Beware of Benchmark, in particular, Lee Arnold! In the beginning Lee Arnold's sales pitch is impressive, but that's all it is...just a sales ploy! Don't dare to try to reach him on weekends, or anytime for that matter, as he becomes insulted; he only wants to communicate when he's good and ready, and days and weeks can go by before you hear from him. Did I hear someone say, "prima donna?" Carol from San Marcos read more

We were about to buy a home to lease and called a couple of property management companies. I was quite impressed with Lee. He was knowledgeable about the area and offered to review any homes under consideration. However, when I needed him, I called twice that day, left messages, and he never called back. That, I don't need. read more

Lee rocks my socks!! Working with this company has been positively amazing! Not only was the place rented immediately, but Lee was able to get me more than I expected. I can't say enough wonderful things about him or this company. read more

Benchmark is an amazing property managing company. They can take care of you with the speed of a huge company but the care of a mom and pop shop. If you are in need of someone to manage your properties, I would 100% recommend Benchmark! read more

Sometimes looking for a new place to live can be a stressful experience, some property management companies/rental agents and landlords are a real pain to deal with and time consuming. Lee made my entire experience very pleasant, actually enjoyable, he helped me find the exact home I was looking for quickly with his personal service, fast responses, and easy to use web-site. I highly reccomend Benchmark Property Management whether you are looking for a home or looking for someone to rent yours for you. read more

A BIG THANK YOU to Lee Arnold for giving us a worry and stress free experience. Excellent communication and transparency. Highly recommend Lee for any of your property management needs. read more

I am thrilled to leave this review! Lee Arnold made everything so easy when moving into my new home recently. The best part about it? Honesty. Everything from the beginning until now has been fantastic. I am a stickler on customer service and accountability and was not let down even the slightest bit. Lee is a gentlemen and a scholar! Thank you so much for everything. read more

I used Benchmark to rent out my condo last may. Lee rented it out in the time requested and for the amount we were asking. He handled all the clean up , paint, carpet etc. I was very pleased with how professional and REAL Lee was. I would highly recommended Lee if you are looking for a smooth process in listing a rental or investment property. He is as good as it gets when it comes to Property Management! read more

After numerous attempts to reach this firm, we have given up. We left 2 voicemail messages and sent a inquiry online, but no response, all within a weeks time. I have also called a number of times to speak to someone but all you get is a voicemail as a prospective renter or landlord. If any landlords are reading this, I would think twice about using this firm because the home we are inquiring about has been available over 30 days, that is a significant loss of income because of the responsiveness of this management company. read more

Lee and Laura have been very responsive and helpful. If I ever have any questions, especially being new at renting, Laura and Lee are quick to help out. In my opinion, they go above and beyond. My condo association was repainting doors. Laura and Lee took care of the appointment for me during the day so I didn't have to miss work. Laura was very good at keeping open communications about prospective tenants and we found a great match. Laura made me feel like my thoughts mattered on the type of tenant that would be a good match for the place. Thank you Laura and Lee for making this process so easy for a newbie!!! read more

Lee has managed our property in Vista for two years and we couldn't be happier. Since we lived so far away, I needed someone I can count on to take care of my tenant's needs. He was always very quick to respond via email (usually same day or within 24 hours) and I never had any issues with him or our tenant. I only wish we were able to get our monthly payments quicker, however, we knew this going in and it never was an issue. When our tenant moved out, the place was spotless, as if no one lived in it, and was definitely ready for us to list for sale. Thanks Lee for all your help! read more

We checked out a few property management companies when we needed to rent out our house. Most are big and impersonal. But with Benchmark, you get Lee! When you hire Lee, you feel like you're hiring a family member to watch over your house. He's been doing property management for years, so he know what he's doing. And he makes the whole process easy for everyone. read more

I rented a property from Benchmark in 2012 and 2013 in Carlsbad. When we had repairs that needed repairing, they were repaired. Sometimes it took a little longer than we would have liked but the homeowner had to officially sign off on the repairs because they were pretty costly. Like a new A/C unit, not small change. I always received an email back if I either called or emailed them. I prefer email contact anyway so it worked out great for me. I received my move out deposits quickly and didn't not have ask or hound for my funds back. I appreciated all of the assistance that I received while I rented from Benchmark Properties! Lesly S. read more

Lee was very professional. He responded quickly and is trustworthy. I would refer him to our friends.

Benchmark Property manages one of our homes in Oceanside, CA. I haven't heard any complaints from our tenant (and I do check in on them every year) and as a landlord, it was been quite pleasant working with Lee. It is sometimes hard to get in touch with someone, but for the most part, I've always gotten a return call in a timely manner and there may have been 1 or 2 mixups but never anything major. Nobody is perfect. I do not have anything bad to say about them. Lee has always been honest with us. read more

We worked with Lee Arnold as a real estate agent and he was great. Responsive helpful and the transaction closed quickly. I would definitely work with Lee again! read more

I lived within an apartment under Benchmark property for the past year and my experience was awesome! It was my roommate and ,with any request we made whether it was a question regarding the surrounding area or a maintenance request, we heard from them within a few hours and normally would receive the service (if a maintenance request) within 2-3 days. I recommend this property management company to anyone looking for an easy going living situation in Southern California! **they are not in office a lot but are readily available via phone call, text, or email! Thank you Laura and Lee for being the BEST property managers and on top of everything brought your way:) read more

Could not be happier working with Benchmark and Lee Arnold. Benchmark has been helping to manage my condo for over 2 years at this point, and I could not have had a better experience. My communication with Benchmark has always been excellent. Whenever I reach out, I can always expect a quick response and for my needs to be addressed. I look forward to continuing to work with Benchmark for a long time. Thank you Lee! read more

The worst and shadiest landlord ive met my whole life Stil hasn't given me my security deposit. He claimed it was at the old address. So I asked for the mail key. No response. He has done everything possible to dodge me. I literally wasn't getting responses. He would leave me a short message once a day if I was lucky. He still then doesn't answer all the questions. It got so bad that I felt the need to make a reservation to see the place myself as if I was potentially going to rent the place. Of course he responded then. Then in person I met him for the first time, since I've lived there. I check the mail to see that the security deposit ISN'T there. Of course. He then tries bIaming me for not setting up a forward address and tells me to go to the postal office, THEN HE TRIES TO BACK UP HIS CAR WHILE I WAS STANDING THERE. Then he acts like I was in the wrong, and tells me to move. Then I go to the USPS to try and see if they had my mail that was supposedly sent over a week ago from one town over. Of course they don't have it. And he said that I'd have to pay a fee to get my own money that he was responsible of giving me to begin with. I would give this place negative stars if I could. Lee Arnold has the worst customer service. I'll will update if I get my money that he owes me. read more

Do Not use Benchmark for your property management. i have called 25 times (with phone records to prove) also have multiple e-mail messages that never got responded to. There phone system keeps sending you to a "central office" where no one know anything about rentals. Lee has dropped the ball multiple times, i have emailed him 5 times asking for a call and i got 1 response which he did not ask me what i needed. Lee has to be the biggest B.S.'er i have ever dealt with in the rental market. he is there to collect a check and if you want a "CEO" to collect a check from you then this is all you get. Laura the office assistant is lazy and leaves the office before closing time every Friday, or she makes "appts" to show houses just before closing time on Friday so she can be out of the office. I have also called her line multiple time and have NEVER gotten a response or a call back. I WILL NEVER RENT OR SELL A HOUSE WITH BENCHMARK PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES read more

The lack of communication is completely on Benchmark's part. There voicemail even says gor a guaranteed fast response email rather than phone call. Not true. Phone calls never returned. Emails if they are not important enough take days or never returned. Even emergency report of a water flood takes a couple days that lucky I had the good sense to contact the plumber directly before all my carpet was wet. I had decent service from this office last year, then again I didn't have unfortunate repair circumstances of AC breaking down and plumbing issues. The owner of the property completely agrees with me that since Laura no longer works there, Benchmark's office seems completely overwhelmed to even care that you exist and have problems that no tenant who absolutely pays rent on time every month should have to have such a hassle dealing with. UPDATE: So after I move out, I came to realize he was happy to have me leave disgusted only to have the place rented soon after by jacking up the rent over $300 to the next guy. I left having paid for move out housekeeping, floor cleaners, and upgrading the place myself read more

I just moved out of a property managed by Benchmark and have to say the experience dealing with Lee and Laura was terrible. I moved out had the carpets cleaned and the condo was spotless, cleaner then when I moved in. Lee did the exit walk through and said everything looked great, smiled, shook my hand and said "will send a check to your new address". Well I received my balance of deposit yesterday and was disappointed to see I was charged over $700 in misc charges including $180 for cleaning. I have called and no response from Lee for days then and email showing two pictures of drawer that had debris in the drawer bottoms. I accept we may have missed cleaning out a drawer that just would have required wiping out yet we cleaned all the bathrooms, tubs, showed and mopped all floors. Oven was cleaned and refrigerator cleaned to brand new looking. Carpets cleaned and floors perfect yet was billed $180 just for cleaning a perfectly clean condo. Appalled at how we where treated. Lee is a scammer beware. read more

READ ME...SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!!! WORTH READING...On April 21st..I went to view a property they had advertised on Trulia.com. This was a perfect place for my husband and I, so we acted quickly. When we were filling out application online, it crashed on both of us. Laura emailed me to say that she had only received 1 application fee of $40. After my husband tried again, it worked. Laura emailed me again saying she had received everything and that the application process would start. That was on a Monday and I didn't hear a thing back for a couple of days. I tried calling and emailing, but no reply from Laura. So I emailed the president of the business, Lee, and he quickly replied saying they were sending paperwork to owners that night, this was on Thursday, and we should hear back in the next day or two. Then, for over a week, we heard nothing. I could not get ahold of Laura by any means. She never answered when I called. I left numerous messages, almost to the stalking point...but nothing. On May 5th, I received an email from Laura letting us know that "after an extensive intial screen process, your application has made it through phase 1 and we are in the process of completing the screening process." Which makes no sense! If we have moved on in the application process, then the screening process should be complete! They did try calling my landlord, but she didn't answer. She told me later that day that the tried calling Laura back 15 minutes right after, and no answer on Laura's end. We didn't have our other landlords info at the time of filling out application, but after Laura asked for it, I emailed the info back. Now they had everything they needed. She could have asked us earlier for the info, but that would have been to much work it seems. Then, silence for 4 days. Even my landlord tried multiple times to contact Laura, still nothing. On May 9th, I emailed Laura asking if we were still in the process...nothing. I emailed her again on May 12th, 20th, 27th, 29th, and lastly on June 2nd because I had received a missed call from them. NOTHING!!!! I drove by the place numerous times, and one day I saw a lady putting stuff into the garage. Guess they had went with another person without telling us. They sure did string us along with their games and such. DON'T GET SCAMMED BY THEM!!!!!!...THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY!!!! UNPROFESSIONAL!!!!!!! SCUMBAGS!!!!!! AND IF YOU READ THE OTHER REVIEWS...THEY ALL SAY THE SAME THING!!!!! And lastly...Lee...I see you like to comment back on your reviews... you can check Laura's email account and see the emails I sent. I can even print them out and bring them to you, or forward you the emails, and show you my phone log showing how many times I tried calling her. There is no excuse you can give me for the lack of professionalism in your business. Don't waste my time replying with some bullsh*t excuse or a sob story...LA COSTA HOMES IS A GREAT COMPANY...(LCHOMES.COM)...PEOPLE...THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lee...you could learn from them and should strive to be as great as they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

I'll start my review with this important information. The home owners we rent from fired them last month. Due to them no longer managing our home, we are now willing to consider staying in their home. Dealing with the individual ( L A ) that runs this place is horrible. He demanded we bath a 11 month old infant in freezing water because we did not have hot water for 10 days in a row. His response? Deal with it. Our home we rent had 3 floods in one month because of the hot water tank. We had no warm water for over a week. It was ice ice ice cold. We resorted to leaving a horrible review to get a response for emergency maintenance because it was so hard to get ahold of anyone here. We finally we got Benchmark to send someone after we had ankle deep water downstairs pooling. When he comments how they rushed right out. Yah they did but it took hours to receive someone at our door. We had 3 inches of water downstairs pooling everywhere. His solution? Turn off our water and finally send someone to fix the hot water over a week latter. Then offered us less than we pay to live here per day to go get a hotel room ohhhh and we had to pay rent still. Then to get the bad review taken down he posted our cell phone numbers and refused to remove our personal information until the review was removed. Stay far far away. He will also offer you a Starbucks gift card for a 5 star review on yelp, fb, and google well Benchmark have sine removed their option to review on fb due to so many bad reviews. To sum up see below. It took 10 days to get the dryer working because they just cut the wires to put in a different outlet. He told us a dryer hook up is not a necessity even though it was included when we inquired about moving in. The hot tub has worked 1 of the 11 months we have been here. We had no hot water for over a week. We had to leave the house and shower else for over a week even though we pay over 2450 a month in rent because our 11month old and 7 year old cant take ice cold showers. We have not been able to do laundry when we first moved in due to dryer outlet not working and were told by benchmark well use the laundromat. I pay over 2450 to not go to the laundromat. With a baby I don't foresee my wife should have to go to the laundry mat. Our washing machine couldn't do laundry when there was no hot water. Our dishwasher couldn't clean dishes without hot water to sanitize them. We were down a bedroom, kitchen, and living room in our house as the floor is ripped up and the walls as well due to three floods. We were told by benchmark that our rent would not change. We had to battle with lee Arnold to get compensation for our water bill. I shouldn't have to pay a very high hundreds upon hundreds water bill due to three floods that weren't our fault. Our water use age went through the roof due to floods. Lee didn't offer compensation until we battled and complained. read more

Lee Arnold was the property manager of my San Elijo Hills condo for a 14 month period. Lee gave legendary customer service. Every concern I had was responded to within a timely manner. Lee was professional, knowledgable, and personable. If I ever need a property manager again, it would definitely be Lee Arnold. You can't go wrong with Lee. read more

Lee from Benchmark Property Management did a fantastic job finding us a renter during the hardest time of the year to find one. I unsuccessfully tried to find a renter on my own and after hiring Benchmark, they had it rented within a week!! read more

Lee Arnold is fabulous. I have used him as my property manager for a year now. His fees are very reasonable for North San Diego County. He always responds within 24 hours to my requests, which is much appreciated, as I know he has many clients. Lee is upfront and honest and I appreciate that. I will continue to do business with him as long as a I have a rental property. I'm paying for piece of mind, and you can't put a price on that. If you want a straight-forward and down-to-earth property manager than Lee and Benchmark is where to go. read more

After finding out that we were moving to the East Coast in only 3 weeks, the search was on for a competent property manager. As we had heard horror stories of services claimed but not provided by many other companies - we wanted to pick a company wisely. Moreover, we are first time landlords and thought we'd better do our homework in interviewing property managers --and we did. We interviewed a few including Lee. Lee came to our home and explained the process in great detail and offered us suggestions as to how we could best "show" our home for rental - he also provided comparable rentals within the area. He showed us a sample contract and explained how we would list it! He also assured us of the peace of mind we'd have being 3,000 miles away from our property! Included in their services are: detailed monthly expense reports, tenant background checks and a litany of phone numbers where a staff member could be reached virtually at all hours. Once we decided on Benchmark SoCal as our management property company he came back a second time to our home to sign our contracts. I must admit, closing the door the last day we lived there I was nervous, BUT the process has been smooth, easy to understand, and Lee's very efficient and as set any fears we may have had (due to the distance between ourselves and the property) aside. Even with the time change he's always called us back or replied within an hour or two maximum. In just under a week after leaving for the East Coast, our property was painted and the carpets shampooed and new blinds hung (per our request), PLUS a professional cleaning - Lee even took the time send us cell phone photos so we could see the progress our house was making for rental. Our neighbors even commented that they had seen him a few times checking on the status of the property. He also provided them with points of contact for Benchmark should something have needed attended to while our home was vacant! After those readying tasks were completed, he scheduled a professional photographer to come take pics of the house to put up on the major listing sites. The presentation of that photographing service alone was stunning, and it was evident extreme care was taken in doing so. Then, in just a matter of a week and a half later we had several showings and were able to have our choice of accepting a family to rent our home! Lee carefully went through the acceptance process with us, and knowing how thorough he was with us, I take great confidence that he treats the tenants with the same care and attention! I am very pleased to have chosen a person and company who truly means what he says, provided the support we needed given our newness to the process and our extreme distance from the property, at a reasonable (although not the lowest) price around. I believe 100% we got what we paid for - AND MORE. Lee is someone I'd entrust to handle our home maintenance for many years to come and hope to be doing so! read more

HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE! I do not even know where to begin. Lee and his "staff" will not answer phone calls, reply to emails, or deal with any emergencies at the property that any normal, common property manager would deal with in a timely manner. I am pretty much reiterating what many others already stated about Lee, his staff, and the amazing (not!) Benchmark Property Management (scam) company. Lee, his supposed staff (whoever they are), and Benchmark altogether are NEVER there when you need them but they sure are there to collect their money. This is definitely the typical fly-by night, scam, 'make money quick' scheme. Good luck and may God be with you if you work with them. I obviously did not read these Yelp reviews before I started working with them, as it would have saved me a lot of time, stress, and money! The few good reviews are obviously tailored for Lee and his shady company. Also, forget about getting your deposit back! I just hope this helps the next naive renter/owner. Best of luck. read more

As absentee property owners, we've relied upon Lee and Laura to care for our properties and to service our tenants. The feedback we've received from our tenants is that they are responsive and professional. Our interactions with Lee and Laura have been very positive and we'd ask them to manage other properties if we had more in the area. read more

Benchmark has been wonderful. We are currently in the process of renting a property through them and couldn't be happier. Lee Arnold has been outstanding and is a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend them! read more

Lee was great to work with, he responded very quickly to any questions we had during the rental process. He continued to help us through the entire time of our lease. We recommended Benchmark to friends who also had similarly good experiences working with Lee and his team. read more

I love working with Lee and his team! I have never worried about my rentals and Lee has been there every time to help consult on future business plans. Great company!!! read more

I've just spent some time reading some of the reviews for Benchmark Property Management. I wanted to know if others had similar experiences as us. We just received an itemized bill from them and are in shock. We gave notice, signed the proper form to arrange an inspection but even so, all phone calls were ignored and most emails. We were finally told to leave the keys inside the house which we refused to do. Instead we left them with a neighbor who delivered them to Lee in person. Upon the advice of our attorney, we have detailed photos of the condition we left the house in. Perhaps Lee refuses to meet in person so that he can lie about the condition of the house and then try to bully and scare tenants into paying large fees. Had he fulfilled his part of the agreement, we should have had an opportunity to clean something we may have missed. I am completely disheartened and disappointed. I loved that house and cared for it as though it were my own. How sad that it ended this way. Our only recourse now is small claims court and our attorney is starting the process tomorrow. read more

Hello, my family was a tenant in a property managed by BenchmarkSocal. I found Lee, Laura, and the rest of the team to be easy to work with and rather reasonable during the two years we were in the home. I appreciated the auto-reply emails that Lee had set up; I document everything and used those emails as confirmation that he received my original message or that I should attempt to resend it (and he was usually very quick to reply within 48 hours). I also thought the team did a great job as the go between with the owner when we had specific questions about appliances, etc. Two big things that I appreciated: 1. When it came time to schedule home showings Laura gave me 24 hours notice (and because we have 3 small children) the showing times were scheduled around their nap times. 2. At the move-out inspection Laura offered to make arrangements to come back and roll the trash cans to the street on our garbage pick-up day. While that doesn't really impact my family, I appreciated the concern that it showed for the next family that would be moving in to not have a home with someone else's garbage filling the cans. read more

These people were rude, unprofessional, and utterly disgusting to work with. NEVER NEVER go here.

Benchmark has been a wonderful, professional property management company. Lee and Laura (and other staff too) have been tentative and prompt with maintenance and other urgent matters. Throughout various changes/challenges they have been flexible and solution oriented. There is a benchmark website with maintenance and payment links that are super easy to use and convenient. We feel like they care about us and for the past 3 years we have been able to count on them and the coordination of the services they provide as needed. Thank you benchmark! read more

Benchmark property is the second management company I have dealt with in the Oceanside area. I have to admit that Benchmark is awesome compared to the other one. When I wanted to rent my house out, Lee came out and took a detailed look at our house and thought that we could get more money for our house than I thought. As soon as I decided to use him over other companies he set up a photographer to come out and take pictures. The photos that they took were professional pictures, that made my house look better than ever. And did I say it was free. My other company haut took cell phone looking pictures! No wonder it took forever to rent my oh mother house out. As soon as our house went on the market with Lee's pictures we got offers and we had our house rented out in a week. Great job Lee!!! I do have to admit that Lee and Laura can be hard to get a hold of. I have found out that text messages work the best. I think they need to hire an additional person to handle a part of their business. Overall I am very satisfied with my experience with Benchmark property. read more

Notice how on here all you see is 1 star or 5 stars. Take it from me, anyone leaving a 5 star has not been dealing with them very long or has been paid. They are horrible with communication and once you sign your lease be prepared to never get through on the phone and to only have half of your questions answered via email. if you ask a question that has anything to do with them making a mistake, money, overpayments or anything of that nature you will not get a straight answer. Lee Arnold is evasive and will completely ignore you if he cannot answer your question. I honestly don't even think they have a headquarters. When we went down to their office doing business hours there was no one in the main lobby, as a matter of fact there was no one in the building as far as we could see. Their name is listed, but when you go to their floor and suite number it's like something out of a movie. no one ever answered, but we could hear elevator music playing through the doors, which were were locked with no windows. Do yourself a favor and try one of the other many property managers in the area. You'll save yourself major frustration. read more