Owners and Tenants beware - flashy tech and website without customer service and process. More time and cost than if you manage yourself. Example of Castle Customer Service - saved from maintenance issue section of Castle website, 1.5 months of comments leading to owner fixing dryer on his own. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vVK4zxDcUvqlvALbwJTPkXcvqlwmcT19/view?usp=sharing Owner Recommendation: Save your money, use https://www.appfolio.com/ to manage your properties. You end up doing as much work when you have Castle as a manager AND you have to pay them. Pros: - nice web interface - lots of Google ads for their service Cons: - lack of process and execution to back up automated website (e.g., 1.5 months to fix dryer which owner ended up doing almost by themselves - see above link of Castle interaction with owner and tenant, 12 days to fix toilet) - difficult for Owner or Tenant to talk to live person, almost solely reliant on website - no emergency number (submit via website - e.g., 3 hour for call response for no heat in 7° deg weather) Castle, ask Felix for my contact info. He and I interacted repeatedly re: Dryer - W Canfield property. read more

As a first time landlord I thought using a property manager would take a lot of stress out of the situation. Maybe that is true, but certainly not with these guys. Their fees are 500$ for finding a tenant and ~$80 a month per property. After giving the go ahead to list my property, I came back three weeks later to find no work had been started and they were already charging me my monthly fee. Confused I tried to get in contact with my account manager, but there was no direct line, and it would take an average of 24 hours to get a simple responses. If this was the type of communication they were having with me, how horrible was it going to be with my future tenants when something went wrong? In the end I cancelled, listed the property myself, and got a great tenant in the house within a week. If it requires significantly more work to use a property manager than it does to do you it yourself, there's something wrong with how you're running your company. After getting a $60 dollar bill a month later, I'll look at it as a cheap lesson learned. read more

PROS: this property management company does things differently in a good way as far as their approval process. And they offer nice homes with competitive rental rates. CONS: The communication is horrible the only way you can get a hold of somebody is to wait on hold for 20 to 30 minutes. Besides that you will be talking to a machine or communicating with the automated email system that is not efficient. If you are truly interested in a home of their is I suggest going directly to the office and speaking to them in person you will not get anywhere trying to do anything to the email or over the phone. I chose to rent elsewhere because I got so frustrated with the process I just gave up. read more

They are closing their doors here in Detroit and some owners are still in the process of transferring to other companies.. If anyone has any property management needs I am a local Detroit Realtor who also does property management. Would love to help anyone in need..Regards. read more

I called them about my furnace issue on my home. They were here by mid day next day and fixed the issue in exceptionally fast time. Thanks castle. Also in the spring I had an A.C. issue. They handled it professionally and very quickly also. The people they have sent to my home were seemingly good people also. All and all for everything I've needed castle for they were there. Thanks.. read more

One of the worst experiences I have ever had as an adult professional. As a property owner, I really really wanted to like this company and their platform. Horrendous communication, slow response if any, to my inquiries of various subjects. A ton of drive and ambition in these fellows but it does not seem like they understand or want to actually get their hands dirty. Philanthropic ideals and the silicon valley mindset might work in other VC backed companies, but this is Detroit, you have to man up or shut up. I wish you guys the best as you are closing down on 2/9, but you really caused me a ton of aggravation and thankfully only a little bit of money. read more

CAREFUL TENANT SCREENING .... NOT!!! I've uploaded pictures that show the move-in condition and the move-out condition of one of the properties Castle managed. The Castle pledge to carefully screen tenants is blatantly false! I've had to evict all but one tenant placed by Castle. The occupants were in the house for less than one year. And, yes, those are dog urine stains and feces that you see on the floors of the units where the tenants were just evicted. Despite having been repeatedly asked, Castle has been unable to provide any evidence or documentation of tenant screening. read more

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One of the purposes of a property management is to react in a timely situation to emergencies. An emergency is an emergency regardless. A EMT doesn't respond late to an emergency because it's their first day on the job. It just happened that my emergency happened early on in the contract. Why does that matter? They had the address and information. As theme from other reviews, you can't automate everything and subtract the people aspect that is required when managing properties. Property management is not an app or social media page they are people. So having to email for an emergency (repeatedly told that) and not have someone accessible via phone is a problem. As mentioned I didn't have to give you guys any more chances in order to continue the pattern. I am now happy with another property management firm that is responsive, there is a person assigned to my account (I have her direct cell #) and has great customer service. This is key for any out of state or out of country investor in Detroit. As other reviews this is common theme and compliant with Castle so instead of taking ownership they have continued with the same business model in which does not work well for me. I am just glad it was only on the one provided and not on the other 20 I recently acquired. I wish you guys the best of luck! read more

Castle started out great and their customer service went completely down hill. I only owned one property that they managed, so I think that meant I was chump change to them. I terminated them and decided to sell because they left things full of more hassle that one would hope when paying someone to manage your property. (ie didn't even tell me my tenant was moving out even though my tenant had notified them) read more

Castle used to be a good management company but now it takes over 2 days just to have someone answer an issue. And another week to get it done. Expect a lot of delays with this company. read more

Completely awful customer service, nonexistent customer service. Took three days for a response and they had zero concern about our move in date fast approaching. All the customer service rep kept telling us was "It's all facilitated through online efforts" and "there is nothing he can do to help." The problem with that is their "online efforts" were awful to say the least. I will never go through this "company" again and I suggest any property owner to seek a different "company". read more

Contacted about a rental. Made a viewing appointment. Received this quote in an email "Once you receive the CoreLogic background check request, please complete it within 24-48 hours. Otherwise we may move forward with someone else's application!" The following day, another email "Kelly here from Castle - thank you for taking the time to complete the background check and income verification for 21524 Revere St. You've passed both with flying colors! Unfortunately, another applicant has already put down a security deposit for the home." One of these things is not like the other. Don't give anyone money before a viewing, they are two faced. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, experience. read more

Absolutely awful service. This Company is more obsessed with its flashy and ultimately useless online portal/interface. Communication is atrocious. It takes them forever to respond to any of your requests. The employees aren't local. My assigned property manager lived in TX but claimed he could be on top of everything remotely. Spoiler alert, he couldn't. They claim that they make several vendors bid for repair jobs to ensure the best price possible. Again, not the case as the same vendors are repeatedly used. They act like they are doing you a huge favor when you ask them to go out and find alternative bills. I'd strongly recommend any investors to save yourself the heartache of dealing with this mess of an organization. Light your money on fire instead. read more

Went to view a spot in hamtramck, the girl showing us was there on time and was really nice. We liked the house so we applied after viewing. By the next morning it was taken. They didn't let us know about any other potential people and it had been online for months. So we started to look for more places thru them because they seem to run all the properties in Ham. Set up a viewing for Easter Sunday to view a house that had upper and lower available. Waited and nobody showed. Had to call the number I found online to speak to a HUMAN and he put me on hold for nearly 20 minutes. He said there was no showings on his end and that there must have been a glitch. Mind you, I got like 12 texts reminding me I had a viewing and to show up ON TIME along with emails as well. He told me to try and reschedule for another time. I did that for the following Friday. On Thursday I got a text saying they had to cancel that viewing and to reschedule. Of course the day they have available, I work. Like everyone else. So I set up to view yet ANOTHER spot in ham. Get there and this girl comes up to us and tells us she works for castle and that she came to grab the keys to show us the upstairs (upstairs to the first house we ever looked at that got taken within 12 hours) and the keys were not in the box. She called her manager and they told her it was rented out the day before. NEVERRRRR told her and made her, my friend and I drive all the way there for nothing. I have completely given up on trying to set up viewings with this company. You send out multiple texts for viewings and to be on time and then the place is either rented or nobody shows. I'd like to be cut a check for gas reimbursement for all these times I've had to show up without seeing a house. Now that I've read horrible reviews on them being bad property management, why would I want to rent a space from them? If something breaks I have to wait weeks for repair? I'm good. Thanks tho. You make Detroit look bad. Also, having robots contact people and not being able to get ahold of a human is redic. Property management is not about social media and being online, you have to be there for your customers and future tenants. GOOOOOOD RIDDENS. read more

My husband and I hired Castle to manage two of our properties, one house and one duplex. The only item Castle was tasked to do initially was to get one of the units of our duplex rent ready (paint and clean the unit). The house and the second unit was rented out with tenants without issue. It took them a month to finally get us two bids for the paint, patch, and cleaning request that we submitted via their online system. The bids were twice as much than we eventually paid by bringing in our own contractor. Meanwhile the existing tenants are trying to pay their rent via their app which they fail to tell my tenants was not working. In order to pay his rent my tenant had to drive his check to the Castle office. Finally, when it came time to disburse our payments, the system doubled paid us. I called Castle to ask what was going on and I was told that there was an issue with their system. So to recap Castle isn't able to collect rent from your tenants, you may get doubled paid on your rent, and they will not be able to manage the simple clean-up of a unit without serious delays and will not to get you the best price on the work. I escalated these and other issues to management who promptly told me that I had the option to find another property manager, which I happily did. I have abbreviated the incidences during our short stay with Castle, but if you care to have your property rented out and get paid, while making sure your tenants are happy, then I strongly believe this is not the management company for you. read more

The technology is great in comparison to other companies. Castle, however, is completely incompetent. One mistake after another. Poor communication within company. Multiple mistakes on accounting, accidentally starting an eviction, overpaying, overcharging, lost keys, and the person managing my properties in Detroit lives and manages my properties from Texas. When I questioned them about manager living in Texas, I was told that they can't find talent in Detroit. This explains the delays with communication. read more

I've experienced the good, bad and ugly with property management companies. Castle has managed my rental properties for the past year with the utmost care and professionalism that was lacking with my previous management company. Castle's website is second to none. It allows property owner's and tenants alike to access payment info, repair status and other relevant property information. Castle's management team has demonstrated time and again their commitment to superb customer service. I would definetly recommend Castle to other owner's and tenants!!! read more

I'm not surprised by all the negative reviews. Polite white college kids and a flashy web portal alone don't make a good management company. They are slow to respond, need to be chased to perform even the simplest tasks, are NOT transparent and ethical (they charged me for a roof repair without my approval, providing no pictures, estimates or invoice, and this was after the contractor they recommended performed $6000 in renovations to make it "rent-ready" to Castle's standards), and contrary to their claims, do NOT perform adequate tenant screening. They don't even collect SSN from applicants!! They dragged their feet on evicting the one tenant they placed who never even paid the first month rent, resulting in more damages and rent lost. To me this is worse than neglectful. Hiring Castle Property Management cost me thousands of dollars with no rental income, countless hours of my time and great frustration for a humble family man who made the big mistake of buying a property in Detroit for my first investment. I would have been better off keeping the place boarded up and vacant rather than hiring them! read more