RANDOLPH FIELD REALTY

You might want to read the review I did on Associated Realty since Randolph Field Realty bought out Associated Realty back in Apr 2008 and much of the staff crossed over to the new company. My administrative transactions referred to Associated Realty as the servicing organization. For the most part, I found the changes to be focused mainly on price structure for additional services like videos taken of the property (when a tenant moves out), copies of statements, etc. and home-owners responsibilities when interfacing with property management. They use many of the same contractors (or people who work out of the home) to perform repairs to your house. In the end, the results were still the same as with Associated Realty even if I made sure my tenants problems were taken care of immediately. Unfortunately, almost all my tenants (about 1 per year) were messy or filthy. Yes—the staff is courteous and they collected the rent, called the repairman, sent you a monthly statement, and called you if repairs were required--but that is it. If that’s all you want and you don’t care about your property (or don't plan to keep it long) or don't want to take the time to find someone proficient—then they might be an option. Just be warned that they tend to take the wear and tear concept to the extreme to avoid confronting the tenant even if damages to your property are apparent. That resulted in years of abuse and major repairs before I moved back in. They will tell you that for a rental house--it's in good shape--sorry not after 11 yrs and about 9 tenants--I have the expenses to prove it. I've paid more in maintenance costs in the past three years than my last 5 landlords put together. I have the pictures to prove it too. I found myself getting letters from the city for uncut grass or over-grown trees. The point here is that Randolph would rarely visit your property to see if things were being kept up. Another case—tenant had the cable company drill holes in my brick siding to install cable TV without asking the homeowner for permission (in accordance with the lease) and had the courage to tell me it wasn’t a big deal. Many of their repairmen are over-priced and do not perform very good work and tend to charge you for things they clearly don’t perform. Again, I have pictures to prove it. Don’t expect them to verify the quality of the work—especially if it’s a big ticket item. Every tenant I’ve had has left junk behind and the so-called move-out inspections failed to catch it. Result—the homeowner has to pay to clean out everything. When you confront them, you’re lucky if you get a response back from them. During the closing days of dealings with Randolph—I had to consistently bring up to their attention what was going on at the property. I tried to contact Ms. Bartel on several occasions but never received a response—not even to my email requests. When I went back to get my keys, one of the property managers expected to hand-write a note and sign it saying that I had received the keys to my property. You tell me—what company does that to a client/customer? They get a D rating only because they are nice people, but as we know—nice people have a difficult time dealing with bad tenants or taking care of a homeowners interests. Yes—they will remind you of all the years experience they have in property management—but don’t let that cloud your decision. I wouldn’t recommend them to a friend.