Since my recent review was somehow taken down, I have decided to repost it. This review pertains to the SD management office, not the OC office!! First off, I wish I could do negative stars for this company. Worst management company I have ever worked with....Ever!! Where to begin..... First off...no manager ever answers the phone. You have to call them 15 times in one day before hopefully getting a hold of a manager. You can leave a million messages and no one will ever call you back!!! I know because both I and my roomates had to do this numerous times to get a hold of someone beyond just the nice secretaries. When we first looked at the property, my gf and roomate took off to look at the place on their lunch break and after driving over 15 miles to meet the manager to see the place they found out that the manager had forgotten the key to show them the property, so they had to come back another day. (That was manager number 1 that we dealt with) Once we moved in, we found that the master bedroom shower didn't provide hot water and the master bathroom sink was leaking. Now to their credit they did send out someone fairly quick to fix it, maybe 3 days after giving them notification, but the original plumber who was scheduled to fix it called us to say he couldn't make it cause his car broke down. So we had to take another day off to wait for someone else to show up to fix it, which happened the next day. It took about a week to get it fixed. We had to constantly let management know that we had never received the water bill from them, which really is not our job as tenants. This occurred several times as they continuously forget to charge us for water each month. And make sure you LOOK at the bill because I guarantee that there will be an added late charge on the bill that management will forward onto you since THEY cannot seem to pay the water bills on time. Nearing the end of our lease (scheduled for May), we informed manager number 2 that we wanted to extend our original lease by 2 months (ending at the end of July) and also gave them notice at the same time that we were leaving the state after those two extended months and would no longer need to rent the place. When we called management a week before we left the premises to do a final walk through, not only did it became a chore to try and get a hold of the manager number 3 but they wouldn't schedule a walk through because apparently manager number 2 never relayed the information to anyone else before she moved up north. So they had to track her down, which took two weeks, just to confirm that we had actually given them proper notice of moving out. This lead into the first week of August, when we were finally able to get them do a walk through and hand over the keys. Of course it took calling them 100 times over the course of 5 days to get a hold of manager number 3 again!!! We were still charged a little over $600 in rent for the first week of August since supposedly "we did not give them the 90 to 30 day proper notice of excavating the premises"... NOOOO we gave them 120 day notice which is not what you are supposed to do apparently... that is too much of a notice for them! As a former property owner, 120 day notice of leaving the premises would be perfectly welcomed!! It took over a month after we moved out (now going into September) to receive part of our rental deposit back which should only take 21 days to be issued back as told to us by their manager. And the check they sent us had my name, and my gf name, and my two roomates name on the check. The banks require that all checks with "and" between each name requires all parties to endorse the check. DO you know how hard it is to get two people in GA and two people in different areas of SD to all sign a check???!! Even though legally they have to add all names, only 3 of us originally made the deposit. The fourth roommate entered in the lease 8 mos later. Additionally, it took another few weeks thereafter for them to let us know about whether we would actually receive the $600 that they charged us in rent for the first week of August back or not, which in the end they decided to keep. In fact, they told us that we should consider ourselves lucky that they didn't charge us for the full year of rent since we were contractually automatically enrolled into a new year lease. Also FYI, if you do give them notice of ending your lease, there is no email listed on the website, or physical address for you to send them written notice. The only way to do so would be to call and speak with a manager and ask for his/her email or just verbally tell them over the phone, which unfortunately is what we did. Sadly, they were even supposed to send us a return check for $10 for the last late water fee that they billed us for, which again is only late because they can't seem to pay that company on time. Surprisingly, even though they say they mailed it out to us we never received that check. huh, go figure?! read more

How to write an objective review on a company that just keeps letting one down? very challenging i think! Anyway, as a tenant for an apartment this company 'manages' in Bankers Hill in San Diego, I am more than disappointed. I don't use this company to manage a property, but i would definitely be remiss to hire a company that i would pay 8-12% commission of the rent when the tenants, would probably never come back or give my apartment a bad review. Anyway, ever since i moved in to this apartment, the problems started. Unfortunately and it was my own mistake to not throughly inspect the apartment before moving in. Though, i trusted this company would actually go through the apartment and make sure it was ready to be rented. I pay $2,750 a month for this unit, but after living here for almost 8 months, i can definitely see this place is worth no more than $1,500 and that is just for the location. The apartment itself, has lots and lots of problems. Some of which the maintenance people take a long time to repair, or to respond to the trouble calls that one enters in their 'website' and sometimes they respond after 3, 4 or even 5 phone calls (meaning they may think they are doing the owners of the apartment a favor and hoping the problems would go away on their own or the tenants would fix the problem). Anyway, if you see this company listed as the management company 'managing' an apartment you are looking to rent, i would suggest to walk away. Or if you truly want the apartment, make sure you do a very thorough inspection of the apartment and don't sing a lease until the apartment is up to the level you would accept. Needless to say, i will not extend the lease at this place and will never rent an apartment from this company again. and for sure, i would never use this company to manage any of the condos i own. (last note - i would be very distrustful of the positive reviews here. there are so many small marketing companies that would actually hire people to write positive reviews on their companies, some of them don't even live in the same city or state). update based on response from the company: first, it would be great (and i would be writing positive reviews) if responding to the trouble calls and fixing them would have been as quick as the response from the company to my review. Second, the comments in my review are just based on my experience with this company and also my thoughts. Third, i think it is pretty telling your company's position or thoughts on how quickly things were resolved. If you think 2-3 weeks and another issue about a month, then i believe we have a very different opinion of what is 'quickly'. Also, the last issue was resolved on January 6th, that is only 4 months without problems. 4 months without problems out of 8 months of living here, not quite acceptable in most people's definitions. Last, there were quite a few problems that while not maintenance issues e.g. extremely dirty balcony, holes in the drywall over the cabinets which kept on making the apartment dusty with drywall powder (since they were not sealed), etc, etc. All of them, have been documented though pictures and submitted to your company which i'm sure you'll find in my file. ** by the way the attached picture is not all inclusive of all the problems i have had** read more

I wish I could give them below Ziro STILL I AM waitng for my property keys back to me after almost 60 days NOT rent my great property conditions , location finaly I FIRED them long time wait for cancellation accepted then STILL I AM WAITNG TO HAVE MY PROPERTY KEYS back to me Utopia managment Johanna William manager or Pete or Victoria are Horrible Pete answer to my comment as lie as their promises was time of sign the RENTAL lease..PEOPLE do NOT do ANY BUSINESS with UTOPIA if you do NOT want to loose money energy time as coorupt as Utopia company is those positive comments are... I wish I see all this BAD review before then I would never give my property to this trash Utopia for rent 60 days NO application NO renter my property was EMPTY because of of their LAZINESS NOT CARE. NOT answer to potential tenant..Utopia must be out of business it is CORRUPT people PLEASE call BB COMPLAIN to BB let BB knows how much negative reviews are in social medias against this trash Utopia manager Pige or Johanna William or pete or Victoria employee LIAES THIEVES group together covering each other their nasty LIES. As a owner of many properties I will tell every one stay away do NOT do any business with this COLLAPSE Utopia or you will loose money time energy & all else . Johanna William manager NOT give my property keys back to me till now 20 days after I fired her I terminate lease rent due to her negligent lazinessNOT answer my emails or not communicate NOT rent my property 60 days WITHOUT NO REASON for not rent it TWICE I REDUCE RENT OR GAVE $500.00 CREDIT IF RENTER RENT IT BUT NO renter because they do NOT respond to potential renters emails or calls therefore my property NOT rent it for 60 days.still I am waiting for my proerty keys back to me it is horrible. I filed complain with BB and I am process doing legal actions against this rude irrsponsible LIARS manager Johanna + the other 2 Pete and Victoria group damages to my property and NOT active NOT giving my property keys back in 20 days. Every time Johanna or Victoria LIES about my property keys as else during this nghtmare times.. excuses lies are disgusting.. Johanna William or pete are horrible manager and Victoria employee irrisponssible NOT care horrible Johanna William + pett are terrible manager as well as their employee Victoria assistant manager ...I have already contact BB I will do legal actions against Utopia NOT receiving my property keys back + else I AM very concern about my property I wish I read this negative reviews before I would never ever call them. PEOPLE DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS with this horrible groups/Utopia also all you damages by Utopia contact BB do legal actions against this corrupt company they must be out of their trash jobs and must stop them NOT any more damages to people it is HORRIBLE what Utopia done to people it is SHAME for owner of this company with bunch of COORUPT NOT responsible employees managers etc... read more

I had the most disappointing experience with Utopia management. At the beginning I felt that they it was so nice how they quickly responded to my phone calls about renting out my condo. It rented out quickly for in January of 2007 for less than I had desired but the agent told me that it would be hard to get 1000k for my condo. For the first half of the year I had no problems then suddenly the tenant moved out unbeknownst to my knowledge. The only reason I found out was because I did not get the monthly renters check that I needed to help pay for my mortgage. I had to actually call them in order to be notified that I would need to find another way to make up for the lost rent. I asked about the contract because I was told that it would be a 1 year contract. The property manager then informed me it was only 6 months. This was another huge blunder in which I was first not informed and then misinformed. In addition the property manager lagged in getting the condo cleaned for whatever poor excuses she offered so once again I lost more money and was falling into debt. Finally my condo was rented out towards September 2007. This time I insisted on raising the rent to 1100. It rented out right away. The next month I received a rent check for less than the supposed amount. It was also receive via mail instead of my usual direct deposit that I had signed up for. I contacted Utopia and continued to everyday until I received a phone call back until 3 days later! The property manager apologized and gave me another paltry and meager excuse about there being a mistake in "accounting". Once again I had to endure for their mistakes without any offer to compensate for the bounced checks, inconvenience, or sheer lack professionalism on their behalf. I would have ended my relationship with Utopia long ago, if I did not have to spend more money in order to get out of the contract. The property manager once again assured me to right this mistake however she failed to ever get my checks back into direct deposit and I continued to receive them via mail. The next incident is by far the worst when I receive a call one day from my former neighbor who was living next to my tenant. She was clearly very upset because she had discovered that her new neighbor was a registered sex offender and living next door. Furthermore, he was registered as having committed violent sexual crimes. I called and emailed Utopia but no one ever returned a call, email, or letter regarding this matter. This was the most upsetting of all. My experience with Utopia was completely negative, severely inadequate and ultimately unprofessional. I would never recommend their service to anyone and in every conversation I've had in this context have advised others to do the same. read more

Jeremiah S. is exactly correct! These people are ridiculous and I don't understand how they are even in business! I usually don't write reviews, but I could not help myself. The day they showed us the rental it was a mess which they said would be cleaned, and they knew nothing about the property. They didn't know what amenities were available, where parking was, if things would be fixed, etc. The day we moved in the place was disgusting. There were broken blinds on the living room floor. Dust and dirt everywhere. There was rust on the doors and the patio. There was even places where it wasn't painted completely. We called Juanita the maintenance woman and she said we would get credit on rent if we cleaned it ourselves. So we spent hours cleaning, replacing things, and painting. Also there was a bucket for a leak under the sink which they said was fixed. We turned it on and it still leaked. We never did get credit either after a letter and arguing and they said it was clean when it was not. They also promised a gardener which never came and which they eventually lied about and now I have to take care of the yard. Every time I called to speak with NANCY she wasn't available. Neither was her boss Krista or the vice president Andrew. I left message after message for Nancy. It took months for us to get a hold of her as she never calls back. She is the worst manager I have ever dealt with and there have been many. She is terrible and has no sense. I don't even know how she can tie her shoes in the morning. The only time they call is when they want the lease renewed. I was one day late for rent because I forgot and they charged $70 and would not remove the charge when I usually pay in advance. Also they sent maintenance to fix something without telling me and they pretty much broke into my home when I wasn't there. Now the LAST STRAW is that they are giving everyone a $10 rent credit if they come on Yelp through 2011 and say nice things about them and give them great ratings! read more

If I could give them negative 100 stars I would. Words cannot explain how upset and in fear for my families health and safety here. To start off, we have a 1.5 year old baby boy. So, I currently reside at Felton street, and since we have moved in its been a whirlwind of shit. The first 6 months we didn't have a parking spot due to the other tennants and utopias lack of communication with us and we we're paying full rent without our assigned parking spot. We had contacted the office several times because of this and so they printed our a diagram of how the parking lot is supposed to be set up sent it out to all of us living here and still nothing changed. Paige at the office told me we needed to work it out with the other tennants it wasn't her job. So we got it squared away with the other tennants with no help from the office. Next, we have complained and filed police reports because another tennants is a legitimate drug dealer, leaving the locked gated open at night, having homeless use our one washer and dryer we have for 12 units leaving needles and razors in there. Not only does this tennants do this, but all the people who get drugs from this person hang around by our cars shouting at all hours of the night for more drugs, breaking into our cars threatening the actual tennants that live here and actually breaking into our homes. We all have complained and filed police reports to try and get this man out of here but utopia has done nothing to fix this situation. The last thing is the mold infestation every single unit has. I've been trying to get it taken care of for months now and it took me threatening to go to the health dept, news, and attorney general for them to send someone out to check it. They came out middle of last week and I've heard nothing. Now my family is having breathing difficulties and my mom cannot come over because of the smell.... how is utopia gonna handle this????? read more

I don't live in SD but own a few rental properties in the east county and oceanside. Now, I'm an independent gal and pretty handy landlord but when a tenant calls you in the middle of the night to complain about their pool bring too cold ( why the hell are you in the pool at 1 a.m.????) It was time to take a step back and admit i couldn't do it all..especially not manage my pain in the butt tenants from almost 80 miles away. So I called a bunch of Management companies in SD. You'd be surprised how many of them DO NOT ANSWER LIVE!!! I called Utopia though and they picked up on the first ring. The receptionist, jackey, was so sweet and helpful. She listened to me rant about my strange middle of the night phone call and then handed me off to Vicky. What a doll!!! Super informative, funny, and just all around pleasant. I managed to get an appointment for the next day. My property manager, Johanna, came out was such a riot! We bonded easily and I instantly knew she was going t o be the best thing to happen to me. She chatted with me until she knew I was comfortable and promised me I would not be disappointed. Needless to say, my vacant house was rented in 3 days!!!!!!!!! And at johanna's advice, I marketed it at higher than I originally thought I could get and I got TOP DOLLAR for my rental. She was so knowledgeable and confident..you could tell this was her passion. Now, I have been in the real estate industry for over 25 years, and they don't make people like johanna , jackey, or Vicky anymore. So my advice to all you landlords...make your life easy... call Johanna at Utopia and let her take care of you!! She is amazing and quite frankly one of the best people I have run into in this industry. My advice to the owners of Utopia..take care of these ladies...they are some of the best and they left the most astounding impression on me and my family. read more

My experience with Utopia Property Management has been disappointing across multiple areas: 1. Improper Move-Out Inspection: The move-out process was poorly handled. No inspection photos were provided to me as the owner, and multiple issues were reported by new tenants shortly after move-in. These resulted in over $5,000 in cleaning (~$1,000) and repairs that should have been the responsibility of the previous tenant. 2. Withheld Reserve Funds: Despite the termination of the contract months ago, the $3,000 required reserve has yet to be returned. Communication has been slow and evasive--often taking weeks for a response--requiring me to follow up repeatedly and explore options to recover my funds. 3. Unmanaged Maintenance Costs: Maintenance jobs are not supervised responsibly. Contractors can submit invoices with inflated costs--sometimes exceeding the original quote by 100%--without oversight. There is no transparency on scheduling, and even canceled work orders have shown up on my bill months later. 4. Poor Leasing Performance: It took over two months to rent out my condo, which was built in 2014 and located in one of the more desirable areas of San Diego. The unit was ultimately leased below market rate. 5. High Termination Fees and Hidden Charges: Utopia charges a 75% termination fee from the first month's rent, significantly higher than the 25% charged by many reputable property managers. Additional fees, such as advertising, were not clearly disclosed during the consultation. Overall, I would not recommend Utopia based on my experience. The lack of accountability, poor communication, and opaque billing practices made this a costly and frustrating process. read more

My father applied for a commercial space April 2021. He was told that he was approved for commencement June 1, 2021 in the beginning of May, to open a water store. I was told by Sarah G. that He would need a business license and insurance before moving into the unit, which I had assisted him in getting done. 3 weeks time had passed that we were put under the impression that we'd be moving into the Hawthorne location and, then we were told that, suddenly the business not approved AFTER doing all the prerequisite requirements which cost hundreds of dollars. My father and I were not given a reason why the application was not approved, only that "the owner said no". We received the last "the owner said no" 5/21/21 after inquiring why we had been told otherwise for 3 weeks straight. My father and I let the weekend go by before calling in today to see if we could receive more of an explanation as to why I was told to get things in order as if he were moving in. That did not go well for us. Myself, my father and our logistics rep called in time after time to only be forwarded to Sarah and Samantha's voicemails with no return call or email. The receptionist began to not help us speak to anyone else, ignored and forwarded all calls. The manager Samantha has not gotten back with myself or my team and has left us set back a month with no reason as to why we were led on. This was the most unprofessional and blatantly disrespectful business experience we've collectively ever had. My father and I are confused as to why we are being treated this way after being lied to. Shame on Utopia management. Sarah the rep that toured the location twice for my father and I. read more

Absolutely terrible. Is there a worse word than terrible? How about the WORST experience ever. I was there for three years and thank GOODNESS I'm out of there. The agent who showed me the home knew NOTHING about the property. He was completely emotionless and was basically a British guard just standing there. We signed the leases out of need. The place was and still is a $h!+ hole. There were tumbleweeds all over the front and back yard, the fence is tilted at a 45 degree angle and on a hill (as in it could fall on us any minute). When it rained, it leaked indoors, the porch roof has several holes and when it rained, my things were soaked. I called them multiple times and they always had to "check with the owner". Are you kidding me? Your HOUSE is falling apart and your tenants can't live comfortably. Oddly, the "owner" never wanted to pay for the repairs. I wonder if the owner was even contacted. We asked for the faucet to be repaired because it would not close properly. Luckily no leak. Their technician came, saw it, and said he would have to replace the whole thing, "so just be careful". WOW. If you are looking for a place to rent, bring a lawyer. If you are a landlord, stay away. Do your best to drive them out of business. They are not ethical. They will do a horrible job managing your property and week have a high turnover. Speaking of turnover, every time I called, there was someone different that handled my account. Employees come and go. Shame on you, Utopia. read more

Woohoo!!! First review! I rent from Utopia and have to say that they are one of the better property management companies that have dealt with. I was so afraid to rent being that I am so young. You hear so much about college kids getting taken advantage of by some of these hole in the wall management companies. So I figured that going with a larger company would do me justice. So far, so good! They have a really user friendly website that allowed me to apply on line. Their credit applications process was quick. I wasn't waiting a whole week to find out if I was approved. When I went into their office to sign my agreement, their receptionists were nice and they even offered me something to drink. While I waited, every staff member that came out to the front lobby greeted me and asked if I had been helped. Most people would just ignore you if they knew you weren't there to see them... My rental agent has been polite and professional from the day she showed me the apartment until now. Since this is the first time that I have rented on my own,I call them for everything. No exaggeration. If I were her, I'd probably be beating my head against a wall if I had to deal with someone as paranoid and overbearing as I am. But she remains sweet and understanding :) Their maintenance guys are pretty awesome, too! Victor and Armando have been assigned to fix minor things for me and they have always been professional and funny every time they have been here. read more

Recently moved into a place managed by Utopia. We relocated from the the SF bay area, which is stressful enough as it is especially with two kids. Utopia made it easy and in fact we were extremely surprised at the condition of the home. When we originally saw it, we loved the location and also the general lay out of the place. The only thing we weren't super thrilled about was how dated everything was. I asked the agent (who had an awesome Irish Accent)if they were going to do any upgrades, but she advised me they weren't. BUT when i went to pick up my keys, the manager, Joe, had this huge smile but told me to report anything that seemed broken or dirty, etc. It seemed weird and i was ready to walk into a dirty house. When i got to the place and opened the door, my jaw hit the floor. THE WHOLE CONDO HAD BEEN UPGRADED! The old shoddy 1980s cabinets were replaced with dark wood, the yellow formica counters were remived and replaced with granite, the flooring was new all through the home! It was amazing! I could not be more thrilled with the quality of service and respect that we were treated with. Kudos to Joe and her assistant. I am confident i will enjoy my time with you all. My husband and i appreciate your efforts, professionalism, and the fact that you treated us like people and not a paycheck. Our hats off to you! read more

This is a review for Utopia's real estate services - working with Ryan Donigan and April Manusig. It was a great experience working with Ryan to sell my condo (investment property). I lived out of town and was worried about issues with going through the process remotely, but Ryan handled everything smoothly. He and April worked with existing tenants (who were in the process of moving) to coordinate showings, coordinated repairs, and helped navigate some specific complications of my sell. I was impressed with Ryan's strategic advice and guidance throughout the process and April was incredibly responsive and a master of coordination throughout. Listing to closing was about a month. I had reached out to Ryan more than a year earlier (when he sold a similar unit to mine in the same complex) to ask some questions. He was very friendly and worked to understand my situation without any pressure. So a year later when I was finally ready to sell it was an easy choice to reach out to him. If you're looking for a realtor, you will not regret working with Ryan. read more