I am writing this review to express my deep dissatisfaction with the management practices at Ginoza Realty. My experience has been one of constant stress due to an overly rigid and uncompromising approach to property inspections. The inspection process is incredibly stressful and lacks a basic understanding of what it means to live in a home. The management team treats the property as if it must be kept in 'show-room' condition at all times, as if for an immediate sale. They are completely unsympathetic to the realities of daily life, treating temporary, harmless, and minor household messiness as grounds for threats of eviction. This creates an environment of intimidation rather than professional property management. Living in constant fear of losing your housing over petty, non-damaging issues is unacceptable. Furthermore, their handling of maintenance issues is highly problematic. When I encountered a property defect, the contractor they dispatched misdiagnosed the root cause and blamed me as the tenant. It appears to be a standard practice for management to shift the financial responsibility of home repairs onto the tenant rather than the property owner. Despite providing a clear, logical explanation as to why the issue was structural and not caused by my use of the unit, management refused to consider my side of the story and forced me to pay for the service call. I feel that this company prioritizes offloading maintenance costs onto tenants rather than fostering a fair and reasonable living experience. I would urge potential tenants to be very cautious when considering a property managed by this firm. read more

I'm sorry a few people are having a hard time. I came from a competing rental company that was extremely difficult to deal with. I have had a great experience so far. Everyone in the office had a good attitude and my property was cleaned and came with toiet paper, soap and curtains. They did not rush me into this rental and they've always responded in a timely manner. I can tell they are trying. We shall see what happens after a trouble call or cleaning fee, but I'm hoping for the best. read more

Ive waited one (1) month to have my hot water faucet in the shower looked at (third request) and still nothing from the plumbing company. Im also having another rent increase which means I will probably be paying over $1400 per month for a termite ridden house and a shower that I hesitate to use. Lucky I have two bathrooms so I can use the hallway bathroom. But paying for three bedroom, two bath house, I should be able to use everything. The only thing keeping me in this house is the location. Im about 5 minutes from work and stores are all so close. read more

Eek! Methinks not. I've always stayed clear of this place ever since I filled out an application with them. Was "approved" and yet they never found anything that fit my needs for a rental. Seems as if they make quite a bit of cash off people like me. Be careful is all I'll say. Use your best judgement too! read more

I received outstanding service from Kristen when searching for a rental! Kristen was so sweet & helpful. Sean, Jenny & Diane we're also so helpful in helping me secure the perfect rental! I'm truly grateful to the entire Ginoza staff! I recently sold my home of 20 years & was looking to downsize. It's been years since I've ventured into the rental market. Everyone made my experience a great one! I would definitely recommend contacting Ginoza Realty when searching for your next home! Thanks to all of you, I'll be moving into my new residence on July 20th! I'm excited!!! With much appreciation, Jolean Uilani Yamada read more

Like most Hilo property managers (not all) this company is horrible to deal with. They are intrusive and insist on viewing inside your house every six months. This is a low-end renter company and should be avoided at all cost for good quality tenants on the the higher end. The other reviews stating the down side are spot-on. Renter beware. read more

Dropped off $20 cash fee for application and submitted all requirements. After speaking with unprofessional girl she told me my credit was approved then not approved and that I would receive letter in the mail. Well that letter never arrived!?! After one week of not hearing back from them I left a couple messages and they never returned my call. I ended up finding my own place without any assistance. Ginoza only took my money without them rendering any services. They never even gave me a receipt. Watch out for these useless money hungry people. You're better off on your own or a different realtor company. These people could care less about customer service. read more

Gosh, I'm sorry for other people's experience. I just started renting from them. I have had only positive experiences, with Russell and all the people there. (and yes, I am white. I didn't notice that making any difference). They replaced the old stove when asked. They have always been helpful, kind and responsive. read more

I was laughed at when I begged for help in trying to get a place to stay with my three children. We were technically homeless and my money was running out with having to stay in hotels. The woman at the front counter LAUGHED AT ME IN FRONT OF MY CHILDREN when I was practically in tears. STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE. read more

My experience with employee Kristen Thario as a property manager has been right out of a horror film! I asked her again and again for a rental agreement that would protect me, tenants, property and herself. Never done! This rental took place during the eruption of Kilauea. We both agreed to decrease our fees due the emergency. She agreed to come down to a Ten percent commission and I agreed to come down $300 and also pay for Helco and internet. They were tearing out jungle next door to me and I asked her to go look immediately as this may be a property line issue. She is the property manager. She did not! She told the tenants to take pictures and she sent me those. Then she wanted to know why I was endangering the tenants by telling them to photograph the neighbors and could cause problems with neighbors! SHE told the tenant to take pictures. Not me! I was under strict instructions not to ever text or call the tenants! She also told the tenants she used to live at my home!! Total lie. She double charged me (20%) $220, She charged me the excise tax of $91. plus a $150 fee For 3 months "early termination of collection services" after I fired her. She did not do due diligence. Plus has not returned my $400 art work. Boo! read more

A BIG mahalo to Ginoza Realty. I've been working with the staff and management for over 30 years and they have been an excellent management group to work with. I've tried others but they couldn't come close. Most recently, I've worked closely with Kristen who goes above and beyond her role in helping me with my rentals. I highly recommend this group as they are competent, fair and honest. Mahalo, Kristen! read more

I know these 5 star people must be friends of this company (seriously!) If you are a renter please take my advice and stay away. This is how this company roles. In a monopoly of the rental market in Hilo and on the outskirts, they have zero reason to make the tenants happy but have every reason to please the landlords. The way they work is they charge exorbitant move out cleaning fees that are suppose to be charged to the landlord, not the tenant. In the state licensing dept you will find that tenants are to leave the premise they way they found it broom swept. But Ginoza will charge tenants anywhere between $500-800 for cleaning that is illegal according to state policies (unless you damaged the property somehow). I am under the assumption they get away with it many times because 1. no one questions it 2. people move away from the island and are unable to bring them to small claims court. It DOES NOT matter how clean you leave the place (we left it spotless) they will still charge you the same amount. In a "progressive" place like Hawaii you would think landlords would take note of this. This is clearly a "steal from the poor" who can't afford to purchase housing and save money for the higher income. It's a gross and disgusting practice and I would hope both landlord and tenant would be discouraged in a practice that has zero "aloha" for people who really need it. This company should be completely ashamed of themselves but justification goes a long way. Also to note, they charge exorbitant fees for the smallest of issues, nickeling and diming you all the way. I wouldn't be surprised (of course I am not certain) that this company isn't getting kickbacks from their cleaners and maintenance people. read more

Yeah, I agree with everyone else's reviews. The girls there are very unprofessional and even the workers in general. Don't waste your money.

Rented from Ginoza for years. Everything was okay up until we had to move out of state. We professionally cleaned the carpet and cleaned everything but was still charged which was deducted from our deposit. Sliding screen door was broken which the owners were aware of and said they would replace the door because it the door was not the right door and that's the reason the rails did not align correctly and would not lock. We were also charged to fix the screen because there was a hole which was there because the latch to lock the screen door tore into the screen door. If they were going to replace the door then why charge us to repair the screen? One of the sliding door from the rooms had to be replaced because it was broken when we lived there and when he installed the new door he did not install the circular handle part which we also was charged for. Point is, don't expect your full deposit back even if you have it cleaned. You may as well just leave it as is when you move out. read more

Jus want to say DO NOT rent from Ginoza realty!! They are unprofessional and we got taken advantage by them! Every time I would call them about something their answer was always "I'm not aware of that or I don't remember that" They were suppose to reimburse us on some things they promised and every time I asked about it Carol Ginoza would always brush me off and say that she didn't say that or she wasn't aware of that! Then they took money out of our security deposit for a door the handy man damaged! They are horrible and are dishonest!! We want everyone to know! read more

There were many claims from Ginoza about my deposit return. 22 Ilima Place, Hilo Rental from July "17 to Feb.' 18 1.Dirty light fixtures: I was only there being a single person no pets etc for 6 mos. I noticed no buzzing in light fixtures. 2.Not spraying for pests. There was a lapse of time about 1 or more weeks from when I left to when they did inspection .You have to spray often. 3. Claimed shelves and drawers were dirty. Sorry, I didn't even use most of them and the ones I used I cleaned and then my prof cleaner went over them to make sure. 4.Their cleaner went over the toilet with Clorox whether it needed it or not. . My cleaner had a photo of the cleaned toilet and it looked good. This is the island.! Their cleaner suggested flushing more. Ha. Kitchen sinks are on record for having a higher biotic community than the toilet anyway. It wouldn't take to long before a cleaned toilet to be unclean. A friend, who also is a professional inspector checked the place out after I left. and stated that it looked even cleaner than before I moved in and later mentioned information on YELP to support my allegation of making unsubstantiated claims for profit. There was another instance before where I allegedly owed them a sum for not reporting a handyman coming in. read more

We needed a place to rent while we were going to build our house in Hilo, so we applied with Ginoza after a realtor friend recommended them. We were moving from Oahu so we knew that timing everything was going to be challenging. After applying and sending in our application we flew to hilo for a few days to begin our search. This was about a month and a half out from when we would be moving there. We were dealing with Jenny on the phone before, during, and after the application process to let them know our plans. She was very pleasant and always helpful. We qualified right away, explained our situation and what type of home we were looking for. They we very accommodating with setting up showings and very helpful making suggestions for what we were looking for. They suggested we drive by the properties first and then when we called them to see it, they set up appointments that day for us. We met Sean and he was very pleasant also. By the 3rd day of searching, we still hadn't found a place and was a bit concerned. Then a house came up right in the neighborhood we needed. Sean called and said he would try his best to show us the house that evening after asking the current tenants to make an exception for us (usually have to allow 2 days notice). We were so touched because of the special effort made. Although we didn't end up with that house (we found another one at the same time on CL that worked perfect for us) we called to thank Sean for his special efforts and that we appreciated all his help. They made us feel that they cared about our needs and it was very encouraging to speak to such pleasant people. We didn't have that experience at all with another property management company we also applied with. Totally different! Thank you for caring Ginoza! read more

Ginoza is a horrible realtor. Aside from their intrusive inspections, they refuse to fix problems in the houses they rent out. It should be their responsibility to replace things like that. Regardless if it's in the agreement. The plumbing in our unit is a huge problem, always has been and always will be and in order to fix it, we have to get permission from Ginoza or else plumbers can't do anything about it. But Ginoza never answers back so we have to wait weeks or months for them to do anything about it. If the people who fix stuff or who are directly employed by Ginoza don't want to do something, they'll pull the "it's not up to code" excuse. Which they've done multiple times. Yet other Ginoza units with tenants that are family of Ginoza realtors, they are given preferential treatment. Also to see if those things are really "not up to code" I've also asked several reputable plumbers if anything was not up to code with my plumbing and their response was no. They asked me if the house was a Ginoza property. Then I was told by them that, lots of plumbers that are contracted through Ginoza use that excuse when they know they're not going to get paid enough for the job. Which sounds really shady to me. But Ginoza doesn't like to use outside contractors so they can circumvent some rules. Again, really shady. read more

I cannot stress to you how badly you will be treated by this company and I guarantee they will screw you over. They will nickel and dime you for everything, treat you like, and never bat an eye. They have a monopoly in this area so they feel as though they are entitled to treat you with reckless abandon. I have dealt with many many real estate companies over the years, and they are far and away the absolute worst. I feel sorry for anyone having to deal with them in the future. read more

I have done business with many realestate companies throughout the years, and I have to say that these are the most unprofessional group of individuals that I have ever come accross. They are rude and make you feel as if you are not worth their precious time. This makes me sad that they are successful in the realestate biz here in Hilo, simply for the lack of competition. I would not recommend any individual walking in to there office, you may just get your head bit off! read more

We recently had to move from an apartment another issue be because neighboring tenants cigarette smoke coming into our windows. Our property manager was forewarned before we even took the 6 months lease that my wife has only one working lung and that the cigarette smoke would be harmful to her health as well as jeopardize her safety. Because they failed to resolve the issue with the neighboring tenants within one week, we were able to break our lease without having to give any notice at all. (see landlord tenant code section 63). We found a two bedroom house out of Hilo for the same rent amount we were paying for a hole in the wall(one bedroom apartment in a large house divided up into four apartments(non-code). Of course the new landlord to be asked us for references from previous rentals we had lived in. All except one came back with negative comments. Prior to living in the apartment we moved from, we had rented for about nine months or so from Ginoza Realty at the Pikake Apartments. When we had to move from our prior location because of yes again cigarette smoke entering our unit, our apartment HAD NOT BEEN CLEANED with dead roaches and mold in the refrigerator and cockroach eggs on all the closet shelves. Most of the lubers did not work properly, there was a huge rat hole in the rear room window screen and the light covers were full of dead bugs. And of course the floor and windows were dirty and NOT CLEANED. We had to have the men helping us move our belongings in help clean as we were unloading. This meant WE HAD TOO PAY FOR THE CLEANING TOO. Here's the warning for everyone out there that is considering renting from Ginoza at least at this particular location: 1) They had advertised the apartment as a special offer that gave you a $500 gift certicate for KTA. Who wouldn't take a two bedroom apartment for $700 all utilities included and get a months of grocery expenses paid for? On the check-in list it was mentioned that the floors are tilted, and of course this was the reason for the $500 gift certificate "bait" to lure suckers in to take the legally "unliveable" unit. Within several months both my wife and I began having muscle spasms in our right legs, and it began getting worst as time went on. The floors were so bad that if you put a can of pork & beans on its side on the floor on one side of the room, it would roll all the way to the other side of the room. We decided to leave because we realized that the living conditions were affecting our health negatively. So when we moved out, we had to remind Ginoza that the apartment was not clean upon our moving in so we were not going to clean it upon our departure. What we also did was have the county building inspector look at the apartment before our lease ended. He was informed us verbally that the unit was "unliveable" and I think a official letter went out to Ginoza of the findings. The result, Ginoza was not allowed to rent the unit out to anyone from the time we vacated the apartment. 2)When my new landlord called Mr. Russell Arakawa the rental agent who is in-charge of the Pikake Apartments, he got all flustered over the phone and was rude to my landlord telling her that he could not give her a response to her inquiry regarding our standing as past tenants. Instead he told her that he would be faxing his response to her. The content of his response was very negative and obviously retalitory. As we had my wife's seeing eye dog with us when we lived there we had a pet addendum which required US to pay for the treating of the apartment for both fleas as there was no carpet, so we also paid people that Ginoza recomended for the stripping and waxing of the floors(tilting floors). In Mr. Arakawa"s response he said that we were not clean tenants (my wife is a military girl and is a clean freak). He complained that the unit was not clean when we left. Why then was a cleaning fee NOT DEDUCTED from my security deposit? I have the stub for my refund check. He says they had to have the unit fumigated. That we paid for, and I have the receipt for it as it was the only thing deducted from our security deposit upon being refunded to us. He also informed her that we left many holes in the wall (the place is a dump to begin with, not to mention that the entire apartment building is sinking causing the walls to crack at the corners, the screens for the windows can't fit because of this). And that we complained a lot about our neighbors being too loud ( we had Micronesians at the corner unit and they partied 3-4 times a weeks till late). My advice from my personal experience from renting from Ginoza Realty is TO STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM ANY OF THEIR RENTALS, AND DON'T GET SUCKED INTO ANY OF THEIR RENTALS WITH GIFT CERTIFICATES-IT'S BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO RENT THE UNIT OTHERWISE. DO ALL YOUR COMMUNICATIONS WITH YOUR LANDLORD IN WRITING & RETURN RECEIPT MAIL-KEEP COPIES FOR YOUR PROTECTION. read more

We rented from Ginoza in 2006-2010. In their handbook, they say that if your key is lost they will replace it for free, just gotta let them know. I let Jody know that I had lost my house keys and she never offered to replace it, then when we moved out to come back to Honolulu ( praise God!) they charged me for replacing all the doors locks. Just took it right out of my deposit! While there my daughter got bad asthma and I noticed a lot of mildew and black stuff in the carpet. When I told Jody, she tried to make me think that I dropped liquid on the carpet and didn't wipe it up. Really? In the corner of all the rooms, I dropped liquid?!?! On the edges of every room? Luckily it was a nice old plantation house with a huge yard right in town-- very charming and CHEAP compared to Honolulu rent! I guess the joke is on them bc I had two cats the whole time, my brother was running his mechanic business out of the double garage AND I rented out the bottom basement area for $500/month more than half my rent! I guess I expected a lot more from a Japanese owned company. I mean they're all about integrity and honor right? WRONG! It's been bothering me for six years and I've just exorcised this company from my being. AAAHHH! Now I just have to make sure they see this review! read more

Horrible! The management really needs to retrain the employees in "Customer Service". Once they have ran your credit and checked references then, and only then can you look at properties for rent. Eventually, they got back saying that I qualified and to notify them of any properties in which I would be interested in. When I finally called to set up a showing the person on the phone said that someone would get back to me and schedule something. I called at 0900am and was never called back. Later, that afternoon at 1400pm I called back and said that I never received a call back, this person said they never got a message? I even gave the name of the person who took my call. Anyways, I get to the property for a showing and the person who is there to show us this property doesn't even introduce them self and is just there to open the door, literally! No service, no smile, no hi my name is, no what are you guys looking for, no this house has so and so bedrooms,bathrooms, washer and dryer.....NOTHING!! In fact, I had to ask the questions and do the research myself...SAD!! Is your money in real estate sales or property management? In my opinion "neither". If these homeowners only knew how their properties were managed and shown, I bet they wouldn't use this company! Eventually, I would go through this process three times and every time I got the same experience. Finally, I took my business elsewhere and found a company with "GREAT" customer service and outstanding professionalism! Lastly, I've spoken with multiple people who have used this company and always get the same response....Horrible! read more

I found Ginoza through the news paper and while searching online. I asked around about the company and have heard mixed reviews from various people. To be completely honest the service there is lacking. I went into their office to request more information about their rental applications and how this whole process works as I am new to renting. I was provided no help or guidance the only thing I was told was they needed a copy of my ID and $$. I left as i felt unwelcome while filling out my application. After returning to the office with my completed application and $$ I was finally greeted and told I would have to wait 7 days and my application would most likely be processed at that time. It has been about 10 days now and I have not received any word from their office in regards to my application. I called a few times to check on the status and the only response i have received was that it was pending. I understand that i'm only one person in a huge selection pool of renters but an update or a little more information when i call would be greatly appreciated. I would not suggest working with Ginoza unless absolutely needed. read more