Ruined our entire rental experience. I didn't get to meet Jeff for the longest time but once I did it was a clear sign that a change needed to be made in the very near future.
1) The work orders that were put in for the broken gate latch, holes in the irrigation lines, broken blinds were never fixed but yet we got charged for them.
2) communication was ALWAYS initiated by us. Anytime we talked to him on the phone it just seemed like he talked really fast on purpose in order to get off the phone faster. He'd never truly answer your question directly unless you were persistent enough to pick apart his evasive answers. Then after 3 or 4 tries you'd finally get a straight answer.
3) This is not a property manager. He's a rent collector at best (that is when the rent was actually paid). Don't send us an automatic message telling us the tenant hasn't paid. We own the house...believe me we already know they didn't pay. How about telling us what you're doing about it and when we can expect payment instead of us constantly having to ask. When it comes to listing the property don't "tell" us what you're going to list our house at. It's not your house it's ours. We hired you not the other way around so it's best to "recommend" a price and why you recommend it. Having to constantly call or email to tell you that our front yard looks like crap tells us you never go by the property. I don't care if you have multiple properties. I supervise multiple locations in my job and I can tell you what's right and wrong with every single one of them. Oh wait! That's because I actually visit them and go inside and ask questions. Imagine that.
4) I finally got to meet Jeff face to face at the one and only home inspection that was ever done while a tenant was renting the home that WE had to initiate. For lack of a better classification, the words that came to mind within 2 minutes were "total slime-ball". The cheap suit, the greasy looking hair and facial hair just oozed of sliminess. You could be the nicest guy on the planet but perception is reality. Don't try to build rapport with me by commenting on my baseball cap and insinuating that we have something in common. We're here to do a home inspection because we're pissed with how things are going with you and the tenant. Rapport should've been established when you took over managing the property. When you're in a suit keep your hands out of your pockets and don't turn your body by pivoting on the heel of your front foot and the toes of the back foot. You look like Mr. Twinkletoes. Stand up straight with your hands out of your pockets. Speak clearly and at a normal speed and pretend your clients don't work in real estate when explaining something. When you're with a client who's paying you to look after their property keep your damn phone in your pocket. I don't want to see it. You can go without it for 20 minutes. We're not on your time you're on ours. Nothing says you're unimportant more than when you're constantly whipping out your phone like we're interfering with your schedule.
The home inspection was a joke. I've never been rushed in and out so fast. The next time you do a home inspection with an owner, when you look in the garage you need to turn the light on in the garage before saying "It looks good in there." It's amazing what you find when the light is on. When we go into the backyard that is now destroyed don't say "Just lay some seed down and that'll fix it". Yes seed would be needed but that's not the point is it? A $4000 backyard is now trashed. Perhaps you would've seen this brewing had you scheduled home inspections along with the missing outer Payne on our arcardia door. He didn't even go into the backyard during an inspection after the first tenants moved out. Again when I asked, "How does the backyard look?" He danced around that question until I finally got the real answer of "I didn't go back there. I saw part of it and from what I saw it looked fine." You call that an inspection? Why are we wasting our time and money on you? During the home inspection WE scheduled my daughter's old room smelled like marijuana. I called Jeff in the room and he just leaned in the room without crossing the threshold and gave me a nod like the room looked fine. Hey genius the room smells like pot!! Care to ask the tenant why the room smells like pot? Nope! Could've been legally obtained but we'll never know.
We're relieved to be without Jeff Shelton. Someday we'll look back on this and laugh but for right now we'll continue to think back, sigh, and roll our eyes. What a waste of money on our part.