Distinct Property Management feels like real white glove service at a very reasonable price. I've…read moreworked with 3 different property managers for my other properties and Nora and her team are by far the best. A lot of property management companies in my area are pretty well known and manage A LOT of properties in my area. However, when I read their reviews on Yelp, their service sounds terrible! They seem to overcharge home owners for poor services and rely only on brand name to get business. In contrast, Distinct Property Management felt like a breath of fresh air. After reading Distinct's solid reviews and after having an in depth conversation with Nora, I decided to take the leap. I'm so glad I did! Nora, Stacy, and her team are very professional and respond quickly whenever you have a question or need them! My tenant rental situation was quite challenging and this is why I hired a property manager. Nora was ready, prepared, and used her experience and expertise to manage the entire situation. It really took a weight off my shoulders. I'm very confident that few property managers would have been able to deal with this difficult situation. On top of handling the typical rental property operations (eg. maintenance, rental payments, etc), Nora adds a TON of value when things get hairy and complex! She was able to effectively handle aggressive neighbors/HOA and disruptive tenants. Upon move out, she did a comprehensive walk through with photos and gave me everything I needed to get the unit back to new. In a couple situations, I was out of the country and could not get to the unit. This required Nora's help, which was above and beyond our initial property management agreement. Nora gladly did an inspection highlighting issues where the building was not correctly painted and also let me borrow one of her lock boxes for several weeks so that I could send providers to the unit without me being there. She lent me her lockbox even after we were no longer working together and the tenants had already vacated. This kind of service is like no other! Distinct is just AWESOME! I look forward to working with Distinct and Nora once the unit is ready for rent again. I wholly recommend Distinct Property Management to my friends, family, and anyone who looking for someone to manage their property.

Excellent service and problem solving. The team took great care of our property and got a great…read moretenant! Can recommend to the max!

I am a tenant at a property being managed by SRE. Greg and the team have been great to work with…read more They are very responsive to repairs and always find ways to work around my schedule.They were particularly helpful during an incident when the sewer backed up into the shower. They had someone over (on a weekend) immediately and even made sure it was sanitized after for our young kids. Great experience working with them.

Edit: Greg reached out to address the situation. 5*…read more Just setup and appt to see a house in Los Altos. Ruben was late which is ok, but showed me attitude over text like it was my fault. (Note: I'll change this review to 5* if the firm acknowledges their behavior)

Alberto Ramirez Ceja was very helpful and polite. Great asset to the organization. Happy to have…read morebeen helped by him.

Jorge and Winnie have been absolutely wonderful in helping manage the property and handle a wide…read morerange of issues -- often while being short on resources. They consistently stay professional, responsive, and solution-oriented no matter how complicated the situation is. Their work behind the scenes can easily go underappreciated because so much of what they do involves navigating complex problems, coordinating multiple parties, and keeping everything moving smoothly. It's not easy, and they truly deserve recognition for their dedication and hard work. Very grateful for their commitment and support. Highly recommend!

We just stayed with Bailey Vacation rentals in Rio Del Mar. Their simply the best. Lisa in the…read moreoffice really took care of us. The place was clean and ready. Great location. They have great recommendations on places to eat just really great service.

This has been the worst experience I've had moving into a house in Santa Cruz in my 24 years of…read moreliving in this town. Beware of this company, they do not take care of their tenants, or do their job, which in it's most basic form would be to make sure the house is ready to be moved into on the agreed upon move-in date. I feel like I've been fighting with property management since the day I moved in a month ago, and it will probably take another month of back and forth ridiculous communication before I get all the things I paid $11k for to be done before the agreed upon move-in date. Here is a list of things I've dealt with, I am leaving them here so that others know what to look out for. The entire house was filthy on move in day, had not been professional cleaned for a move-in. It still has not, over a month later, partially due to them not getting communication right with the cleaners they finally sent, partially due to me being busy and out of town and not having the time to deal with it. They did illegally send cleaners into my home without my permission while I was on a trip, and still not clean. The landlord had agreed to moved out a bunch of his old furniture to make space for my stuff, and half of what was agreed upon to get moved was still in the house on Nov 1st. I moved it to the deck, for him to come and get, then told property management to get a tarp to cover it, so it would not get rained on. They never took care of the tarp, so it did rain on the furniture, one night I had to dragged mattresses into the house by myself. I went out and bought a trap the next day and they are now refusing to reimburse me for the tarp. The house was advertised with a hot tub, and it is broken, come to find out it has not been turned on for 2 years, which PM did not know, but the landlord did know. They put in the lease, that if the hot tub breaks down while I'm here they would not replace, but that was based on the fact that it worked to begin with. Then they said they would take $50 off the rent for each month the hot tub is not working, and when it came time to deduct that from rent they said "that is only if we can't get the hot tub working at all." (They are currently trying to get it working - so fingers crossed the can deliver on something they promised up front). The hot tub cover that was left behind, and the condition was disgusting, they said it was ready to use, though it is covered in black mold, slugs, and water is soooo dirty. There has been a dead rat under the house with rat droppings for this entire first month, and the landlord has stuffed old boogie boards on top of it twice, despite my request to take away the boards, which are mostly garbage. They left several large pieces of furniture for me to "deal with" after saying the landlord would be happy to take anything away I did not want to keep. cupboard drawers broken, closet floors need a carpenter to fix random floor boards, shower drain clogged. I am not going to get detailed about everything that has been out of integrity, but I'll close by saying, if you do rent a house from this PM be sure to go there a few days before your move in date and make sure you are getting your moneys worth and that the place is actually ready to move into. I like the house and the location, and I'm a really easy going person and fantastic tenant - worked with Portola PM for 13 years, no issues - so it's really been unfortunate to have this completely unnecessary experience, because it's tainted my view of the house, and left me questioning keeping it. My hope is that I can get everything worked out in my second month here and stay. And hopefully get to a place where I can stop communicating with PM about the house, they have been frustrating and terrible communicators. We shall see.....

Ella King at Tierra Real Estate was an absolute pleasure to work with. She is professional,…read moreresponsive, and truly cares about her clients. Ella communicated clearly every step of the way and made the process smooth and stress-free. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for a trustworthy and knowledgeable real estate agent.

Great people, willing to work with me and my complicated situation. Very happy with my new home.read more

I wanted to take the time to give Cal Bay Property Management and more particularly their Onsite…read moreProperty Manager Mr Gustavo Solis all the kudos ans praises they deserve. I just moved out after eight years at the same address and Gustavo has proven time and time again his dedication to the care and maintenance of the building, as well as his relentless commitment to quickly assist everyone with any issue or concern, and ensure all of his tenants' safety, well-being, happiness and confort. His professionalism is unmatched, his kindness exemplary. I have been a renter all of my life, and Gustavo is by far the best, most hard working Onsite Property Manager I have met. I also warmly recommend Cal Bay Property Management to any prospective tenants, my experience with them has been uneventful and easy ; they are diligent, fair, and reliable. Lastly, I would like to wish Gustavo and his family all the success they deserve and I hope this modest review will contribute to further it.

Over the past 5 years, Gustavo has proven to be without a doubt, the BEST property manager my wife…read moreand I ever had the pleasure of working with. He is consistently always available and responsive (even on weekends at family events), and just a text or phone call away regarding any maintenance issues, or accidentally getting locked out. He resolves any random thing we throw his way above and beyond already high expectations in a very professional way, and with unbelievable speed and quality. We have recently moved, and the thing we miss most is having Gustavo as our property manager.

This review is specifically for John Morris, PMI's maintenance worker. We've encountered a few…read moreissues at our rental in Lompico--some of them quite unusual, like a mysterious leak under the stairs that only appears during torrential downpours. John approached the challenges with a methodical, careful mindset, testing potential causes and following through until he finds a solution. His attention to detail and logical problem-solving stood out in every interaction. Previously, John replaced a faulty light fixture in our kitchen that had been flickering and eventually stopped working altogether. He didn't just install a new light; he took the time to assess the problem thoroughly and ensured the replacement was a meaningful improvement. The new fixture works perfectly and is a big upgrade! Having dealt with less-than-reliable handymen in the past, I truly appreciate John's professionalism, deep knowledge of construction and home maintenance, and courteous demeanor. His breadth of expertise and understanding of how things work is genuinely impressive. We're grateful for John's excellent communication, dedication, and reliable work. Thank you, John, for going above and beyond to help our family!

Avoid this property management company if possible. They will do a great job of squeezing every…read moredollar out of you. From charging a monthly fee to pay your rent online, to lease renewal fees every year. If there is an opportunity for them to get more money from you, they will seize that opportunity. Their response time to calls, emails and maintenance requests is laughable. Expect to wait months for your concerns regarding mold and leaks to be tended to. If you have a ton of money to spare and don't mind living in a hazardous environment , until they can get around to fixing the issues, rent from this company! As a property owner, I would not trust this company, and as a renter, they prioritize profit over long term tenant relationships.

Patty Thompson is a friend of a friend of ours. Not knowing any realtors in Hollister we…read moreautomatically called her to represent us in the sale of our home after having our offer on a home quite a distance away was accepted. There was a contingency on our offer with a specific time frame with which we needed to sell our home. When we contacted Ms. Thompson via phone she thanked us for choosing her. Next day she came out and took a look at our house and we spoke for quite a while. She did not tell me that she was leaving on an extended RV trip to Texas in just a few days. She came the day after that with her personal camera, I was surprised that it wasn't a professional photographer since our home was listed close to $million. She insisted that a professional shoot would take too much time and she wanted the pics on the internet ASAP & was going to hold an Open House the following day which was a Thursday. All of this was odd to me but I assumed she was doing this since the clock was now ticking on getting it sold within the time allowed. When she showed up for the Open House with her flyers, they were very unprofessional and the attached paper listing our amenities was printed on a blue sheet with a flowered border like what you buy at Staples to type letters on and the printing wasn't even centered. The pictures she had taken were incredibly bad, some were tilted and not too many even represented the house's amenities. We had a RING system which we feel Patty didn't understand how it works alerting us to anyone who comes or goes. We were alerted of one person coming to the Open House but when we returned, she told us 4-5 couples came and loved the house. They must've jumped over the fence to get there??? We found out that she was leaving because our mutual friend let us know that Patty had asked her to sit at our Open House for the weekend since she was going to be gone. We were not happy about that. Our friend is great but she's also not a realtor. Turns out, our friend was exposed to Covid so my husband and I held our own Open House both Saturday and Sunday. We had an offer from one of the couples that came through on Sunday who eventually became the buyers. They were represented by their daughter who's a realtor. From then on, it was pure hell. Patty was either unavailable while traveling or staying at their RV Park that didn't have WiFi. She totally messed up our paperwork between our buyers. We nearly lost them and Patty made their daughter cry by trying to blame her for what Patty herself had done wrong. It was a complete mess and since Patty Thompson is her own boss and has no one to answer to, we have written to the State a compilation of our experiences with hopes that she loses her license and is not able to do this to another client. She has absolutely ZERO credibility and cannot be trusted. She nearly ruined our retirement future.

I worked with Patty back in 2003, this intelligent woman walked me through every detail never…read moreleaving a stone unturned. Patty had my back, she'd ask questions I never thought of and it saved me money! I am still in the same house she helped me purchase and when I am ready to retire, YES!!! That's right I will contact her office AGAIN. Thank you Patty for your professionalism, your integrity and making us feel like family during the process and as you continue to do today. E.S.

Rob represented me as a buyer. I didn't get exactly what I was looking for but instead I got…read moreexactly what I wanted. Realtor recommendations might come a dime a dozen but what makes Rob Ross stand out is that he is a true conduit for what you want. He is diligent with the tasks you need him for and respectful of your desires even when what you are asking for might be unorthodox to the real estate world. For example, I made a couple offers that were probably laughable low but he followed through with them and gave them the legitimacy which led to good bargaining. Also, there were some houses I was interested in that were not conventional and Rob went through the appropriate effort to find ways where I could have a valid position to get them. ( For instance a 203k FHA loan offer. ) These are strange market times and Santa Cruz is a strange housing market in general. There were a few times when I wish that Rob would just give me the right number to offer etc.. but he was good about not being a direct market influence on my pricing and instead pulling from me what I actually felt I wanted to pay for a property. All the while offering advice that he and his family has gained over their years of being active members in both the real estate and rental markets in Santa Cruz. This is a huge bonus for buying, where you need to know if you are buying an investment or just a place to live. Additionally, he knows exactly what paperwork to unearth to make sure everything is on the up and up. What earns Rob the fifth star is that he hasn't abandoned me now that we've gone through my transaction. He continues to check in on my needs and is a trustworthy e-mail correspondent when I have homeowner questions, recommending quality professionals and giving me an idea of what to pay so I don't have to learn by being a sucker. All in all, I'm very happy and will use Rob again when it's time for my next real estate action.

We just purchased our first home with Rob as our real estate agent and were impressed at every step…read morealong the way. Rob's deep understanding of the market and good relationships with other agents allowed us to succeed in getting the home we were looking for in this competitive Santa Cruz area. His great communication skills, professionalism and responsiveness helped us to manage the ups and downs of the home buying experience. We would recommend Rob Ross and his team to anyone looking to buy a property. Buying a home can be a stressful experience at times and having an agent with integrity that you can count on to represent both your interests and your values makes all the difference. Whether developing bidding strategies on competitive properties, trying to navigate short sales, or understand the potential of fixer uppers Rob was always on top of the situation and able to help us understand our options. We ended up getting one of our favorite properties even after being out bid because Rob took the time to follow up with the selling agent and make sure we were in position when the original high bidder deal fell apart. Rob also walked us through the county assessor and city planning office on multiple properties to help us ensure that we were getting the property we thought we were and what potential restrictions there would be. On top of Rob's expertise and ability to deliver results he's also a really nice guy. He's a devoted father who makes it to his kid's soccer games and works with his parents in the family business. He's a great listener and took the time to understand our family and what we were really looking for in a home. He's a great communicator, always helping us to understand our options and how the real estate market works. He's very responsive, answering technical questions and calming frayed nerves in a timely fashion over text, email, telephone and in person. Thanks Rob for helping us to find a wonderful home and giving us an education to last a life time about real estate!