Realm

I am very pleased to have a professional company like Realm prune my lemon tree properly. Realm not only pruned my tree in the correct way but I was given advice on how to care for my tree, when to fertilize and take care of it. The two people who came were very knowledgeable and did more work above and beyond what they were supposed to do. Most of all, they cared about my tree and the work that they were doing. They left my yard clean and raked and even pulled a lot of weeds. Tary Campbell was very knowledgeable also. I would hire them again. They truly care about doing a good job.

The work took a couple of days.

Realm did the landscaping for your front and back yards, put in lighting, and irrigation. We were pleased with the landscaping although it cost several thousand dollars more than we had anticipated. So we thought we would utilize them for lawn maintainence. Different side of the business entirely, we felt they were not interested in providing maintenance service, just interested in identifying where they could get more money out of us. The supervisor was very nice/helpful, stopped by occassionally, but the crew never spoke to us. Most of the interaction came from the business office. The times we saw the crew on our property was different than want was documented on the invoice. We never did get that issue resolved. We ended our monthly relationship because of the lack of trust and lack of honesty that had developed. Might try them again for a landscaping project but differently not for yard maintenance.

Over the course of two years we have had three major dealings with Realm Environments?one good and two not so good. The first was adding some hard landscaping where two small grass circles were. Realm was very good in understanding what we wanted (a low-walled rose garden and a flagstone bbq area) and then proceeding to make it a reality, complete with new irrigation in the garden. We did have to put up with some delay as the company was hit with (unforeseeable) absences by several key members of the crew, but Tary, the crew chief, handled all well. The job came in on budget, even with Tary having to outsource some of the final tiling work, and we were pleased with the outcome. The other two instances where we worked with Realm ( in 2011- 2012) involved first, an estimate to do what was considered on the estimate day to be a minor tree trim job and yard clean-up, which when we received the actual estimate was positioned (and costed) as if we had asked them to do major tree trimming and cleaning throughout the yard. When we questioned the estimate, we were basically told that?s the estimate ? take it or leave it. We left it. The last experience with Realm (we thought the previous experience might have been ?the exception? so we were willing to try again) was a simple, quarterly irrigation check to ensure all was working correctly and to readjust the timings for the season. We received an email late on a Friday afternoon saying their service person would be at the house ?early Monday morning?. As we had had a somewhat questionable experience with Realm before, we wanted to be at home when they came. As it turned out Monday morning we had to leave for an appointment at about 8:15. The service person did come at just a few minutes before 8am and we explained that we would have to leave shortly. He ?got to work? and when we told him we were leaving, he said, ?I?m done?. At 8:15 when we were pulling out of the driveway to go to our appointment, he was in his truck with all doors closed, with his clipboard up against the steering wheel. The regular quarterly check was normally charged at $65, unless there was some extraordinary item that needed to be handled. Fifteen minutes; no comment about any problems?we expected a bill of $65. You can imagine our surprise when the bill came in at over $200, with a quote of 2.5 hours spent at our house on the sheet! Unable to get in touch with a person by phone, I sent an email suggesting there must be some kind of error in ?translation? from the service person?s paperwork to the bill. I received a revised estimate down to 1.5 hours at the house (with a corresponding bill of over $100) shortly thereafter, with the explanation that the service person ?was getting his tools out of the truck? when we saw him as we left that morning and that there ?was more work to do?. Luckily, after we had returned home from our appointment (sadly much later that day), we did double-check the irrigation timer to see on what settings Realm had left the system. They were the same as they had been before the service person arrived, so he hadn?t changed them (and it was Tary himself who earlier had explained to me how the system needs to be set differently for the summer versus winter months, as we were new to desert living). There was also no indication anywhere in the yard that the service person had checked key irrigation valves (the leaves/gravel were totally undisturbed). In the end we detailed all of this in a letter to Realm, sent a check for the $65 service we didn?t feel we even got. They sent another email saying they had written off the ?balance owed? and ?were sorry? we had an unsatisfactory experience. Would we use them again? No. Would we recommend them? No.

There is nothing this company doesn't do perfectly. Every single person connected to this company behaves with the utmost in courtesy and respectfulness. They are creative, they're always thinking, they're meticulous and they are focused on solutions that work for me. They have let me break my projects into manageable pieces so that I can afford to do what I need, when I can. They show up on time and they always clean up afterward. All of the surprises are....good surprises. I am looking forward to the next project they are doing for me and beyond that.

They typically come out 1x a month. They are very responsive to my requests. They are a full service company, they have an arborist on staff as well as a landscape designer! Their supervisers are always friendly and their crew is always very respectful. Everybody is very friendly!

i was interested in installing a vegetable garden, switching to organic fertilizers and earth-friendly methods of pest control. I contacted UO late August/early September. I finally met with owner Jason Isenberg the 3rd week of September to discuss my goals. He was professional and astute. We walked around the property to look at details the former company ignored. I am really picky. Jason was even pickier. I was excited to have him work for me. Next I met Steve. He was to be the crew's supervisor and my contact. He assured me that I would be on the schedule sometime in October. I was sent a contract which laid out details: UO was to detail the grounds surrounding our house. This included removing Desert Broom and Buffle Grass, pruning trees, bury lighting wires and irrigation lines, removing dead/diseased plants and "irrigation technical system investigation". All of this was to be done in 80 man hours. I thought that was impossible - considering the amount of Buffle and difficult terrain involved. But I figured he knew what he was doing. I responded, asking about the rest of what Jason and I had discussed-Steve explained that this would be "phase I" and those other concerns would be addressed during "phase II". October passed. I was still not on the schedule, nor did I know when I might be. I was willing to wait. Considering how long it was taking to get on the schedule (about a month at that point) to accomplish phase I, my garden became my primary concern. I was put on the schedule November 12 and 13. I spoke with Steve. I told him that the garden was the most important thing and the second to the garden was the Buffle Grass and after those were done the rest of the items could be addressed. The crew arrived and began working on the Buffle Grass. The second day they continued to work on the Buffle Grass. I was called and told they would be returning on Monday to complete the job. At this point approximately 1/3 of the Buffle was removed, my garden and the finer details had not been touched. On Monday I received an email that stated 73 of the 80 hours had been used and that anything after that would be time plus materials. I wrote back that when the 80 hours were finished they could pack up and go home. When they did, 1/3 of the Buffle had been removed. The rest of the grounds were still a mess. I believe in two strikes. Strike one: they did not address my primary concern. They moved according to their own agenda. Strike two: their inability to accurately estimate the number of hours was not my responsibility. I don't believe the work could possibly have been completed in the hours proposed. I feel I was mislead and that they tried to take advantage of me.