I used Renter’s Warehouse for 3 years. I would not again.
I would like to offer a review of my experiences.
First, I had a personal lawyer review the landlord’s contract, and the tenant’s contract. Both of these documents received my lawyers blessing, and even praised the completeness of the tenant contract.
I signed up with them.
With my lawyers praise, I admit, I didn’t read through all of what was being signed. The signing was name here, name here, initials there, etc… This comes back to $@!#%.
When the tenant moved in, and paid renter’s warehouse, I was expecting money. Renter’s Warehouse sent me the first months invoice, and paid me nothing. The second month, I received nothing as well. I was trying not to foreclose like many others did during the real-estate collapse, this was an unexpected hurdle.
I asked them about this, the fee for putting a tenant in the house depends on how long they put the tenant in the house for. In my case, it was three years, which amounted to two month’s rent. They had taken the tenants security deposit, the pet deposit, and the first month’s to cover this. The next month, they used the rent to pay back the security deposit.
Throughout this time, I was speaking to the president, and trying to understand why all these fees were not mentioned. His response was that they were, and it was in the contract. I admit, it was my fault for not reading the contract, I had expected they would high-level anything important. They did not. They have since changed their policy, as I understand it; new landlords are walked through the fee structure.
Another hidden ‘fee’, was the security deposit interest. The security deposit would be kept by Renter’s Warehouse, but the landlords are responsible to pay the interest to the tenant. I requested to hold the deposit myself, and the president said that he’d let me. Then he rescinded his offer, someone had let him know that I might use it to pay the mortgage. He threatened to cancel our contract. Not having been paid, and not wanting to risk having to go a third month without payment, I agreed to let him hold it. He mentioned we could revisit this. We never did. When I canceled my service, I asked to revisit this, and was told their position is it’s in the contract I signed.
To be clear, he thought I would use the deposit to pay the mortgage, instead of to deposit it into an account for the tenant. According to my first two statements, they used the deposit to pay their fee, and then the second month’s rent to recover the deposit. This is my opinion; the concern was that I could POSSIBLY DO what they DID.
It wasn’t until the 3rd month that I received a payment from Renter’s Warehouse. The payment received also had been reduced to the maintenance buffer they needed to establish. Each time the tenant calls about an issue, they would show up, determine the cause, and then use this buffer to re-pay them for that visit (If they deemed it the landlord’s responsibility).
In the three years, I had 4 requests. They were: A remote for the fireplace, a washer, a sinkhole, and a floor.
In the first request, the tenant had removed the back plate of the remote for the fireplace, and changed the switches. A specialist had to show up to re-synch the two. Renter’s Warehouse felt this was the landlord’s responsibility, as the specialist was required to resolve the situation; therefor it was beyond the tenant’s responsibility. I had to email them several times before they accepted what happened, and then refunded the fee.
The second request, a built-in washer broke. A Renter’s Warehouse affiliate replaced the washer, for a fee. This washer was defective. They replaced the built-in washer with a washer too tall for the enclosure, so they removed its feet. This “fix” had issues, and the washer was jumping all over the floor. They requested the built-in portion (a counter-top) be raised, which would have caused a gap with the dryer. This was not acceptable, nor possible. A third washer needed be delivered, etc… At this point, I requested to be removed from the loop, I just told them to fix it, and wanted to hear no more. This process took more than 2 months to resolve. No fee was charged.
The third request was a sink hole in the driveway. I let Renter’s Warehouse know that this had been an issue with the previous owner, and was looking to have all three stalls repaired uniformly. They quoted me a fee, and I agreed to it. When the work was completed, it was only for 2 of the 3 stalls. I spoke to the company that did the repair, and they said they were given the go ahead by Renter’s Warehouse. When I called Renter’s Warehouse, they said that to do what I requested they do, would cost about 30% more than what we agreed upon, so they made the call to only do what was necessary to fix the hole. This repair was not acceptable. Renter’s Warehouse had the repair contractor resurface the driveway as I had requested, at the expense of the repair contractor. This process also took months.
The final request was a wood laminate floor repair. The tenant caused a chip in the floor, and had agreed to cover the cost of repair. In addition to this, there was a leak from outside the back door, which caused some of the laminate to peel back. I agreed to cover this. Finally, the tenant’s pets had caused a section of the floor to “wear excessively”. The cost to repair the floor was estimated by my homeowner’s insurance adjuster at $4500. Renter’s Warehouse charged me the $150 fee, and claimed the tenant’s responsibility for this repair was $150. This process took more than 6 months to resolve. Even the president thought this was excessive, and attempted to compensate me for this delay by offering me two months free of management fees. After those two months, the floor was still not resolved, and I canceled their contract.
I received a check for just the security deposit. The pet deposit was not refunded, nor was the non-refundable pet deposit. These were used to pay Renter’s Warehouse’s tenant placement fee, and were not replenished with subsequent months’ rent.
There was an issue with personal privacy near the end:
I received an email from a company, affiliated with Renter’s Warehouse after a storm. Renter’s Warehouse had passed along my personal information to this affiliate, and he contacted me offering a free estimate on the repairs. It was from a third party, was not from a Renter’s Warehouse employee, nor did the signature of the person indicate mention of Renter’s Warehouse.
I was disappointed that Renter’s Warehouse had given out my personal information, and had contacted them about this. They dismissed my concern as not a breach of privacy, and justified it with that he’s a contractor for Renter’s Warehouse. As I understand it, it wasn’t a bulk-mail. It was explained to me that the Renter’s Warehouse maintenance person was sitting next to this contractor, and he leaned over and said here’s our client’s info, maybe he needs your help.
It is my opinion that Renter’s Warehouse is growing quickly, and so quickly that they are not able to respond to requests with the time/effort needed to ensure that a quality service is being performed to the landlords whom are their customers.
In closing, I was very disappointed with their service, and wrote a letter to the Attorney General’s office. Renter’s Warehouse responded when the AG reached out to them. I was then forwarded their response. Their response consisted of several internal emails, where I was referred to as ‘this guy’, and ‘this
guy’. It was mentioned that I needed be told things ‘AGAIN’. Finally, there was a request from a supervisor to watch out for reviews from ‘this guy’.
You do have choices, and I encourage you to review all your options before settling with a property management company.
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