Black Bear Rentals and Leanne Bannerman managed our three properties without issue for about a year, but problems arose when a tenant broke her lease early. Ms. Bannerman gave conflicting advice and handled this lease termination differently than a prior one on another property of ours. When we asked for clarification, communication broke down and she told us we were welcome to move our properties to another company if we didn't want to follow her advice. When we agreed, she became aggressive and unwilling to work through a reasonable termination of our contracts. She then said she would discount the termination fee only if we signed an agreement promising not to share our experience publicly or file a claim with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. When we refused, she ended our management agreements early, kept thousands in rent after breaking the contract, and left us to take over three properties with only a few hours' notice. Although the NCREC found no technical rule violations in our claim, Leanne's refusal to communicate clearly, her aggressive approach, and her failure to work through a difficult situation in a professional manner highlighted serious concerns about her reliability and accountability as a property manager. I do not recommend this company, as the professionalism and integrity we expected were not present when it mattered most. read more

When I moved in it was just after Covid 19 hit. I picked this home off zillow bc Gretchen, the woman showing the rentals, was so personable and friendly. I absolutely wanted to rent from someone who was considerate and authentic. Plus, I really like bears. However, the second I signed the lease, she disappeared and LeeAnn, the owner, was my primary point of communication. From the first convo she was so flippant and rude I eventually mentioned it and she said that my application- along with my soon-to-be-ex husband's- was "abnormal" and made her tense. This was likely bc I had lost my job from covid. Very unprofessional from the start. For the high rent, and the fact that I was her client, I expected much more and tried to always give her an opportunity to change her tone. The pros: It was in Montford, a great neighborhood. The home was cute with little details. The cons. The fridge was broke over a MONTH before it was replaced. Bills were always high. A large pipe in the basement BURST spewing water everywhere. The washing machine broke. The toilets constantly ran. Lots of bugs from all cracks. I had the feeling that the place had not been inspected prior to move in. One woman on the team said this is what happens when you rent an old home. As someone who has lived in 27 towns in 4 countries, I can assure you that is BS. There were lots of holes in the walls, dust and cobwebs in all the corners and all over the basement. I spent 2 hours cleaning upon moving in, just to try to make it feel fresher. Fast forward to not even a year later, I was emailed a notice: the landlords had decided to move back into their home this year and I would be on a mo to mo starting in May that would soon lead to a 30-day notice. This is perfectly legal so why is this an issue? Bc I was not given any warning prior to moving XC during a pandemic. When I mentioned all this Lee Ann snapped "I am not at liberty to discuss the owner's plan with prospective tenants unless directed to do so by the owner which in this case I was not.  Not a shred of empathy for the circumstances, and even supercilious about her deceit. When I moved out I cleaned it THEN paid $220 to have a thorough professional clean from MaidPro. They had a checklist, and I took pics of every room. LeeAnn said: "Our cleaners completed the following: Cleaned all cobwebs and pet hair  throughout upper level of the house .- there was still an abundance of both when we arrived Cleaned ceiling fans and globes on all lights that were accessible Steam cleaned all doors and trim removing grime, fingerprints, etc. Cleaned walls Steam Cleaned all window sills. Cleaned all inside windows. Steam Cleaned all baseboards Steam Cleaned bathroom and removed mold from jets in tub Cleaned refrigerator and stove Cleaned inside and outside of kitchen and bathroom cabinets Cleaned roll out vent walls removing leaves, mud, cobwebs and cleaned floor on sunporch Sweep and cleaned cobwebs and pet hair from basement" MaidPro said: "On May 26th our Pros did a top to bottom move out clean which included the inside of the fridge. You can go to this link to see our standard 49-Point cleaning checklist. Attached you will see images that were taken by you after the cleaning we provided on May 26th. Hopefully Black Bear Rentals will see that a standard move-out clean was fulfilled. It is not standard MaidPro or move-out cleaning practice to "steam clean" doors/trim/window sills/baseboards. We wiped down all baseboards, window sills, doors and spot checked the walls with non-harsh methods by using cleaning solution and micro fiber rags to get all dust and grime off those areas. Furthermore, from the pictures there is no evidence of "abundance" of cobwebs and pet hair..." Bottom line: I was a single mom mowing the massive lawn, weeding, sweeping daily, scrubbing, getting the place immaculate even though their were always broken appliances and issues and regardless of the fact that I LEFT IT IN BETTER SHAPE THAN I FOUND IT they screwed me. They're the scum of thee earth, or AVL at least. Super surprised by any good reviews here (family and rich home owners who live in Florida maybe?) I have met 2 other people in town RANDOMLY who rented from BB and they were not happy. One said, "Lee Ann is pathologically toxic, with no remorse, no awareness of others, obsessed with her and her company's image". Yikes. Hope she enjoys leaving a catty response to this review, because I'm out of that swamp, so could care less. read more

We moved in July 2020 after having a great tour from Gretchen. Once we moved in, we noticed that the ceiling fan in the bedroom was at risk of falling out of the ceiling, (understanding that covid was complicated things) we waited two weeks for it to get repaired. Next, the HVAC stopped working in September, and for two weeks they gave us space heaters and we bought our own personal fans because the weather was up and down. In November the washing machine stopped spinning and the belt was burning- they replaced the washer with a lower quality unit a week later. It took a week in January to get our water temperature turned up. Also in January, our dishwasher wouldn't turn on. I contacted Jordan (aka- Stacy), over the phone they walked through all the circuit breakers, kitchen outlets, and it still wouldn't work. They sent out an appliance servicer who found that the random switch on the counter was flipped off. He explained that this was a shortcut/sloppy electrical work and that dishwashers shouldn't be on a switch (he was so nice, and made me feel that I wasn't crazy). Black Bear charged us $87 for the service call- Lee Ann responded stating I'm sorry you feel this was our mistake or issue but Stacy is correct. "We tried to troubleshoot with you and did all that we could think to do and never imagined you might not have tried the switches in the house. Sometimes things get missed. While I appreciate the service vendor's opinion, this is a common way to wire dishwashers (it's also true of disposals, by the way)." I didn't appreciate the condescending comment about the disposal- ALL Disposals are on a Switch! I strongly feel that they should have contacted the owners about it, but they said they were not going to make the owners take care of the bill- that it was a "tenant responsibility." In April we noticed that our refrigerator door was not sealing, and you could see the light through the crack. Brooke, the maintenance guy came and looked at it and said that he would need to order a seal. I checked in a month later, and the decision was made that it would be too costly and difficult to replace the seal. They decided not to replace the fridge, leaving us with the crack in the refrigerator door. On move out, they gave us an option to walk through with them in person or virtually. I choose virtually because of Covid (a choice a strong regret). I also sent them a list of everything in the house and yard that needed attention. I explained that because the carpets were old and had been gross since we moved in, and that they would probably need to be replaced before they sold the house, that I was not going to have them professionally cleaned, but would clean them with my personal cleaner. Lee Ann responded "That all sounds absolutely fine (and fair enough!)" I just received my disposition and final refund and was charged $172 for carpet cleaning. I reached out to Lee Ann and her response was "When we did the walk-through at the property there were still signs in the upstairs that the carpets needed to be steam cleaned and there was still a smell of dog. We needed to go ahead and send the steam cleaners." This was not our agreement. Now, the best part. Remembering that this house is 10 years old, after moving out Lee Ann sent me pictures of what she called "tremendous damage" to the hardwood floors (anyone and everyone I showed the pictures she sent me completely agreed that they had not seen this "damage" before we moved out and that this would be considered minor at best). Before leaving the property I meticulously swept the floors because I have two golden retrievers and lots of hair to clean up. I, and everyone who has ever been in my house, never saw any damage (including my neighbors who have a very similar house built by the same builders 10 years ago). I would have included it in the long list of all the other problems of the house because I didn't want anything like this to come up. I asked her to see the quote, but she wouldn't send it until she sent the refund. She also declined to allow me to get my own second opinion/ quote for the repair because "they had handed the property back to the owners." This "tremendous" damage was in the main walking path in the living room, on an old hardwood floor- but according to them it was not normal wear it tear it was "gouges!" They took $800 out of my refund to repair two planks of wood. I have been professional and understanding that during this time covid has made things more challenging. But the way we were treated as consumers was not okay. I do not appreciate the unkind, condescending way that Black Bear (and especially Lee Ann) have treated us. We paid to live in this house, and we did not deserve what we through. I'm not sure what their deal is, but this is my warning for future renters to avoid renting from this agency. Thanks, Black Bear, We wish you well. read more

I contracted with Black Bear Rentals to rent out my home in Asheville after I decided to go back to my life of RVing full-time for a while. This was the first time I have ever rented out property that I owned. Bottom line, the day I moved out of my house, my $1900 14' Necky Looksha kayak with a custom seat and rudder and other add-ons and my $1200 Thule Hullavator kayak rack, Thule cross bars, and kayak cart were taken from my property. I had notified BBR that I would be leaving my property there by voice, text, and email. I couldn't put the kayak on my RV and even the 4', 40# Hullavator racks and cross bars were too large to fit inside my little RV. It was easier to just leave them there and come back and get them when I got my car. I was just going to Atlanta and I knew I could find a car there. BBR said that was fine and said they would notify the tenants. I left Asheville on June 1st, the day the cleaning crew was to come, and I left the kayak outside on the rack where it had been hanging when not being used since I bought the house in August of last year, and I left the Hullavator racks and cart inside the basement. My handyman was staining my deck after the tenants moved in and sent me photos of his work. In the photos, I noticed that my kayak wasn't on the rack. He asked the tenants and they said it wasn't there when they moved in. I called BBR and they did their best to deny any liability. I called the police, put up STOLEN notices all over the internet. Turns out that the cleaning crew came back out on the 2nd after BBR was called by my neighbor re: trash cans and trash that were left on his property. My neighbor said that the man that cleaned up the trash put my kayak on top of his truck and drove away. My neighbor assumed that I had just sold it, as I had sold so many things, so he didn't call me. When a rep of BBR contacted me on the 4th, they said nothing about my property not being there. Long story short - the cleaning crew removed my kayak. They said no-one had said anything about NOT removing anything from the house. BBR denied any liability, but the cleaning crew paid me for the kayak. A few days later, I asked a friend of mine to go get my racks out of the basement. BBR asked permission from the tenants and went over there and there were no racks. I have emails exchanged with employees and management from BBR from the 4th to the 18th of June regarding my property and they acted clueless that the property was missing, even though they KNEW I was leaving and they had been inside the house several times from the 4th through the 15th. BBR has refused to accept any responsibility for not telling the cleaning crew NOT TO REMOVE MY PROPERTY. I moved out on the 1st, The new tenants didn't move in until the 4th of June and said the racks and kayak weren't there when they moved in. I have five witnesses, people who helped me move, that will testify that the racks and kayak was there when they left my house after midnight on the morning of June 1st. The employees at BBR are saying that since the racks weren't there on the 4th, they must have never been there, that they only have some texts and emails from me, and no proof of them being there. Logic states that if the cleaning crew removed the kayak, and I have video proof that they removed the kayak, they removed the racks too. The cleaning crew denies it. At first I was upset with the cleaning crew - they admitted to removing the kayak after I had the video of their truck and paid me for the kayak. But they deny that they took the racks and BBR refuses to take any responsibility for my new $1200 rack system. No one had a key to my property except for BBR, a key in the lock box for the cleaning crew or whoever else BBR allowed in my house, and myself. And I was in Atlanta by noon on the 1st of June. Eight or nine little words and a dose of accountability and professionalism could have prevented all of this. Simply telling the cleaning crew: "Don't remove Owner's kayak and racks from the house." Or, "We don't want to be responsible for your property so you need to go ahead and move it elsewhere." Eight more little words would have remedied the current situation: "It was our fault. We will reimburse you." My neighbor also called me to complain about my grass. My other neighbor was going to cut it but he couldn't and BBR said they had someone they could get to do it, but it wasn't cut for a month - so it was cut by my new property management company. Disgusted is my rating. Not disappointed, not unhappy, totally and completely disgusted. My attorney wrote them a letter - they denied liability and stretched the truth. I filed a complaint with the Real Estate Commission and BBR lied to them about the dates they did a walk-through of the house and said the move was "chaotic" insinuating that I didn't know what happened to my racks. Blame it on the victim. read more

Not a great impression. Called on a couple of houses and they were nice enough, but not overly helpful. Called again about another that ended up being taken, so asked about other properties coming up. They seemed helpful and told us about a couple. Said she didn't have much info, but she would redirect us to one of her agents. Then nothing. We have called multiple times over a few days and they're ignoring us. No thank you! I don't want a landlord who ignores potential customers. I'm trying to rent a house, not jump through your hoops. That usually means they are also lacking with maintenance requests, in my experience. I would have just liked a response, but nothing. I'm good without that. read more

The team at Blackbear Rentals has been terrific these past two years as our rental agents. They have been very responsive to all my questions and flexible in meeting our rental property needs. Great coverage of the property to rent and they have found really quality people to rent our house. They have worked through all issues renters have had and kept me informed every step of the way. Anything that needed fixing they had quality people perform the work. Kathy, Arlington VA read more

We have had a great experience with Blackbear managing our rental house. Anglea O'Brien has found us a great long term tenant that we are very happy with. They are always quick to answer email and have a good reputation around town with local realtors. It is easy to recommend them as a property management company. read more

STAY AWAY.... This rental company has poor business practices. Upon initial move in home was a mess. Sand/dirt on floors, dog hair everywhere, ash in fireplace, paint missing from doors and walls, Electrical Plug covers missing, Left items from prior lease in basement and shed, Dog waste and holes over entire back yard, Nails in walls, holes in walls and doors, Cabinets falling apart, Peeling paper inside cabinets and stains... And the list goes on! We had to clean this Property Upon move in ourselves after a 12 hour drive. Not a good start. Many Amenity's and appliances well past use of life and not functioning properly. In all fairness requests for repairs for the most part were dealt with in a fair amount of time.. MOST of them. Others for instance a Hole in window with crack took almost 5 months to fix. The HVAC system leaked water covering basement floor damaging any and all items in its path. (there was a history of this happening from prior tenants) There were talks of replacement of HVAC however never happened thru entire lease. Post lease deposit was shaved and charged for cleaning. We vacuumed, swept, mopped, wiped walls, wiped base boards, wiped fans, cleaned bathrooms, cleaned fireplace, etc spotless. We left the property better than we received it by 10 fold. We even communicated if there was anything we could do or was in need we would be glad to come back and fix or clean it. (FYI we left 15 days prior to lease; property was empty and still our responsibility for 15 more days). We had any opportunity to clean anything prior to leases end if this was the case. We communicated this with Black Bear. In fact we called and asked for a Walk Thru and Black Bear Declined stating too hectic of a time to provide this. Keep in mind we still had 15 days for a walk thru to ensue and it never happened due to Black Bear Rental aka Blackbearwnc declining. In addition Black Bear rental wanted to show our home. We understand this is necessary for renting post lease term. We are a very private family and not very happy with strangers in our home while our personals items are about and in process of packing. The company assured us that the walk thru would be monitored as they are a professional group and would conduct the walk thru with complete supervision. We agreed and arranged multiple showings. The first showing was Tremendously stressful and Unsupervised. While Black Bear was supposed to show the house people were walking in and out of our home unsupervised and were found in our personal bedrooms and areas with out a Black Bear employee showing them the property. We had at one time 5 to 7 groups ( about 15-20 people) in our home at once with only 2 BBR employees. We had to herd these potential renters out of these personal places unsupervised multiple times. One girl argued with us to let her see the room where dogs were locked behind for the showing. One person was in our bedroom dresser drawer!! UNACCEPTABLE, and not professional as Black Bear has stated they would conduct themselves or IS IT?. Fortunately we moved prior to any addition showing! With regards to the fee charged This was Black Bears way of pulling funds from our deposit. They never contacted us to state there was a charge/ fee. It was only discovered upon receipt of the deposit check. The amount was incorrect. We contacted the office woman whom answered was rather snotty and stated she could not give me an answer. I also went to the office and again the woman was snotty with no help. Black bears response was with every excuse in the book from this is what we charge for cleaning to Pet deposits were usually not refundable. However our lease terms stated " REFUNDABLE PET DEPOSIT". She even stated that we usually keep more for the carpets to be cleaned due to pets.. I asked if she even knew what property she was dealing with as the property had none! I Wish i could post photos here and if can find a way I will so you can see the audacity of this rental company. BB Charged us this cleaning fee and stated cleaning service needed to clean for 5 hours. IMPOSSIBLE! We left the home immaculate. The terms of the lease were met and upheld by our family to the letter. In closing Your best bet would be to stay away! Moving, packing and rearranging your life is stress enough without the added inconveniences and poor business practices of this Black Bear Rental in Asheville NC, aka Blackbearwnc, its just not worth it! Owners beware if this company is managing your property maybe you should shop for a new... this property was in poor shape and I would think this would be their job to manage. The things that needed replacing were never replaced an nothing but more water damage/mold from the HVAC and or a fire from a hob-job wiring of furnace will be more costly than the proper care of the property. Save the headache and your property and if you do choose to rent or have your property managed with this company BE WARNED and best of luck! read more

I have rented from quite a few different property management groups in asheville, these folks are far superior. Fast and attentive, if you had an issue they would work hard to resolve it. Angela is fantastic and I always appreciated her help and professional level of communication. I would highly recommend these guys. read more