COLUMBIA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

They were absolutely horrible. Buyers beware; do not go to these people. They are very unprofessional. They came to my house because I was going to have them put my house up for rent and they were going to manage the property for me. While they were here, my partner who also built this house said, “I will like to manage if there was anything wrong in the house, I would like to be the one to come out and fix it because I built the house and I know everything about it.” They said they have a fellow who does that but they finally agreed. They said, “Well we don’t recommend that people to manage their own properties, but if you want to do it, you can and they said yes.” Then the second thing was I wanted to know if at the end of lease on this house, if the buyers were interested in buying it then, I could deal with the buyer. They told me I could so I was going to go with them based on that. Then they called a couple of days later and said I couldn't do either of those things, that my partner who built the house could not tend to the repairs, that they would have to have their people do it and they would have to broker the sale at the end of the lease. So I did not use them. I had already signed a contract but made an error in the contract that I never signed a rental contract and they sent me the contract. They had an area for comments so I just put in there that the landlord should be able to make repairs and for being able to make a sale on my own after my lease was up. They sent me an email and said we have to talk, they told me, “You are not allowed to do those things, and you can’t put anything in a rental contract like that”. Well I didn’t know because in a sales contract you can. That had voided the contract, I either would have to redo the contract, but when they came back on their work, I didn’t want to go with them. They were very unprofessional. They never called me and they never said” We are sorry, we had a misunderstanding, let me explain it to you.” They sent me my key back on a piece of blank white paper, not even a letterhead, with no words on it. That was very unprofessional. I cannot recommend them to anybody at all. I didn’t spend anything. They came out, looked at my home, they really loved it, and they suggested a rental price. They get 10% of the rental price, for collecting the rent and managing the property. They would vet the tenants, anybody who was interested so they could make sure they would pay and get their 10% a month. My partner who built the house and if the sink was stopped or something and if the tenants called, he could get to fix it for $15 but their person would most likely come out and fix it for $150. That is one reason and the fact that my partner is a contractor who built this house that we wanted to pick up on tenant problems and fix them our selves. That’s what they told me in their initial visit. I was in the process of negotiating with them and realized that they had not been forthright with me. They went back on their word, which really made me very angry. The way they did their follow up was also a concern. They didn’t call me and just sent me an email and when I tried to call them three times, they weren’t available but never returned my phone calls. It is their attitude that was a problem for me.

I've used them ever since I've lived here. They come every week. They've done a lot for my yard. The job went fine. He pulled out some old over ground bushes in the front of my house and put in new planting. It made the house look fresh and new. I would tell people to use them if you can get them because they are real busy. He's the only one I've used so I don't know if other people charge less but I like his work and it's worth it.