Selling Virginia Real Estate & Property Management

We contacted Selling Virgina on a recommendation from a neighbor after our military tenants were forced to depart earlier than anticipated (military clause). We were overseas and having the house vacant in early March made it difficult for us to find tenants. The initial contacts were pleasant and seemed professional. However, their follow through after finding tenants was horrible. The lawn quickly became the worst in the entire neighborhood. The HOA was constantly sending nasty letters about needed repairs, lack of mowing and weeding and simple issues such as painting the mailbox which should have been taken care of by a decent property manager. When the tenants only paid half the their last months rent, Selling Virginia planned to take the remainder out of the damage deposit. I reminded them that the lease stated that no portion of the damage depost could be used to offset rent in any way. Our property manager responded by saying "Well, money owed is money owed" and suggested that I send them a check to cover the unpaid portion of the rent. I pointed out that the principal reason we had a propoerty manager was to collect rents and look after our property and that I expected them to make every effort to collect the remaining rent from the tenants. She replied that she had sent them several emails and that they hadn't replied. She said that they could take legal action but that I would be required to pay a $1500 retainer for a lawyer. At this pointy we learned that we would be returning to our home in seven months and opted to cut our ties with Selling Virginia and leave the home vacant until we moved back in. We ended up paying several overdue utility bills owed by the tenants in addition to eating the unpaid rents. We moved back into the house in March and discovered that the tenants were filthy and had done significant damage to the house. Selling Virginia's handyman had made some cosmetic repairs trying to get it into rentable condition. We discovered large amounts of mold and mildew that were simply caulked over, holes in several walls, missing door stops, flower beds that he covered in whatever plastic was lying around and then covered with mulch, a dishwasher and stove that had us gagging, odd carpet stains and more filth at every turn. The neighbors began telling us horror stories about calls to the police, vocal and violent arguments and even stories of leaving a handicapped relative alone in the house for long periods. This house is our principal residence, not investment rental property. After serving arbroad for six years we've been forced to spend considerable amounts of money to bring the house back to a decent level. Perhaps the issue with Selling Virginia was just our individual property manager but we will NOT recommend their services to anyone.