This company was an absolute NIGHTMARE to work with. Throughout the year that we were stuck with Utopia Management in a contract, they consistently displayed an absolute lack of care, interest, and competency. It seems that they have too many properties and inadequate staffing. The staff we had to work with (Johana, Paige) was constantly impossible to find, always "in the field", I had to leave repeat messages and emails in order to get a response to a simple question, being transferred from one voicemail to another.
From the very beginning of the rental agreement we signed with them, there were problems. From failing to clean and stretch the carpet and cleaning the windows before the tenant moved in, even though the agreement was that Utopia will take care of this. Yet, they were prompt in forwarding me the tenant's complain about the dirty windows. It took months to start sending us the monthly owner statement. They would randomly deposit funds into our accounts, without explanation as to what the amount for, esp. why it was less than expected. This was solved once the monthly statements started coming but again, it took phone calls and emails from me to get this sorted.
We also made an unfortunate mistake of checking a clause in the rental agreement that gave Utopia the exclusive right to be our seller agent, should we decide to sell the house within six months after ending the rental contract with them. BEWARE of this clause and of Utopia's ability to trick people! I admit this was our fault, although the Utopia agent who signed a contract with us (Andrew) was present at the time of signing it, and conveniently didn't say anything. I felt tricked into giving Utopia these rights, but after we signed it, there was no way out, we had to appoint Utopia as our selling agent. Big mistake!!!
When we decided to sell the house 9 months later, the tenant got very upset and said she'll sabotage the sale any way she can. Utopia gave her a 30-day notice, so unfortunately the house was vacant when we started selling. Or we THOUGHT we were selling. We made a mistake of not going to see the house in the first 30 days. When my husband drove by on his way from a business trip, he realized that the front year and back yard looked like a grave yard! My husband with his sense of humor said that it looked like "Adams' Family house". All the plants and potted trees that I planted before the tenant moved in were dead, dry and brown, there were piles of dirt and trash, wood, wires, the whole front and back looked terrifying!
We called Utopia and learned that the agent who was assigned to us (Ryan) had been out of the state for a few weeks. It dawned on us that for over a month, there was no one to monitor the house, look for ways to promote the sale of the house, nothing except a sign posted in the front. We started going there ourselves on weekends, cleaned everything up and hauled the trash away. O
One time we found the door to the house unlocked! (Agents had been going in and out and Utopia was not checking the house). We started complaining to Utopia and finally our agent went over to look at the state of the house. At this point, almost 2 months after the house was listed for sale, with no offers, he finally made recommendations, such as "plant attractive plants" and "turn the electricity on!" I got upset again and told him that I DID have nice plants everywhere, before Utopia took over and let our property go down the hill.
At this point, we had been paying the mortgage for the house, plus rent where we currently live in, for over two months, which was not a desirable situation budget-wise. I started looking for ways to get out of the contract with Utopia, contacting lawyers. I was very relieved to learn that at this point we had no obligation to Utopia. We listed the house for rent ourselves and found a tenant within a week.
One last upset that I had was when we went to check on the house before the new tenants were to move in, and I turned on the washing machine in the garage. Shortly after if filled up, all the soapy water came out through the bottom onto the floor. All of it! Nobody told us about this, and this is because the old tenant moved out without telling anyone and Utopia (Johana, Page) did not check that the appliances were working before returning the deposit to the tenant. Last week I wrote Utopia about this and I asked our agent Johana why we were not informed that the appliance was broken. I am still waiting for a response. I will probably never get a response.
I strongly advise anyone to look for another company. These people DO NOT CARE about the properties they manage. My experience confirmed over and over again that these people do their 9-5 jobs and don't care about anything beyond. If you care about your property, I strongly recommend that you look elsewhere.
RESPONSE FROM Utopia Management:
It is unfortunate that you feel this way about our company's performance. As property managers, we are required to be out in the field several times a day to effectively manage and lease properties for our clients. Our company strives to return all emails and phone calls with 24 hours from when they are received. In a review of the correspondence with your property manager and real estate agent, I see that the communications and response ties were made in reasonable time frames.
An in depth review of your account with Utopia showed that, while yes, you asked to have the windows and the flooring cleaned, you wavered on this decision for several days and waited just days before the tenants were to take possession of the home to authorize this work to be coordinated and completed by our vendors. As we do not have control over our vendors' schedules, we give our clients as much time as possible to make a decision on the proposed scopes of work and estimates. Unfortunately in this situation, the work could not be completed before the tenants moved in and we had to have the work completed after the fact. The flooring and windows, however, were not the only issues. The property was not in move in ready condition when it was handed to us. Your push to have us move the tenant in ASAP, versus making sure everything was 100% was your choice. It was then, the tenant had a long list of items that were defective i.e. the leaking dishwasher and sink, the cracked mirror in the bathroom, the excessive amount of bird feces that was left from your backyard chicken coop and the poor cleaning done by your cleaners, to name just a few of the two page list.
We'd like to clarify the situation with the owner statements as well. Due to the costs of the repairs that needed to be made and poor planning, you insisted on receiving your owner draw as early as possible. It was explained to you on several occasions that even though you were receiving the monthly draws early, you would not be receiving your accounting statement until the end of the month, when everyone else received theirs. Additionally, the drawbacks of having your account set up this way were explained to you multiple times. More specifically, that the amounts of the deposits may or may not be consistent for a number of reasons such as late rent payment, repairs that were billed after the previous month's deposit were made, etc.
We encourage our clients to read the contracts thoroughly and to ask questions before signing the document, especially the clients that intend to sign over Docu-sign, as you did. The clause that you are referring to is not hidden. It was expressly explained and printed in boldface type and in capital letters. There is never any obligation for clients to consent to this clause, as it is optional. There was also a hard copy given months before you signed on when someone from of office met you personally at your home to explain our service and provide you a make ready list of what was required before tenants took possession.
A large majority of our clients use Utopia to sell. There is a provision in the lease that allows flexibility with the tenants lease agreement. The reason why we were able to give the 30-day notice is because you signed our (Optional) sale provision and used the termination option in the lease. Benefit, not a curse.
The property was given to us in the wetter months so yes, the plants were lush. However, due to the drought restrictions for the property, water was kept to a minimum and some plants did perish. The drought restrictions were only lifted on August 2016 (for your area) and by then, I am sure some damage was done by the heat and dry weather.
Your property was properly marketed on the MLS, put up a sign in the yard, advertised it on Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin and many other retail websites. We received over 20 phone calls on the property and accommodated the entire pool of request to preview it since it was vacant. We have a team and Sarah was diligently taking care of the showing requests as well as getting feedback which we shared with you. You know that we were working for you, but didn't like the feedback we received which had nothing to do with the flower boxes or a dead tree out front - it was location. The majority of feedback we received is that your home is located off of a busy feeder street and for the price they were looking for a quieter location. Even after a slight price reduction we received the same feedback. Both Paige and Sarah were still out at the property (when needed) while Ryan was dealing with a family emergency.
The cause of your washer issue was not the fault of either the tenant or Utopia. Your accounting of the chain of events is incorrect. The tenant was met at the home to conduct a walk thru and it was noted that the washer, as well as the other appliances, was in good working condition. According to your appliance repair, mice chewed hoses while home was vacant
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