River Oak Realty attempted to manage a property I own in Jacksonville for the past few years. I did not pick this company as my property managers, but ended up with them when my previous property manager fell ill and sold her company (and all her rental management contracts) to River Oak. That being the case they have never been very good at placing quality tenants, taking care of the tenants, or taking care of the property itself. Having two other rental properties in other states that have property management companies taking very good care of them for me, I feel I have a good idea of what to expect and River Oak fell well short. I've since hired another management company to take care of my house in Jacksonville. Some specific problems are below:
- After having a quality tenant in the house for four years, the tenant had to contact me directly to let me know he was moving out as he could not get a reply from River Oak after attempting to contact them numerous times. I then in turn could not contact the manager assigned to the property either, but eventually was able to get Tiffany to respond and she took over the property.
- Over course of having them manage the property, I've had no less than four different people managing the property. They have told me that they are a team and that they all help, but my experience was that my tenant's concerns and mine fell through the cracks and unless I actively kept on River Oak that things would not get taken care of. I utilize property managers so I do not have to do just this.
- After putting in a brand new refrigerator, the ice maker stopped working within a couple of months. The tenant put in a trouble call to River Oak, and didn't hear anything for months. This should have been an easy fix as the refrigerator was still under warrantee. Only after the tenant contacted me directly and I contacted River Oak was the issue eventually resolved.
- After having to have a tenant evicted, the manager that was assigned to my house Jennifer was doing a fine job getting the house back in shape to be rented back out. She sent an email stating that the house was ready to be rented and it just needed a little more work on the outside. We replied and stated that her plan sounded good and to go ahead an list the property. Then we didn't hear anything for two weeks. When I called to see what was going on it turned out that Jennifer had resigned. River Oak said they were listing the property the next day, which they did, but I do not believe they would have if I had not called.
These are just some examples of where I do not feel that River Oak provided the service that I was paying them for leaving me with the feeling that they were just collecting their percentage of the rent and not providing good service in return. There were some times where they did do well such as dealing with the neighborhood's HOA when I had a tenant that was not getting on well with the HOA. In the end though, I can not recommend River Oak Realty and I believe there are better companies in Jacksonville that provide a better service for owners and tenants. read more