This has been a nightmare. This whole process has cost us $3,000. Our contract is constantly stretched to included highly questionable charges and fees. In fact they charged mileage, fees for running errands and for services that weren't effectively completed. They claimed to have shown the house to numerous individuals, but can't provide us with the names of the people who they showed the property to. Also the place is still filthy. We thought this company could help us repair, clean this property, but HMS only made it worse. To make things worse HMS wanted to charge us to set off bug bombs in my son's home (which is the property we wanted them to manage and clean). They charged me $42 plus mileage to go to Home Depot to purchase the bug bombs. And wanted to charge additional fees to set off the bombs. After some back and forth, I had to make a trip from Washington, D.C. to Michigian to confront the management for the mysterious charges that they are trying to bill me for. Also, Mike Fleckenstein charged me and my son $350 to clean our property. And a few hundred dollars to paint. We have pictures to prove neither were done well. There is paint every where and the property has not been thoroughly cleaned. In our last email, Mike threaten me and my son telling us we better not try to harm him or his business. This seems to be some type of scam. We're out $3,000 and have nothing to show for it. The bottom line is avoid them at all cost!
Description of Work: Clean, repair and manage our property.
Rating Category
Rating out of 5
quality
1.0
value
1.0
professionalism
1.0
responsiveness
1.0
punctuality
1.0
$3,000
Response from HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC
First let the record show that the member is not the owner of the property but the mother of the owner who undertook this effort on behalf of her son. ‘Our property’ is misleading. The management agreement we have is with her son. A complaint filed by his mother is based on her effort to assist her son who, it turns out, was somehow incapable of handling his own business. The mother, however, used her money to assist her son and, therefore, feels she is due something from us. Technically and ethically, she is not. Legally, she has no standing. I received a call from her to help her do something with house belonging to her son. He left the house in the care of a derelict ex-girlfriend and moved to Washington State. The member was in Washington, DC and her daughter was in Kalamazoo. Prior to any work, we spoke at length and I gave her 3 references at her request, that I presume she called, representing people for whom we spent similar sums of money. I also asked why her son would want to maintain this house and counseled her that he should sell it because it didn’t represent a good investment while he was that far away. In addition, it was December and we would not likely find a tenant until Spring. She was very clear on all this. It took at least 2 months for her son to bother calling me or to send the contract back which the member saw and which spells out very well what our hourly cost is as well as mileage charge. We spent our budget, but ran over about $450 because the daughter could not complete the part she agreed to. We used up the money we budgeted for completion of our work to finish that which the daughter was to do. Since the member, the mother, knew this, and I thought we had a very good communication relationship as well as her trust, I didn’t worry about it. We did everything on our agreement with the exception of a minor amount of painting (he was driven out because of flees) and the final cleaning. Then, after about 3 – 4 weeks of requesting the additional funds needed to final clean the house and pay for the paint, she announced that her son was coming home to Kalamazoo. He went to the house on his own, came to our office and talked with us and never once said he had any problem with anything. He found the house incomplete because we didn’t have the money to complete it and apparently called his mother who proceeded to tell me she was coming to Kalamazoo to inspect. We had a meeting on a Saturday morning where I brought in all the senior staff responsible for the house, all the accounting with detailed backup, the banks statements and tie-outs, and presented it to them. It is questionable whether we were obligated to do so since we gave an accepted written estimate and stayed within it. But we did so anyway in the interest of resolving any concerns. They proceeded to make claims that were semantic since the invoice wording stated ‘cleaned (certain things)’ instead of ‘remove trash’, implying we final cleaned the unit and charged them for it. Even the daughter, a law enforcement officer, implied she didn’t see trash. But the work order clearly charges for trash removal and dump fees. Of course, I have at least 4 people who did see all the trash but I don’t want to venture into pointing fingers at unethical officers of the court. Needless to say, the matter was not resolved even though we tried. We are owed $596 as of our final accounting including $196 to pay Sherwin Williams to keep our account open. We did everything we put in writing and more as a result of their failings. We went over and above to communicate on personal time, found a qualified tenant willing to pay the amount we said we could get, dealt with delays in funding, and put up with verbal and unprofessional abuse. She cannot bend the truth and make this right just because she’s broke. We do not intend to pay a single nickel to her. That money is owed to her son, the owner. We have employed remedies available to us under the law through our written contract and we have more than adequate documentation to support and defend out case. You can allow her talking head status at the risk of looking bad yourself. It is very unfortunate and did not have to come to this.
All statements concerning insurance, licenses, and bonds are informational only, and are self-reported. Since insurance, licenses and bonds can expire and can be cancelled, homeowners should always check such information for themselves. To find more licensing information for your state, visit our State Contractor License Requirements page.
*Contact business to see additional licenses.
Service Categories
Real Estate Agents
FAQ
HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC is currently rated 1 overall out of 5.
No, HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC does not offer free project estimates.
No, HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC does not offer eco-friendly accreditations.
No, HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC does not offer a senior discount.
No, HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC does not offer emergency services.
No, HOME MARKETING SYSTEMS INC does not offer warranties.
