We had an unpleasant experience dealing with Eddie Casares and Pacific Coast Realty throughout the few years we lived in one of the properties he manages. I read Lonnie T's review and agree with the last sentence of it.
The experience was so-so for most of the 3+ years we occupied the property. There were about a half dozen times we needed to call for service because of issues with the older home. The first couple times in year one, he was fairly responsive and would make an appointment and show up within a few days to fix the problem. He would show up with a child and attempt to do the work himself. It was awkward and a bit unprofessional for a businessman show up to a private residence with his child, but we accommodated them. We found it strange he attempts to fix things himself, presumably to pay himself and save the expense of hiring a real professional. The problem was, he frequently needed to make several trips in and out of the home because he lacked skills, tools and preparation to make small repairs. Again, we tolerated it. We never saw an invoice, so we have no idea how much he billed the home owners for his services, which made us feel uncomfortable because he could conceivably bill home owners without transparency.
After the first year, he was less responsive to text messages and emails. His general approach is to ignore your requests for help until you make a second request. Then, he would say he could be at the home at a set time, but he would not show up on time or not at all. He would reschedule at the last minute or you would have to call and ask what ahppened to the appointment. During the last few months of living in the property, we notified him of an electrical issue. He ignored my message and never contacted my wife or I about the problem. In the meantime, we fixed the problem ourselves. About two weeks later, on a Saturday, my wife and I were out of town for a getaway weekend. He called her cell phone and said he was inside the house (without any communication or an appointment) and could not find the problem. THIS GUY WAS INSIDE OUR HOME WITHOUT ANY COMMUNICATION WHATSOEVER. This is illegal and unethical. We gave notice we intended to move out.
Additionally, he called me in July 2017 while my family was on vacation. He demanded to enter the property and show the property to prospective tenants. Because he had been inside my home without permission, I felt uncomfortable with this and asked him to wait until we got home from vacation. He harassed me and threatened to withhold my security deposit if I did not authorize him to enter the home while I was on vacation. I had to coordinate with my neighbor to keep an eye on people coming in and out of the home while I was out of town.
Another associate showed up about 5 days before our move out to do a pre-move out inspection. It was a little difficult to understand his english because of his accent, but he essentially said the home was in "move-in" condition and everything checked out fine. I initialed and signed his inspection that included NO instructions to clean or make repairs. Despite this, my wife spent many hours cleaning the home after all the furniture was moved out of the place.
On the day of our move out, Eddie showed up and the house was spotless. It was in great shape. A friend of ours who owns several rental properties was there to see us off. She noted how great the place looked and how she would be thankful if any of her tenants ever left a property looking so clean. The place was as clean as it was, if not cleaner, than it was when we moved in. My wife spent hours cleaning the entire place, especially the carpet, which was not new when we moved in. Eddie advised us that we were required to have an invoice for a professional cleaning company to clean the floors prior to move out. Nowhere in our contract did it state we were required to do this. He unilaterally invented this requirement as a scam for gouging renters.
He withheld $240 for carpet cleaning of the entire house. We challenged this bill because the carpets were clean and they failed to point out any issues with the carpets during the pre-move out inspection. He responded that there was some dirt mark at the bottom of the stairs and my cat left odor all over the house. This was a lie and any small amount of dirt on well traveled stairs can be attributed to normal wear and tear after 3+ years of occupying the home. We challenged the invoice and were successfully refunded.
The point of this review is to forewarn home owners and renters that this company does not provide quality customer service or treat renters with professionalism. read more
