JWB experience - My thoughts, let me know yours

[Craig Oram]

I wanted to get other people’s opinion of JWB as a PM company. I have been disappointed with the amount of fees and personal piggy bank attitude that the PM has regarding owner investments.

My experience with JWB has been lackluster at best. My main complaint is, they appear to aim for your project ROI target by skimming as much money during PM as they legally can. For example: This month they charged a full month for tenant placement fee then, the same month, they charge a PM fee. During turnovers they fix everything, and by everything, I mean they look for anything that they can do to increase the SOW in order to skim as much as they can off the work costs. Many unnecessary things are repainted, redone, replaced, and rebuilt. Sure, the house will look brand new again, but it is not very good for my ROI. My last turn which happened 1.5 years after the last one costed ~$3000 of which the SOW was basically the same as it was the prior year it was turned. In addition, they "found" the AC needed to be serviced for an additional $400. Then a week later the Aerator for the well needed to be replaced for an additional $1800 (plus the JWB fee). I expressed my discontent with how they are managing the property and I was informed that my contract required me to pay for 1 year of PM fees to terminate (I should have read my contract more closely when I signed it at the beginning of March 2020).... My rent is 1700, so termination will cost me another $2040.

I feel like this is a little bit like extortion, I'm clearly not happy with the business model, but it looks like I am stuck with them for another year. I have 10 other houses from different PM companies and while they all seem to charge a premium they do provide a premium when it comes to the actual "management" part of PM. The one thing that JWB does well in terms of management is trying to manage my expectations through scripted interaction and condescending comments like "maybe real estate is not a good fit for you". My other 10 SFH most of which were purchased though turnkey providers tend to stand by their product more than JWB.

I'm interested if my experience is unique or if others have experienced what seems to be overcharging and price gouging.

[Mike D'Arrigo]

@Craig Oram this is a common issue. Property Managers want to make their lease up job as easy as possible and bringing a property up to like new condition is one way of doing that. Unfortunately it's not practical in a rental unit. Sometimes you have to challenge the SOW and determine if everything really needs to be done in order to attract qualified tenants. Go through each major line item and come to an agreement on what really needs to be done.