Grow Properties

In my humble opinion, the home I viewed was very dirty. Certainly not ready for a showing. An entire section of the fence was laying on the ground, mostly in the neighbor's yard. The ad even depicted "fenced yard". After the showing, I called the office and mentioned this to the receptionist that answered. Her response was that they would not rent it that way. They would do what was needed prior to move in. Since I only had a short exposure to this company, I used the NA option more than usual. They had some positive reviews. As a potential tenant, I would simply make sure that any issues were addressed prior to move in.\

Before signing on to Grow Properties, I was aware that Elisha?s husband was a contractor & that Elisha was an active Real Estate Agent. Although I saw a potential for a conflict of interest, I thought that as long as the company had integrity these other roles might actually be of value in my case since I needed work done on the home and was may potentially sell the home in the future. Elisha let me know that her husband would take a look at the home and give me a quote on fixing it up (I needed new carpets, new paint,wanted to replace a carpet in the sunroom with tile, and needed miscellaneous work done such as installing a new toilet) AFTER I signed the contract. Knowing that I wouldn?t be obligated to use her husband, I went ahead and signed a 1 year contract and handed over a $300 deposit (which was a requirement for using their rental services). That?s when I first noticed a problem. Suddenly, the company wasn?t returning my calls (a rep would take a message but no one called back) and I ended up doing all the work myself and hiring my own contractors without a bid from Elisha?s husband. Although I was a tad bit worried about what a renter?s experience would be like given that I couldn?t get a hold of anyone other than the receptionist at the company, Elisha assured me that it was a glitch and that the representative was no longer with Grow Properties. But the more I dealt with Elisha, the more she proved herself to be unreasonable and inconsiderate of a landlord?s needs. In fact, I got the impression that she was a bit of a control freak and purposely made processes difficult for me as punishment for not doing it her way. For example, Elisha refused to begin showing the home until ALL items were removed from the house (and I?m talking, she didn?t even allow for cleaning supplies in the cabinets). For landlords, the expense of covering a mortgage on a vacant home and worrying about vandalism is high and it was ridiculous that she wouldn?t even let me keep cleaning supplies on the property. She seemed to have some sort of power trip over that, telling me that everything had to be up to HER standards as a result of our contract. Also, after I had fixed and cleaned up the home, she recommended that I pay $350 to have my entire home cleaned. I told her that I had already cleaned and gutted the entire home (new paint, new tile, new rugs, new dishwasher, new stove, 2 new toilets, new blinds, etc) and since everything was brand new, I didn?t feel that it needed a $350 re-cleaning. Her first response was to remind me that my contract allows her to make such decisions without having to seek my consent (the contract allows the agency to make up to $1k in repairs without my prior approval) and that she could order the house-cleaning without my approval. Wow! Really? I assumed the clause was for emergency repairs but it was becoming apparent that Elisha was using this provision to charge for unnecessary services. If you SAW my house at the time that she said that, you would have found her comment to be ridiculous. Luckily, she didn?t press forward but the day after tenants moved into my home, she called me and told me that I had to go over and re-caulk the showers immediately because it was ?just filthy? and she couldn?t believe how gross I was. I was shocked because my house was vacant for over a month (& she was supposedly showing it in that time) without her noticing my filthy caulking before but, when I contacted the renters to re-caulk, they didn?t seem to know what I was talking about. And then there?s how she handled my property. First, she recommended that the home be listed at $1850/month rent (which would include lawn mower services). I needed the property to rent out as soon as possible and, judging by other homes on the market, felt that $1750 would be better. She agreed. Out of the blue (after 3 weeks of vacancy later) Elisha suddenly had issue with my lawn service provider and wanted me to use hers instead. And, because Elisha thinks I?m a never-ending fountain of money, she didn?t even feel it necessary to quote me the price of her provider. I?m a bit suspicious of contracting in to a new provider at an unknown monthly rate so I tell her to drop the price of the rental down to $1695 without lawn service and that I will discontinue lawn service completely once the home is rented. She agrees. A week later, I suddenly get an email from Elisha, she felt that $1700 was too high and decided to rent my home out at $1600 instead and had already contracted in at $1600/month with (5 college kids who were moving into my home the next day. Really? First of all, any landlord will tell you that if someone needs to move in IMMEDIATELY rather than shopping in advance, there?s a high probability that they will be problem renters. Second, it was shocking that this woman would think that she should be able to drop the rent down by $100 without consulting with me. I was just amazed. So the renters move in and I get my first bill from Grow Properties. In addition to the agreed upon finder/management fees, Elisha charged me for lawn mowing service and for sprinkler repair. Not only did I use my own lawn mowing service and specifically told her not to hire her one (I have the email correspondence proving this. In fact, I have the email correspondence for almost everything in this review) but, I hired my own contractor (which cost me $600) to repair the sprinklers (When Elisha first toured my home, she told me that my sprinklers are watering my grass unevenly and I needed to get them repaired --- so I did, and told her I did ? before she even began showing the house. The only explanation I could have for them billing me for services I have already provided is that their accounting is way off or that they have a tendency to charge for services not provided. Either way, it looked bad. When I contacted Elisha about her charging me for work that her contractors did not perform, she immediately suggested that we cancel our contract. Luckily, she credited back the majority (but not all) of the fraudulent charges upon cancelling the contract. However, unlucky for me, she had also rented my house out and I was left to deal with the renters she had chosen. In the first month that I had them, I discovered that they owned a dog (something that they said they didn?t have when they signed the rental contract), they broke in my front door, smoked pot blatantly in front of me, and were late in their rent (and, btw, are ALWAYS late on their rent). I also received a notice from the City of Rancho Cordova, stating that I had failed to pay a rental permit fee (something Elisha didn?t tell me about). I have other things to complain about but am sure you got the picture by now so won't go into further detail. Oh, and btw, I have since learned that Grow Properties was previously owned/managed by Elisha?s mother-in-law and that many feel the service went downhill since Elisha took over. If you research this company, you will see great reviews prior to 2012 but bad ones thereafter. Owners beware!

unknown

In a nutshell: They are good communicators, by phone or email. They are professionals with plenty of experience. They started advertising my property ASAP, and did the repairs, held and Open House and a qualified renter was moved in and paying rent within 4 weeks...from start to finish. I was very happy with this! We are very satisfied with their services, and will use them in the future!