My experience with Red Wagon Properties was frustrating from the beginning of the lease through the…read morefinal security-deposit accounting.
Communication and property oversight were consistently two of the biggest problems. At move-in, I raised concerns about the cleanliness and condition of the property, and Red Wagon sent cleaners out multiple times. Even after that, the home was still not in a condition I considered properly cleaned, and I ultimately cleaned portions of the property myself.
What bothered me most about that process was that the burden seemed to fall on me, as the incoming tenant, to determine whether the home had been properly cleaned and then repeatedly contact the cleaning service if it had not. In my view, that should be part of the property management company's responsibility between tenants. A rental company should verify that a property is actually ready for occupancy before turning it over, rather than relying on the new tenant to identify deficiencies and coordinate repeated cleaning attempts.
That made the move-out process especially frustrating. In my opinion, I left the home in significantly better condition than it was in when I received it, yet I was still faced with additional cleaning-related deductions and had to repeatedly challenge the accounting to understand what I was actually being charged for.
I also did not find the experience particularly military-friendly. As an active-duty servicemember relocating due to military obligations, I was no longer in the San Antonio area while trying to resolve these issues. The amount of resistance, repeated follow-up, and lack of clear documentation made it feel as though my being out of town was working against me. I cannot speak to their intent, but from my perspective it felt like they were counting on me not being local enough to continue challenging questionable charges.
My first month's rent was prorated based on my move-in date, but when I moved out, I was charged the full final month rather than having the final month prorated based on my move-out date. Military renters in particular should read the lease carefully and keep detailed records of all move-in and move-out conditions, payments, and charges.
The move-out process was the most disappointing part. My security-deposit statement included several deductions that required repeated follow-up to understand and reconcile. I repeatedly requested supporting documentation and was told that the tenant statement itself served as the "invoice record."
After I continued questioning the accounting, Red Wagon ultimately reversed the entire pest-control deduction and later acknowledged that part of the amount originally listed simply as "carpet cleaning" was actually for carpet stretching and should not have been charged to me. That information was not apparent from the original accounting. Had I simply accepted their first statement without questioning it, I would have lost money on charges they later acknowledged were not properly attributable to me.
I appreciate that some charges were eventually corrected, but it should not have required this much effort to obtain an accurate accounting of a security deposit. The repeated revisions, difficulty obtaining underlying documentation, poor communication, lack of attentiveness to property condition between tenants, and overall handling of my military relocation left me with very little confidence in their management practices.
Based on my experience, I would not rent through Red Wagon Properties again. My biggest concerns were communication, transparency and accuracy of move-out charges, attentiveness to the property, treatment of a military tenant relocating out of the area, and the amount of effort required to get errors in the final accounting corrected.
