Kari Fleck

My experience with The Real Estate Collection (TREC) during the past year has been extremely disappointing. I had high hopes working with TREC would lessen my stress and reduce the time commitment that comes with owning a rental home halfway across the country. Unfortunately, my stress, time commitment and monetary expenses only increased. A friend referred me to Bill Wilson, who then connected me with the management property side of the business. I found Mr. Wilson personable and capable, and someone I would go back to when I was ready to put my home on the market. While I am trying not to consider him in the same light as I do the property managers, as of now, I will never use TREC services again and obviously not offer any recommendations or referrals. The main issues occurred during the first months of the contract and focused on the unethical, deceptive, dishonest and illegal practices conducted by Craig King, Sandy King and Ty Oppenlander. In short, Craig and I spent two months discussing all aspects of TREC?s services, costs and contractual obligations. He e-mailed several forms for my review and comparison. I sent him detailed questions about the contract, fees, etc. When I met with Craig, Sandy and Ty for the first time in person at my rental home last February, Craig and I once again went over the management contract and made slight changes before I signed them. Then Ty asked me to sign a rental lease agreement. I had never seen this form prior to that day, nor had it ever been verbally discussed with me. I asked if it was just a lease like a tenant would sign and Ty said it was very similar. He didn?t point out that this lease actually was used to lock me into a commission fee of 10% ($1500). Not in any conversation with Craig was there ever any mention of an additional 10% commission fee on top of the monthly 10% management fee. Not until my first monthly receipt did I figure out what had occurred. In fact, I never received a copy of this form until I requested it after seeing that TREC had kept all of the first month?s rent. I believe this to be an intentional underhanded practice employed by TREC (or at the least Craig, Ty and Sandy). Why wouldn?t that form be supplied up front when I was in negotiations with Craig? Why wouldn?t it have been supplied when I verbally told Craig that I had selected TREC over other property management companies and scheduled an appointment to meet on the first day of my trip to Orlando from my residence in Kansas City. Why wouldn?t I get a copy of it after signing the lease? I tried to get TREC to answer any of these questions but 10 months later, I still have not received an explanation. According to the management contact, it provides all of the same services used to procure a tenant as the lease agreement. In other words, TREC is receiving compensation twice for the same job. These contracts are in violation of each other and were requested to be made void immediately. The next dishonest actions came in March when tenants were found for the property but then disappeared following a disagreement between Craig and myself. A week earlier, I had made it clear that I was not willing to pay for yard maintenance. I even told TREC that the online listing incorrectly stated that yard service was included. On February 28, Ty said tenants had been found, put down a deposit and signed the lease because they wanted to be in the home the next day. Craig e-mailed me the next day, admitted that the listing had promised lawn care and that TREC typically manages the lawn for clients for an additional monthly payment and I should agree to do it. I contended that I had previously stated to TREC that I was not paying for lawn service and it was not in my best interest since the lawn was not in great condition already. No further response ever came from Craig ? ever to this date. A few days later, Ty tells me that the tenants didn?t move in but couldn?t give me an explanation as to why, especially after he previously stated they had put down a deposit. My guess is TREC, which by its own admission incorrectly promised lawn service and/or intentionally misrepresented the included services to attract tenants, told the prospective tenants (two women and a dog) that I would not pay for it and then returned their deposit. The appropriate response would have been for TREC to stand up to its mistake and take care of the lawn service from its own funds. This cost me another mortgage payment since the house sat empty for the next month. Of course, Ty had time to go to Australia for two weeks and during that time no one at TREC responded to potential tenants' requests to see the property. The problems didn?t stop there. I found TREC to be incompetent in the monthly management of the property, lackadaisical and evasive, at best, in its communication with me, and uninformed on the issues/repairs that arose at my property. It would take days or weeks to get an answer ? if I ever received one. TREC authorized a $29.99 charge for a repairman to turn on the water for the ice maker - even though I had told Ty I was leaving the water off while the house was empty to avoid any water leaks since the ice maker and lines were brand new. I told him to show the tenants where the water shutoff valve was located under the sink. When I asked what was wrong with the ice maker, Sandy didn't know and didn't make a call to the repairman to find out. I had to wait until TREC sent me copies of the original receipt (I had to request them) and then call the repairman myself to find out he simply turned on the water. I questioned TREC about it. It took two weeks before I got a response that said the $29.99 would be refunded to me. Of course, when I received my year-end statement they had never done it. It took more emails before it was resolved. When I told TREC in January that I would not be renewing with them in February, the owner said my contract didn't expire until June 30 because the contract had automatically renewed last June. It didn't make sense so I looked at the contract and sure enough the contract, which I signed on FEB 5 2011, had contract dates of DEC 2010 to JUNE 2011. Since I didn't cancel back in June, it renewed for a year. So many things are wrong with this: 1) the DEC date, 2) having a contract that goes for 7 months when they know that a lease is likely going to be signed for 12 months so now even if I wanted to cancel I am still locked into paying TREC until the tenants' lease is over. Even after discussing these issues with TREC and being told they would respond on 01/20/2012, I am still waiting on any communication to be sent by TREC addressing my complaints. As it did throughout the past year, TREC chooses to ignore my complaints and is unwilling to work toward a resolution. If you look at all of these examples, I think it?s clear that TREC did not act competently, ethically, or legally in its management of my property and in its double collection of payment for the same services, and I therefore consider TREC has committed a material breach of my contracts. I requested a refund of $1500 and the immediate dissolution of both contracts. I just found out that TREC also acted unprofessionally and unethically with the tenants. TREC sent them a lease agreement with a $1200 monthly rent and (surprisingly) included LAWN service. Seriously! This was one month after I had already gone through the lawn service issue with TREC and the initial prospective tenants. THEN, when the current tenants got the official lease to sign a few days later, the rent had gone up to $1250 and the lawn service was removed. But TREC never told them there had been changes. I have tried for weeks to get TREC to acknowledge my complaints and work toward a resolution. They ignore me. I have since hired an attorney and have begun filing ethics complaints against TREC and its owner Kari Fleck.