We used Sterling, Johnston for two years while we lived abroad. Rents were paid correctly, bills done on time, no hassles, ever. That would get a 3 star "it was fine" rating. But our property management team went the extra mile and did the work to get a new dishwasher in, some minor repairs as needed, and even helped us via email pick out colors when we wanted to repaint (above and beyond in my book). If we ever need a property management service again, this is the group we'll use. read more

We recently had to find a rental property due to a fire in our home. SJA had the perfect property listed a mile from our home. The entire process from filling out the application online to moving in was easy and seamless. Millie the SJA representative was extremely prompt on returning our calls and emails with questions and concerns. It'll be a year to rebuild our home but it's comforting to be in a place that is run by qualified individuals that'll be there for us if anything should arise. read more

I hired SJ&A last year to provide property management and tenant placement services for my house that I rented out after moving out of state. I required AAA service because I was unable to be able to do anything direct given my relocation. They were up to the challenge to 1) quickly find a qualified tenant 2) keep me abreast of any issues with the property or problems the tenants had with my house and 3) they paid me on time. I found them to be a very organized property management company. I've both have been a property manager and hired several to manage properties in a number of locations. I found SJ&A to provide excellent service and I would recommend them to anyone looking to rent a house in Puget Sound area. read more

Excellent property management company. They are always quick to address any problems or questions I have.

I'd highly recommend SJA Property Management for anyone looking for a high quality and professional management service company. I have used their services for 10+ years and have always been impressed with their customer focused mindset. Over the years they have added/included services for the benefits of their clients that I find useful. SJA is by far the best property management I have ever used. I want to give a special shout-out to Claudette Scott and Martha Berg for their very responsive services to my tenants and myself. read more

The house we rented is a nice one, but was a wreck inside when we took over. There were marks all over the walls. Carpet stains reappeared within days of moving in. There were still boxes of the previous tenants things in the closets, and some rooms hadn't been cleaned at all. We accepted this under the conditions that we would move the things into the basement and leave it there after we left. We basically moved a 3 bedroom house for them for free. My roommate is meticulous, and he went through the house with a fine tooth comb. He repaired the vacuum cleaner, magic erased the walls, and shampooed the floor as we left. His previous landlord was so impressed she started giving him money BACK as he left. Right before we moved out, our manager was changed, and the new one insisted we move everything back up. We did. She would not do the walk through while we were there, knowing that we were moving far from Seattle. They kept the ENTIRE deposit, despite the house being in far better shape than when we got it. Her excuses were the carpet, which was a nasty mess when we moved in, and a picture of a single hair in one of the sinks. This was evidently worth almost $2000. Don't expect to get your deposit back from these criminals. Don't expect them to answer emails within any realistic timeframe, either. read more

We were tenants in a house that was managed by SJA Property Management. We did have an overall fine experience, as the people with whom we interacted with from SJA were kind and approachable. However, we did run into one situation which was concerning from a tenant point of view. This certainly was a red flag for me. Several months into our lease, the toilet in the house started to run constantly. The plumber hired to evaluate the toilet said that he was unfamiliar with the type of toilet installed, left the house with a vague commitment to either look for parts or get a second opinion, and we then had a sort of run-around in trying to coordinate w/ SJA, the plumber, and another contractor to re-evaluate, obtain the parts, and fix the issue. Meanwhile, the toilet continued to run, and as it was around holiday season, the response times were long for our inquiries. Ultimately, it was about four weeks between initially reporting the problem to SJA and resolution--in which time, the additional water flow racked up a $1200 water bill, well in excess of our normal bill. While SJA advocated to the city for us, they also did not offer a solution when the city said, "No, the bill needs to be paid in full." We referenced tenant protection laws after some back-and-forth, and thankfully, SJA agreed to pay the difference between our average bill and the $1200 bill. It should be noted that the toilet was not ultimately fixed by way of a contractor; instead, one of our roommates' parent was visiting, and suggested wiping down one of the seals in the tank. Problem solved, for free, within minutes. read more

I cannot say enough good things about Gretchen. Her expert experiences and quick actions have always helped giving me a real peace of mind.  Thank you Gretchen as always! read more

It's been an absolutely pleasure to work with SJA team for last 5 years. Special thank to our property manager Gretchen Walley for her outstanding service. I would definitely recommend their firm to my circle of apartment building owners. read more

The short version: The application and lease process with SJA Property Management was exasperating for us as tenants. For homeowners, it could deter qualified tenants from renting your property. ----------------- The long-version: I will preface this by saying that the home was lovely, the leasing agent (Melissa) was quick to respond to our questions, and the homeowners were accommodating when we made requests about painting and fixtures (facilitated by Melissa). But our dealings with the property manager (Zarina) have been incredibly frustrating, and the lease subjects tenants to an unreasonable amount of liability. If you are the kind of person who reads your lease before signing it, and cares about the the terms of the legal contracts you sign, you're in for an unpleasant experience. Here are the issues we encountered: + We were asked to pay application fees twice + We saw the home, loved it, and submitted an application online. We let the leasing agent know that we had a freeze on our credit for security purposes, but could lift it if they let us know which credit agency SJA was using. She emailed the management office (Barbara) and asked them to let us know which agency they were using before running the credit check. They did not. They ran the check before letting us know and got an error. The property manager (Zarina) told us we would have to pay the application fee again to rerun the report. When we pointed out that this seemed to be the result of SJA's miscommunication, the property manager replied, "I will see what I can do." The leasing agent followed up to smooth things over, and assured us that we would not have to pay the application fee twice. + We were asked to pay rent before reviewing the lease + After the application was processed and we were approved, we were asked to pay the first month's rent (described as a "holding fee" that converted to rent), before starting the lease process. The entire amount would be non-refundable if we did not accept the lease terms, which we had not yet seen. From what we've observed from other rentals, this is unusual in the area, where holding fees (if they exist) are typically ~$300. We were willing to pay a holding fee (and offered to pay one on top of the rent they were asking for), but paying rent before seeing a lease seemed strange and risky to us. We were new in town so wondered if perhaps this was a convention in the Seattle area that we were just unfamiliar with. So we asked our Seattle friends and asked the professional relocation consultant provided by our employer about whether this was the norm. They all agreed that it was not. + The lease makes tenants liable for damage unrelated to their tenancy + We wanted to make sure that that we understood and agreed with the lease terms before making such a substantial payment. The property manager sent us a sample lease, and we expressed concern about paragraph 17, which says: "Tenant is responsible for all damage caused to the Property, including but not limited to fire and glass breakage and shall be responsible for repair and replacement thereof, regardless of whether the breakage or damage was caused by Acts of God, by people known or unknown to Tenant, voluntarily, involuntarily, or from vandalism." We expected to assume liability for damage by us or our guests (either intentionally or through negligence), as most standard leases require. But this lease seemed atypical in that it made us potentially liable for ANY damage, even if we had nothing to do with it. For example: - If a storm knocks a tree into the roof of the home, tenants could be responsible - If a car veers off the road into the side of the home, tenants could be responsible - If a water main breaks and damages the home, tenants could be responsible We'd expect this kind of damage to be covered by the homeowner's insurance. We reviewed the lease with a lawyer and he agreed that the limitless liability was unusual. The property manager also agreed that we should not be liable for such damage via email, but refused to clarify the lease to reflect this. After we stood firm, she escalated the matter to a director, and said that "as a special favor" they would remove the words "Acts of God," and would allow us to sign the lease at the same time as paying the rent. This did not solve the fundamental liability issue. If this kind of damage were to occur, as unlikely as it might be, we still could potentially be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in damage. + This is bad for homeowners, too + This is not only a poor tenant experience, it is also a disservice to homeowners who might work with SJA. SJA's process and lease terms may deter qualified tenants from renting a home and lead to longer vacancy periods. We are professionals with strong credit (high 700s), stable employment, high income to debt ratio, and clean records. But as a result of SJA's leasing practices, we are walking away from this property. read more

SJA wasn't terrible--they just weren't great. The only representative we worked with was Kim. When we moved into our unit, we immediately noticed the bottom drawer in the refrigerator was completely missing--a little frustrating to deal with from the get-go. It was remedied after we called the appliance repair company and placed the order. SJA paid for it, but it felt like something that should not have been overlooked. We had some additional move in photos to upload after our first week and realized we couldn't view the photos Kim had taken of the unit and added to our rental agreement. When we told her this, her response was, "Well they're there". No attempt was ever made to make them viewable or acknowledge we couldn't view them. Next was utilities: we spent valuable time trying to set up utilities only to find they were included in the rental amount. Kim wasn't aware of this, another thing it seems like a property manager should have known. She also couldn't tell us where the storage unit in the building was, and told us one key was a "spare"--it wasn't, it was the key to the master storage locker. We had an AC unit go out, and notified Kim, who told us to call another vendor for repair. We were asked by the vendor to pay--frustrating again, in that Kim should have been aware this vendor--one SJA presumably uses regularly--required upfront payment. The payment website regularly showed us as having late payments, and a late fee being associated; we always paid on time. Again, our comments about this were dismissed. All in all, everything was done in Kim's timeframe. Communication was poor. We always felt like we had to jump through hoops, and the bare minimum of effort was provided back. It seems like others have had a good experience with SJA and its other agents, so perhaps this comes down to a single individual's work style. read more

Overall, a good property management company. Staff is responsive and helpful. The response to maintenance requests are a bit slower than I would like. But considering it's been a pandemic world, they have done their best read more

Jenny Rosen and her team is the best! Quick, friend and professional. Got my place rented out very quickly!

I could go on and on. The house we rented had major plumbing and electrical problems. The bottom floor was flooded and unlivable for a month at one point, while they kept dragging their feet on repairs. In general, any sort of repair took ages, and was then usually done incorrectly. Our main point of contact was Chiara, who didn't like to respond to maintenance requests or follow through actually getting them fixed. On two occasions, she also falsely claimed to have not received maintenance requests from us, when in fact we had made them. Working with her was an absolute nightmare. I finally moved out, and that was a nightmare as well. When we moved in, the SJA employee doing the walkthrough with us took pictures of damage, and told us we didn't need to worry about taking our own pictures; they would have them. When I was doing the move-in inspection, there was all sorts of damage: nail holes, carpet stains, wall patches, etc. I wanted to document these issues, but the individual doing the inspection assured me there is no need since these problems are "wear and tear" and she was taking photos anyway. Unfortunately for us, they "lost" the photos of the move-in inspection when it came time to move out. And, no surprise, they decided it didn't count as wear and tear. Not insisting on documenting that damage turned out to be a costly mistake. Do not rent from this organization. You will regret it. They are dishonest and disorganized. read more

We've rented a property through SJA Property Management since 2017 and have been very happy with everyone there. Millie is wonderful, always super responsive and easy to get ahold of. We had our furnace go out this winter and it was fixed promptly. We'll continue renting with them as long as they'll have us! read more

I will start off by saying I am very stingy with positive reviews, and intentionally so. If I express my satisfaction with a company, it needs to be justified. SJA, at least so far, has exceeded my expectations. I have been working with them for a few months to manage a small apartment building I own. I interviewed about 12 different companies on site in order to ascertain who would be the best fit. I've found property management typically falls into one of two categories: 1) Very large scale operations that have professionalism and capacity that is intially appealing, but often these are so large they are rendered ineffective from a customer service perspective. You almost never know whose in charge, or how to address specific concerns 2) Smaller Mom and Pop operations consisting of one or a few realtors. These typically give a personal touch, but lack the capacity of the previously mentioned organizations. I also find these smaller setups tend to bite off more than they can chew once they establish a positive reputation In my opinion, SJA strikes an excellent balance between these two dynamics. When I interviewed this company, Devin, one of the actual owners, came out to meet me at my building. From the beginning he struck me as conscientious, intelligent, and attentive. Unlike a surprisingly large number of the companies I interviewed, he actually followed up with me and provided all of the information he said he would. I had some issues with their boilerplate contract, he very patiently and reasonably made my modifications, and we moved forward. This building was initially unoccupied, so leasing was my primary concern. I was assigned a team once we signed, and my main point of contact is Claudette Scott. The two other members of my team are Martha and Liam. In one word, I would describe Claudette as 'responsive'. She always answers the phone, and if she doesn't, I get a quick text explaining why and then a phone call shortly after. In my opinion this is probably the most important aspect of property management. She has been on top of every detail, and seems to take the quality of the properties she is managing personally. Among other things, Martha walks through every unit and makes sure they are meticulously clean and ready for rent. She even took it upon herself to do some cleaning when she didn't have to, and consistently goes above and beyond. Liam is in charge of the advertisements, and this is one aspect of the building that I have been admittedly micromanaging a bit. Anytime I want something changed, I review the advertisements and they have been done exceptionally well. They meet my specifications, as well as being organized and well worded. As for leasing, I've been very pleased. This review is actually prompted by the fact that they rented out two of my most expensive units right in the middle of the pandemic. I won't say nothing has gone wrong, because nothing goes right 100% of the time with any company in any field. In my opinion the measure of a company is both how often they get things right, and how they react when things go wrong. By that standard, I have been very impressed thus far. I would be happy to recommend this company to others. read more

I have used SJA for past three years to manage a rental house in Redmond. Zarina Malik is the property manager. She is excellent with managing and finding the new tenants. She is knowledgeable in the rental market and responsive in all my requests. I also had to replace the fence which required extensive communication with the contractor and the neighbor. Chiara Cupples, the maintenance manager, took care of all that and more. It is great to have a team that takes the worries out of being an out of state landlord. read more

Unprofessional. Left my house vacated for five months. Had a four year relationship with them. First manager left after a year. Second manager was there for couple of months and drop everything and left. Then came a third one that also lasted for a short time. The fourth one stayed about a year, she was new to property management and didn't know a lot of things. But she was friendly and was willing to learn. The fifth one was also an amateur at property management. They also do not return communication in a timely manner. Again. They've managed my property for four years. It was a positive experience at the beginning and gone completely downhill. They promise you and are willing to work with you at the beginning but later when the service did not meet expectation, we tried to contact Devin, the co owner of this many lawyer owned firm. No response were ever received from him. This is our experience with them. read more

I would never rent from this company again. SJA has horrible property management, and does not take care of issues required by the law of the Landlord. It was a huge fight to get them to do anything, and required lengthy and continuous follow up and pushing. From pigeon infestations, dish washer malfunctions, to major roof leaks and mold, the turnaround time was 1.5 years to never addressing the issue. They are quick to get quotes, but do not follow through with making repairs. They are a shady company, and will verbally tell you that they will take care of it and don't follow through, and then when you bring it to their attention again, they try to blame the issues on the tenant saying they were not informed of the issues earlier. Thankfully we quickly learned to keep a paper trail of all communication and followed up with verbal communication with emails, so we could point to the dates we reported issues. However, this did not get the issues repaired. After 2 years, the company did not take care of the water leakage, dishwasher or mold, and the other issues took at least 1.5 years of continuously pushing. Renting from this company was the most frustrating and stressful experience in my life. If you want a full time job micro managing your landlord, this is the perfect company for you! read more

Talal Pharoan helped my fiancee & I tour an apartment recently. Moving is always stressful, & with COVID going on it feels even more so, but Talal was personable, professional, & safe. He wore his mask & social distanced in a way that felt natural & relaxed. He was great at answering questions (both in person & over text), & we deeply appreciated his knowledge, honesty, & flexibilty. read more

Just signed a lease to rent a house through SJA. I really like how responsive they are, especially in this current crazy housing market that's bound to induce a nervous breakdown. (Seriously!) I just wanted to call out Lori Karhu, who has been great to work with. Also appreciate Jill Thomas, who has been very empathetic, urging us on to push quickly so we don't lose our place in line. One thing, though: I think we communicated with at least 4 different people from SJA during the background check and processing, so that was a bit confusing. But overall, a good experience. read more

Talal gave me some incredibly helpful information that hadn't been shared with me before. Thanks again for the help!

SJA Property Management did a very good job in getting our house prepared for renting it out and finding the tenant without much delay. Also, provided detailed updates throughout the process. Highly recommend them for rental property management. read more

Very helpful - took his time finding out exactly what we are looking for and even spent time helping us find other properties that we may be interested in. He was busy, yet made time for us to look at the property and a second property. read more

Just had a terrible experience with this management company. They did not fully read our rental application, approved us for a rental then when we pointed out something they missed (our dog), they came back (after many unanswered phone calls and emails) with a $250 increase in monthly rent. Wasted our time as well as the property owner's. Now waiting for a refund of our "hold" money. Wish us luck. read more

We had a great interaction with Jill. She was so helpful and went above and beyond to accommodate us. Would definitely recommend working with her! read more

I have been a tenant with SJA Property Management for a little over two years now and im glad I have been. From day 1, they made my transition into my place super easy and flexible. The office staff is so helpful and kind, I primarily worked with Zarina Malik as she was assigned to our location/area. Zarina was wonderful to work with and was always considerate and helpful. I have extended my lease twice now and looks like I will re-leasing again. I would recommend SJA Property to my friends if they were looking for a place and wanted a great group to work with. read more

Gretchen Walley had helped me managing my property for a while. She is very approachable. And always can think in your shoes. When you have question, most of the time she not only had the answer for you but putted in action already. If you seek somebody to look after your property, Gretchen is your answer. read more

If you are a property owner, then you should not use SJA property management. I've been with them several months and I have more dealings with my tenant through their email communications than I ever had in the past when I was managing my own properties. They are asking me to pay for every single tenant request. Things like water filters and changing light fixtures. Right now, they are making me pay for a repair man to look at a noisy icemaker that the tenant is complaining about. Noisy icemaker, they must be kidding, but they are not. Come on, are they working for me or the tenant? I am very, very unhappy with their services. read more

We have 3 rental properties that we have moved over to SJA Property Management over the past couple of years. We have been very satisfied with this decision for many reasons. We receive a discount for multiple properties and our team is very responsive and attentive to our questions and any needs. They have found responsible tenants for us, even during difficult times, like during Covid. We have recently purchased home warranties and they provided us recommendations on companies to research for this and they manage any claims that arise as a result. This level of management allows us the freedom to travel and focus on other investments opportunities without the worry of how we will respond to an issue. We definitely don't miss getting caught up in the nitty-gritty details of the day-to-day management. This is especially helpful as we have a growing family with little ones that require a lot of our time. The investment we've made in property management has given us the peace of mind we need in this busy phase of life. It's tax deductible too! We won't be going back to self-management again! This decision has unlocked to many benefits for us. read more

I interviewed several property management companies prior to choosing SJA Property Management which stood out for its practical professionalism, integrity and responsiveness. Since my family was moving out of state, we were particularly concerned about the ability to trust the day-to-day management. SJA has exceeded our expectations and in particular our management team - Dustin, Gretchen, Jenny and Lori. Our team managed the repainting of our home, provided our tenant with a welcome basket and prompt attention and kept us informed through regular and timely updates regarding the state of our home. When there have been hiccups, they have been professionally managed with responsiveness and empathy. Their tenant portal and direct deposit features make the financial aspect seamless. All in all, having SJA as our property management company has brought us much appreciated peace of mind. read more

Move-In process for rental was great and prompt response for any requests/info. Thanks

My husband and I recently rented a condo through SJA and the whole process went so smooth. Our first initial contact was with Melissa, who gave us a tour of the condo, she was quick to respond back to our questions and helped us get the ball rolling with our application. We then worked with Crystal who helped us secure the condo. She was very informative and easy to communicate with. Today we signed our lease and got our keys from our property manager Lisa, who is fantastic and has such great attention to detail. She did the walk through with us and checked every inch in our condo to make sure everything was in tip/top shape.She went through each room and took pictures and asked if we had any concerns and made the whole process very simple. From start to finish, SJA was extremely easy to work with and we are excited to work with them in the future as well. Thank you SJA for making our experience as smooth as possible. read more

This company was the management company for 2 places I lived in. They were good at getting things fixed thoroughly and quickly. One time they had to do the big project of replacing the roof on our place and the experience was minimally invasive and the workers were respectful and seemed to do a good job. Really liked working with the staff there. Highly recommend! read more

As a property owner that lives in Texas, it is very reassuring that I have the SJA Team and Chiara managing my condo. Their personal touch and technology tools creates a worry-free experience for me and give our family peace of mind that our property is being properly maintained and most importantly rented out to great tenants. Thanks SJA! read more

I am a current tenant at one of their many properties. They offer online payments and even allow you to use a credit card for an additional fee. Maintenance requests are also done online which I really enjoy. read more

Absolutely TERRIBLE property management company. Still not in the 21st century as they barely rolled out an only semi-working online payment portal, and don't have the ability to collect signatures electronically. My landlord was deployed and he had SJ&A take over the lease in his absence. On 4 separate occasions they attempted to break the terms of the lease and charge me more money. Only after threatening to get my lawyer involved did they back off of those attempts (each time). This was either due to incompetence or via an attempt to knowingly commit fraud. This is a great company to use if you'd like to open yourself up to legal issues. They were also ill prepared to re-list the home after I gave my notice as they didn't have any pictures on file weren't in a hurry to get any or put up a listing. My landlord won't be very happy when the listing gets put up late and not rented out for at least the first month. LANDLORDS AND TENANTS BEWARE!!! read more

SJ&A helped us to sell a condo. We moved to other state and they did all the communications with buyer and even found a contractor to do some repairs that were requested after inspection. All the time communication between me and our agent were beyond my expectations. Overall they did an excellent job. read more

Our family of four moved to WA from MA at the end of June 2016. We found a listing for a home in Redmond and our contact person was Kim. From the start, it was a bit confusing as it seemed like a few brokers/listing agents were working on the same property so we were often asked about something that was meant for another perspective client/tenant but we just thought, that happens from time to time. We were told in order to secure our spot while the rental process took place, we would need to put down a refundable deposit of one month's rent which in our case was $3,490.00. They wouldn't accept personal checks and since we use a local bank from the East Coast, we had to jump through hoops on our end (getting our bank to approve large number of ATM withdrawal, etc) to get this deposit to her, which ended up being 4 money orders. During the following few days, we were told things looked good. They were waiting to hear back from our previous landlord and Kim set up a date for us to stop by her office to sign lease so at that point, I initiated a bank transfers and such in preparation of giving her a cashiers check/money order for first month's rent at our lease signing. We had been living at the Residence Inn while looking for a home and to get the news that things looked promising enough that a date was set for us to sign paperwork was a huge relief to us. Our kids were also excited UNTIL on a Saturday morning, Kim called to say she had bad news. The owners decided to sell the home to a private citizen even though it was not on the market. She claimed to have no idea, etc...she did have an open house that day and asked if we wanted to check it out, which we did. She could not look at us in the eyes because we all know the house wasn't sold. With those other agents working on it, I can bet my last dollar that it was given to another family without her knowledge, someone offered better lease terms or she didn't think we were the right fit after all. Given that this went down during July 4th weekend, we were not able to pick up our security deposit until Wednesday because their office was closed on Tuesday. By this time, we had appointments to look at other homes but $7,000 of our money was tied up due to this BS. We had to wait for the money orders to clear AND for the external transfer for the remaining $3,490 to go through which was too late to cancel at that point. I sure hope there are better brokers/management companies in this area because this place sure made the rest look incompetent. We will never again put our trust into a property management company. I feel like what happened to us was borderline illegal. read more

Absolutely HORRIBLE property management company!! If your looking for a property management company that will professionally manage your property and will keep your home free from damage and destruction. Then run far away from SJ&A!!!! Their tenant screen process is non existent. Once they place the unruly tenant in your home and destruction begins, their management team stops managing! They have a huge turnover in property managers, You can't ever feel the person your working with has your best interest in mind. With all the turn over and restructuring in this company, you have to ask your self, if they can't manage the business then they sure can't manage your property!!! There are a lot of great property management company's to choose from and this is NOT one of them! read more