Before begining my review, everyone should note that the company Madison Real Estate and Property Management is a merger of two or three companies. They are R. W. Dickerson, Baker and Associates etc. The individuals who you are dealing with are Dave Baker, Ron Dickerson, and Eric Bessett.
I am an out of town landlord trying to rent out my property. I would never do business with any of these individuals for the following reasons:
(1) TOO MUCH PAPERWORK
Whether you are a tenant or landlord, you will sign a huge stack of paperwork that will only guarantee them business or to say it another way lock you in a contract that you cannot get out of rather than providing you with the service you deserve.
(2) ONCE YOU SIGN THE CONTRACT, THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH
Once you sign the contract, the individual you went over the contract paperwork with you will NEVER answer their phones. Their cell phones go straight to voicemail and calls go unanswered unless you follow up vigorously. They will give you an office number where a young woman with probably a high school education will answer the phone and take down your property address and will have someone call you back. She will know NOTHING about the property or what work is being performed, how many tenants were screened etc. However, she will speak to you with a sense of arrogance now that you have already signed the contract and you depend on their services. I tried calling them at 9:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 2, 2:30 PM etc and achieved the same results. When are these people actually in the office that they have only provided me with an office phone number? They use voicemail like an answering machine. At the end of the day at 3:59 PM and call you back then (that is if it is convenient for them to do so) and if you don't answer, good luck. They will all be gone home by 4 PM. You will call back the office phone and leave another message to play phone tag the same way. Also, how come they were easily available before I signed the contract?
(3) EXPENSES ARE GROSSLY OVERSTATED
If you are an out of town landlord (which I am), their quotes for paint job, cleaning are almost twice what other companies charge. I was quoted $1500 for a paint job by Ron Dickerson, when I actually got it done for $800 by another company.
(4) WANT TO MAKE MONEY WITHOUT WORKING
I had three calls from craigslist to view the property and passed on the contact information to them. Those prospective tenants received NO call back and after my vigorous follow up for about a week, I found that all they had done is taken photos of the property and showed me damages and estimated that I spend about $3000- $4000 on repairs. They had not even put up the advertisement on any website. I wonder what would have happened if I had not followed up. read more