I've been renting through Spear Northwest for a little over a year now and it's honestly been such…read morea good experience. Mackenzi and her team are super easy to get ahold of, which I can't say about most landlords or property managers I've had before. Anytime something came up in the unit, they got back to me right away and actually fixed it, not just a "we'll get to it" kind of thing. The move-in was smooth, the place was super clean, and they've just been fair and straightforward the whole time. It's nice renting from people who actually care about the property and the tenants. Highly recommend.

It's unfortunate that I feel compelled to write a negative review for Spear, and I'm at a loss as…read moreto why they have a five star Google rating so far given the experience that my partner and I have had with them. Although I do see that there are a handful of reviews by family members in the mix. From start to finish of the application process it has been one of the worst home rental experiences for myself to date, which is saying something as I have lived in several states in the US and a couple of countries abroad. Apparently, the company is relying heavily on AI to do the job of human employees, which is a disservice to the homeowners as well as potential renters. Our experience started with an AI bot setting up a fake tour during the middle of the week. I received a text and an email confirmation for the property tour after negotiating a time over the phone with the bot. My partner and I then showed up at the appointed time to find that nobody was there to meet us. I called Spear and left a message asking if there was someone coming to the property. While doing so, the homeowner came home to find us waiting for a tour that he had no knowledge of. After an incredibly awkward initial interaction, the owner very graciously offered to tour us himself. At this point, staff from Spear did call to apologize, stating that the AI system was new. That was the only instance we  had a real time interaction with Spear staff when needed, but the error was already made. We actually ended up having a positive interaction with the homeowner despite the mix up, and we let him know that we would be putting in an application. He said he would put in a good word, and we said our goodbyes. That was the only bright spot in the process. My partner and I then put in our applications, and began to receive a series of auto-generated emails prompting us to nudge anyone who we would be relying on for information and references, sometimes multiple emails a day. After a few days we were told via these auto-generated emails that we were accepted (we had to enter a portal to open the acceptance letter). This notification came to us at the end of a particular day. The next day when opening the email, we saw that a deposit was posted as due the day before, even though we hadn't been told yet that we were accepted or how payment would need to be made. I called several times asking clarifying questions, and never received a live person, leaving voicemails each time. Desperate to talk to a real person before having to hand over thousands of dollars and having time to read the lease and ask relevant questions, I drove an hour round-trip on my lunch break to their "office". I found that their office address is nothing more than a mailbox at a circulation desk within a building.  On my way back to work that day, I did receive a phone call from a staff member who said that Mackenzi Spear was out of town and when he returned, he would address our questions. My partner also had questions, as this particular property had additional HOA rules and regulations that we needed to review, but were not provided. The process to get answers was laborious, and days would go by intermittently as we gained partial information from Mackenzi only via email, and never a personable phone call where we could have a normal conversation. I asked both in email and via text messages with staff for instructions on next steps in the process, but received no answers. We then received an ultimatum from Mackenzi to sign the lease or lose the house, before we had been supplied with all the information requested and reasonable time to review it so that we could make an informed decision. Unfortunately, Spear's ultimatum fell on a day when I was on a scheduled trip out of state (which I had told his staff I was making prior), and I was literally airborne when his imposed deadline passed. But ultimately, my partner and I were feeling like we dodged a bullet with this company. If this was how the application process went, we couldn't imagine that dealing with them for the duration of the lease would be any better. We were quite disappointed because we loved the property and felt the owner and ourselves deserved better. I cannot recommend.

I typically only write reviews on Yelp if I thought they were amazing or if I thought they were…read morehorrible. Unfortunately, Mr. Jack of All Trades was horrible. I recommend not wasting your time and money with them. I hired them to put a layer of shingles on 3 sheds, about 1000 sq. ft. in total. Here are the lowlights: 1. They had to borrow tools. 2. They don't have their own transportation. I had to give one of their guys a ride home one night. 3. They made simple mistakes and had very little understanding of how shingles work. For example, they failed to stagger the tab lines on the shingles such that the underlying tar paper was exposed. They left about 20 exposed nail heads which would have definitely developed into leaks. Additionally, when they cut shingles on the edges, they cut them in a jagged way that looked terrible. I had to spend about 6 hours of my own time fixing all of their mistakes. 4. The worst of it was when I showed them everything they had done wrong, rather than acknowledging and trying to fix it, they just argued that this issues I was pointing out weren't really issues. Please see pics. These guys have no clue what they are doing. I would not trust them with any project. I wish I had taken more pictures of the mistakes. Unfortunately, I didn't take any of the exposed nail heads that I had to patch. Also, I took videos of how the tabs were not staggered properly, but apparently I can't upload videos to Yelp

WOULD NOT RECOMMEND OR HIRE AGAIN - low cost option, but low quality too. I hired Toby to replace a…read morevent fan in my bathroom in January and while he did replace the fan, he didn't actually connect to the roof vent, so it's just venting all the hot air into my insulation and creating an environment for mold to grow. He was not prepared for the job and had to leave to go get a shop vac from his house shortly after starting work, in addition to making two trips to Home Depot. He didn't make any effort to cover surfaces or move things so drywall and insulation particles didn't get into or onto my things. I'm now having to pay a different company to come in and undo his work and install the vent fan correctly so that it doesn't create additional problems for me in the long run.

I talked to Lena P today about their PM services. she was very nice and spent 45 min talking about…read morevarious things about what they do. I have a current PM and I was considering switching soon. If you are looking for a PM try Barnaby PM.

I've been working with Linah for over a year now, and she's been an invaluable partner in my…read moremanaging my property. I'm a remote landlord and Linah has been an absolute godsend! I am so thankful to have found her on Yelp two years ago, and want to make sure I pay it forward to other folks in this community looking for a property manager. On a monthly basis, Linah sends me a comprehensive income statement, including photos of receipts for expenses that the property incurred. For bigger expenses, Linah diligently gets quotes, shows the quotes, and recommends the best course of action. She also cares about the properties themselves, keeping track of when we're supposed to clean gutters, update the landscape and do maintenance and repair work. When there are issues, she level sets with me calmly and with recommendations in mind, so I've never felt like there's been any real headaches with owning this property from afar. I resoundingly recommend Linah at Barnaby Property Management and I'm looking forward to more years of working together!

don't waste your time. I tried to make an appointment for a listing on Zillow. no reply there at…read moreall. they canceled the appointment after calling and leaving messages trying to reach someone, finally I got someone on the phone who made an appointment, great, meh not so much. couple weeks later it was canceled and no appointment was made to reschedule again after multiple messages were made to their office. they clearly don't care about renters. I read the reviews before trying to make the appointment so I see there are multiple red flags for renters. Not worth it.

They have not returned my phone calls..I have called everyday for 3 weeks, left messages with…read moremultiple people each day. Nothing. I already paid to apply for a house and I have not been able to see it after 3 weeks. This is so frustrating!!

one of the worst property managements I have ever dealt with. do not rent with them they are awful…read moreand if you have an ESA letter you can forget it. They treat you so awful and tried to find every reason to deny my application due to my ESA animals.

So I just got done filling out a application for Catlin properties online. I would of went to their…read morebusiness and filled out an application but it states if you do that they will charge $65.00 online it cost $40.00. So it states at the beginning of the application that a person applying must have all needed documentation. It states the needed documentation is proof of income. Id. Social security card or W2. I enclosed all this with my application at the end of application it ask questions and one of the questions was did I have my housing shopping list? I am applying with a section 8 housing vocher which I had enclosed with my application. After I went through this process at the end of the application when I'm going to pay for the $40 for the application fee. I am then asked some questions and one of the questions was did I have my housing shopping list and it says yes or no and explain and I put no because I didn't know what a housing shopping list was and I explained that. I have went through a series of applications orientations and screening with Longview Housing authority. I have never once ever heard the expression are the word housing shopping list. Well after I filled out the application and I sent it this morning I receive a text message from Catlin properties which stated that my application was denied because I didn't give all the documentation and it referred to the shopping list my ng list. So I called Catlin and talk to receptionist and I explained to her what had happened to me instead of being apologetic or explaining to me what this housing shopping list was she said she didn't know but if I called the Housing authority that they could probably tell me. So I am very disappointed in Catlin properties and I am told that I will have to repay for the application if I want to apply for the duplex that I was trying to rent because of my lack of knowledge of what a housing shopping list is yet the receptionist doesn't even know what it is. So if your looking for a company to manage your property don't pick this company unless you want it mismanaged and to lose money because I did notice that out of all the websites I have checked out online Catlin properties rentals go unoccupied for months after being posted that they're available so your places won't get rent out that fast and as you can see from my story why I noticed that Columbia River properties and sharp properties go very quickly within days after being posted but not Catlin properties puts up the same duplex that I've been looking at has been for rent for over a couple months and it keeps popping up like it just came up just a few days ago but I know that's not true because it's been online for months I noticed that Columbia River properties and sharp properties they have a rental that becomes available and within two three four days it is occupied. So if you're looking for an apartment don't apply here and if you're looking for a property management don't bring your property here cuz it'll stay vacant.