Hands down the worst experience I ever thought possible. If you are looking for a condescending, lying, integrity-free, irresponsible, and uncommunicative property management company, then Eric Davis Group is for you!
They were referred to me from a friend of mine (who I've updated and suggested they not refer this company anymore). It started off smooth enough; signing forms, getting a list of suggested repairs and the quotes for them, explanation that we were trying to maintain a budget but still wanted to get the needed things done, etc. etc. Finally all things were set to get up on the market after only outlaying a couple grand. Then, with much anticipation...nothing.
It took more than 6 months to find a tenant after we'd signed the papers, and then only if we came down $100 off rent. Move em in.
Everyone who rents has probably had the "needy" tenant; the one that calls about every little thing. I believe that's why management companies exist, right? One guy said, "This person is crazy, I sure wish I had a company that would help me manage the tenant and I'd just pay them a monthly fee. That'd be nice!" Well, I think this tenant trained all those other "needy tenants" on how to act. Not a month went by where we got our full rent due to some repair that was needed. Now, if something is wrong in the house, I want to know and I want to fix it, but the problem was the communication and the frivolity of the repairs. I would get a call after a "repair" was made and told how much it was. I told them that I needed to be consulted BEFORE any work was done and I had to approve it. This behavior didn't change, despite many calls and notices about it. Then, if I disagreed with the repair, they would cite that it was needed for safety purposes, but only when pushed. One instance was cutting open all the windows in the house (built in 1950's). The person responsible for maintenance cited not running the a/c as the reason, when I told the head of the company doing so could damage the walls and floors, he stated it was for safety purposes. Hmmmm. Rinse and repeat that scenario several times over.
Now we're at move-out time and the property management company contacted me b/c the tenant has written a threatening letter citing the unsatisfactory conditions in which she lived in the prior year (I lived with my entire family there for 6 years) and hinting at a lawsuit. While they're shaking in their boots, I simply smell an attempt to get back the deposit in full. I advise them to do the walkthrough as normal and let me know what they find. This is where the whole thing took a nose dive.
They came back to me and said all was good and the tenant should get back all of their deposit, except for what I had previously paid for the tenant to make an erroneous service call in the middle of the night. OK I say, but my wife and I will come down to turn the house for the next tenant and get it ready to go on the market. Well, we walked into this place and it was anything but fully-deposit-refundable. The dogs had torn up the carpet and used it as a bathroom for about a year. Every room in the house needed repainting, some rooms had wall scratches way down to the sheet rock. There was some interesting colors of some kind of growth in the bathrooms, the yard was a wreck, etc. etc. etc.
Now, having been on both sides of the tenant/landlord relationship, I know there's some give-and-take and that you'll always have a sharper eye as the landlord, but there's no person on God's green earth that would say, "Sure! They should have 100% of their deposit back." They were purely afraid of the threatened lawsuit. The problem was how they handled it. They claimed that they didn't paint the whole house (I had photos and records they did), they claimed I denied some of their suggested repairs prior to move in (I had records I didn't), they even claimed I advised on having a sub-par paint job to stay in budget (I didn't and have records to prove it)!! The conversation around this went on for weeks and they continued to lie to me, attempt to rewrite the past, claim they had started work when they didn't, etc.
End of the day, they gave the tenant 100% of the deposit back, I still had to replace the carpet and paint the interior all out of my pocket due to this tenant, as well as work for days on end with my wife to repair the damages made to the house. I fired this company and have since found a great company and tenant (was on the market for 3 days before getting rented). Now, I've left out a lot of details, but rest assured, I have prior emails outlining all of this and more. If property management was easy, people wouldn't hire a company to do it. You hire a company to manage things when they go south. This company didn't. They kicked the can down the road by lying to everyone until they couldn't lie anymore, and then rested the burden on me and my family.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. read more