Based on my immediate experiences, I have not had a great experience moving in with Earnest Homes…read more I TRULY hope that the experience improves going forward, if it does I will update my review accordingly. But for now, this is my honest experience in case its helpful for anyone else who is planning to rent with Earnest Homes.
First, I'll say that working with Donna Cura has been great. She's extremely professional, and has been incredibly attentive at answering my questions around lease documentation. Thank you Donna for making the lease process go extremely smoothly.
My concerns so far are with the move-in experience. Move in day is supposed to be exciting - you've just made a big commitment to sign a lease, put a deposit / pay first months rent, and have gone through the process of setting up all your paperwork and utilities. Come move-in day I thought I would be receiving SOME level of PROACTIVE communication / outreach about move-in day logistics and a walkthrough of the house. Instead, my move-in experience was the opposite. It felt like after I signed the documents my move-in process was an afterthought.
I scheduled a walkthrough around 12:30 PM on a Friday, and was met by Oneda, who was really only there to conduct an inspection of the house. She didn't know how the house was set up or have any instructions for me on how to use the things in the house. I'll go into detail around what went wrong. To be fair, Oneda did a great job going through the inspection and was very thorough and objective at documenting the different issues (e.g., cracks in the tiling, stains, scratches, etc.)
Now, where the experience went downhill for me. When we entered into the home, there were a HOST Of things that did not go right:
1) There were three electric outlets that had not been completed prior to move in, they had no covers on them. It looked as if the team had painted but forgotten to put the covers back on.
2) There was a lot of grime and dirt on the bathroom faucets. It didn't seem like they did a thorough cleaning prior to us moving in.
3) Oneda did not have any idea on how to navigate the things in the house, for instance, there were electric blinds that were down and she had no idea how to open them. I randomly figured it out by pressing a button on a remote nearby. Not a good look for someone who is supposed to be showing ME around the house.
4) The previous owner left their front door security camera system + a nest security system(?) I'm not even sure what it is because no one explained / has explained to me what it is for. At the moment, I'm not sure if its the previous owner using it to spy on us or not, because I have been provided literally zero information on it.
5) I have no hot water at the moment. I did my part to set up SoCal Gas, but I was again not given any information on move-in day on how to turn on the water heater. I was not even told where it was located, I went to the backyard to find it, and once I located it I had no idea on how to turn on it / determine if its even working. I followed the instructions / watched a youtube video in hopes of trying to turn it on to no avail.
6) Now, the one that really started the negative impression of the move-in experience - I was not given the front door access codes until 4:47 PM, despite my walkthrough being at 12:30 PM. And the ONLY reason I received them was BECAUSE I HAD to follow up and ask for them! I sent an email at 1:40PM, which did not get a response. I then called the number around 4:07 PM to follow up and thank god for Brian, because he followed up with my account manager, Keren Mendoza, (who I believe is supposed to be responsible for onboarding us) and I then received a response from Keren on how to unlock the front door code at 4:47 PM. That is absolutely ridiculous. She did not include ANY other information required like how to turn on the water heater, or use the electric blinds, or security system.
I'm still hopeful that this experience can be turned around, but I will wait until I get a response from the team to provide an update.