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Commercial
Texas

Roaches, bugs don’t deter Texas landlords as rents surge

Westmount sells two complexes that have drawn scathing criticism from residents

Westmount's Cliff Booth with 1615 John West Road, Dallas, TX (Google Maps, LinkedIn)
Westmount's Cliff Booth with 1615 John West Road, Dallas, TX (Google Maps, LinkedIn)

Westmount Realty Capital is cashing in on skyrocketing Texas rents – even though its properties have drawn criticism for infestations of roaches and bedbugs, lackluster management and broken air-conditioning.

The Dallas commercial real estate investor sold two multifamily properties in recent months, Highland Bluffs in Dallas and Westmount Summer Cove in Houston. Highland Bluff, built in 1984, has under two stars on Google and 114 reviews that fault management for neglecting the 28-building complex. Summer Cove is rated B- on ApartmentRatings.com and a history of complaints about bugs and steep rent hikes.

Yet rents are rising so fast in Texas that the complexes essentially sell themselves as apartment landlords seek to cash in on a housing market where prices have put single family homes out of reach for many would-be buyers.

Dallas rents jumped 17 percent last year and are up another 13 percent so far this year, according to Westmount COO Brent Brown. Asking rents for one-bedroom at Highland Bluffs are more than $1,000 a month, well above the median rent of $792 for the neighborhood, Buckner Terrace Everglade Park, according to Zumper.

Highland Bluffs is in “excellent condition,” Westmount Founder and CEO Cliff Booth said in a statement about the sale of the 357-unit community after eight years. “Recently upgraded multifamily properties in the area and increased rents demonstrate the significant value-add opportunity this property presents with its additional upgrades.”

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Current and former residents beg to differ. One said she and her two young children had to sleep with the patio door open for two weeks last summer because the air conditioning didn’t work.

That’s not all.

“These apartments are roach-infested and have a serious bed bug problem they refuse to take care of,” former resident Victoria Meija said in an interview.

In Houston, among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas last year, rents near Summer Cove rose by about $130 in April from a year earlier, according to the multifamily research company Apartment Data. Occupants have similar complaints about the complex, which was 96 percent occupied when Westmount sold last month after seven years.

“Worst place I’ve ever lived,” former resident Kimberly Guillory wrote in a Google review earlier this year. “Management is rude and unprofessional. The units have roaches. Do not move here. The water is forever being turned off.”

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