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Updated about 1 month ago, 11/20/2024
Do not use Suncoast Property Management in Jacksonville
I've towed the line on posting this for almost a year. At this point, I just want fellow investors to hear my experience and find another property manager.
I signed a 24 month exclusive contracts with them in 2019 which was a complete rookie move.
Facepalm: the act of literally hitting yourself in the face with your palm out of frustration
1 property is doing ok.
1 property had a suncoast employee rent it and stopped paying after 1 month. They got evicted and caused $4,000 in damages over a 5 week span.
The 3rd property had a tenant stay for 15 months. He also trashed the place and cause $6,000 in damages. I had to sell so I replaced the HVAC and a day later it was stolen by what neighbors described as the previous tenant. Eventually it was sold at a loss.
Anyway. At this point I am 3 months away from ending my 24 month agreement on the house that was robbed. Today, Suncoast made sure to charge me $925 for ending my contract early.
When I spoke to their staff, they laughed with me over the absurdity of this charge and sent me up the chain to have it waived with the supervisor Leanord Gurney.
He said a contract is a contract. Which is true. And I cant fault him for that. This is the end of my story.
Basically, if you are thinking of using them as your property manager, interview others and ask them how they would react to my exact situation.
Anyway, onward and upward.
@John Voychick
So sorry to hear about this bro! I feel for you as a fellow landlord! Please next time you need property management services reach out, we can refer you someone in your area
@John Voychick
I have been preaching this for years!!! Stay away...any other investors should take notice of this story.
@John Voychick thanks for sharing! Not sure if you have another property manager lined up but check out Rental Guys Property Management. I have used them for several years and have had a great experience. Good luck!
#3 Classifieds Contributor
- Accountant
- New York, NY
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#3 Classifieds Contributor
- Accountant
- New York, NY
@John Voychick
I am sorry to hear about your experience. Property management companies and contractors are the people in your business who make or break you.
I will send you a private message to refer you to a property management company that is doing good for me.
Don't let the bad experience sway you away from real estate. This is a learning experience and you will come out better on the other side.
Companies can be very slimy also.
If a company is performing poorly, they should allow to break up for the release.
Failure to do these kind of things...results in bad publicity for the company like this post does.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
- Basit Siddiqi
- [email protected]
- 917-280-8544
@John Voychick I'm so sorry to hear about your experience, it really pains me to hear about people getting subpar treatment and customer service I always listen to people's experiences to make sure that I can prevent these kinds of things from happening to my clients. I know sometimes no matter what everything just isn't for everyone however if you stick to quality service you'll hit the goal more times than not.
I used SunCoast for a couple of my properties. My experience was the same as others. Terrible. SunCoast has a corporate culture of lip service and excuses. I would stay away from theses guys.
@Patrik Kusek
You hit the nail on the head...
- Real Estate Broker
- Cody, WY
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Originally posted by @John Voychick:
I'm sorry for your experience. Yes, a contract is a contract, but it's a two-way contract. If they failed to perform, you should have been able to terminate early and/or end your contract without penalty. There are ways you could do this, but it sounds like you've already resigned yourself to the loss so I won't bother. I hope things go better for you in the future.
- Nathan Gesner
So is there a way to get away with 24 month contract?.. Any ploy, tricks and legalities.
@John Voychick thanks for sharing the info. Which property management co did you move to?
@John Voychick As a fellow out-of-state investor, I feel your pain. I went through similar experience when I purchase rentals from a turnkey provider in Indianapolis. Thanks for sharing your experience. I recently listened to their interview with The Real Estate Guys Radio Show and it's great to have a forum like here where we can hear from people's own experiences. Hope you can find a better property manager soon.
@John Voychick Thanks for sharing your experience. Shopping around for turnkey and property managemtn companies myself.
@John Voychick I had a horrible experience with SunCoast as an owner also.
Everyone please please please avoid SunCoast! There are so many other options!
Having a very negative experience with Suncoast at the moment. Did anyone here switch to another PM in Jacksonville that they are happy with? If you did - can you please share? Thanks!
Originally posted by @Maria Frant:
Having a very negative experience with Suncoast at the moment. Did anyone here switch to another PM in Jacksonville that they are happy with? If you did - can you please share? Thanks!
Hi Maria,
I just checked through our database and my email and I don't see your name as one of our current or prospective investors. As the Investor Relations Manager, I would be happy to talk with you about any issues you're having if you'd like to reach out.
Similar experience, regretting it now, and kind of stuck with them until contract ends next year.
I had a terrible experience with Suncoast Property Management. I fired them last year.
I just opened my mail to find a notice from a COLLECTION AGENCY stating I owed them money. WTF?!
I have no idea what this is for - they sent me money when I terminated services and I haven't heard from them since.
STAY AWAY FROM SUNCOAST!
#2 Managing Your Property Contributor
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
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#2 Managing Your Property Contributor
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
File a complaint with Board of Realtors and State AG.
- Drew Sygit
- [email protected]
- 248-209-6824
Update on Suncoast PM...
I bought a property in Jacksonville from them, with the 24 month PM contract. I got so lucky - the first 3 years, during the depths of the pandemic, I had a perfect tenant, no problems, even during the storms. Forward to 2023, the tenant is unfortunately moving out. I get a new tenant at a LOWER rent, ALWAYS late, and then ... the septic tank GOES TO HELL. $7k damage. Of course, no warranty. I decide to sell.
I use Suncoast to sell my property. They don't do ****. They sit on their *** for 2 months, not a single bite. I drop them and use a competent local RE agent, who did a great job. Then, after I sell the property in Aug 2024, after 5 months of vacancy with Suncoast - I get a call, saying I owe them a month's rent, because I didn't use them to sell my property.
WHAT ********!!! So that means even many years down the line, after I've dropped them completely, and I decide to sell my property - they're going to come after me and charge me a months rent because they didn't sell my property.
WHAT SCUMBAGS!!! They must be totally desperate! I had severed ties with them for many months, and they expect me to use them to sell my property?! I don't think so!!!
BUYER BEWARE!!!
@Jenny Yu sorry to hear about your experience, we own and operate 51 units we own and manage for other clients in Jacksonville and Orlando. Unfortunately, many of these companies that do property management and brokerage services include exclusivity clauses in their contracts which I don't think is right. However, saying that there are many companies that do both that are amazing and don't do things like this, so I'm not suggesting that doing both is inherently negative. I know we wouldn't include a clause like that if we did offer brokerage services because our Property management agreement has a 30-day notice to terminate at any time for any reason no penalty.
The only thing I will say is Jacksonville has had rents drop in many areas, so you're not alone in having the same property rent for less today than it did in previous years. Jacksonville has been building at record levels and is/was one of the highest cities in the country delivering new housing units as a percentage of existing housing units. So Supply and demand have really shifted quickly.
It sounds like you sold, but if we can ever help with anything in the future please don't hesitate to reach out, even if I can't help someone in my network probably can. Friendly reminder to anyone else reading to carefully review your PMA before you sign it and before you decide to change property management companies.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I'm sure it will help someone else in the future, so at least hopefully something good will come from it.
Quote from @Jenny Yu:
Update on Suncoast PM...
I bought a property in Jacksonville from them, with the 24 month PM contract. I got so lucky - the first 3 years, during the depths of the pandemic, I had a perfect tenant, no problems, even during the storms. Forward to 2023, the tenant is unfortunately moving out. I get a new tenant at a LOWER rent, ALWAYS late, and then ... the septic tank GOES TO HELL. $7k damage. Of course, no warranty. I decide to sell.
I use Suncoast to sell my property. They don't do ****. They sit on their *** for 2 months, not a single bite. I drop them and use a competent local RE agent, who did a great job. Then, after I sell the property in Aug 2024, after 5 months of vacancy with Suncoast - I get a call, saying I owe them a month's rent, because I didn't use them to sell my property.
WHAT ********!!! So that means even many years down the line, after I've dropped them completely, and I decide to sell my property - they're going to come after me and charge me a months rent because they didn't sell my property.
WHAT SCUMBAGS!!! They must be totally desperate! I had severed ties with them for many months, and they expect me to use them to sell my property?! I don't think so!!!
BUYER BEWARE!!!
One note on this @Jenny Yu. Just because they included that clause in their contract doesn't make it enforceable. Might want to check with a local attorney to verify. We have a property management company and real estate brokerage. I remember years ago our attorney reviewing one such issue for a client that was coming over to us. The previous company wanted to do something similar, but our attorney pointed out that this wasn't allowable under Florida law.
Hi @Jeff Riber too late I paid these unethical jerks. I think they know us remote landlords are at their mercy. Personally, I think this company is probaby about to go out of business - they have lots of inventory, and it's not exactly prudent to be investing in FL in the coastal areas now anyway.
I just got another random $475 bill from them. No invoice, no mention of what this is for. They are so unethical!!! :(
- Real Estate Broker
- Cody, WY
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Quote from @Jenny Yu:
Hi @Jeff Riber too late I paid these unethical jerks. I think they know us remote landlords are at their mercy. Personally, I think this company is probaby about to go out of business - they have lots of inventory, and it's not exactly prudent to be investing in FL in the coastal areas now anyway.
I just got another random $475 bill from them. No invoice, no mention of what this is for. They are so unethical!!! :(
If they are unethical, you can file a complaint with the Florida Real Estate Commission: https://www2.myfloridalicense.com/real-estate-commission/complaints/
- Nathan Gesner
@Jenny Yu do they have an online portal you can log in to? I know for our portal in Buildium owners can log in and run different reports like income statements, profit and loss, general ledger, etc. So if we have a $475 bill for an owner you could click on that amount and see the invoice/bill that's associated with it and get some more information. Maybe they have something similar you could try to get at least more information about the bill or other expenses.
Do you have a not-to-exceed clause in your contract? It's pretty common practice to have something like that in a property management agreement, and if it falls under that limit they're going to pay it and not notify the owner except in regular monthly updates because it is below the threshold of what is an ordinary expense in the course of business. If it's over that limit then it's something they would need your approval before getting the work done and paying it. Our NTE for a single unit is $500 so if there was a $475 plumbing bill we knew was necessary for the property we would be paying it and you would see it in your monthly statement. However, you would get an answer from us if you asked, and you'd be able to find the bill/invoice in your portal as I mentioned above.
If you have questions about any of this stuff feel free to ask or PM me and I'll be happy to help I won't be doing it to try and win some business, I am just happy to help if I can.