Madison Real Estate and Property Management, Inc.

Madison Property Management is neither home-owner or renter focused; they were non-responsive to me and renters, contracted out unneeded and unverified work, lied to me and renters, and totally mismanaged my home, resulting in large costs. I spent a great deal of time preparing the home; installed $2500 in new carpet, painted, and had it professionally cleaned ($400). I then personally cleaned and detailed. Pam told me they should send someone out for a cleaning the day after I left. I said, it is immaculate...and she texted "we'll just send someone in for a lite cleaning, it will be less than $100". I returned 3 days later and noted there was nothing cleaned. I later received a $600 cleaning bill. I called their cleaner myself and she "didn't remember" the job - but said her bill stated 28 hours! I said thats impossible, even my neighbor said there was a car there for about 4 hours one morning! Pam had no response. I stated to her and wrote I wanted no pets. When Pam texted 3 days later the house was rented I asked about the renters and she said it was a couple with 2 dogs. I was very upset and she claimed "there was miscommunication, but they have a contract and we have to honor it". When I asked her if they were going to cover damages to my new carpet, she told me that "the renters are professional people and the pets won't damage the carpet". I stated I am a professional and my pets still have accidents! The renters themselves stated they had problems with Madison; they were unable to contact them by any method other than email, they had physically gone to the office and were told Madison "didn't conduct business that way". I set up sprinkler blowout with a company and asked Pam to inform the renters of the date they would arrive. I called and texted - 5 times in all and she assured me multiple times she had told them. The day the sprinkler company arrived no one was home and turned out Pam had never passed on the info. More miscommunication. I spent 3 days trying to contact someone at the company and finally got a realtor in the same building. He said "yah, they really don't do business except via email". I paid my sprinkler people directly but got notification Madison was billing me. Emailed Pam and told her I had set it up and paid them....she agreed and was going to take care of it....but I got billed by them (plus their fee). Every month there were several "service calls" that were billed right below their $250 minimum (at which point they needed to call for permission). I tried to follow up on the providers they listed....like the cleaner, they didn't remember the job..and one "company" was a non-working number and when I googled the provider it appeared nonexistant . The renters had a "family emergency" according to Madison and left after 3 months. Madison told me the house and yard ( now full of dog poop) would be cleaned. When the home was rented again, that renter contacted me to tell me about their difficulties with Madison. Evidently the first renters 2 dogs had puppies and there were actually 9 dogs in the house. Madison told them the home and carpet had been cleaned but when they vacuumed there were mounds of dog hair and the carpet was so badly urine stained they could not stand to sleep there. She had contacted Madison several times about the smell and finally one of the agents admitted the carpet was never cleaned. In her efforts to talk to them she was told that she was a problem and a complainer and warned her not to talk to me (owner). Madison is very fee based...they don't care about the owner, property OR renters.

 A very frustrating encounter that continued to be problematic a year after I terminated my association with them. This property management firm was not home owner/customer focused. On the contrary; they have chosen to be contract/fee/collection focused instead. 
This was our most significant retirement investment, something I would hope a property management firm would recognize and help manage accordingly. Given our experience below, it is clear to me that helping us manage and maintain our most significant retirement investment was not the focus for this firm.

They allowed my property to degrade over the years, charging for repairs using tenant damage deposits, and many maintenance charges deducted from our monthly rent income, but leaving our home with broken doors, wall dents, screw holes in walls, broken towel racks, etc.. Most important and most detrimental to the sale/rental value of our home, they allowed tenants to totally neglect the yard. These damages and lack of yard maintenance were reported by the last tenant, as pre-existing damage when they 1st rented the house. This indicates that yard damage (front yard and back yard lawn is dead, and my investment in landscape plants and trees are now dead) were the result of previous tenants being allowed to neglect the yard care and their damage to our home was never actually repaired via the damage deposit. I see no other logical conclusion.

The cost to return my home to rentable/sellable condition will top $5 K

Madison's monthly fees, with all the added "maintenance" charges, were consistently and significantly higher than my previous Prop. Mgmt firm they took over.

When I decided to end our relationship with them to begin the process of repairing and preparing our home for sale,  rather than making this an easy transition, they demanded several fees based on contract clauses, including an early termination fee and demanding a percentage of the house sale price if the house sold,  When I requested they send me a valid Madison signed contract, they sent me the contract they were using (I have the email from them with the contract attachment), and it was obviously the original contract I had with the previous property management firm, lacking a service provider signature. So, all of these fees they demanded were  based on the original unsigned contract I had with the previous property management firm they acquired. They never updated this unsigned contract with one of theirs, or requested our signatures on a new valid (signed by both parties) contract .  

My experience with their aggressive, legalistic focus on collecting fees, using contract clauses from an old, unsigned contract from my prior Prop. Mgmt. firm, that was never updated when they took ownership of the properties, and the fact that they disregarded my concerns for the condition of the property, is something I feel is my duty to report to other potential home owners looking for a customer (home-owner) focused, fair, and responsible property management firm to help the manage what is likely their biggest retirement investment. 

I will follow-up this review with updates if there are further correspondence from them following this review, e.g. offers to help repair and restore the home, and/or offers to drop demands for early termination fees, or other more customer-service focused responses from them. Or, on the other hand, if they choose to make additional demands, or choose other possible forms of retribution based on this review, I will also update this review accordingly.

Working with Ron Dickerson at Madison Real Estate and Property Management has been GREAT !!
One and one half years ago, we rented off of their website while still living in Florida.  They worked to help us with every facet of our cross country move and we had an excellent experience from start to finish.  They furnished pictures of the property and did a thorough walk through before we rented.  In our 18 months we have had only two minor requests for repair while renting and those were responded to and fixed quickly with reputable servicemen.
We once again are being transferred and Ron could not have been more accommodating, he even has a prospective tenant prior to the end of our lease.
You can be assured we will only call Madison Real Estate & Property Management and ask Ron to help us once again find a home when we relocate back to the Spokane area.
Thanks Madison for all the assistance, it has been great doing business with you and we look forward to the next time.
We highly recommend Madison Real Estate & Property Management.
TK