Chesney Coker - Tower Realty Austin

Thanks to Chesney, my son is now a Texas resident with all the benefits of an in-state student. Chesney walked us through the entire process and guided us to a wonderful condo. We highly recommend Chesney and his team. They helped us navigate all aspects of the purchase of the property and the in-state application process. After the purchase, his team has been excellent at managing the property and has provided worry-free service.

Chesney and his team are very personable and great to work with.

We started working with Chesney in August 2019 and have been delighted with our experience. Chesney is the best – he is extremely professional and conversant with the UT Residency process and helped my son obtain residency in 12 months. With his keen insight and knowledge of the real estate market near UT, he was able to provide excellent guidance which helped us close on a condo in a great building very quickly. Chesney and Jennifer have been managing our condo for us and have taken care of everything promptly. They are both great to work with, and I heartily recommend Chesney and Tower Realty to anyone looking to establish Residency while attending UT.

I used Chesney to help purchase a condo with the goal of establishing in-state residency. 100% of our interaction was via phone and email. Chesney was responsive, knowledgeable and provided excellent guidance. I followed his check-list for establishing in-state residency and have now been granted in-state status.

I recently stayed at one of their properties on the corner of 21st and pearl. Upon moving into the apartment, there were many issues that should have been dealt with. Not only was it not properly cleaned it looked like it was put together with scraps. My room had a dried up piece of soap stuck in the shower and the other bathroom was covered in mold, which both my roommate I had to clean ourselves. All over the apartment, and even on some of the appliances, there were paint stains. Every single door handle was a different style. All 3 of the bulbs in my bathroom were different and 2 of them were not even working. I was told to replace them myself or they would charge me to replace it. We weren’t even given an ac filter, which they also told us we had to get ourselves.
Immediately after moving in, my roommate and I noticed the lights along walkway to our apartment were not working. To get to our apartment, it was pitch black at night. We sent several emails to management and it took them almost a month to fix this.
Not only was the apartment a mess, but management was incredibly rude. My roommate and I primarily dealt with a woman named Jen who wouldn’t know what customer service was if it hit her in the head. Extremely disrespectful every time we spoke. 
Upon moving out they told us in order to receive our deposit split we were to email them exactly how much each person was to get and where to send it. I paid more than my roommate because I brought a pet which I very clearly stated in the email. Even with this, they sent the check split straight down the middle. I emailed Jen to see why It was split equally when both my roommate and I agreed to other terms. She said she saw the email I sent and made a mistake and would see what she could do. I emailed her 2 days in a row and even called the office multiple times, only to be ignored. On the third day they finally picked up the phone and Jen explained to me that nothing was going to be done about THEIR mistake. At the time my roommate and I were not on speaking terms, which is why I made sure to send an email on EXACTLY how to split it. While explaining this to her over the phone and demanding they contact her, Jen hung up the phone on me because she “was not going to be spoken to like this. ” As a result of their negligence I was out $100.

Tower Realty mailed us a postcard just before we came from out of state to visit the campus. Once my son decided on UT I got in contact with Chesney and he talked us through the process to qualify for Residency. Now a bit over a year later my son just got notification that he has qualified for residency. Chesney can help you too!

Chesney helped us find a condo for our son attending UT. Chesney was extremely knowledgeable with the market in Austin as well as Texas residency. He was very patient and gave us great guidance. His office staff was great to work with as well.

It was simple and easy experience with Chesney - worked on real estate around UT. He is knowledgeable and gets stuff done

I rarely write reviews, but I have been waiting to write this one for over three years. The staff members at Tower Realty are the most unprofessional, disrespectful people I have encountered in my adult life. I laid fairly low as a tenant, however, we had cockroaches, broken appliances, appliances not wired to code, rooms with no flooring (just concrete), and more. Maintenance request were rarely filled in a timely manner. Whenever I would reach out to Tower realty for help, I would be talked to in a condescending manner, since I was "just a college student. " Save yourself some future hassle and work with a different management company.

Chesney helped my daughter establish residency and the condo we purchased is proving to be a very smart investment. I just wish we used this process with our son, would’ve ended up saving a lot of money on the back end

Bought a condo with Chesney a couple of years ago for my daughter attending UT Austin. Very knowledgeable about the whole process, including what was required to establish residency. He was very patient with us as we researched the market, and his knowledge and advice proved correct every time. Very responsive. Has also been fantastic as a rental agent – they take care of everything for a very reasonable fee. Has been a great experience!

I had the absolute WORST experience with Tower Realty.

My boyfriend and I were renting an apartment that was sold mid lease- the new owners used Tower Realty to manage the property. We lived on Graham Place near UT and are both responsible college students. BLACK MOLD began to form on our upstairs bathroom door (our bedroom was a loft) and grew for a month and a half. I called, went into the office, and sent emails; I even had my boyfriend stop into the office. I received 0 calls back; They promised to fix it when I went to the office and did NOTHING. We had to move out on July 3rd even though our lease didn’t end until the 31st, because they refused to treat the black mold. We basically paid the $1,300 in July rent to only stay there for 3 days. I have a chronic pain condition so my immune system is compromised; both my boyfriend and I were becoming extremely sick from the exposure. We couldn’t last another 3 weeks sleeping next to that amount of mold. When I requsted the actual owner’s information to discuss solutions, they (Tower Realty) refused to give it to me. There was also a puppy in the office several times we were there that was jumping on and biting my boyfriend and I (my boyfriend is a big animal lover and even he was quite upset) ; there was a shredded toy scatttered all over the floor. For months before we moved out, people would show up at our apartment unannounced to tour it. Our lease stated that we were required to receive at least 24 HOURS prior to anyone viewing the apartment which never happened. If we were informed at all, it would be 25 minutes to a few hours notice max. That is unacceptable and completely unprofessional. I brought this up at least 5 times and nothing changed. Chesney and his female office manager are both equally responsible and equally unprofessional. They think they can take advantage of young college students and that is wrong. We took great care of that apartment and fixed many things on our own dime. The lady at the front office is an absolute WITCH (putting it nicely). She had the NERVE to tell me to stop talking because she had a migraine and I was making it worse by expressing my frustration about not having the black mold treated (I was speaking calmly and respectfully). She also said she had dealt with much worse things at apartments she had previously lived in (who says that? !). Don’t come to work and expect to do nothing, headache or not. I was shaking when I left the office- I have rarely encountered such a vile person. We currently live at Amli 5350 and love it there. Avoid Tower Realty at all cost.

I highly recommend Chesney and the Tower Realty team. He is highly knowledgeable of the Austin market and of working with the University. Beyond the purchase, Tower has been a great management company making it easy to own property from a distance.

Chesney originally solicited us to buy a property to convert our daughter from out-of-state to in-state.while it sounded good, I was skeptical.
It took a year, and now our daughter is a TX resident, and we are left with a very good investment property. I am very pleased with Chesney and the process.

Tower Realty is a nightmare to have as your landlords. Their front desk operator, Charla, is one of the rudest, most irritable people I've ever had to deal with. Seriously, they must have hired her from the local DPS. The only time she will ever express a hint of enthusiasm is when you make the mistake of renewing your lease. Sam? Oh God. Where do I start. First off, he parks his fancy car right in front of the building, showing off all the wealth he makes off of broke college students like its something to be proud of. He'll be sure to flaunt his fancy watch when you talk to him too, probably when you're trying to get him NOT to jack up your rent. Keep in mind, this guy brags about "bringing the idea of pre-leasing to the forefront" (his exact words currently) on TR's website, as if he's doing the world a favor by making college students decide where they want to live a year in advance. I would urge anyone reading this review not to lease with this company, but if you do, be aware that they are going to be a hassle to have maintenance requests fixed, they are going to take as much of your security deposit as they can, they will attempt to raise your rent year to year, and be no help in getting issues resolved with other units. My roommates and I took incredible care of the DUMP of a place that we leased with them. Then they took out almost half of our deposit, charging us obscene repainting and maintenance fees. Never mind that we declared all the imperfections at move in - doesn't matter, they just pointed at the devils contract - I mean lease and claimed we were liable. When you move out, they'll try to incentivize you to use their preferred cleaning service (who happens to be right next door to them - erm hello, sketchy? !) in order to avoid fees that they'll just take out anyway. Oh and somehow, they charged us for not keeping the utilities turned on at the unit for almost a week AFTER WE MOVED OUT. How is that even legal? I guess Charla needed a new rolex too.

EDIT: Chesney reached out almost immediately after my roommates and I posted reviews. He was apologetic and clarified that despite Charla's vehement denial of any possibility that they mixed us up with another unit, that they did in fact, confuse us with another unit. Thus, the charges were incorrectly applied to us. Chesney mailed us most of the security deposit back, so they get a star back for Chesney reaching out and fixing things so quickly.

It has been pleasure to work with Chesney. He is a very experienced real estate agent and he delivered to what he promised. He brings tremendous expertise for Austin real estate market. I have been enjoying to work with Chesney and his staff. I would recommend Chesney to anyone who is interested to invest in Austin market.

Tower is a great management team! They are really easy to access, they update their units to look very nice, and they work as fast as they can with maintenance (sometimes they even just give you brand new things instead of fixing the old which to me is great). Charla and Chesney are super supportive and easy going people, if you ever have a problem they will take care of you.

Chesney is a pleasure to work with and his help and assistance were invaluable to my getting in-state tuition for my son at UT Austin. I was skeptical about the whole thing actually working all the way up until the residency application was approved because it sounded too good to be true. I called the UT residency office and confirmed the validity of this process more than once. In hindsight, every thing Chesney said about the process and how to go about it was spot on. It is very clear he has done thing many times over and knows the process including resources to go to for all related activities around property purchase. His team also manages my condo for me and I could not be happier. Everything was streamlined and easy and he and his team are readily available to answer questions, help with advice, and make ownership a breeze. I would strongly recommend Chesney and Tower Realty.

Hands down the most rude, incompetent, criminal realty company. Upon move in the condition was terrible; walls and floors beat up, carpet smelt of animal urine, air vents rusted, bathrooms black and filthy. The staff was incompetent and extremely slow to respond to inquiries. The average time for maintenance to show up was about 2 weeks. Upon move out we lost half the deposit for "painting, " and other miscellaneous charges; basically we got stuck with paying for the repairs of normal wear and tear of the apartment. We also got a $150 electric bill for a 5 day span for them to make the repairs that should have been completed before we moved in. To top it all off, after asking about some of the charges deducted from the security deposit, the staff responded incredibly rudely and in a belittling way with absolutely no sense of professionalism. It baffles me how a company like this is in business, surely they must survive by scamming and ripping its customers off.

Honest campus broker that pays agents on time and has a variety of desirable properties on campus and around Austin.

Chesney's was the first flyer we received with information about residency status for UT out of state students. We called his office a little over a year ago, he helped us buy a great condo, and now our son is a Texas resident! We highly recommend Chesney and Charla if you are looking for professional and expert real estate service in Austin.