We arrived on Sunday into the city and start hunting for apartment/houses. Before we arrived I had started calling/emailing property managers, listing agents on Thursday and Friday attempting to set up appointments to see places.
On Sunday we saw five places. I had contacted one property manager and asked to see 4 places she had with her company windermere and was told she was unable to show me the places and would get back to me. She also said some places did not take dogs and she didn't want to bother contacting the owners though it said in the ad "pets on case by case basis". Basic she was a lazy property manager and "too busy" to deal with issues.
So out of the four houses I was interested in from Thursday it took me a week to finally see on the next Thursday. Also it took a realtor from another company to show us the house with a lockbox. The house was $2200/month for a 3 bd/2.5 ba in the exact neighborhood we rented in. By the time that happened we had found a different house also 3/2.5ba for $2400/month.
On thursday with two applications pending we went with the more expensive home. My DH and I both liked it better. But more importantly we found the property manager a great guy honest and quick to deal with.
I'll be honest I hesitated a lot for $200/month but then decided to suck it up. Well turns out good thing I did. I read the Yelp reviews for windermere property management and they had horrible reviews about people suing to get back deposits and contracts falling. I ended up writing a negative review as well because it was a horrible experience.
Perhaps the house we rented isn't worth $200 more a month, but then again. If we lose our entire deposit when we move out because the rental company is dishonest and fraudulent then it'd be the same. Besides my gut tells me our property manager will fix things and be honest with us and return calls. I had a bad feeling about renting from a property management company that had such negative reviews.
Experiences? Or landlords? Do you ever fire big companies? Or is it the individual manager? I wish I could tell the owner of the house we considered the horrible service they were getting. That the house was sitting vacant an extra two weeks because the people they hired were incompetent and lazy.
Our Rental Hunt
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:30 pm
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:43 pm 1438645410
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:54 pm 1438646080
It's a lot of work just to find something. I'm not sure these property managers get it!!
August 4th, 2015 at 01:00 am 1438650042
But I think we did dodge a bullet. The windermere if you look up more reviews had a lot of people saying extensive photos are needed upon moving in and out. And to document all calls about repairs and repairs they don't keep up with.
Kids are SUPER excited. I won't use a decorator snafu until we buy. This is giving us time to evaluate the neighborhood and determine if the commute is viable.
CCF, i think I'll write about renting versus buying. Where we are the house next door literally sold foR $571k. So easily about the same as rent but no maintenance costs. But at the same time much nicer condition than the rental which has carpet versus hardwood.
August 4th, 2015 at 01:23 am 1438651433
August 4th, 2015 at 05:48 pm 1438710484