I hate to have to say this, but I DO NOT recommend them. So much heartache and stress, even though I'm an easygoing person, they drove me absolutely crazy for a full year. Therefore, after a rough year with them, where I always had to ask questions in order for them to think about something, I realized I was wasting too much time and stress over this. It defeats the point of having a company taking over the duties. The worst part is that I was dealing with the owner the whole time. Surprisingly, the staffer Brittany is actually better, but even she made mistakes (for example, the said she sent me $200 in november, but then I checked a few weeks later and I hadn't gotten anything, so she had to resend. This is what I mean about you have to keep checking in and asking questions in order to make sure things are done right). My new company has been stress free so I know I'm not crazy for expecting a detail oriented crew that makes life easier. I don't have any complaints with my new company!
Biggest Problem (Lost money, due to them not thinking proactively/long-term):
-A tenant only gave 9 day notice that they were moving out, so my place was unrented for 1.5 months (because it was slow season and no one advertised the unit BEFORE it was empty), that's LOST money. The company should have gotten an answer a month or two before the lease was up, to decide to proactively list the property (just in case). Or even tell the person, if you don't make a decision by this date, your lease will be automatically extended at XYZ rate. But none of that happened so the person just left when their lease was up. And that makes total sense from tenant's end, they were fine, nothing against the tenant. They were great. It was on our end that this company was not looking out for my interests and didn't care that we lost money due to all this.
-I actually was emailing to get updates a month before the lease was up and a few weeks later, I had to email them this "I never heard back from you and I had to raise the issue yesterday in order to get this figured out. I really should not be having to be involved at this level in terms of prompting answers and getting the ball moved forward." So essentially, I had been checking in for a couple weeks, and even then it wasn't enough. I was really frustrated that 9 days before the lease was up we were left high and dry, so in the end, I just decided to list it myself on craigslist to be proactive and then chose to switch companies. While I understand DC laws don't allow certain practices, there ARE things that can be put in the lease or that can be done via email to ensure the condo doesn't end up empty.
Here is a list of other problems (there were more problems but this is an example of issues):
-When new tenant moved in, the electricity wasn't transferred so I was billed the first month and then it took months to fix it. But I had to notice that I was billed.
-A tenant lived there for a whole year, and after they moved out, we found out the air filter for the AC wasn't changed all year. So preventative care is not considered.
-After a tenant checked, I had to notice a remote to the ceiling fan was missing. So the new tenant couldn't use the fan. Why did I have to notice this and then fix it? ALSO, they didn't know the brand or write any of that down before renting out my place, so I had to research and find it, and buy the remote myself.
-Overall, they did not have a thorough list to check. They check for big things in the apt, but not smaller things so then things are lost. For example, when they returned the keys back to me I did not get the full sets back and my new property mgmt company noticed it. But it was too late. So this company needs better check lists, it's terrible to lose keys!
-Finally, the main point of contact I was working with, left loose ends and went out on leave. So, I kept bugging them, and finally got this response, "I want to apologize that you have not received the type of customer service that you expected from RPM Washington DC. Our number one goal is to set the standard in Customer Service in the Property Management industry. It is obvious from your e-mail that we have failed to do so." read more