Please note that I am reviewing this entity as a former renter of a property they own/manage.
Ashcart also does business as Smith Family Real Estate, I believe, and owns many rental properties in the Collierville/Memphis area. The owner is Brandon Smith. We had an extremely unpleasant, fear filled year renting from Brandon. I would be very cautious doing business with this man, who conjures up words such as unctuous and irreverent. Our biggest complaint was we simply did not feel our privacy and space were respected; therefore, we never felt safe in the home. Smith had some work done on the yard when we moved in and, without notice the workers would remove the fence, for example, and we would have strangers coming in the yard. I realize this sounds strange, but it happened with some frequency. It was bizarre as I think people's backyards are rather private and off limits without an invitation. During the same project they dropped a tree on the home while we were in it so from then until the project was finished we stayed out of the home if the workers were there, which was complicated because they never showed up when we were told they would. A promised week-two week project turned into several months. Another day with the same project Smith had his colleague, a person we had never met, come to the house without notification and I came home to him watering the lawn in my backyard!! Another day months later we heard sounds and realized there was a worker on our roof who came into the yard and climbed on up-again, no notice. We also had health concern issues. When we moved in I was finding maggots in our kitchen and dining room. My reading/research indicated this meant something dead or rotting was attracting them-??? The powder room reeked of urine. I kept wiping the floors down with a urine odor eliminator thinking perhaps a little boy had missed several times with a previous tenant and finally noticed streaks in the paint and my best guess was someone had urinated all over the walls! So gross. We had a leaking toilet upstairs that we believed began over time to go through the ceiling, water coming into window casings and over a threshold into the home, slugs all over our kitchen and living room when it rained, and finally, a positive mold test which we sought after seeing all the water issues and slugs. We had a wasp infestation as well. I don't care for people wearing shoes in my homes, but I couldn't stand the idea of our family unknowingly walking over slugs, wasps,
and creatures in my carpets so that rule had to go by the wayside. The issues started the day we moved in and continued, so over time we talked to people in town about what to do to get out and also protect ourselves. We learned some rather unpleasant things about Smith's character and treatment of people. We tried to get an attorney to help us so that he couldn't put another tenant into the home without addressing the problems, but were told there was nothing we could do to help others. I am not sure if that's a TN thing, but I hope this information protects others from going through what we did. Things could certainly have been worse, but we had a pretty unpleasant and uncomfortable year. read more