SLOANE REALTY

Since the AIr Force stationed me in CA, I really needed a prop manager I could trust to manage my investments back in my home state of SC. I thought Warren would be a good fit since they market themselves as pro-military and as a family company. Man was I wrong. They have a small business, yet every time I called with an issue or question or they wanted money to fix something in a house ? I never got to talk to the same person. It was like dealing with a big, nameless, faceless company ? yet still having to work with the constraints of a small company. So the worst of both worlds. I get better customer service at the Apple Store or CostCo or WalMart. In the end, after less than a year managing my 4 properties, I had 2 turnovers and the "wear and tear" repairs where nearly $5,000 for each property. I've never had anything like that. One renter just decided not to pay the last month's rent. I guess he could sense the super-lax management and knew he could get away with it. When I asked Sloane to do something about it, they just wouldn't. I was in CA. Without so much as a phone call, Sloane just ended my contract via email as if I had done something wrong. It was so weird, they cost me thousands of dollars, then just walked away the moment that I needed their help. I don't know how this guy sleeps at night. They are so lazy. Warren recommended that my 68 year old mother who still lives in SC file the paperwork to start working on getting that last month of rent. Ridiculous. If you want terrible service and no accountability, hire this place. Also, they got plenty of their own repairmen who will make sure to charge you the top price.

We had read reviews of Sloane Realty online before renting from them, but we were desperate to find a place to live. We had just gotten married and I was starting my new job in Charleston in a couple of weeks. We found an advertisement from Sloane Realty about a house and we contacted them to set up a viewing. Without meeting us, the contact person at Sloane Realty, Tiffany, gave us the lock box combination so that we could go view the house on our own. We had never met this person, but she texted us the lock box combination right after we contacted her. We thought this was a little strange, but we went to view the house anyway. It was perfect for our first house. We decided to rent the house. We asked Sloane Realty to have the house cleaned because there was dirt and dead bugs all throughout the house. Sloane Realty told us that it had been professionally cleaned a month or two before and that they were not going to clean it for us. We have another realtor from Carolina One do a walk through with Tiffany from Sloane Realty to show that it needed to be cleaned. It was only after this realtor told them they needed to clean the house that they agreed to have someone come out there. While it was not cleaned very well, they did vacuum most of the dead bugs. We thought that if this was the worst things to happen - that it would be ok. Our first year living there - we had minimal problems. During the second year, our refrigerator/freezer quit working. It took Sloane Realty approximately 10 days to have it fixed. We lost all of our food in the refrigerator and our frozen food (over $400 worth of food). Sloane Realty refused to reimburse us for any of this. They continued to have an excuse every day about why it wasn't being fixed in a timely manner. About 14 days after they had it fixed (not replaced), the refrigerator/freezer quit working again. We again lost all of our food. They were dragging their feet again about having it fixed. It was only after I sent an email with the laws regarding landlord responsibilities and highlighted portions of our lease agreement did they decide to allow us to rent a fridge until they could get it fixed. All of the refrigerator/freezer issues happened over the holidays when we had many family members in town. This just made the whole experience even worse. We were hosting people and were unable to prepare or store food in our own house. There was also a time that we had a significant leak in the ceiling. We called Sloane Realty right away, but they did not call us back for 4 hours. Fortunately, we were able to stop the leak. However, they make it clear in the leasing agreement to not call anyone other than Sloane Realty when there is an emergency. However, they do not return your call for hours at a time - even with an emergency? Most of our problems started when we informed them that we bought a house and would be moving out of the rental property. They were required to alert us (per our lease agreement) 24 hours prior to any showing. They rarely gave us a 24 hour notice. One time - they even stopped by unannounced with potential renters at 9:45 on a Sunday morning. We moved out of our house on June 22. Our lease agreement ended June 30th. Since we were still paying rent - they were required to alert us prior to any showing of the house. We had the house professionally cleaned a few days after we moved out. We received a call from Tiffany from Sloane Realty a few days before our lease ended that said the house was not clean enough. She found some dust on the top of one of the windowsills and some dust on the blinds and bannister. I was pretty upset with this considering they had turned the house over to us in poor shape. However, I (being 7 months pregnant at the time) went over to the house with my husband to clean the windowsills, bannister, and blinds. We scheduled the final inspection. In the lease agreement - it states that one of the tenants can be present. My husband showed up for the final inspection. Carol made him sit in the car during the final inspection. He was not allowed to be present in the house. I'm not sure if this is legal? Anyway, after Carol went through the house - she shared her findings with him. She found a problem with the screen on the back porch (more on this later). She found a light fixture that needed to be changed. She found some areas of the house that needed to be painted. However, Sloane Realty said we weren't allowed to paint the house ourselves. I finally convinced her that the need for "painting" was normal wear and tear. Carol also said there was dirt on the floor in the kitchen and that the hardwood floor was "streaky." We were very upset with this, considering the house had been cleaned professionally and that they had turned the house over to us in very poor shape (dirt/dust/dead bugs) that we had to beg them to clean (and it still wasn't cleaned well). My husband said it was obvious that people had been in the house. We discovered that Sloane Realty had taken people into the house to show the house without our consent, which was a violation of the lease agreement. They were required to alert us 24 hours prior to any showing. It was during these showings that dirt had been tracked into the house. However, they still wanted us to have the house cleaned again! I was shocked by their behavior regarding this matter. However, we still were trying to get through this without too much complication. We had the cleaning company call Sloane Realty to set up a time when they could come back to the house. Sloane Realty refused to call them back. The cleaning company called them several times, but their phone calls were never returned. We had to get the lock box combination from Sloane Realty ourselves to share with the cleaning company. When Sloane Realty sent our security deposit back - they had taken over $200 out of our check. They charged $75 for the light that needed to be changed. They also charged us over $100 for the screen on the back porch. They said that 2 sections of the screen were messed up. We sent them documentation that we reported this problem with the screen 1 month after we moved in and they never fixed it. The documentation we sent them showed that they had agreed to fix the screen (and never did). However, they disregarded our documentation and said the the matter was closed to them. When we asked for pictures of the screen damage - they sent us pictures of the same section of screen (although they stated it was 2 sections). They refused to recognize that this was not a problem that we had caused. They did not accept the proof we sent them that showed they were supposed to fix the screen 2 years prior to the move out inspection. Sloane Realty was extremely rude with all of our interactions with them during the move out/inspection process. We provided documentation so that we should not have been charged for the screen damage. However, they refused to refund our security deposit for the charges for fixing the screen. They brought people through the house without our consent, which was a direct violation of the lease agreement. They admitted to entering our house without informing us. However, they never apologized or admitted to violating the lease agreement. The fact that they made us clean the floors after bringing people through the house (without our consent) was ridiculous. They stated that if we did not have the floors recleaned - we would be charged for it. In the end, Warren Sloane sent us an extremely rude and unprofessional letter. He basically disregarded all of our concerns and said the matter was closed to him. He was also threatening in the fact that he could give us a poor "review" if we continued to have these discussions with him. We contemplated taking Sloane Realty to small claims court for the security deposit, the refrigerator/freezer issue, and reimbursement of rent for all days they violated the lease agreement. However, they had already put us through a lot of stress. I was 7 months pregnant at the time and my husband did not want them to cause me any more problems or risk the health of me or my baby. We ended up letting it go. It wasn't the money that we were worried about, but it was the way we were treated by Sloane Realty. My husband and I have probably rented 10-15 properties between the two of us over the last 10 years. Neither of us have ever had $1 withheld from a security deposit. We take care of the places we live. When we discussed the way we were being treated by Sloane Realty with other realtors in the area - they were appalled that Sloane Realty acted in the ways that they did. My hope is that the people of Charleston will recognize Sloane Realty's very poor business practices. I hope that people will not support a business like this one. I had read many reviews that said dealing with Sloane Realty was a nightmare and that they would do everything they could to withhold a significant amount from the security deposit. I figured that the tenants probably didn't care for the properties or they violated the lease agreement. However, I can confirm that dealing with them is a nightmare. We kept that house immaculate. We had it cleaned professionally. We provided documentation showing the damages to the property were there when we arrived. However, they still found ways to unfairly charge us and make the move out process a disaster. I wish we had heeded the warnings to not rent from them. I would absolutely pay a little more to rent from a reputable company that will not put you through the nightmare that Sloane Realty will put you through. Please do not support this business.

They overcharged on everything, making repairs when not necessary and they did not contact us prior to the work. We disputed many things and they did not return our phone calls or solves our problem.