Personal Stories

The good, the bad and the ugly: here are the personal stories of students who live or have lived off-campus in East Lansing.

"When I was living in Beechwood my roommate and I both had to pay $470 a month in rent. One day I went to my bank to cash a check and the teller informs me that I am $500 dollars over drawn. I knew this wasn't right and instantly thought that someone stole my checkbook. The teller and I investigated further and found out that DTN had taken my last rent check for $970. I wrote the check for $470. Because of the $500 overdrawn it had kept growing and was not close to $900. I had written checks to other places including the MSU police, all which has bounced. I was so mad that I went over to DTN. They said oh the girl who did it probably read your 4 as a 9, we will look into it. I was so mad I had money taken from me that wasn't mine and then bounced checks, they were going to take care of it now. I spent 3 days between DTN, their bank National City, and my bank Charterone. It all got figured out but DTN never said anything to be about it. I don't think I ever got a sorry. My bank on the other hand took all of my over draft fees off and paid the fees on all my bounced checks. My bank was very helpful but DTN screwed me over."
–Gretchen Yankle, MSU Alumna

"So I haven't had any really bad experiences with DTN (I live in Glenwood, the old Twyckingham Apartments). I know a lot of people say DTN sucks, but they've been really good to me (and I know you said horror stories, but I want to stand up for them some). I had problems with the first girl I was going to live with, but we had already signed the lease so I thought I was screwed and would have to pay to get out of it, but I talked to people at DTN and they told me I could switch complexes without penalty if I stayed in DTN, so I did. Another girl and I moved into Glenwood, and although they're old and we've had problems, they have always been really quick to fix it, as in the same day or next day fixes EVERY time. The only problems I've encountered were with roommates."
–Lora Houston, Sociology and Anthropology Senior

On maintenance issues...

"Our dishwasher was leaking water all over our kitchen floor, and the mgt company was nice enough to replace it free of charge (obviously). When my roommate and I came home after they had installed it, we saw the directions to putting the dishwasher together, packaged and unread on the grass. Two days later, water was leaking all over the floor again. Why? Whoever put the dishwasher together forgot to include a small, but crucial component....maybe if they would have read the directions! GEEZ. Another time, our heat/air conditioning was not working. It was fixed immediately. Now, although they have new windows, it can be quite drafty in there at times. Typically, maintenance is performed in a timely fashion, but its just the fact that so many things keep happening that is annoying."
–Vanessa Johnson, Psychology Senior

"My apartment is owned by DTN, and the very first nite me and my roommate moved in, NONE of our outlets worked, and when we flipped the switch in the fusebox to turn them on, it completely blew all of our fuses and everything, including all the lights, turned off. when we called DTN to tell them, it was about 1am, and they told us that they would call their electrician and have him call us in a few minutes. when he called us about 15 minutes later, he said, "well, if you really want me to, i GUESS i can come out there tonite, although i live like half an hour away so it would really be better for me if i could just come tomorrow".... seriously, the electrician lives half an hour away? we thought that was pretty ridiculous, especially if it had been an emergency. and just the fact that he made us feel bad that we wanted him to come fix our shit that nite made us pretty mad. we told him whatever, he could hold off until morning. this was probably on one of the hottest nites of the summer, and since our AC wouldnt work, we couldn't even stand to stay the nite in our new apartment because it was so hot. so yeah, we thought that was a pretty damn interesting first nite."
– Stephanie Redmon, Telecommunications Senior

"I submit my monthly rent check on or before the first of every month. I live in 129 Burcham apartments, but it is rented through 731 Burcham apartments so I drop my check at the leasing office there. At the beginning of september, I turned in my check which I have the carbon copy for. After a while, close to october, I got a letter saying I hadn't paid my september rent. I called the office and the person I spoke with said they would check into it and said they would call back if there were still problems. I never received a call, so I figured it was straightened out. I then turned in my october rent right on time, oct. 1, and I also have the carbon copy for that check. A week or so later, I get a knock on my door late one night. It was some guy from the sheriff's office delivering a COURT SUMMONS. I was like, wtf. So the next day I called 731 and demanded I speak with a manager. The (very helpful) manager Dave looked into it for me, and realized that some idiot in the office had posted my checks to another apartment building, even though my number is VERY clearly written on my check in the memo space. Anyways, DTN was claiming that I owed them around $1,500 and I got scared shitless by the creepy guy delivering my "court summons". To make a long story short, DTN sucks and is really irresponsible. There are only 12 apartments in my building, so I think its pretty pathetic that they screwed up."
–Tracy Wood, Integrated Social Sciences Junior

"This summer DTN renovated my kitchen, awesome, right?! NO! They
completely forgot to call me and tell me they were doing it! I was
woken up by a knock at my door at 8am. I opened it in my pajamas to
find a group of burly men in the doorway. They said they were hear to
remodel my kitchen! Needless to say they gave no chance to get myself
together. They came in, emptied my cabinets into the rest of my
apartment and began working. I had to change for work in my bathroom.
It was ridiculous! The DTN Management Office called me to apologize
and sent me a thirty dollar gift certificate to Meijer. Then, they
put in a new intercom system, but for got to my apartment number on
the building intercom! I missed an important FedEx delivery. He
thought he had the wrong address because my apartment number was not
there! I emailed and called. It took over a month to get it fixed, and
what they called fixed was putting a sticker number over the intercom
button for lobby. The DTN building manager didn't even know I had an
intercom system in my apartment. They finally got it right, but there
was no apology or anything. Some professionals."
–Shannon Scott, IDS Public Policy Senior

"I'm actually pretty happy with my housing situation. 350 a month rent doesn't include gas or electricity or cable, so the cost of living is deceptively higher. Also, buying your own food doesn't seem like a big deal till it's not right down the hall 'for free,' cooked almost whenever you want it.

But as for my house, the company that manages it only owns a handful of properties in East Lansing, and they're very accessible. The fridge was leaking a little bit: they replaced it the next day. The oven wouldn't cool down: they replaced it next day. I have a feeling that they might even be willing to put in better-insulated windows if I asked them. They even let us move in half a week earlier than we were supposed to because they remembered us voicing concern over not having anywhere to live for a period of time over the summer. I'm very happy with my renting experience and my three roommates — i think it's the management that makes all the difference."
–Jonah Magar, Journalism and Telecommunications Junior