I've made many investing decisions over the last ten years, from land to cabins to single family…read morehomes, stocks, options.... And never have I made a more detrimental financial mistake that is as bad as choosing ascend to manage my property. While I can't discuss some things in their entirety -- it has been a nightmare, an absolutely gross oversight of their duties that's costing me and there's no end in sight. The staff will not call you, or answer about 60% of emails, the owner thinks it's beneath him to reach out personally to try and be helpful. Money has been lost and mismanaged 2-3 times now and no single month feels consistent. I never know what's happening with my home, the condition of it, and now I'm getting hit with legal fees and have a lien on my property from the delinquency of Ascend not have utilities properly switched. If you're an ascend client- check your ledgers carefully. If you're not--- run don't walk. Now I'm being threatened by them with retaliatory billing practices because I am not keeping quiet anymore , try any other company besides them.

I called after visiting their website and spoke with Zach. I have called other management companies…read moreand some did not even get back to me. Zach answered on the second ring! Their pricing seems extremely fair, and Zach was upfront about estimated expenses in the first few months due to some existing tenant issues I have with my property. The communication has been excellent. Very easy process to get all the paperwork done. I have high expectations based on their reviews from other platforms!

We toured a couple of apartments in Old Town managed by MREM, looking for a 2-bedroom. One of the…read moreplaces was listed as a 2-bedroom, at 2-bed price, but when we see the place, one of the rooms was only accessible through another "bedroom." It was a living room with a door, not legally considered a bedroom in most places, not to mentioned it was way more cramped than the AI-generated photos implied, and it had a stale cigarette smell after presumably being empty for two years (as far as I could tell from the listing dates and price changes on Zillow). Every one of their apartments looks the same: dingy, outdated bedrooms with the bare minimum (toilet, stove, etc) going for the prices of legitimate apartments, using AI photos to "imagine" what the spaces could look like. Get corporations out of housing in Maine if they're going to just buy up all the properties to bleed us of our rent.

The started out very responsive while I was in the application process. After I moved in, forget…read moreabout it. There was a past due water bill with the Town that they never took care of so I could not get the water into my name. After I had moved out they finally paid the bill. I did receive a bill and paid for the quarter I lived there. 6 months later I received another water bill and the Town will not stop sending me bills until the new tenant puts the water into their name. I can not reach anyone. I have called and emailed. No response. While I was a tenant ,the smoke alarms would go off if I so much as ran the toaster. Someone did come out to look at the detectors but there was no fix. It seemed like they were hard wired as when one went off, they all went off. I tried turning off the breaker labeled smoke detectors, nothing happened. I even took batteries out and they still went off. The lack of response from the rental office is extremely frustrating. I would not recommend going through this company for a rental.

They presented us with a drug den the day we were set to move in and tried to upsell us another one…read moreof their horrendous properties after they rendered us effectively homeless. So not rent from them.

My roommates and I decided to rent from Mike and Pine State in the summer of 2018 when we looked at…read morea brand-new unit in Carmel. The unit itself was nice, but it was still filthy from the new construct - no big deal, seeing as Mike promised to have his cleaners go through and clean the place before we moved in. However, when we moved in, the cleaners had only swept the floors, and poorly at that. Sawdust was found in all of the drawers and cupboards, a rusty blade was left on the sink, drywall dust was caked on nearly every surface, a door and some paint buckets were left in our garage, and the floors still had drywall dust/grime all over it. According to our lease, we were to be given a "check-in list" to make sure that the unit was in order, but Mike failed to provide us with one. After that, we were told we could install an A/C unit at a cost of $30 a month, even though tenants are responsible for electricity and must have liability insurance. When asked about this, Pine State argued that it was because of the excess wear-and-tear that they cause - is that not what my security deposit is for? Mike also failed to notify tenants of potential arsenic contamination of our water supply and was very unprofessional when confronted on this issue. Mike is impossible to get into contact with, even during normal business hours. My roommate was locked out of our unit for nearly 4 hours before anyone from Pine State even CONTACTED him about the situation. He had called over a dozen times, but no one could be reached, and Pine State still charged him a $150 "lock out fee". The real issues started when we decided we wanted to move because we were tired of dealing with Mike and his "company". We figured our easiest option was to find someone ourselves to take over our lease. We were approved to sublet our unit, however, Pine State told us that we'd have to pay a $250 administration fee PER PERSON moving out of the unit (for us, that'd be a cool $750). When I looked over our lease, no where does it say that this fee was "per person", therefore we should not have to pay for 3 administration fees. When confronted on this issue, Mike was very unprofessional and threatened to revoke our subletting approval (which can be seen in the pictures attached). After we had decided to bite the bullet and legally deal with Mike after we had vacated our unit, we began our search for new tenants. We had found a very interested couple, who had sent all their needed information to Pine State to start the application process. Pine State took nearly 2 weeks to process these tenants and were unreachable during normal business hours (we called, texted, and even went into their office - only to find it closed on a Monday afternoon). Because Pine State did not contact anyone in a timely fashion, our potential tenants lost interest in our unit. We gave Mike a 30-day notice to vacate our unit and moved. Meanwhile, Mike and Pine State failed to make a reasonable effort to re-rent our vacant unit, which goes against Maine State Law (Landlord's duty to mitigate). We were given the option to pay a lease termination fee equal to 2 months rent (a nice $2700) at the end of January, but we felt that we shouldn't have to pay anything more because of Mike's lack of effort to re-rent our unit. The Maine State Attorney General's Office told us to pay the fee "under protest" and take legal action afterwards. Thankfully, our actual landlord (who we tried to contact before this all happened, but Pine State refused to give us their contact info) decided to terminate their agreement with Mike after we had only paid one half of our termination fee. Our landlord had no idea that we had moved out a month prior and had not received any termination fee from Mike, which brings us to the present day, where the landlord is fighting for our termination fee so it can be returned. The moral of the story is that Mike Conners of Pine State Property is extremely unprofessional and will do anything to get money out of his tenants and property owners.

Not at all thorough. Missed two appointments before we cancelled. They "seem" to be on the ball,…read morebut follow through is lacking.

My entire home was cleaned along with the outside windows. Photos were sent and I was pleased with…read morethe entire job. Mary is professional, friendly and extremely accommodating. Excellent!

Megan went above and beyond what I would expect from any agent. She promptly answered our texts,…read moreemails and calls. Our purchase was unique and somewhat complicated, but she never gave up and always listened to our concerns. She even travelled through a snowstorm to meet with us. We received weekly emails reporting on our progress from her even when there wasn't much to report. My husband and I now have the property of our dreams and I am convinced that without Megan's dedication and support, we wouldn't be where we are today. We have much to thank her for.

My daughter had a truly bizarre experience renting an apartment under this company's management…read more The landlady was intrusive and violated law after law. The heat was turned off and locked below legal standards during the winter, time and time again. She clearly thought her tenant would be "just" a college kid without any real world intelligence or knowledge of legal rights. She eavesdropped. Snooped in windows. Entered without permission on multiple occasions. Went through cabinets. I even caught her standing outside in the dark, looking through the items in the bed of my truck as we helped her move out. I could go on. When it came time to move, my daughter was told the property was under new management. Then it wasn't. Then it was again. At one point she was told nobody was managing the property. We all helped her pack up and clean when moving.. that place was left cleaner than it was found, along with some updated fixtures that my daughter purchased and left in place. Still, she was charged "4 hrs of cleaning at $20/per hour". Legally, security deposits may only be withheld from to make repairs needed to *restore* a space.. ie repair holes in walls, cracked toilet ect.. NOT dusting and mopping (an already clean space.) I would proceed with extreme caution renting from a company that would stand behind a property owner like this. Truly the stuff of nightmares. And lawsuits.

These guys are awesome!! I have rented from them for 1.5 years now and love it!! They are very…read moreresponsive, easy as hell to work with, and all around great dudes who are running a business but understand that people are people as well. Would definitely recommend renting from these guys over anyone else!! Rick Paré is the man!!

Even after being told we look good on paper... The reference from our current landlord (who said we…read morepaid on time oh except for this month .. we used our security deposit of 1100.00 to cover 800.00 of rent to allow our family to have a security deposit to move with ass our current rent has sold. oh and we made showing the house difficult... we have a dog who needed to be in her kennel .. couldn't just leave her for 10+ hours a day we work full time jobs...had to find some one to help out with that.) so after all the clarification we get a email from Penbay Property Management saying "Michelle, Thank you for the clarification; however, based on that reference, I am still unable to set up showings. Thank you, " Our family has other references yet we are un-rent-able because of a reference from a landlord who did get paid and on time!!

I am incredibly disappointed, and frustrated with how we (the tenants) were treated by Penbay…read moreProperty Management LLC, Dan and Ashley Burpee specifically. Penbay is based out of Bucksport, but manages one property in Orono, ME which is where the problems stem from. Dan and Ashley do not like driving to Orono which spelled disaster for us (the incoming tenants). They did not conduct an inspection of the house after the old tenants moved out. The house was filthy saddling us with cleaning which involved pulling old cigarette butts out of window sills and the radiator. Additionally, Penbay did not note the state of affairs in which the house was left for us (more on this later). During our stay at 10 Cedar St we were asked to do room inspections for exiting roommates and report on the room conditions (something Penbay should have done). On top of that, they neglected to fix the fire alarm and blamed the tenants for it. They refused to deal with a rat problem which posed a health hazard to the tenants. Penbay even went as far as to accuse us of lying about it. During the oil tank replacement they scheduled, the contractors failed to remove the old oil tank. The oil remaining in the tank evaporated and seeped into the house producing an overwhelming smell. When we moved out of the house we were charged for a scraped bathroom floor, and a dirty fan vent. Had they done any kind of inspection before we moved in they would have noted both of these things as previously existing. The scraping on the bathroom floor was due to the severe slant of the flooring, not an issue pertaining to the tenants. The fan vent was caked in several years worth of lint so saddling us with it was lazy. It should be noted that we made an attempt to clean it but the cover was sealed to the ceiling. And finally, we were told on several occasions, after moving out, that our security deposits were in the mail. This was not the case. They missed the 30 day deadline after the expiration of the lease. We were lied to, mistreated, and disrespected. I am happy to have rid any obligation and connection to Dan and Ashley along with Penbay Property Management.

We have trusted coastal Maine vacations to manage our home for short-term rentals. They have given…read moreus complete peace of mind knowing they have everything under control. From booking our guests to taking care of our property as though it were their own. They have the most wonderful staff keeping our property clean and in the best condition while finding us the absolute best tenants. I cannot recommend Coastal Maine Vacations highly enough. We just love that they are local. Living right here in the community they serve.

We rented a tipi in the woods in Brooks for a special occasion. Upon arrival, everything was very…read morewet inside and it smelled musty. The dishes were not clean, the grill was extremely dirty, there were only a small portion of amenities and we didn't want to use them because it was so dirty. There was no coffee pot as stated. The pictures were very misleading. The boats were disgusting and full of water. The bed was a futon style that didn't flatten, so it was a very uncomfortable night. We didn't use the outhouse/composting toilet or shower because that area was also a mess. We for sure weren't going to use the hot tub based on the rest of the site. We contacted the company and gave us a full refund. I just wish we didn't have to waste our time, money and energy on this. Now we are back home and pretty disappointed.

We highly recommend Daneel to anyone looking for a home in Maine. Daneel felt more like a friend…read morehelping with our search because she genuinely cared about our success. She was kind, resourceful, knowledgeable, always responsive and helped negotiating with sellers. Best of all, Daneel exuded great energy and enthusiasm throughout the entire process. What a blessing it was to find her! We couldn't have done this without her.

Kelly McKenney was AMAZING! I can't say enough nice things about her. She organized a team of…read morepeople to help us search for houses all over the state. When we found a very rural one we were interested in she drove well over an hour to show us the house that we ultimately ended up buying. There were lots of bumps along the way as we were trying to sell our house and buy the new one at the same time and Kelly was always the voice of reason during it all. She provided expert guidance and support during the especially anxious times. This is the third house I have purchased, and Kelly is hands down the BEST realtor I have encountered.