This review is for Ewing & Clark's property management service. I've worked with two property managers there -- Alex Lee and Merrily Jacobs. Alex was great (and is the reason that I'm giving Ewing & Clark 2 stars instead of 1 star). Merrily... not so much.
I had a good experience with Alex. He was responsive and helpful. It was generally pretty hassle-free experience, and I was happy to refer him to other friends who needed a property manager.
Then, about two years ago, Alex left (at least the property management side) and I was assigned to Merrily Jacobs.
There were various minor issues with Merrily's property management service.
1. She didn't send me a copy of the lease when she got a new tenant.
2. Her emails were riddled with grammar / punctuation errors. For example, she frequently (25 - 50% of the time) failed to put a space after a period. So it isn't that she doesn't know grammar rules -- she just doesn't care. Straight up sloppiness
3. When the unit needed to be re-rented or a tenant's was up for renewal, she didn't really keep me up to date on the status of renting the unit.
4. It took her quite a while to re-rent the unit as well, and there was little communication from Merrily during the process. I'm not even sure if she was really actively advertising the unit... maybe she was, but she didn't really communicate what was going on.
5. She extended the tenant's lease by a month without talking to me or asking my permission. She knew that I was strongly considering selling the unit, so she should talk to me before making changes with the lease.
She wasn't terrible, necessarily, but I also didn't get a great vibe from her. If a friend asked me for a recommendation on Merrily, I would've said to look elsewhere.
But okay, moving on.
I decide I want to sell my unit. For pretty understandable reasons, I did not wish to use Merrily as my real estate agent. I'd prefer to use someone who (1) I know and trust and (2) I haven't had an actively bad experience with.
So, I tell Merrily that I'm going to sell the unit, and that's when all hell breaks loose. It's my *very* distinct impression that she's pissed off that I didn't hire her to sell the unit and she's doing *everything* she can to make things as difficult as possible.
1. Ewing and Clark's standard property management contract tries to force you to list your property with them for sale, if you sell it. They require you to wait *SIX MONTHS* after terminating your contract with them before you can lease with someone else. Seriously? [I fought and won this one.]
2. Then I wanted to stage the unit and start showing it, since the tenant moved out 2 weeks early. She said no. I have a hard time believing this was for any reason other than to piss me off. [The lease actually stipulates that I have the right to show the unit -- though staging is debatable. Certainly, the tenant doesn't care if we put stuff in a unit he's not living in anyway.]
3. I agreed to credit back the tenant's remaining rent so that I can start staging the unit, and now there's new delays. Even though the tenant moved out a week or two ago and his lease officially ends in three days, she hadn't scheduled a time to visit the unit and get the keys back. Really?
4. She ended up delivering the keys *a week late*. This is AFTER refusing to let us stage the apartment in advance because the "tenant had a right to quiet usage of the unit" (even though he had, in fact, completely moved out). So he has a right to "quiet usage of the unit" (that he's not, in fact, using), but I -- the owner -- don't have the same rights after his lease was terminated??
5. She let the tenant paint the walls blue / purple, and never notified me of this. This includes re-painting beige / maroon walls and painting over a mural. In fairness to her, this was the extent of conversation:
Merrily: "If we could paint it out to a off white that will go with the furnishings of others it would be a large help in finding a suitable tenant. "
Me: "Sure, that's fine."
Merrily [later, after finding a tenant]: "It worked! ... We only have to repaint the bedroom"
Somehow, now, my walls are blue. Given that I had a pretty elaborate mural painted on one wall, I would've expected to be *at least* notified of this. Not specifically told that we wouldn't have to re-paint it and then discover that it was, in fact, repainted. And repainted blue, too.
It feels like Merrily is intentionally making my life as difficult as possible. That is unprofessional at best and unethical at worst.
I hope the other property managers at Ewing and Clark are better. As I said in the beginning, Alex Lee was great. read more