reply saying that they dont have me on record is beyond parody. Both my roommate and I do in fact live in a FCH apartment (our tour guide was Steven B. and Patty helped us sign) and both my roommate and I can attest to the fact that there was never a mention of utilities being included until we were signing the lease. The fact that they had to lie about my status as a resident proves my point about their dishonesty and shows their commitment to deception.

These people charged a 4% increase on parking fees for us as continuing residents when the matter of fact is new residents are charged the same old price. Their management and planning is inconsistent, the only saving grace is that the work orders were fairly consistent. The higher management though seems like a mess.Edit 4/20: I was disappointed initially at some of the lack of communication internally and the charges mentioned above, but now they have started issuing contracts in a way that separates parking and other add-ons from the base house rent, which seems a lot more organized and well put together. In my experience, they were usually friendly on the phone save one or two instances, and reply back swiftly to emails. On the whole, I was pretty satisfied with my first year so far with them. The maintenance people showed up usually in the next 2 days, and they installed a new fridge at the start of the first year lease and microwave too swiftly when we notified them of the severely damaged ones we originally had in the apartment at the start of the contract. The walls are thin, so we can overhear neighbors and they can overhear my room too late at night, but its college housing for temporary basis as students, and altogether I think the 3620 S Budlong units - at least the one Im in - are well put together.I hope they have a policy in place for students to exit given the Covid-19 situation, because if classes are online in Fall20 and beyond, there is no reason for most students to live beside campus. But fingers crossed, hopefully this crisis blows over soon.

Horrible. The new management is even worse than the old one. Total ripoff. Hidden terms and conditions, constant threat of eviction for no reason etc. Avoid this place if you wish to have a peaceful college life. On the bright side, you will end up specializing in housing law. These guys will probably make you learn more about state law than what USC can teach.

If I could give 0 stars I would, not only do they not care about their tenants safety but they are the rudest company I have ever dealt with. My car was broken into in a lot I pay them $100 a month to park into. On top of this, they have a completely exposed mail room in which I have got $1,000s of dollars worth of items stolen from. I have raised concerns a dozen times, instead of even attempting to make a change I got yelled at on the phone by an extremely rude woman and when I said I was going to take action against the company she replied have fun with that, I am appalled by this company and if you are thinking of leasing from them I strongly advise you do not. The woman I talked to today was deplorable. They will be getting a call from my lawyer, it has all gone too far. Do yourself a favor and do not lease from this company.

5 stars because Patty is the best. She definitely does 150 percent. There are people who want to do the least work as possible and there are people like her who I feel just feel morally obligated to go the extra mile and give great customer service. I dont want her efforts to be overlooked. If any of the FirstChoiceHousing execs see this please acknowledge her!!!3 stars because I feel like the its pricey for the blah amenities. E.g the washing machine to keep eating your money.

I was so excited to get my first apartment in Los Angeles, However First Choice Housing had some unexpected friends waiting for me there. They were never able to fully get them out of our home. Foolishly we moved to a new apartment with them which had another roach infestation that they werent able to do anything about.If youre looking for an apartment in the area, look about 10 minutes away and for cheaper you can find a place with AC, fully functioning faucets, fridgerators that actually get cold AND an office staff that cares.

It has been quite the nightmare working with First Choice Housing. This review is not to say that the employees are not nice people, but rather, I will just list some things I had to deal with from this company from an objective standpoint.When my roommates and I first moved in, the place was not move-in ready. The company had said they had cleaned the place. We found dried pee on the toilet seat. We found dust and dirt all over the ground. We found hair in the shower. It shocked us when they had told us it was clean. Patty, who used to work at the company, was also disgusted. She has been our biggest ally through living with First Choice Housing, but she no longer works there. Therefore, the first weeks of living in the apartment involved me deep cleaning the entire place so that I could feel like I could actually live there.Then, this past summer, I was trying to sublease my apartment. First Choice Housing needs much better internal communication. I called, and one employee told me just to find someone and sublease out the property myself to make it easier. I called another time, and one of the managers told me that was illegal. I was so confused and felt annoyed that two employees gave me different information.Anyway, I did things the legal way. I found someone to sublease the place. If you need to sublease your room to someone, it involves a $300 add/delete fee. The employee had told me to bring in a check written out to the property owner, and Id be all set. On a Saturday morning, I drove out to the office from where I am currently living (about 20 miles away)... and had my checkbook ready. Much to my surprise, the employee working that day told me I needed either a money order or a cashiers check. I was frustrated, because no one had communicated that to me. So the poor employee had to call the other manager that I was working with, and he said he emailed me that it needed to be a money order or cashiers check. He did not. Even he could not find any such email.Finally, they told me I could just go withdraw cash from the bank. So I walked to the closest bank and withdrew the $300 to give to this disorganized company.After paying $300 for a subleasing process, youd think they would just be handling all of the paperwork from there. Given my previous experience with the company, I did not feel I could trust them. So I called a few times trying to speak with the manager to make sure everything was all set. My roommates signed what they needed to sign and my subleaser signed what she needed to sign. It was up to the company. Well, the 1st of the month rolled around, when rent is due... My subleaser informed me that the company still had not gotten the log-in information to pay rent. So as I was running around setting up a bridal shower, I was also badgering First Choice to ensure that my subleaser would not be charged a late fee. It was extremely frustrating.Most of the employees here are kind, but some are rude and impatient. This does not surprise me though, because probably lots of people call in with complaints. I think the company needs to work on their internal communication and keeping promises to people to get things done. Or hire more people. Please, if you have a choice, do not rent from First Choice.

Good experience. Clean, tidy house. Helpful and easy. No problems at all. Thanks!

I have to be honest, I dont understand all the hate towards First Choice Housing. I subleased an apartment from them on the basement floor. The stuff were always helping me in any issue I face. When they come to exhibit my unit to other people, they check some stuff like the door lock or the AC, and they send someone to fix it if there is a problem after that immediately (they care about the tenants). I never had any problems with them. The only problem I faced is the smoke detector sensitivity, which rings just from cooking.

Super, Super, Super ignorant and mean! Never really wants to help tenant! The front desk people may be fine from time to time. But they have very very very mean policies that do not help tenants at all!

Theres a lack of communication within their staff, and its a constant headache dealing with this company. College students shouldnt be dealing with additional stress besides what we are presented, and First Choice doesnt make your life any easier. Find another leasing company because its clearly a mess.

The apartment should not have been considered ready when we were told to move in. The company did not care for or about the property. Our mailbox never had a lock on it. They ignored multiple work orders. I would chalk all this and more up to active malevolence but they seem too incompetent to manage that, let alone their properties.

The management is very bad at managing, the prices are expensive, water pressure is not good, water supply gets cut whenever, Be careful before taking a house here. The leaf blower in the mornings is very annoying and it makes your house dirty and the area, dusty. Beware of this place. The utilities cost a lot compared to other places

These people are thieves ! I urge everyone to stay away for this housing option. Theyre totally unprofessional, provide extremely poor services. I was unlucky enough to stay in their chateau sera building (Scarff st.) for a year and regret having to deal with these management company. I can only enlist numerous ways on which they kept money from me. I wont do it here but will gladly provide details to anyone interested.

Overall the management is very unfriendly and does not seem to care much for the students. The roof of our apartment leaked, and the response from the management was slow and the tone unfriendly. They messed up in returning our deposit, even though they had guaranteed that the extra utility cost we had overpaid would be included in the check.I liked our unit and the price was decent, but do not except good services from the management.

This housing company is disgusting. They rob away all your deposit and you even claim MORE money from you. They have a disgusting boss with a ugly face who would speak rudely to you when you argue with him. This is the worst housing I ever had. Toilet malfunctioning, garbage disposer malfunctioning and so on.Stay away from them.Be prepared to lose a lot of money if you decide to move in.

Working with First Choice Housing was the worst experience. I wish I could give them 0 stars. To this day, they refuse to send us a list of what they charged us for after we moved out. Theyre rude. Overpriced. Incompetent. Do not rent with First Choice unless you are desperate, and even if you are desperate, expect a horrible experience from First Choice.

Ive been living with First Choice for a few months, and Id say that they are a pretty decent management company. I think other people have been a little harsh with their reviews. The maintenance request are filed pretty quickly, and the staff is very friendly. If you have an issue, they try to do everything they can to accommodate you.They do have a lot of fees that seem kind of unnecessary. Lets say you need someone to sublease your apartment for the summer because you have an internship. Your subleaser will need to pay a $35 application fee to have their application reviewed, but then they also have to pay like a $150 fee to get their name put on the lease. THEN when you move back in for the school year, you need to pay both of those fees too (even though its your own apartment). It seems a little redundant. Also, Ive renewed my lease for next year and they are raising my rent and no longer including trash/water. They should reward people for staying with them instead of making you want to look into other options. It does seem like they try to take money from you wherever they can. As they try to reach out to USC students, this isnt great because its making things harder. They also post notices on our doors saying that they are going to be touring our apartment from 9-5 for 13 days at a time. This is a little inconvenient, as they say this allows them to enter the apartment whenever they want during those times. I had a hard time with this because they posted on my door during finals week. Its hard to study in your own room when you have people coming in and out whenever they want. Im not sure how they will handle the deposit, but Im hoping that the other reviews arent true.Overall, Im happy with my apartment, and hope the management will read this review and change some of their practices.

FIRST CHOICE IS THE LAST CHOICEAndrew and Mehrdad are rude, disrespectful, and flat out lie to your face. DO NOT LIVE HERE

I havent had any negative experiences. The work orders get done, and they dont seem to cause any problems. Will update this review if anything changes before I leave.

They definitely try their best to do all they can for their tenants.

I would give it a huge -5 (minus five) stars if possible. Be prepared to get your security deposit all robbed to pay their pity salary and for anything that was already broken/dirty from day 1 you moved in (even if when you are moving out, you made the shabby old apt look better than what it is on day 1!) . Plus they also took my maintenance requests like crap very often, get ready to fix the problems yourself when you can no longer wait forever. TOTAL RIP-OFF !!!

My fiance and I lived on 28th St. for two years. Patty was so nice to work with. She paid attention to all of our problems including subleasing our aprt in the end.There are some negatives about the aprt building including the thin walls, neighbors sometimes have bbq parties or kids play balls in the yard and can get noisy. However, if you are like me, who stay/work in the bedroom all the time, you wouldnt hear much noise. The paint of the bathroom walls kinda peeled off in the end and the bathroom tiles cracked but I didnt call for maintenance cause I was moving out soon anyways. Other than that, maintenance usually takes 1-2 days and everything was fixed on time.They deducted around 200 to 300 off of the security deposit but I think its totally acceptable given the condition of the apartment when we left (stove was not cleaned, wine marks on the wall and few marks on the carpet). Overall, I enjoyed my time there. I already recommended it to my friends.

My things got stolen. This place is horrible. Dont live here. And I doubt if they will give me back my deposit as they promised.

They are fraud. When I visited the apartment before leasing, there was an AC installed in the bedroom and they confirmed me that the AC comes with the Apartment. But, now that I have moved in, I dont find any AC in my apartment. I informed them about this and they are coming up with lame excuses like there is a law forbidding installation of window AC. Then I took pictures of my neighbors apartments, which have ACs installed in the window, and sent it to them. After that they have stopped replying to my email.

The rent is so high with bad quality. This company is so greedy and the stuff are unfriendly. I cant wait to move out.

Avoid these people at all costs they rip you off on your deposit when you move out. We hired a cleaning service and they still charged us for cleaning BS!!

Avoid at all costs. Rude and corrupt. The worst housing company during my several years at USC.

Fraudulent company theyll do everything to keep your deposit. Is just a waste of time and money

So many Fake comments! Worst house management EVER!

If you dont mind spending more money than you need to, then this place is for you. Their apartments are overpriced, and their management office is incompetent. After my year contract was up, I found a place closer to campus for less cash. I often refer to this company as my WORST choice.

Ignorant staff, never treat tenants in the right way and dont expect them to tell you anything important until you find it yourself

Horrible! Very bad experience with these people who promises things they cant do

I will I could give zero to this horrible housing company.Rude attitude, arrogant tone and please stay far away from this lying company...

They really sucks.