PARAMOUNT ENTERPRISES UNLIMITED

Paramount Property has managed our property for four months. They initially sent me very friendly and engaging marketing materials and I'll admit, I was impressed. I tried to research the company on the web and couldn't find any negative reviews. I was happy to sign an agreement with them. My first cues about them came right away. (Unfortunately, I ignored them at the time.) It would take several calls or emails from me to get a response. I would submit paperwork and not get any notification that the materials were received. Phone calls would go unanswered. However, when I did get a response, it was always friendly and professional. I just assumed they were very busy. I ran into more difficulties when it came to find a tenant. We did not want to rent to dog owners, and the ad for our house said as much. But our first applicants had a dog. I wanted to charge a high pet security deposit, but PPM wouldn't agree: they said the market wouldn't bear that cost. I didn't care -- I didn't want to be competitive with the market, since I didn't want to rent to dog-owners. PPM would not follow my wishes, and insisted on offering a low pet security deposit. At this point I started to feel very uncomfortable, as it was beginning to be clear that PPM did not feel responsible to me, even though I am their client. Things got worse once a suitable tenant was identified. I was told the lease would be signed mid-August, and that I could get a copy of the lease. I called the leasing agent at PPM for two weeks -- I probably called several times a week, each week -- and got no reply at all. I finally called the controller who told me the leasing agent no longer worked there. (Apparently they were not picking up her voice mails or her emails either.) I was told, that day, that a copy of my lease would be sent to me. Nothing came via email, nothing came in the mail. I called a few days later and made the request again. I was told it would be emailed to me in the next 20 minutes. Again, nothing. It took a third call -- and by now I'd called probably 10 times over three weeks -- to get the lease actually sent to me. Once we had a tenant we started experiencing immediate financial problems with PPM. The management agreement that we signed stipulates that "no later than the twentieth (20th) working day of each month, PPM will provide owner with a statement of income and disbursements for the previous month and a schedule of unpaid rentals and invoices." I expected to see a statement and a disbursement for each month no later than the 20th of the following month. (I should have asked myself why they hang onto the money for so long -- does it really take them 7 weeks to process paperwork and disbursements?) The management agreement also stipulates that "Once the unit is rented and rents are received the reserve amount will be refunded to the owner for that specfic unit." We paid $250 into a reserve account before our house was rented. The lease was signed on August 17, making the money due back to us in full. It is October now. September 20th has come and gone. October 20th has come and gone. We have received none of our money from PPM. We did receive a statement for the period of August that indicated pro-rated rent had been collected: we have not received that money. We have not received a statement for September, nor have we received September's disbursements. I won't have any information about October until November 20th, and I'm not willing to drag this out that long. I have sent a certified letter to PPM explaining that I wish to cancel our contract. The controller called me to argue with me, and then told me that the President, Chris DeSelms, would call me back that day or the next to discuss the termination of the contract. It has been three weeks since then, and still nobody has since contacted me about the end of our contract with them. I have filed a complaint with the BBB in Cincinnati. As a courtesy, I sent a copy of the complaint to Chris DeSelms. Along with the copy, I wrote this note: "Chris, as an FYI, I am attaching a copy of a complaint I filed today with the BBB. I have also asked Angie's List to pursue my complaint through their complaint resolution process. This can all be resolved quickly and easily if you will simply abide by the contract we signed, pay us the money you owe us, and provide updated and accurate information regarding our contract termination." Chris wrote back a very rude email to me, telling me that I am trying to scam them by trying to cancel my contract and get out of paying management fees. He also told me they are going to take a full year's worth of management fees out of October's rent. (Note that the management agreement stipulates that "PPM"s compensation will be (a) Eight Percent (8%) of the gross income per month. Income shall mean all income collected during the preceding month from the Property, including, but not limited to, rent and miscellaneous income from on-site sources such as, but not limited to, laundry machines and coin vending machines." In other words -- compensation is due on rent collected, not on rent projected.) Chris ended his email this way: "I would have gotten back to you sooner but to be honest I just don't have time to waste on people who are blatantly trying to scam us. I guess you could say I was just returning the respect I was given." I'm pretty stunned that this company is still in business. They break their own contracts. They are rude to their clients. They do not try to offer good customer service. And they don't manage their client's money honestly. They have $4500 that belongs to us (some of it to our tenant in the form of a deposit), and I have no indication that they have any intent of returning any of it. Indeed, if past practice indicates future behavior, they have no intention of ever paying us anything.

We contracted with Paramount to manage our property. At first they did fine, but then our main point person quit. Then Paramount writes us a letter stating that they fired a key member for embezzling (which means he stole from us). One of the problems we have encountered with management firms is that they think they have carte blanche, which is why we insisted on a $100 work order clause be inserted into our contract which requires Paramount to contact us first for any work to be performed that will cost over a $100. Well they consistently neglected this clause and performed things all the time without our consent. We would point it out to them, and got the "sure." The final straw was when I looked at our report and we were billed for $3500+ for work we did NOT authorize. When initially approached, Chris Deselms (Owner) initially dodged my questions and I had to consistently contact him. He breached the contract and denies any wrong doing. After some more research, I have learned that he has lost a lot of clients because of his practices. It is a shame a company like this is still in business. We are currently exploring our options on how to handle this. We are in talks with our lawyers, The RE Commission and the authorities. Dealing with Paramount is worse than dealing with bad tenants.

Richard Finn was awesome. He came out, took measurements gave me an estimate of $3,400 for 16x14 at first. Then he came to me after purchasing the wood planks and said that he would make the deck 16x16 for the same price because he was able to purchase 16 foot planks. He then applied for the the permit, dug the holes for the support poles. The job from start to finish was a week and 3 days. My deck is beautiful and I would hire ProStar construction to do it again. In fact I will probably use them to redo my basement.

It went excellently from start to finish. I am very pleased with the product that they provided. If I ever need any other work I will for surely be calling ProStar Construction they do it all.