Any Experience with Renters Warehouse

[Jamal Tyree]

I'm turning the corner on getting my house ready to rent.  Lesson learned pay others to do the time consuming labor. No matter..

Does anyone have any experience working with Renters warehouse.  My main goal is to get this house rented so I can start shopping for my first duplex... I'm not asking you to bad mouth or anything.  I'm just looking for some real world reviews before I sign the dotted line.

[Mark Graziano]

Did you end up signing with them?  I was interested in their services as well.

[Aaron Montague]

The place certainly puts on a good face with their website.

I would be a bit wary of the fee structure.  It looks like the type of place that might get expensive quickly.  I'd figure exactly what $79/month gets you.  They have lots of little fees built in, so I'm curious if those are also on the back end as well:

Return to collect rent again Fee x3: $30

Phone call with tenant fee: 8 minutes. $5 + .50 per minute.

etc

[Mark Totzke]

Hi - I use Renters Warehouse to manage one of my single family homes in MN. They have managed the property for three years now and they have been great to work with. They are pretty cheap ($80/month) and I have had good luck with them funding qualified tenants. The fee for finding a qualified tenant is quite high though, one months rent. If you can find your tenants that will put a lot more money in your pocket. Mark

[Ronald Perich]

Originally posted by @Mark Totzke:
Hi - I use Renters Warehouse to manage one of my single family homes in MN. They have managed the property for three years now and they have been great to work with. They are pretty cheap ($80/month) and I have had good luck with them funding qualified tenants. The fee for finding a qualified tenant is quite high though, one months rent. If you can find your tenants that will put a lot more money in your pocket. Mark

 I realize Ali Boone just had a great blog post about PMs (the good, bad, and ugly) and how it is worth it to pay them for their services (if they are good). Having just gone through the lease-up process during a winter month, I can tell you that it is time-consuming! And then dealing with the 20% of residents who cause 80% of your time to be used - what a pain. They seem to have this down pretty well with a "less than 1% eviction needed" claim.

It looks like RW is a decent franchise. They seem to have all of the tools and provide a lot of back-end support to their franchisees. 

But I hate lease-up fees. They are counter to the goals of an owner. An owner wants their rentals rented; lease-up fees encourage the PM to let the rental to go vacant so they can get the fee. 

Give me a "low-vacancy" guarantee. If the PM can keep the "rental payment default rate" below 8%, he/she can keep 75% of that difference. If I don't get paid at least 92% pf the rent, for any reason, there is no bonus. That would be a model I could support. 

That model encourages PMs sign long-term leases. That model encourages them to re-lease quickly on a resident-turn. That model encourages the PM to have people pay on time. It also encourages me to keep the maintenance up because I get a bonus for a quick placement and I don't risk getting fired by the PM for maintaining my property poorly. Under this model the PM's financial interests and my financial interests are well-aligned.

Under their current plan, a $12K/yr rental costs me at least $1,960 in fees with no guarantee I have a low vacancy rate. And the PM is encouraged to not to renew the lease so they can earn another $1000 lease-up fee. If it sits empty for two months, they still get paid. And if they don't encourage a re-lease, I have turn costs as well. 

Under this new plan, vacancies and non-paying tenants cost the PM their bonus. They would make less under this plan, but the amount of work they have to do should be lessened because they are really looking for the very best, long-term resident they can find. 

[Dianne Johnson]

Atlanta Renter Warehouse appeared to be what I needed to find good tenants. 

I have 30 rental properties, I was looking for 6 reliable tenants. Well they took sooo long to find a tenant with a good background I finally used a real estate agent in the Atlanta area. She is just what I needed. Also I communicated with Todd (the owner) regarding no progress with tenants . No response.

Honesty I would not recommend Atlanta 

[Royce Davis]

Hello, this is my first post on BP forums.  Directed to the OP...  Did you end up signing with Renters Warehouse?

I live in MN but am relocating to TX and considering keeping my property as my first rental.  Can you share some information about your experience with RW.  It seems they get mixed reviews on these forums.

Thanks! 

[David Moore]

My first impression of Renters Warehouse was that I didn't need them.  But then I bought my four unit building in the Twin Cities, and partially due to time of year, and partially due to schedule, I called them in after our fall rehab was done, and they have done a great job getting me tenants....and they warranty them for six months.  I use them to find tenants, but manage the property myself.  They are very good at weeding out tire kickers, and their fee, for all the time they put in, is reasonable.  

[Saji Salam]

I have 2 properties rented out via Renters Warehouse in Minneapolis. They do a good job of finding tenants. However the maintenance department ( especially after they outsourced to SMSAssist) is such a nightmare that I am looking for a new property manager.

[Russell Moran]

This was the most unprofessional business I've ever used. I am a Land Lord of a property and had used them for 2 of my tenants. I wanted to be as hands off as possible. I used them to find my tenants because I was promised they vented their tenants extremely well. I wanted little to no problems from these tenants and they promised they would find great tenants. The first set of tenants had maintenance calls almost every month for small things. Light went out, door come off a track, microwave/fridge lights burned out. Things that any normal person could fix. The tenants left the house in a mess and I had to pay more to make it "make-ready" then I got in deposits.
The 2nd tenant is where the real problem came in. I had paid extra commission to Renters Warehouse to find tenants that would agree to a 2 year lease. This totally backfired!!! These people were complaining right and left and would not properly communicate thru the right channels. They asked for things to be fixed and as a Land Lord I approved, only to find out the money I spent did not get things fixed. The tenants did not let Renters Warehouse know the issues were not resolved, or Renters Warehouse just ignored them. Renters Warehouse did not follow up on requests and do inspections like they told me they would do. The tenants sent me certified letters threating to sue me because of air conditioning problems that I had approved to fix but Renters Warehouse did not work/communicate well with the warranty company. It was an absolute mess. The tenants ended up leaving out of a 2 year lease in 12 months and left the house with BEDBUGS!!! They continued to send me letters asking me to return their deposit.
Do you want to know the kicker? Renters Warehouse FIRED ME as a Land Lord because the tenants wrote negative reviews about them and they didn't want the bad press. Renters Warehouse inability to communicate effectively is costing them business. I can see from other reviews on here this is a common problem. RENTERS WAREHOUSE IS HORRIBLE...RUN AWAY!!!

[Steven Hewett]

Renter's Warehouse Atlanta is horrible.  I am involved in a lawsuit right now solely based on the fact that Renter's Warehouse failed to fully pass on communications between me and the homeowner.  Even now, while involved with the suit, they refuse to answer any requests for information.  Im going to have to pay for Private Investigators to simply research this because Renter's Warehouse won't answer questions or respond to requests.  There are tons of rental management companies all over - do yourself a favor and don't use Renter's Warehouse, unless you want to be screwed by a company that never admits fault.  Check out their BBB complaints.  The headquarters always blames the local office but never accepts responsibility.  They always say "that's a local affiliate, not our corporate office.  You'll need to contact the local office for your comaint."  B.S.  I worked for IHG, the hotel chain, and if you are a franchisee, the home company can easily remove your status as a franchisee.  So, step up Renter's Warehouse, including the home office.  Remove your franchisee tag, or start pretending like these actually belong to you.  Do you collect any income from these locations?

[Mark Bergman]

I was considering using renters warehouse to manage my rental property in Phoenix. After several phone calls and eventually an in person meeting with Michael Ray from renters warehouse everything seemed pretty good. Their services were presented to me as a $99 a month flat fee for managing my property and he explained to me how they write a rock solid 11 page lease and help find tenants if we need a tenant. And talk about how quickly they can find a tennant. I was ready to move ahead as I was wanting to get away from managing my own rental and turn it over to a professional. I had my existing tenants apply and pay the $110 application fee. When it came time to sign the management contract I read the contract and was surprised to see all the extra fees charged in addition to the "$99 flat fee" that was pitched to me.

$199 start up fee, $350 fee to write a lease. 1 months rent ($2500) to find a new tennant. $350 to renew and existing lease. Suddenly the "$99 flat fee" is no where near $99. Now to me a "flat fee" should be inclusive of all of the services Michale told me we're provided. And not have all of these extras. I spoke with him and told him I felt mislead and that he was not honest with me and he just says "well I'm sorry" and when I asked if he would refund the application fees I was told know. I just feel I should go out of my way to warn others about this company's unethical sales tactics. It is quite obvious from reading these reviews that the tenants are quite unhappy with Renters Warehouse' ability to manage a rental property but I thought it should be known that they are also misleading the property owners. I wish I had read these reviews sooner. Had they refunded my tenants application fees I would have just walked away.