Where do I begin. I work in real estate, and I can say with full confidence that companies like CMC…read moreRealty are the reason this industry has a reputation problem. They are the textbook example of a management company that views tenants not as people to serve, but as revenue opportunities to exploit at every possible turn.
From the moment you sign your lease, be prepared for random, unnecessary fees that appear out of nowhere with little to no justification. Know your rights as a renter before you engage with this company, because they are absolutely counting on you not to. The moment you demonstrate that you do, the dynamic shifts entirely, which tells you everything you need to know about how they operate.
My property manager was Jesus Saucedo, and I cannot stress enough how wildly unprofessional he was in every aspect of his job, starting with his communication skills, which were genuinely some of the worst I have ever encountered in a professional setting. Basic follow-through, timely responses, and clear information were a constant battle to get out of him. For someone whose entire job revolves around being the point of contact between tenants and a property, that is a foundational failure.
What made it worse was how differently he behaved depending on the medium. Over the phone, Jesus was rude and argumentative. It was a consistent experience every time I called or he called me. But the moment communication moved to text or email, he would flip a switch and suddenly become pleasant and measured, because he knew it was being documented. That calculated two-faced behavior is not a personality quirk. It is a deliberate tactic. And when he did communicate, the information he provided was often incomplete, inconsistent, or outright wrong, which created problems he would then conveniently try to make the tenant's responsibility.
What was equally revealing is that once I began advocating for myself, his demeanor became noticeably more aggressive. A professional handles a tenant with transparency, accountability, and respect. Jesus handled it with hostility.
Based on our previous interactions throughout my tenancy, I knew going into move-out that he would attempt to use my security deposit as retaliation. And sure enough, he did not disappoint. A prime example of the incompetency behind it: when I was preparing to move out and proactively reached out to touch up the paint, he admitted in writing that he did not know the paint color and told me to go to Dunn Edwards and have it color matched myself. I followed his instructions exactly and acted in complete good faith. He then attempted to charge me for the result of his own failure. When I disputed it on a phone call with him, he tried to argue paint as a deductible damage item without actually knowing the laws around paint wear and tear. California law is very clear that interior paint has a useful life of two to three years and repainting after normal tenancy is routine landlord maintenance, not a tenant charge. How a property manager does not know this is genuinely beyond me. It is a fundamental part of the job.
Then there is the AC situation, which is its own lesson in how this company operates. They charged me $200 to have two AC units installed, one which I easily could have done myself. Their handyman showed up and did the job held together largely with duct tape, and in the process left tape residue on the windows and drilled into the window seals, causing damage to the unit. Not to mention, it caused a whole in the wall when the rain/wind blew out the plexi glass they installed with in the middle of our cold season. When I moved out, they charged me $175 to remove one unit. I watched it happen. Undrilling it from the window took less than ten minutes and I was required to use their handyman.
And if that was not enough, Jesus also flagged dust on the blinds as a move-out issue. These were blinds that were already old and brittle when I moved in. Dust on aged blinds that were deteriorating before I ever touched them is the definition of normal wear and tear, and any property manager worth their license would know that. I left that unit clean. I voluntarily replaced the living room blinds at my own expense, and he still found a way to nitpick blinds that had no business being in a rental unit in that condition to begin with.
If you must rent through CMC Realty, I would recommend requesting Kelsey Dudley on their team. She was actually professional, communicative, and conducted herself with the basic competence and respect that should be the standard, not the exception. The contrast between her and Jesus Saucedo could not be more stark.
Do your research, document everything in writing, and never assume good faith with this company. They have not earned it.
