Lee Arnold is a menace to society. I have asked him numerous times to stop soliciting to my mailbox and stop sending his flyers to us. My husband and I had the worst experience with this realtor. He is relentless, and makes poor decisions for his customers. Choose another realtor do your homework. read more

Not the easiest to work with. No one answers the phone. But they will eventually respond to a text.

This is hands down the worst property management company I have ever encountered. Our property was unfortunately forced under their management after a buyout. From the very beginning, communication was terrible, but what happened recently is beyond unacceptable. We received notice about a serious water leak at our rental property. We immediately authorized the necessary repairs. The property management team told us "if you don't hear back, it's fixed." We trusted them. We heard nothing, so we assumed the problem was taken care of -- that was a lie. Three months later, when my new property management company visited the home, they discovered the leak was still ongoing. The tenants had been paying $1,000+ in water bills every month for months because the main water line was never repaired. We had NO idea -- because this management group never followed up, never checked, and never informed us. They completely abandoned the issue without telling us. When confronted, instead of owning their mistake, they blamed the tenants -- saying the tenants should have scheduled the contractor themselves. This is completely false. It is the property manager's legal duty to coordinate repairs. They flat-out lied, tried to deflect responsibility, and left both us and the tenants to deal with the mess. To make matters worse, even though our management contract expired over a week ago, they are still refusing to release the tenant's security deposit or any final paperwork. I've sent repeated emails -- they ignore everything. The level of negligence, dishonesty, and total disrespect for both property owners and tenants is shocking. They cause nothing but stress, financial damage, and legal risks for their clients. DO NOT TRUST THEM WITH YOUR PROPERTY. Save yourself the headache, the money, and the legal trouble. Find someone else who actually cares about doing their job. read more

Don't hesitate to work with Benchmark and Lee Arnold - just do it, and you will be happy you did! Lee is a wealth of knowledge about the market, deeply dedicated to his clients (as well as his community - his generosity is amazing!), and a pleasure to communicate with. Highly recommend!! read more

I had a poor experience working with this property management company -- specifically with Jesus, who was not friendly nor professional. Based on all the other one-star reviews, I'm not surprised by the poor service I received and recommend avoiding Benchmark rental properties at all costs. read more

We fully experienced what the other 1 star reviewers faced. Put in an offer on a house on Saturday (offered at listing), was told we would receive a response on Monday. Monday went by and heard nothing. Our agent called Lee several times that day. He emailed and texted. No response. Tuesday came and our offer expired Tuesday - still nothing. Our agent continued to call, email, text. Nothing. He even called the office number - no answer. He called the assistants number - no answer. We then tried calling the office, and Lee. No answer. FINALLY Wednesday we get an EMAIL - saying accepted another offer. Our agent said he has never experienced something so unprofessional - to just blatantly avoid and ignore our efforts to get a response or update on the day they said they would get back to us. We will avoid this group - even if they had our dream house, we'd pass. read more

absolutely the worst - do not trust these people managing your home. they have no clue what they are doing! you will give your money and get nothing no call, no update, no email etc. they don"t ever answer the phone and wouldn"t even let us see the home after we paid the money. they also changed the date-info etc after we paid our money. this group is for sure - a stay away from! can"t imaging having to deal withis this anytime you need something or try to get your deposit back..... yah right read more

the worst management company we had dealt with the front desk agents are helpful but the rest are worthless never responded to all matters onhand all way tell you that did you sent it or not otherwise they never received they cashed out your check but said they never received go figure bad accounting dept bad service period read more

Lee is an absolutely terrible communicator and will drag you along the process with no response. He would have his poor assistant Jesus reach out to us but wouldn't reply to an email or call - Jesus would just say he had no info for us. Lee is a passive aggressive jerk and was no help. A real shame as the house we were looking at was prefect for our group and we were more than qualified. I recommended going with another company for your renting needs. read more

Renters & owners: I lived in a Benchmark property last year. Lee seemed very pleasant virtually upon meeting him. He handled service requests quickly I suppose. Given all that "decent" stuff he gets two stars thanks to Jesus his assistant. Since he callously sent my security deposit to the house we moved out of instead of the forwarding address we had emailed upon move out summary (& they received and marked noted in file). I'd love to assume it was an accident and give him the benefit of the doubt but upon many attempts to rectify the situation we finally got the payment in December after moving out Sept 30. I finally reached out to the owner who is a well established speaker & coach in the area to let her know we were filing against them and she handled it immediately. I'd say it was a BIG F you because we wouldn't let them show the house while we were living there because they let us know a month prior they were listing the house and we'd been asking for 2-3 months to rent again. We were set to start kindergarten in the neighborhood and everything but we had to move last minute. We bought our next house anyway, but he could have held that up or haulted the process because of his indecency when he held our ~$2900 deposit way past legal limit! Just want to let y'all know our experience. This is helpful to both renters and owners. read more

Don't waste your time with these people. This company is an absolute scam. Jesus was no help at all and was very unprofessional. We paid $250 for an application and received back credit scores than we're ridiculously inaccurate. We have tried countless times to contact the company regarding this issue and have been completely ignored. We will be filing a complaint with the BBB. read more

I bought a property Lee was selling and all was good at the start. Then out of the blue, he stops communicating with my realtors. As a first time homebuyer, this made the home buying process a lot more difficult than it had to be. My agents reached out to Lee numerous times via email, phone, and social media and received no response. Lee also failed to facilitate a VA repair until the day before closing that he was aware of for approximately two weeks. He finally communicated to our team that the home would cleaned and move-in ready. When we finally got the keys, the house was filthy and smelled awful. So instead of moving in we're deep cleaning. I do not recommend anyone to hire him as their agent and hope that you consider someone more reliable/professional. read more

I've been a client of Lee Arnold ever since I needed a good property manager for my San Marcos rental property. Lee quickly found an outstanding tenant for me who remained a resident for years. During the rental period, Lee and his high qualified and effective staff managed all of the headaches involved with being a landlord and I could not have been happier. When it became time for me to sell the property, Lee and his team handled everything in an outstanding manner. He excellently managed multiple buyer offers and obtained the right people to assist with preparing the property to sell. My property sold quickly and again, I could not have happier with the outcome. I highly recommend Lee Arnold and his Benchmark team for everything real estate. read more

Lee and the team at Benchmark Properties did an incredible job both with managing my property and helping me sell it quickly when the time came. Lee was always professional and clear with his communication and I always knew exactly what was going on throughout the process. I have recommended Benchmark Properties to friends and family and would use them again in a heartbeat. Thank you Lee and Jesus for being so helpful and effective! read more

This company has been the worst we've ever experienced. We applied for a house after speaking with Lee and Jesus. The application stated that we'd hear back within 24-48 hours. It's been a week since applying and they have not reached out to us via email or telephone. Actually that's a lie, Lee reaches out to me on Saturday asking if I looked at the properties he's sent. Hellooooo... we've applied to a house already and been in contact with him during the time we filled it out. After spending $150 on application fees, we fell ripped off. It's Monday and I've been trying to email and call all day to no answer. Please don't do business with these people, they are scam artists. read more

I have used several property managers for my properties and this was by far the WORST. Lee is terrible at communicating and gets defensive when he actually picks up the phone. They overcharge for everything and will absolutely take advantage of you while adding ZERO value. Look elsewhere - Ranch and Sea is great FYI. Just don't use Benchmark or do so at your own peril! read more

As someone who has 12+ years in property management, I would never refer anyone to do business with this man. Renter or Owner. I am absolutely disgusted and upset with the level of unprofessional business manner he has shown and also what he hasn't shown by not simply speaking to someone. It seems that I have lucked out with not doing business with this Lee Arnold. The reviews on here and FaceBook are extremely low. They are all recent activity as well. If possible I will post pictures of the email I received and my response to show my example rather than everyone just taking my words. read more

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I was obviously very concerned reading some of the reviews that are on this property management, but after experiencing it first hand as a renter, I can only say that these reviews are inaccurate. Lee was an awesome property manager! If we put in a maintenance request via email or the websites portal, someone was calling us almost instantly to have the request fulfilled. If we had a question, we received a response either that day or the next day. Our beginning experience was a little rocky, we had a little trouble getting a hold of him, but we got everything that we needed handled, and shortly after moving into our new place, Lee's office had moved locations, so it was very understandable that there was plenty going on, but that didn't stop him from doing his job. He was very personable and wanted to help us with any issues we had. read more

Lee was a God send when we started with 1 transaction with him (as amateurs attempting to do a flip) & then ended up doing 3 total! He helped us @ every step of the way even with so many things that came up that weren't his obligation to do. He made the process fun, way less scary, profitable when selling & negotiated when buying. He is a professional & knows a lot more in so many aspects than most. I would not only recommend him but I will only use him now:) read more

Lee Arnold talks a good game, but don't believe a word he says. If you're looking for a property manager who will respond to you instead of hiding behind voicemail for days at a time, one that will demonstrate professional conduct, indeed, even basic human decency, this is not the company for you. Briefly, he refused to acknowledge any of our emails or phone calls for 5 days, then sent a termination email, and then refused to meet with our new manager, instead insisting on dumping our keys and files in a vacant apartment. If you're interested in the details, here is the actual timeline of our dealings with him: May 14: We were notified that our property management company had transferred our account to Lee Arnold. May 21: My property co-owner and I requested a meeting, since none was suggested by Lee. May 24, 10:00 AM: We arrived at Lee's office for the meeting. He was late, but very pleasant and agreeable. All nods and OKs to everything we discussed. He committed to update pictures of our vacant property that day because the existing pictures were of the wrong unit. May 24, 5:53 PM: I sent email to Lee. The pictures have not been updated. May 24, 8:59 PM: Email from Lee: Pictures updated. Note: this is the last acknowledgement we received from Lee for the next 5 days. May 25, 10:00 AM: I sent email to Lee: The pictures your employee took with her iPhone don't show the property very well. Please use the attached photos. May 26, 10:50 AM: Since a day has gone by with no response, I sent another email: Please define the response times we can expect from you for email and telephone messages. May 28, 1:15 PM: I called Lee and get voice mail. I leave a message: We are very concerned that we have not heard from you. Please contact us. May 28, 3:30 PM: I called Lee's employee and asked if he is there. The answer: Yes, but he's busy working on software. I ask her to have him call me ASAP. May 28, 8:44 PM: Still no reply. Evidently no one is taking care of our property, so we call our old property manager and ask for a meeting. May 29, 3:26 PM: Lee sends a 30-day termination of services email. May 30, 8:06 AM: We send an email to our old property manager: "Lee Arnold has refused to respond to or even acknowledge receipt of any of our communications since May 25. This refusal to communicate will make it impossible to coordinate with Benchmark to facilitate the transfer to the new company. We are forced to ask you to confirm with them that they will agree to an immediate transfer to another company." May 31, 7:39 AM: Email from our previous property manager: "Benchmark has agreed to terminate the agreement immediately." Note: We asked for an immediate transfer to another company; we got an immediate termination. May 31, 09:35 AM: Email from Lee: "[my employee] will leave the files and all keys inside the unit today for your retrieval." May 31, 11:21 AM: We sent an email to Lee: "Please do not leave anything in the apartment. Our new manager will be contacting you or [your employee] for the handoff today." May 31, 12:49 PM: Email from Lee: "Our day is 100% booked, so the plan is to still leave the docs and keys at the property." We retrieved our keys and papers from the empty property. A week later, we received our deposits and reserve money from Lee, minus a full month's commission for all the "service" he provided. read more

Upon move-in this seems to be the best company around, but you just wait. Once you are in you will never hear from them again. I tried via email, text, phone.. Nothing! I even went to their place of business to find a receptionist that works for the building, not the company. She said they are not in the office very often. We left messages with her and withheld rent. They sure responded to my unanswered emails the minute I refused to pay rent. They continued to send empty threats to unlawfully evict me, take me to court. Please read and know your renters rights! I am so happy I got away from them! I DO NOT recommend this company read more

Lee Arnold will act like he is your friend and has your interest in mind, but this is all an act. My partner and I did everything Lee requested and he continues to string us a long, blatantly lied to us, ignored countless messages and has even gone as far as intentionally mailing important documents to the wrong address. I would strongly avoid working with Lee Arnold and Benchmark Properties. read more

Beware of this company. Lee and his staff are scam artists. Here is a brief list of the issues we had with this company. 1) Our tenants gave their 30 day notice in December 11th 2013. I wasn't informed about this until January 14th 2014. No apology from Lee or his assistant and no urgency to get the property on the leasing market. 2) 8 weeks after our tenant gave notice the property had not been listed anywhere, no pictures had been taken, and no cleaning had been done or even scheduled. Eventually a pathetic listing appeared on their website. 3) After repeated emails and phone calls about this issue Lee and his assistant stopped retuning phone calls altogether. After a week of radio silence I finally hired another property management company. 4) Lee withheld the former tenants forwarding address and contact information which delayed the return of her security deposit and has resulted in a lawsuit against me as the landlord. He also never provided receipts for any of the cleaning services. 5) After speaking to the former tenant I learned that she had just as many problems communicating with Benchmark as I did and that many maintenance issues went completely unaddressed. This company embodies the term slumlord. Do not use them. read more

THIS IS A FOLLOW UP TO Daniel A. review on 2/15/2014 If I could rate them 0 stars I would. I was the tenant Daniel spoke of. I originally rented the property located in Oceanside, CA through a company called Seagaze. They were garbage. After a few months we received a letter in the mail stating the contract was not being held by Benchmark. OK- First off, it is basically impossible to talk to a real human being because the website lists the # of a call center. So unless you know your guy, you can't talk to anyone. I called numerous times and no one could help me they just continued to transfer me around. We received a notice in the mail from Benchmark that stated we needed to cut our from t yard shrubs down or get fined by the city. The notice from the city fire dept was in the letter. It was dated A MONTH PRIOR!!!! We also received a water notice saying pay in full or the water would be shut off. Guess who pays the water bill, Benchmark. And since we weren't listed on the water bill we couldn't do anything. I had to call Benchmark and leave Laura a message saying I was calling the police. The water bill was past due THREE months! When it came time to move we were ready. Once we found a place we filled out the paperwork. They wanted our rental history so they faxed the form over to Benchmark to fill out. The form asks if we were ever given a 30 day notice/pay or evict notice. Laura, from Benchmark, marked yes. We NEVER missed rent. NEVER. A check was bounced once, but I hand delivered the payment the same day to avoid any issue. So our deposit on our new place was then doubled because we were considered a liability. It took forever to get ahold of Laura and after several emails bcd and forth she finally realized she was wrong. She never apologized. The damage was done and she didn't care. We alerted Benchmark that we would not be renewing our lease in December. I signed and emailed the pdf with the 30 day notice and our new rental address for the deposit. I emailed them to Laura so I had proof she got them. We moved and retuned the keys. Done. I withheld the rest of Januarys rent due to unfixed maintenance issues that I had listed when we moved in that were never handled. After 21 day we never received our deposit back. So I try to get ahold of Benchmark. I eventually get ahold of Lee. He gives me the runs round BS. He tells me that Benchmark is no longer holding our lease and that the owner has requested it back (Daniel). I tell Lee I have no way of getting ahold of the owner. HE tells me that they sent us a letter with the owners contact information and alerting us to the change. So of course I ask, and he says the letter was sent 2 weeks prior to our old rental address because they did not have our new address on file. WHAT!!!!! I fwd him the email I sent to Laura with our 30 day notice and new fading address on it. Lee refused to give me the contact information. He eventually just began ignoring my calls and emails. I must have called that office everyday for weeks. Eventually I got a call from the new property management company (who said the owner called him and asked him to contact us), a nice gentleman, who gave me the owners information. At this point it had been a month since we moved out and no deposit. At this point the law says that the ENTIRE deposit needs to be returned in full and nothing can be withheld. I had to contact a lawyer. Daniel eventually gave us part of the deposit back. I could have sued for the full thing but I felt bad because it seems he got screwed over just as much as we did by Benchmark. Lee and Laura are worthless and full of lies. The are hiding under a corporate umbrella which they think will protect them. read more

Working with Lee on the purchase of our home was a great experience. We looked at several houses and Lee was always generous with his time and expertise. We asked many questions and could tell that Lee was genuinely concerned with our understanding of the entire process. Lee made sure to explain every detail along the way and always made sure to ask if we had any other questions. He frequently told us, "Make sure you read this and call me with any questions." Having Lee on our side was one of the best decisions we made when buying a house. I highly recommend anyone looking to buy or sell in Southern California to call Lee. read more

Thank you Lee Arnold and team for alway making it easy. They keep me informed and up to date monthly and have never had any issues with my home after someone has rented it. Thank you for making my life this much easier. read more

The owner, Lee Arnold, is great at being charming, yet horrible at providing good service. He clearly has no concept of what good service is or he has no desire to provide it IMHO. My wife and I went from experiencing him being incredibly responsive, while reviewing home rental options, to handing us the keys on move-in day, and it literally taking weeks to get him on the phone each time there was an issue. Not a day or two, which is maxing it out as it is, but literally weeks. He also promised us a lot of fixes upon move-in and when we arrived none of it was done, or it was sloppily done. And....poof.....he was gone. You may think the home he represents might be worth the risk, but when you need Lee for any reason after move-in, you will wait way too long and find yourself continually frustrated. I would never rent a property from him again. read more

I cannot say enough good things about Lee Arnold and Benchmark Property Management. I have moved around alot over the years and dealt with many with different landlords and mangement companies and without a doubt had the BEST experience with Lee. He is trustworthy, professional and extremely responsive. He made the entire process so easy, the way it should be. Plus, being able to access everything online was very convenient. I would reccomend Lee Arnold and Benchmark Property Management to everyone. Lee, thank you and your team so much for the best rental experience I have ever had. read more

Lee Arnold helped us buy our first home in Point Loma. He was always available to answer our many questions throughout the entire process. He walked us through every step of way and made sure we were comfortable with every decision. His professionalism when dealing with other lenders and agents was top notch and commendable. Working with Lee made us feel like we were his only client even though we knew we weren't. He made sure we considered every option and the outcome they would bring. We were even able to get a last minute credit from the seller due to Lee's suggestion to have the sewer line scoped and it paid off! Even after the sale, Lee has provided us with great feedback on what upgrades would be beneficial to the house in the long run. I would highly recommend Lee and his company to anyone looking to buy or sell real estate in Southern California! read more

It took you weeks to reply not days. So your office was closed for weeks? That kind of business are you running? Stop lying and get some better customer service about yourself! No sense in replying for the public now. read more

We have had a great experience with Lee and his team. Whenever there is an issue with our home, we are able to get it resolved quickly with Lee's help. He is in regular communication with us when we have projects getting ready to start and while they are being worked on, and we really appreciate the flexibility they (Benchmark Property, and the home owners) have shown in consideration of my family's schedule. read more

I made the mistake of Contacting Benchmark Property Management to find a house to rent. the agent (Lee Arnold) was less then satisfactory. The only thing i received from Benchmark Property Management was Dishonest application processing and terrible customer service. I have filed a complaint with the BBB. My advise is to stay clear of Benchmark Property Management. read more

We just rented out our condo in carlsbad with Benchmark. As first-timers using a property manager, Lee and Laura have been very helpful and understanding of my many questions. I appreciate their time and attention to my property. Stefanie L. read more

Even our owner stopped contacting Benchmark. They dealt with us directly as tenants due to being embarrassed by how bad of a Property Manager you were. It's actually quite disappointing. read more

Absolutely horrible company. We've been using them for 1 1/2 years, and will be hiring a lawyer to get us out of the contract with them, and get us our money back. Our time with them has been an absolute nightmare! Please, do yourself a favor, and go elsewhere!! read more

I wish I could give them a ZERO because that's what they deserve. This is the worst property management I have ever came in contact with. The company never picks up the phone and is horrible at returning calls in a timely manner. They sent us an email saying we had to vacate the property because the owner was selling it and we scrammed to find another place during the pandemic with no luck in San Diego we ended up moving out of state. Lee took for ever to get back to us about our deposit well over 30 days and when he finally did he had a list of things including utilities bills that he claimed they had to payoff. Well, we tried to argue it but property managers in general are very difficult to deal with so we just wrote it off which is sad because we had 2700.00 deposit. He's a liar and a thief. He also lied about my lease renewal agreement, funny how it magically disappeared on our portal, and therefore we did not have any recourse. read more

Lee from Benchmark Properties went above and beyond to help us sell our previous home, and then purchase our forever dream home. I've never experienced this type of quality and service from a realty company. Lee guided us through each step of the process and outlined a strategy proven to sell homes quickly. He brought in a team of professionals to take 4K photography and video, and even a drone team to take aerial videos! Lee's team put together a video and photo showcase of the house like nothing I've ever seen! When our house finally went on the market, it sold in two days!! TWO DAYS! Lee and Benchmark Properties knows exactly what they are doing and how to sell your home in record time! Thank you so much to Lee and his team at Benchmark Properties for making what would otherwise be out of reach dream, a reality. read more

We were fortunate enough to have Lee Arnold at Benchmark Property Management help us to list and sell our house as well as purchase a new home. He is extremely knowledgeable and helped make the selling/buying process go as smooth as possible. Our house was listed and an offer was accepted within 48 hours. Lee provided open communication throughout the entire process. He was easy to get a hold of and was always looking out for us. He pays close attention to detail and is always sincere. We would highly recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell their home. He will get it done the right way! read more

I wouldnt use this outfit to rent a dog house . Never returns phone calls or emails . Number is disconnected and if answered is a answering service full of apologies. If your a property owner BEWARE look at the previous reviews , Lee Arnold is a scam .. So sad this company is allowed to continue doing business , Im sure fraud charges are pending at least i hope so BEWARE read more

Beware of Benchmark, in particular, Lee Arnold! In the beginning Lee Arnold's sales pitch is impressive, but that's all it is...just a sales ploy! Don't dare to try to reach him on weekends, or anytime for that matter, as he becomes insulted; he only wants to communicate when he's good and ready, and days and weeks can go by before you hear from him. Did I hear someone say, "prima donna?" Carol from San Marcos read more