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Review content:
Melanie and Erlin are two of the nicest people I've ever met. They are very cordial, great listeners and just, well, pleasant. Unfortunately, they are not very good at what they do for a living.
They managed my single-family home that I needed to rent out as I was relocating away from Portland. They cut me a good deal on their monthly fee, but don't feel at all like I received the service I paid for.
First, I was promised inspections of the property every six months. Except for one, I have no idea if they ever happened over the span of two years, since I never received inspection reports (and the one I did receive was three months late). We were in touch with our previous neighbors so we knew that the tenants were good tenants, but I felt like I was paying for the inspections that never happened. Had they happened, they might have caught the clogged rain gutters, which ultimately caused water damage int he garage.
Second, it was common for me to receive receipts for work done on other people's property, and no receipts for work done on my property. Two phone calls would get things straightened out (two, not one). This would not be a big deal if it happened only once - it happened four times over two years.
Third, the rental contract stipulated an increase in rent of a fixed amount after one year, which the tenants agreed to. When the year was up, I noticed that the tenants were paying the same amount. When I asked A&G about this, it took about a week for the issue to get resolved. I was paying them to stay on top of these things - I never should have had to make the phone calls.
Fourth, after selling my house, closing the account with A&G was the last adventure. I received a payout check which was much smaller than I had expected. The problem wasn't the amount, but rather that the owner statement didn't show a break down of charges, so I had no way of telling where the money in the reserve account went. After six emails back and forth, I was shown an owner statement for the previous month, that was never sent to me. It contained the break-down I was after. I surmise that the reason it wasn't sent was because there was no check to send with it. Rather than acknowledging this, I was assured that owner statements are sent monthly, along with back up documentation on invoices paid that month. Um... kay.
As nice as they try to be, I just get the feeling that they are in over their heads. Over the course of two years, most of my phone messages and some of my email requests were simply ignored. I had to ask almost everything at least twice.
The whole point of acquiring the services of a management company was so that the owner doesn't have to chase down the details. A&G is simply not that good at the details.
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