BILL STOUT PROPERTIES

Bill Stout Property Management performed an inadequate job for my needs. They weren't abysmal and I don't feel screwed or anything, but overall I was dissatisfied with the service I was receiving for the money I was paying so I terminated my contract early. I am an out of state landlord who needs fairly comprehensive property management services (regular check-in with tenants, prompt maintenance response, "eyes-on" evaluation of the property on a regular basis, proactive correction of anything that doesn't look right, etc.). Over the 9 months that they performed property management for me, I received several complaints directly from my tenants that were not being addressed by the property management company in a timely manner (a plumbing issue, yard maintenance, broken washer/dryer), and I complained several times to the property management company about the appearance of my property (I drove by every time I was in town, it never looked good even though I was routinely being charged for "yard service"). It never really did get better and if I didn't specifically engage, I never heard much from them about anything. My biggest disappointment was actually the leasing process. One of my units sat vacant for about 4 months, I routinely called and inquired as to what they were doing to get it rented and they never had satisfactory answers. They did post it on their own website and they said they used craigslist, though I could never find their ad. I ended up posting my own ads with their telephone number listed. Just no sense of urgency to get it rented out. Finally, about month three of vacancy, they advertised on other websites and billed me for it. They finally leased the place to some nightmare tenants who, I learned after terminating contract with Bill Stout and having to evict these tenants, had a history of failure to pay rent on their credit report (reason for ultimate eviction, along with a host of lease violations). These tenants had additional people living in my place beyond who was reported on the application. My other set of tenants had complained to the property management company about this set of tenants multiple times during the 5 months they lived there for loud parties/fights, smoking indoors, cigarette butts all over the yard, additional people coming and going at all hours of the night...I knew about none of it until after I decided to terminate my contract with Bill Stout (poor communication!!!)...needless to say, I wish I had been more involved in the tenant selection process. I know I sound frustrated in the above report, and I am, but the bottom line is there were no truly egregious wrongs committed by Bill Stout Properties. I just felt like I was being charged a premium for very sub-par service.