Hallmark & Johnson Property Management

Hallmark & Johnson took over the management of my apartment building and I am really happy with them! Our old property manager was the worst and so rude. I could never get a hold of him. The common areas were always grimy and it would take them months to fix anything, if they even bothered at all. Our new property manager Bob G is super friendly and funny. The building looks great now that it’s polished up. I needed my toilet fixed and they did it THAT DAY! Plus now I can pay rent online so I never have to worry if they’ve received my rent like the old property manager. What a difference!

Hallmark & Johnson was really great to work with in our move to a townhouse community they manage. They were extremely timely, polite and helpful throughout our transition.

Terrible managment company. Bob Garibaldi clearly doesn’t care & you can tell by the tone of his voice each time you talk to him. There are constantly issues with the snow plowing (maybe not this year YET but previous years) & parking. I’m referring to the Elmdale Condominium. They enforced parking stickers but I seriously doubt anyone is monitoring it. I personally chased away about 4 people who live accross the street but park their cars on our parking lot. It was early evening hours. Also, looking at the annual budget each year, I don’t think they are trying to negotiate or get the best service for the cheaper rate. Looks like they just hire left & right (contractors, landscapers etc)…We should also have open access to their accounting books. I wouldn’t recommend this company at all. My friends & relatives who live in condos have better management companies for almost the same monthly fee.

I recently sold a condo in a building that is managed by Hallmark & Johnson. Not only can I say that the building itself was immaculately maintained, but the property manager Genevieve was instrumental is the sale of my condo. Having sold a condo before, I was not looking forward to the hassle and daily disasters that come along with selling, but Genevieve was incredibly helpful and made the process go so smoothly that it was a breeze. I’m still in shock. Genevieve was on top of everything and was a wealth of information and connections. I am eternally grateful to her, and I highly recommend Genevieve and Hallmark & Johnson.

Very bad service. Robert Garibaldi is person to refer. I was wondering if it is him only or whole company, but after reading other reviews do realize that horrible service is whole company trademark. Could I give them no stars at all?
Yes disrespect, yes ignorance– I absolutely agree w Michelle’s review. recent encounter: my townhouse has pipe running in outside wall which is against all building codes. Impossible to drain. Pipe busted winter of 2012 leaving me living weeks and weeks in cold and disaster. Never had been reimbursed not my homeowners deductible neither for my time. Brought to attention of Bob 3 times via email with no result.
This spring all story all over again. Plumbers in chi on every corner– it takes them almost 2 weeks to get one here. Pipe goes to sprinklers too– I assured them they will never use it again, and better re-​rout it.
Every encounter of mine w Bob I had the absolutely same experience. Horrible service. Rotten wood above garage– takes only a year to replace. Cars of my guests towed from parking spot I owe 3 times for the course of 5 years– Bob never had gotten money we payed out of Lincoln park towing. List goes on and on.
I hope that at least some people would check Unilocal before hiring them. I did not get to Facebook and Twitter but absolutely will.
Jane here warns regarding company removing posts from Unilocal– if true, pls do not waste time. I will make sure bad business practices of this company and Bob in particular as representative will become a public knowledge. I will be checking. And adding to it. How I can put it out clear: stay away from them for your property sake.

It always amazes me on Unilocal when a business has HORRIBLE ratings, & their reviews are either removed or hidden. That should be the first clue, this place is for the birds!
It’s hard to call this place a «management» company. They treat people with disrespect, ignorance, & have no common courtesy. EVER!
If your going to get into customer service, knowing full well that you will have to deal with so many different ethnicities, & different languages, then don’t go into this biz!!! Treating people like crap, gets you nowhere. Especially when the other side doesn’t deserve it.
Why are there so many terrible reviews, & nothing changes on their end? Well, what other answer can it be, besides they obviously don’t care!!!
If my family didn’t love our condo so much, we would have been out years ago.
We are NOT RENTING! This is our home, that we love. We thought when we bought a condo, that we wouldn’t have to deal w/​rude & inconsiderate companies. We were wrong! These rude, disrespectful people are no different, than a regular landlord. The only difference is, my family & I OWN our place.
Lastly! With any customer service job, be nice to your customers!
It’s really not hard, to be nice to people. Especially if they are nice to you.
It would be wonderful if the head manager, would read these reviews & take some action. Judging by comments on Unilocal,it sure looks like change won’t be happening here.

Leasing from Hallmark & Johnson has been a nightmare. When I arrived in Chicago with a moving van full of my stuff, I learned that the building manager had screwed up my move-​in date and that the apartment I was going to be moving into was still occupied for another 2 weeks. I was offered a temporary studio apartment that I moved all of my belongings into, only to find out the next day that the studio was being moved into 2 days later, and I had to move all of my belongings into a storage closet in the basement of the apartment. I moved twice before I got to move a third time into my actual apartment, after having to sleep on friends’ couches for 2 weeks.
When I moved in, my apartment was atrocious, and instead of spending time setting up and decorating, my girlfriend, my roommate, my roommates mother and I spent over 12 hours each cleaning the apartment. When I questioned Jack Shapiro, the property manager, about why the apartment had not been cleaned but we still had to pay a $ 350 move-​in fee, he very bluntly told me «if you don’t like it I suggest you live somewhere else».
The move-​in repairs list we gave to Arpe, the groundskeeper, was never attended to (we moved in last July and as I am writing this the following May, nothing has happened). We have a rotting window frame in the bathroom, a dishwasher that falls out of the wall when opened, and a door knob that falls off whenever opened.
The trash on the fire escape was sometimes not taken out for 2 – 3 weeks at a time, and there were rats crawling throughout it almost every time I took the trash out.
We had a light burn out in the hallway of the first floor that still has not been replaced (1 month so far), that makes opening my door very difficult when I can’t see the key hole (this is the only light and there are no windows), and downright dangerous when I saw some neighbors have to move out in the dark.
WORST OF ALL, my roommate and I got a 5 day eviction notice stating we owed $ 2400 dollars when their accountant made a mistake. After paying on-​time (usually a week or two in advance) for 9 months, they didn’t even think to ask us about it before posting an eviction notice on our door.
These people are scumbags who are out to steal your money, and their properties are not kept up at all. Do yourself a favor and stay away from them.
P. S.- I got a Unilocal account just to be able to post this review. This company is really that bad.

Hallmark and Johnson is terrible. I moved into my 520 W. Surf St. apartment and no repairs had been done! I have called, text, and emailed several times yet nothing has been. I moved in a month and a half ago. Just like Sarah B.‘s review I was assured that all damage would be fixed prior to me moving in, that was clearly a lie. I would not recommend that anyone rent from them ever. They didn’t even give me a key to my mail for 3 weeks and I didn’t have the right keys to even use the laundry room.

Hallmark and Johnson manage the condo building that I lived in for eight years. I served as both the secretary and the president of our condo association during this period, and I worked closely with Genevieve Oddo on keeping our building running smoothly.
Genevieve is really a wonderful property manager. She’s always on top of things with our bills and paperwork, and she was always available to help with any emergency we encountered, from frozen pipes to power outages. She attended all of our board meetings and dealt seamlessly with all the interesting personalities in our building. Genevieve truly made being president of our association an easy job because she was always one step ahead of any issue we encountered.
I also dealt a lot with Chris Ehrhard who handles a lot of the sales, move ins and move outs for Hallmark and Johnson. She was also always on the ball and professional.

This management company does not even deserve one star. They rented me an unfinished apartment at 520 w surf, assuring me it would be done in two weeks… well a month later it is still in shambles and nowhere near move-​in ready. I am having to live out of boxes in a a trashy, temporary apartment while they sluggishly finish the one I signed a lease for. I have been repeatedly lied to, ignored, and taken advantage of by this company. Stay away!!!

Apparently, Hallmark and Johnson is able to remove posts from Unilocal because they are horrible. I wrote a post about my silverfish infested nightmare, and it is mysteriously gone as well as several other posts I have seen in the past.

Although I have never actually rented from Hallmark and Johnson, they caused me more stress than any mgmt company ever has and here’s why.
I signed a lease to rent a one bedroom and move in on a specific date at a specific time. The day before my move-​in, I picked up my keys from the maintenance/​engineer on site and looked at the place. It was literally, in shambles. Dry wall everywhere, gaping holes in the ceiling, had not been painted, workers on ladders, etc.
When I viewed the apartment I was told that «some work needed to be done» and there «would be plenty of time to do it in the next few weeks» before my move in. I immediately tried to call the owner (who does not take incoming calls and must call you back — red flag!) and he assured me that the place would be ready and spotless for my move in the next day.
So, I show up with my truck and movers as planned and walk into an atrocious mess. In the end, I got my money back, but the owner of these properties is a SLUM LORD and had the nerve to tell me «the place will be ready by 2 pm» Not only is the owner a liar, but he was verbally abusive toward me until my parents arrived (after driving 8 hours) to help me and called my uncle who is a lawyer.
Long story short, I moved twice in one day — paid movers twice and had to make threats to get my money back.
The single star is for the nice leasing agent in the office who listened to me cry.
Stay away from Hallmark and Johnson — they are a total fraud.

These guys suck. I will e-​mail our dedicated person and he never writes back. In August the sent me a message stating that residents with external wiring from cable had to have it removed. I wrote and asked if I was in violation several times. They responded in december saying that I was and that I had less than a week to take care of it, or they would do it at my expense. This is unexceptable. They only meet with us once a year and I am still waiting for my copy of the minutes. They are really horrible. I love my condo I just wish it was managed better.