WEICHERT REALTORS LAROSE & CO

This company provided the worst example of property management we have ever seen. This company owns Sandhills Rentals as well as some other real estate and property services in Pinehurst, NC area. The company is too big, staffed by incompetent employees, and designed to increase their profit margins and not to take care of their customers. They failed to: 1. Maintain tenants in our property 2. Maintain the physical condition of our property 3. Communicate with us (the property owners) 4. Maintain proper accounting practices 5. Inspect our property after tenants vacated 6. Their negligence was a contributing factor to major property damage We hired the company in 2011 to manage our investment property in Pinehurst NC. Our first year/18months with the company were good. Our manager, Mary-Margaret, was responsive, kept us informed, and genuinely cared about our property and about our tenants. Then, the company began changing our actual manager and the quality went way down. Our last manager, Tammy Stroupe, was a complete disaster and probably the most unprofessional and incompetent property manager we have ever encountered. In February 2014, our tenants gave their notice to vacate in early June. They planned to vacate a week before the US Open in Pinehurst, a time when rentals run for a premium due to the spectators, sponsors, and players that need accommodations. Our property is less than 2 miles from the US Open course. Rather than fulfilling their contractual obligation to advertise and maintain renters in our property, Tammy sent us one email to inform us that our tenants were leaving. That email went to junk mail, because she was new and our email service did not recognize her as a contact. Rather than following up with phone call or resending to our other email accounts, or sending us a text, Tammy waited 3 months, let our tenants vacate, shut off the utilities to the house and essentially abandoned our property. When June came and we received only a portion of our rental income, we called and found out what had happened. Tammy acted as if it was no big deal and callously said, "Well, we manage a lot of properties and its a really busy time." We then demanded to speak with the owner of the company, Marcus Larose. Marcus Larose recognized immediately that his company had screwed up and was polite and concerned. Yet, over the next few weeks, as we prepared to hire a new property management company, he continued to have the same demonstrably incompetent individual manage (or fail to manage) the property. When we realized the utilities had been shut off and the lawn was dying, we called the utility companies to turn on electricity and water. Tammy had failed to secure the property even before shutting down the utilities. The breakers were left on and the water valves to appliances and toilets were also left on. Tammy seemed completely unaware that a property manager should never shut off utilities between renters and also completely unaware that when utilities are shut off, breakers and valves need to be closed. This is a basic professional competency for a property manager. Her negligence was a contributing factor that resulted in a flood that caused a $5000.00+ insurance claim when the water was turned back on. When she discovered the flood (only after we told her to check on the house and water the lawn), she said "There is really no reason to call serve pro or your insurance company, they will just blow it out of proportion." She had no concept of what water damage could do to a house. We reported it anyway and called serve pro. Again, the claim was over $5000.00. If we had followed her advice, it would have been way more and the property would have been condemned. When we finally hired another manager, the new manager tried to do a walk through with Tammy. She refused. She had no checklist for the property from the vacating tenants and their were numerous problems throughout the property. The new manager said, "It doesn't appear that the property was managed at all." Tammy handed over the keys, got in her car and drove away. Marcus Larose apologized and agreed to pay us for the lost rent and the poor service. He admitted that customer service in his company had gone way down. He attributed this to the US Open and the growth of his company. He further stated that he intended to fix this systemic problem, but made no clear attempt to fire or counsel Tammy.