Brewer Caldwell Property Management Major Ripoff! Poor Service & Response! Constantly Overbilling! Gilbert Arizona

As a professional real estate investor I guess it's time I weighed in. It is NEVER a good idea to hire a "professional" management company to manage your holdings (or maybe 'holding'...sounds like you have only one). From the John T. Reed website (which I 100% agree with, and he says it better than I could): There are only three sound choices regarding real estate property management: do it yourself, hire a salaried employee to do it, or do not own the property. Someone should start an “I hired an independent property manager” horror stories Web site. It would have thousands of eager contributors, each of which would focus on one of two consistent themes: overcharges/kickbacks and neglect. Nuf said.

Hello. My name is Chris Epperson, Director of Public Relations for Brewer-Caldwell Property Management. I was very surprised to see several of the comments that have been posted. I attempted to research specific problems, but was unable to do so without specific names or property addresses.

Let me begin by saying – if you have a valid concern - please e-mail me - I want to make every effort to research what happened, hear your story, and do everything possible to correct the situation. We as a company have a sincere desire to continue to offer exemplary customer service. I realize that it won't happen if we don't constantly make adjustments and fine tune the way we do business – without the constructive criticism and comments of those we interact with every day, it's not possible. Even if you are no longer a client of ours, please directly offer your concerns to me so we can continue to improve.

I will attempt to generally address several of the concerns expressed, then await contact from those that will allow me to look into any specific issues.

Brewer-Caldwell Property Management is first and foremost a property management company. It wasn't formed out of necessity – it was the genesis of who we are today. We came to realize that our experiences as property managers enable us to give invaluable information about what areas are best for investment properties. Over the last 9 years, we've constantly analyzed the local market and continue to search out the best choices for our investors – growing to be the largest single family residential property management and acquisition company in Arizona. With growth have come new and candid lessons. We have constantly foregone faster growth to ensure the security and service given to our current clients. We have even turned away business if we felt it would be doing a disservice to our valued investors.

As for customer service, every employee of Brewer-Caldwell commits to achieving at least our Baseline of Customer Service, including responding at least once to e-mails and phone messages within 24 hours. If that has not been your experience, I need to know who you were dealing with so the problem can be addressed and corrected.

Investing in real estate is absolutely exciting. It allows families to achieve amazing things. Through the process however, it may not go as planned. The fact is, sometimes “life” happens. Uncontrollable variables are the risks investors take when purchasing properties. No matter what a tenant's credit and rental references may look like, there's always the risk of them not treating the property as it were their own.

Over all however, investing can be a very rewarding experience. We are the professionals that can make it as painless as possible – creating an “armchair investing” experience. We strive to give every property the individualized attention it deserves, and rely on our own investment experiences for the professional management and guidance we give, day in and day out.

I take my position Director of Public Relations very seriously. I truly want to ensure that every client and potential client gets our best foot forward, and the service they deserve and expect. Please contact me with any of your concerns or comments.

Chris@BrewerCaldwell.com

Thank you – I look forward to hearing from those of you that I can be of assistance to –

Chris Epperson
Director of Public Relations
Brewer-Caldwell Property Management, Inc.

Responding to Chris Epperson, I have not dealt with Chris. I have dealt with Rich Rogers and Jared Baker. I talked with both individually and once together on a conference call. I was told at that time that the owner of the property was not interested in doing any repairs to the property that we had requested in writing...yes, I did get a signed green card back from the USPS.

My experience as a renter/tenant of BC is a nightmare. First, the person in charge of move-in inspections wanted to fill out this form over the phone...that was a joke. To anyone, this simply means the BC does not care what is on this form if their own employees are not on site to witness the actual property condition upon move-in. If I had put down that there was a crater in the front yard prior to move-in, I would have been charge for yard service/repair when I moved out. After this short less-than-five-minute conversation, we never heard from this person again. No BC employee/contractor/etc ever did a move-in inspection with us...we had to request that a copy of the blank form be sent to us via email from Rich Rogers.

Doesn't AZ Landlord/Tenant law say something about providing the tenant with a move-in inspection form upon lease signing? Or does BC interpret that law to say it is OK to provide the LANDLORD a copy of the move-in inspection form and everything will be alrght? I was specifically told via email that we would not be held responsible for such conditions that were pre-existing to the property, yet all of these conditions that were noted on the move-in inspection sheet (which was received and signed for...legally accepting a document under AZ law) we were charged for.

After trying to get action by withholding rent. Granted this is not something suggested to another renter as AZ does not provide for this action. I spoke with a woman in the accounting department that told me if I brought down my rental payment in full the next day, all legal actions against me would be dropped. NOT!! After driving almost an hour one-way to deliver my payment in full, I was told that the property owner had decided that morning that no rent payments would be accepted.

With all of this, which can and will be backed up by documentation, I have no reason to believe that BC had any actual contact with the property owner through all of this. What I do believe is that certain persons working for BC, especially Jared Baker, had no business working as property managers. What I do believe is that Mr. Baker has no use for someone who is strong and will stand up to the BS that BC dishes out, and that at Mr. Baker's whim all tenants who do not bow at his command will be punished.

My suggestion for avioding this rip off is to simply steer clear of Brewer Caldwell, whether renting or using their property management services. Any suggestions/comments, Chris?

Jason -

Please respond to my email address so i can look into this for you. What is/was your property address? Please send me any information you feel may be helpful in my inquiry.

As for Mr. Baker, I must admit you have the wrong impression of him and his character. But setting that aside, he would never advise anyone to refuse a rental payment. If that was the case, the owner would have in fact had to tell him to specifically refuse it for some reason, whether it be a chronic history of paying late, abuse to the home, etc. So, if your rent was refused, the owner did in fact request it.

As for the charges, those usually come from comparing the move-in inspection to the move-out inspection, unless you're still in the home. when did you accrue these charges? Was it after you moved out or before?

I have a sincere desire to help get this situation resolved. I take our customer service very seriously. After our correspondence, i will repost to this site with an update. I invite you to do the same. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Chris Epperson
Chris@BrewerCaldwell.com