Legends Realty

This rental management company, in my opinion, has got to be the worst. I used them over a year ago to rent a house in the Heathrow area which for us, ended up being a bad decision. First of all, don't expect to ever talk to the manager at any time, she is treated like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz. If you do decide to go with them, they will take a video of the place you are wanting to rent (supposedly right before you move in) and they will charge you $30 (cost at the time) for the video file, for something they do anyway. The biggest problem we had with them was during the summer when temperatures rose to over 100 degrees and the air-conditioning broke. We reported the problem to them and they took over a week to send someone out. Apparently, they do not consider this an emergency. Actually, the air-conditioning broke several times during that time and the response time was always the same. We finally got in touch with the actual owner of the house, he sent someone to look at it. The owner realized the system was so old that it was best to replace the unit, which he did. And yes, when it came time to move out, don't expect a final inspection where you can be there to ask questions, they will not allow that. As a result of us not being able to participate in the final inspection, we ended up being charged for discrepancies that existed before we moved in. My wife and I, couldn't wait for our lease to end so that we never have to deal with them again.

The property was in the worst condition of any place I have rented in my life. There was a massive German cockroach infestation(it took 2 months of baiting and constant treatment (10) to stop about a dozen dead roaches every day). The place was disgustingly dirty (my wife and cleaning lady took 2 days to scrub it clean and make it livable), the AC and fridge never worked properly in the 2 years I was a tenant despite many work orders to fix each. The paint was shotty in every room (streaks overlap on ceiling and baseboards, some places like stairway were horrible and we needed to repaint. All the bathrooms and kitchen needed to be caulked, the back patio was covered with some black slime, mold and hair from some black beast (probably a large dog that shed) the sliding glass door was also scratched to the point of it hindering the view. The guest bathtub was peeling and every bathoom had rust and mold from some previous neglect. During the 2 years there I had to find ways to fixing or replacing most problems because Legends was usually very non responsive especially for cosmetic issues. They maybe responded about 1/3 of the issues I reported and I only reported about 1/3 of the issues we had. The yard was 90% dirt and weeds. My move-in list of complaints was over 50 items. Anyway after 2 years of expensive renting (and fixing things, and paying super high water/electric bills due to faulty AC, sprinkler system, and fridge, it's finally over, We were able to buy a house this year and move out, but not without one final jab from legends as the took my security deposit by charging me for the items on my move in list, and some exorbitant fees. This company is bad news and they have been gaming the reviews to hide their bad reputation (using fake review sites like reputation dot com where no one can add a real review) Somehow manipulated yelp into hiding 32 of their negative reviews including mine 20 minutes after posting it. I did get a couple out there on bbb and google hopefully warning people what they are getting into. Watch out for Legends and other companies like them.

Completely useless

The Legends' Mission Statement vs. The Reality An Extract from the LinkedIn Profile of Dan Lopez, broker/owner, Legends Realty: ?A Dedicated Real Estate Professional, a Servant Leader, with a Teacher's Heart". Dan Lopez is Broker/ Owner and Director of Sales for Legends Realty, an esteemed Central Florida based full service sales and property management company. Its mission is to be the preeminent real estate brokerage that prides itself on delivering outstanding service, communication and results to their customers on a consistent basis ??. While this is a well-crafted mission statement, fitting for a ?Servant Leader, with a Teacher?s Heart,? the reality of our experience with Legends Realty?s property management division exposes a serious lack of professionalism and deplorable customer service, to us, the tenant customer. Specifically, Legends accepted a property at 288 Bald Eagle Run, Lake Mary, to manage and showed it to us in December 2014. During our visit we observed the following: - The overgrown, neglected landscape needed mowing - In the garage were 3 full barrels of trash and several gallons of unlabeled liquids (pool chemicals) - A real estate sign and post was propped along one side of the house - A dog kennel and other debris littered the rear of the house - The cloudy pool had palm fronds on the bottom - The deck was filthy and the patio carpet edges mildewed - The house interior was full of dead insects throughout - The bathrooms were unsightly and unsanitary, with urine stains on one of the toilets and hair in the tub and vanity drawers - More than 24 light bulbs throughout the property were burned out - There was a piece of wood holding the fireplace damper closed, but there was no mention of the fact that the flu was not connected and it was, in fact, unsafe to operate Looking past these deficiencies, we agreed that the house was otherwise appealing and met our needs. But because we had concerns about the current state of the property, we asked for a second viewing prior to signing a lease. Legends denied our request to revisit the house in a more suitable condition, citing company policy. Pressed for time to move into a home, we took a chance, believing we were dealing with professionals, and signed the lease. The lease stated in the ?Maintenance/Inspection? section that the Tenant ??accepts the premises in ?as is? condition,? unaware that the house contained an inoperative?and hazardous?fireplace. Legends? lease and tenant?s manual require that the premises be kept to a standard far above what Legends presented to us. How professional is it to show, let alone have a tenant move into, a property in this condition? Does the National Association of Residential Property Managers (on which Dan Lopez served in an official capacity from 2013?15) approve of the process we encountered with Legends? Do they recommend that prior to accepting a new property to manage, the property be inspected and brought into habitable condition? Upon move-out, we left some cookware in a cabinet. When we asked Tina Lopez at Legends if she could return the items, she called and said it was Legends? policy to dispose of any personal property left behind. Florida Statutes provide landlords with this option as long as the lease contains the proper wording. As tenants, we always paid on time, paid to have the pool area and walkways pressure-washed, mulched the extensive beds, and installed all new water-saving flapper valves in the three toilets. We left the property clean, returned after move-out to put our full trash bins out on trash day, and otherwise complied with Legends? move-out checklist. Legends chose to invoke the law rather than extend the simple and common courtesy of offering our property back to us. Dan wrote in an email, ?I am sorry we are not able to provide the answers or solution you are wanting.? Never mind the sheer lack of empathy in this dismissive reply; where is the ethical standard? At a time when businesses are being scrutinized for a history of greedy practices that prey on benevolent consumers, it seems Legends has no desire to rise above this characterization, and instead has neglected very basic responsibilities owed to its customers. Florida Statute 83.49 provides options to management companies representing landlords, but it does not require them to invoke these options in all cases. In this case, the ?Servant Leader with a Teacher?s Heart? chose not to serve a good customer when he was given the choice.

Looks good.

Do not engage this company if you expect your property to be looked after, or for lease terms to be adhered to. After spending in excess of 7,000 dollars in fees during the four years, and being charged over 3,000 dollars for repairs, we returned to a property that needed to be completely gutted in order to make it livable. We found that the home was occupied by residents not on the lease. Repairs we were charged for were not performed. Cleaning we were charged for was not done. The company refused to do a walk through with us to a**** the condition of the property. They sent bi-annual reports of the homes condition and completely ignored lease violations; smoking on the premises, shrubs and hedges not trimmed, open fires in the backyard, grills inside the screen enclosure and multiple modifications to the home without prior approval. Upon the end of the lease term, they refused to file our claim against the security deposit as stated in the contract with them. They sent us less than half of what we gave supporting documentation for, did not provide us a copy of the letter sent to tenants, and once the end of the lease term, basically said we are done with you. For a company that claims to represent your interests when they are marketing themselves to you, they are really just rent collectors who use a stable of contractors to extract more money from property owners. When pressed for details on repairs not done and requests for the reimbursement of money they charged for none existent work, they change the subject and do not offer any supporting documentation. We are up to in excess of 7,000 dollars in repairs and associated costs in order to move back into the home. If you want to pay this kind of money for someone to pick up a rent check, go ahead. But you'd be better off dealing with a tenant yourself. I'm willing to provide photos and invoices to anyone considering using this sham of a company for any property they value. Terrible people, terrible service, and very dishonest business dealings.

We have had Legends Realty managing our rental property for 10 years. They are a VERY professional, reliable and Personable. We HIGHLY recommend them.

When a tenant moved out, very short turnaround time w/ new tenants. Always pleased w/ new tenants.

It was not good. We hired them from 2012 to 2014. We pay 10% of the rent.

i would have them manage all my properties as they become available

Don't walk from these people, RUN! Doing business with these people is a mistake. Unless you like throwing your money away. They try to sell you things you don't need. They rob you when it comes to maintenance, and they LIE. For example, they told me they could not find a replacement part for my dishwasher and that I needed to buy one from them. I made one call, which was to Sears, and they did have the part. They charged me two times I two months to fix my gate. This is how they roll. Expect to be way overcharged on maintenance. I seriously doubt they even did half the things I paid them for. When I concluded business with them, they failed to return the keys, but claimed they did (of course). It cost me two hundred bucks to hire a locksmith! They probably threw the keys in the trash. When I changed the utilities back to my name, I payed over $290 in electricity for one month. Yet they refused to check on the place (not their problem). That's how they conclude business with you. I wish I fired them years ago.

Company gouges its clients with junk fees. Has the need to charge processing fees for gouging their customers. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

Horrible, did poor job of screening tenant.

Absolutely HORRIBLE customer service, NO professionalism, and they will RIP YOU OFF!! Stay Away - you will be happy you did! Tina Lopez is the owner of this company and all problems start with her. She and her staff are rude, unresponsive, greedy and will cheat for $$. I wish I had read all the negative reviews before renting with this company! Check google reviews, BBB, http://local.com, Angies list for all the horrid reviews on Legends. It's not just me! Let me tell you my story... We moved into a property that her company was renting out in June of last year (2012). The fees and requirements were high but we were desperate due to the hot rental market. The rent was originally $1595 but after signing all the paperwork, they raised the rent to $1695. We protested but they said take it or leave it. (That should have been our cue to leave but again we were desperate). We move into the house and find that the yard/bushes were over grown and the inside of the house was not professionally cleaned and had some issues. So I called the maintenance lady Christina Nelson and reported the issues. She said she would get them all addressed. Several days go by and nothing. I email and call again. Long story short, I get excuses, then more days go by and still nothing. It finally gets done but not completely. So I schedule a meeting with the owner, Tina. Hoping to get some acknowledgement of the lack of responsiveness and timeliness of getting the issues resolved! She walks in haughtily, asks me to list the issues and I just stare at her blankly. I was so disgusted with this lady I almost walked out. Now I know where her staff gets it from. The rest of the meeting didn't go any better. She has no professionalism and the whole time just wanted to check me off her list. Ok so forward 6 months later. We found a house that we really liked, so we wanted to find out our options to terminate our lease. The office gives me 2 options. After some research, I pick the option that allows me to pay an advertising and rerental fee so that Legends can put the property on the rental market - I paid $750. I then give the deposit on the house that we wanted to purchase (separate company). 1 week later I find that the listing for the rental house has been removed. I email/call Legends but they don't respond. Another week goes by and I get a call from Tina that the owner changed their mind and don't want to re-lease the property. They won't allow me to terminate my lease and that I am liable for the rent till the end of the term. Wow!! Tina knew she couldn't do that and after some threatening of lawyers she backed down and said ok - they will market the property for 5 months and that's it - and if nobody rents it then I am liable . She knew full well that nobody would rent the property for such a short period. Again, long story short, after a lot of back and forth, I agree to pay the 2 months rent penalty (even though they cheated me out of the first option) to get out of the lease. I was done with this pathetic company and so I agreed. If all this wasn't enough, the greediness and constant cheating of my rights comes when they return my security deposit. Even though we had professionally cleaned the house before leaving (and left it cleaner then we found it), Legends still took away half of our deposit ~$800 due to unjustifiable claims that I was too sick and tired of arguing with. So Tina Lopez and her pathetic company can cheat and lie to people but over time, it will be her downfall. The awful customer service, and overall poor business etiquette will catch up to her. Check all the negative reviews on her as well. Be Warned!

Stay Away! I have a warranty on the house the company always forgot we had one and charged us for the repairs. This happen at least 4 times. One tenant moved out, they told us they did a home inspection, when the new tenants moved in they noticed there was no hot water the micorwave did not work and the dishwasher.and again we had to remind them that there was a warranty. We wold notify them of issues when we would call to confirm they would say they did not ge the e-mails and would have a bad attitude. Tina is very hard to get a hold of. Just stay away.

Lies in advertising literature especially relating to tax deductibility of services, cost of advertising. Left front door wide open after showing property despite supposed note in file and large note on the door to please not let the cats out. Video company was given an incorrect date and arrived a week early and set off burglar alarm. No attempt made to notify us or turn off the alarm (agent had instructions). Incurred false alarm charge from city. Despite promises of 7/24/365 management on duty, tenant emergency service request due to a sewage problem was ignored for over 12 hours. First contractor apparently did not fix the problem and it took the tenant repeated phone calls to get service again. A different contractor was called instead of calling the first one back resulting in additional charges. Unauthorized and unneeded repairs done despite many emails and phone calls stating that the repair was not authorized. The contract is written so as to be impossible to break. They have absolutely no incentive to keep either the owner or the tenant happy. Even after the first showing if I had wanted to break the contract because they let my cats out it would have cost me $500.00. At the end of the lease the tenants were unhappy with them, we were unhappy with them and it still cost us $1300 to get out of the contract. None of this fully describes the arrogant, condescending, rude attitude of pretty much everyone who works there.