REI Property Management - REALESTATE INVESTORE Unprofessional and Unethical practices Minneapolis / St. Paul Minnesota

Hi! Just writing to let everyone know the great job that REI Real Estate & Property Management did for me... No one from REI has asked me to do this. I'm just a really thankful person right now and want to offer my experiences.

I worked with Real Estate Agent Sandra Jimenez from REI, as well as REI Property Managment President, Steve Rajavuori --- who had referred me to Sandra. At first I had every intention of working with REI as my Property Management Co. for the house that I own, but I decided to then sell my place & work with them as my Real Estate Agents. I originally heard about REI from some of the great reviews from Friends...Example: one friend of my dads owns 3 Houses but lives in Japan (!).. shes been working with REI for years to manage their properties & find renters for her-&-her-hubby as well. She says they do a great job at doing EVERYTHING for her... Definitely full service! I believe they also have some sort of flat fee every month of $100 or something like that.. very reasonable to manage & take care of your property!

Re: REI's Real Estate Agent: Sandra Jimenez.. Shes soo great to work with! Even my step-mom (who was a successful realtor with Caldwell Banker & ReMax too told me this in a text): Quote: "You sure did pick the right Realtor she (Sandra Jimenez) is very very good!" Coming from my step-mom or any fellow Realtor..this is an amazing compliment in regards to Sandra Jimenez of REI!

Sandra is not telling me to write this... Im just writing because I think that someone needs to know what a truly great Realtor she is & REI Real Estate as well! Sandra is a great communicator, hard worker, thoughtful, caring, considerate, aware, smart, etc. too.. I now i just want everyone to know how much she had meant to me, my family, & friends as well.. She just has no idea how she has so touched our lives being here for me (& all of us as well) like she has! We love her like she was part of our family... What a dear lady she is!

Practical things she did too was: stand in the cold for hours in my garage (Sandra & her hubby too) while my tenant of whom I had to evict was finally moving her belongings after months of non-payment. She was there for me when i couldn't be there. She also was kind but also very firm with the tenant that I had to evict as well... (Long story). I appreciate how well balanced Sandra is.

After I decided to sell my home vs renting it out-- Sandra's input & smart advice made me able to sell my home super quick. I wound up with multiple offers within a couple hours (!)... and then I had a buyer come in offering cash for my whole place. This wasnt because she advised me to offer my home at a low cost.. it was simply listed at the right price causing these multiple offers.. which made me alot of money in the end. I'm so glad I just listened to her her wise advice to paint, & more... as its true-- it-takes-money-to-make-money sometimes. Also, it's great to have an experienced Real Estate Agent who knows the area well.

THANK-YOU Steve Rajavuori & Sandra Jimenez of REI Property Management & Real Estate for being here for me... everything from helping me deal with my non-paying Tenants... advice on the whole eviction process (which I sadly had to do).. being there in the cold for me during my tenants move out... and then preparing my place to sell.. showing it... then selling it. What a great full service company you have Steve Rajavuori, with great personnel!

Keep up the Great Job Sandra, Steve, & REI Real Estate! :)

Mr Steve responded that the person making a claim did not leave a name in the report. As per the rules of this forum, you are not suppose to. 

I am a retired military member who was looking to move back to MN after 20ish years. Found their site, made an inquiry into a property. Terri Leeds responded in the subject line only. I was surprised she didn't send a more professional response with more possible more listings that would accept pets. I replied stating the about, and added I guess it is only money, very respectfully and thank you anyways. I got a reply back, "That's funny because I didn't edit the subject line. I have no idea where it came from. Oh well, I think I was saying the owner will only accept one dog." and that was it. 

I started checking for reviews, quite a few out their, and not one positive. The owner Steve seems to spend quite a bit of time replying to them, as you can see here, and seems to attack one's opinion instead of fixing the problem. Training and better leadership and he might have a fine company one day. I am surprised they have stayed open during this economy.  

This information is completely false. First of all, we respond promptly to all repair issues brought to our attention. We manage over 500 properties and there are none with leaking roofs, non-functional furnaces, etc. Apparently this person is probably a tenant who did damage to the home and lost their deposit, and they are now trying to take out their frustrations by making false accusations.

We also rented from REI. They refused to repair anything in the rental property during the term of the lease. They tried to steal our security deposit on baseless allegations. We were told that we were required (by law no less) that we had to make any repairs under $50. Yet completely ignored legitimate requests like roofs leaking like sieves, walls collapsing, and the furnace not working.  Steve J. Rajavouri (the owner of REI) didn't even have a rental dwelling license for the property we were in until 9 mos into the lease. They (at best) skirt the law.

When it came time to show the house as we were leaving the agents showing the house were blatantly doing racial profiling. This is a bad company. Stay clear of them.

Interesting that the individual making this complaint did not identify themselves in any way. I am quite familiar with each property we manage in Minnetonka and I want to assure the public that the person writing this complaint never had any interaction with our company. We give prompt attention to all tenant concerns and we are proud of the condition of each property we manage.

I can only conclude that this individual must have intended to name a different company. We have not had any incident like this at any point in our history, and certainly not with any of our properties in Minnetonka.

I invite any potential tenant or owner questioning our record to visit the Better Business Bureau web site, or contact me for further discussion and a list of references.