My Neighborhood in Fairfax, Va currently employs this neighborhood. They have been nothing short of nightmares, horrible communication with residents and governing a neighborhood instead of managing it. I have been a homeowner in this neighborhood for 20 years, and it was till the past 5 years they have been a pain. They will randomly tow your or your visitors cars. The Community managers are people who don't even live in your neighborhood, we are in Fairfax and it's being run by people in Manassas and Woodbridge! There is no care or respect for the residents, since the community organizer doesn't even live there! They will cite you for the smallest infraction, and will not change 10+ year old neighborhood rules. Took our HOA nearly 15 years to change parking rules after my fellow residents stood up! We pay so much in HOA fees for what? The pool is only open for 3 months out of 12! This organization told our HOA to spend 10k+ on security cameras which violate our privacy! Our trash and recycling after 20 years went from 2 days a week to only one in the past 2 years! And they will not change providers who will come twice a week, nor will they negotiate on pricing with the vendor for only coming once a week! We are paying for trash pick up twice a week when they only come once now! This organization will harass residents with mail, and inspections done by people out side of this neighborhood, and then send you multiple notices, and even threatening using lawsuits! This is no way to treat a homeowner, especially one of the original residents of this neighborhood. They even hire people with criminal backgrounds! Beware! read more

Horrible management company. I have never seen a worse management company. They don't care about the communities they're supposed to serve and are extremely rude. read more

We moved into a community managed by this company over a week ago and we can't get anyone to answer basic questions like what day trash/recycling is picked up on. The receptionist routes all calls to a Ryan Hennessey who is completely non responsive. I've called and emailed for over a week now and can't get a response from anyone. Horrible service of an HOA!!! What are we paying for? read more

An absolute nightmare! This is just terrible! The management lacks professionalism and has a terrible attitude. They don't apologize for their mistakes and communication is frustrating, always avoiding the main issues. No matter the title, whether it's manager, CEO, or vice president, it seems like a joke--they either don't respond at all or provide irrelevant and unhelpful information (no matter how solid the evidence you provide). They are clueless about the law, provide incorrect information, and lack a positive service attitude. Why call it a community association management at all? It's ridiculous. WHY IS SUCH A COMPANY STILL ALLOWED TO OPERATE? read more

If you are in a situation where these people are your HOA management company, I feel for you. It is so frustrating trying to work with someone who doesn't care about the communities they are supposed to manage and improve. They have no communication with members of the community, instead they rely on our neighbors to spread the word. Meanwhile not everyone is on Facebook, etc to get updates. I could easily make this review into a mini book series, but I'll leave it at this. Good luck to you if you have to deal with them. read more

UPDATE: 8/22/18--I received an email from the CMO and my concerns are being addressed and sent to the board. Thank goodness! I hope something positive will come out of this board review and restore our community to the tranquil place it used to be when I decided to invest my hard earned savings into my second owned property. I love my community and I want to do what is right to keep the property values raising in this extremely competitive markket. I have a slice of heaven I want to keep and needed extra help to have concerning issues addressed as they were not by the property manager or the HOA Board elected, they continue to focus on other issues that are not as urgent as they are now. When SFMC was walking through my property the CEO, Mr. George Ellis, gave me his card and said " if these issues are not taken care of, please contact me directly". I took his card and contacted him directly along with the COO and the CMO, who accepted my LinkedIn request, but deleted or blocked me. I have sent emails regarding the lawn and landscaping. It appears the mowers came yesterday 8/17/18, however the grass is still 2 feet high in more places than not, the weeds don't even look like they mowed over them in most places. It is inexcusable and they must not be honoring their contract commitments and provisions. They need to come back and fix their crappy job or not get paid for this terrible embarrassing mess. It is out of control. I have attached a few photos. We need help and no one has time to help. read more

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Hired to manage Tuscarora Village (Mary Frank). Nothing gets done except finger pointing and throwing all responsibility back to the homeowners... who are being charged $$$$$$$$$$. read more

Avoid working with this company at all costs. If you hear that they may potentially be your property management/association, write against it. Slow responses, no responses, no due diligence, no value or return for the expensive fees you pay them. Lazy. read more

I recently bought a property they manage and never received any paperwork about HOA payments- largely because our mailboxes were destroyed and my mail went missing. then I get a notice they are sending my account to a collection agency! no one bothered to stop by or politely inquire after the mailbox incident to try to sort things out. they were rude to me, openly hostile, and clearly on a mission to generate late fees. the VA attorney general needs to look into them read more

If I could rate them 0 stars I would. I would not be paying them my HOA fees if I wasn't required to. They have not been easy to reach or work with and my requests have been processed in the most untimely manner possible. read more

Reading the emails, I see now that their lack of owner service and poor communication makes sense. They are simply horrible. I live in the Van Metre condos, Village Walk, and have received no information from the recent HOA meeting that I missed. I have emailed and called the main office with anemic response, and now, nothing. How a company with this reputation stays in business is incomprehensible. I, for one, would like our association to look into other companies, but I don't even know who to contact. We're supposed to have a brand new board, but no information from SFMC about the meeting or minutes. Anyone with information? Thanks read more

This lack of Management company is an absolute joke! There could not manage them selves let alone a community. The Discovery Square Community which is under their list of properties is a disaster. Landscape workers stealing water and electricity from the homeowners. And they sit back and do nothing, they do not only answer the phone but good luck getting a response back from them if a message is left. Drugs in this community is an ongoing problem and all they do is turn their head. They are never on site to see the homeowners who leave their trash containers out all the time and all the trash that is over flowing from the garbage containers. The landscape company they use Heritage Landscape is even a bigger joke. Taylor Vasicek, one of the so called (want to be Manager) is horrible, not sure how she got the job in the first place. I guess, garbage in, garbage out. Get what you pay for. I think SMFC should have done a bit od a better background check on her. read more

SFMC is by far the worst property management company I have ever seen. If you are a developer, thinking about hiring SFMC for your new community, DONT! If you are a board thinking of hiring SFMC for their property management services, DONT! If you are an individual, looking to hire SFMC to assist in renting and managing your property, DONT! They are terrible with communication at all levels of the organization. I sent all of their "executives" an email (after three weeks of no response from the property manager) and a week later, not one has replied. I am not surprised to see other peoples negative reviews on this site as well as others. They have a 1.0 out of 1.0 on Yelp, and a 1.8 out of 5.0 on Google. ALL! CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED. TRUST THE REVIEWS. DO NOT HIRE SFMC!!!!!!!!! read more

Community Association Management SFMC, formally, Service First Management & Consulting Inc, as managing agent for Ashton Commons Association is responsible for the collection of assessments; detailed, accurate financial reporting; budget preparation; investment assistance and advising the Board of Directors in financial management of the Association activities. Unethical Practice!!! SFMC is charging our neighborhood 320% more than other companies in the area who would offer the same services - and more - would charge us. We are a community of 28 townhomes with no amenities, and we pay $125 a month in HOA fees for each home, which is a total of $42,000 a year. For 2015, this company is projecting that we will be paying approximately $8,000 for financial management services, which does not include i.e., coping & printing, and coupons etcetera. Other companies that I researched, charge about $2,500 for the same services. Money is being mismanaged and we are being RIPPED OFF. America Greed! read more

I am a real estate professional and an HOA board member. I have worked with SFMC and lived in a community they managed for years. In one community, we finally fired them. In another community where I own a second home, they continue to manage and it is a nightmare. They are absolutely horrible at keeping records. There have been multiple good property owners who were charged for violations that were fixed quickly, simply because SFMC didn't forward their correspondence to the Board. SFMC subsequently lies and says that they don't have records, when several homeowners have shown proof that incontrovertibly exposes SFMC's incompetence and/or unethical practices. This poses a huge liability to HOAs. They seem to receive kickbacks from local contractors, and consistently recommend people they know. This would seem normal on the surface, except the ones they recommend are always incompetent and high cost. An expensive landscaping company SFMC recommended completely destroyed an elderly woman's backyard, after they pulled up her azalea bushes, lavender plants, hostas, flowering crape myrtle tree and flower beds before she called the cops and had them escorted off her property. The landscape crew thought they were "weeding" but they were never supposed to go into peoples private, fenced yards. Turns out, there were lots of complaints about this company and SFMC did not disclose that. Another example, the snow removal company they insisted was the best didn't show up during the last snowstorm, and as you might expect, SFMC wasn't answering the phone and didn't respond to emails. Speaking of emails... their response rate is astonishingly horrible. IF you get a response, consider yourself lucky. Most emails go unanswered, or the response is weeks later. I guess they assume problems go away if they ignore them. If you are considering management companies, DON'T go with SFMC. Your HOA, your residents and your sanity will thank you for choosing someone -- anyone -- else. read more

I wish I could stop paying this awful HOA and still keep my home. I'm in the Woodmore Town Center. They do not enforce any of the "HOA rules." Residents have painted their walkways terrible colors (orange being one), trash cans are left out throughout the community, and landscape management is poor. On top of that cars are parked in restricted areas, and the HOA has done nothing about it. It took months for me to get the correct pool passes. read more

Monday, April 8, 2018 I closed on my condominium November 2010. Many of the original owners still live in the buildings. I appreciate the amenities, location and friendly conversations. I intend to live here for several more years and look forward to the continuous development of downtown Manassas. Now for the things I don't appreciate... Residents are having problem with birds nesting in our vents. After I heard birds chirping through my bathroom vent, I contacted Service First Managing & Consulting (SFMC) and spoke with Kayla. This was a little over a month ago. A company was dispatched to my residence after I was given their information. Apparently, Kayla had given them the wrong address! The representative that came to my home confirmed this. He removed an old hornet's nest but did not check the other vent which is not covered. Where are the covers? On Thursday, April 5th, I contacted SFMC. The receptionist provided Kayla's voicemail. Kayla's message indicated she would be out of the office returning April 2nd. I left a message with my concerns. I did not hear back from Kayla so I called again Friday. The receptionist said Kayla was in a meeting and would be free later to call me back. I asked for Kayla's voicemail to leave another message; still no response. It is now Monday, April 8th. I called and the receptionist put me through to Kayla's voicemail again; that is not what I requested. I called back and the receptionist suggested Kayla's assistant. That was fine however, again, voicemail. I did not want to speak to a voicemail but an actual person! I called the receptionist back but my phone number had been sent to the mailbox. I called again and once again my phone number went to the mailbox. When I called from another number, I reached the receptionist immediately. I told her it was me again and that I wanted to speak to an actual person. She put me on hold for the assistant. I spoke to the assistant and let her know I was frustrated and certainly did not approve the way I was treated. She indicated Kayla was not in the office last week and I quickly interrupted and told her the receptionist said Kayla was in a meeting on Friday. I asked, "So the receptionist was lying?" I also told her I knew the receptionist blocked my phone number. The assistant said she was not aware of the bird situation but would investigate and get back with me. I gave her the number that was blocked for the return call. I reminded her that I pay close to $200 a month in association fees! The last thing I mentioned to the assistant was that the Better Business Bureau (BBB) shows one star rating for her organization. SFMC is not far from me. In the future I will complain in person. If anyone has a solution, let me know. read more

Been a homeowner in a community that SFMC manages for 15 years,I have to say up until now they hadn't bothered me with any HOA concerns. However I have been calling and emailing for about 3 weeks now and NO ONE even has the courtesy to contact me back! I have a problem tree in the common area - don't know who actually needs to look at it and didn't know where to start - I had hoped the so called "management" company could either help me or at least send me to the right person but their customer service stinks. As a homeowner paying $68 a month with no amenities I should at least rate a phone call back! I would give this company zero stars if I could. read more