Spartan Invest Hidden Fees

[Joseph Lin]

Hi,

I would like to talk to other people who are investors with Spartan Invest in Alabama to see if they are seeing similar issues.

A little background. I purchased an investment home with them around 12/2018. It took them a while but was finally able to get tenants in around 3/2019 on two year lease. During that three months, I was not charged anything and because it took 3 months to put in tenants, they did not take first months rent as placement fee. Around 2/2020 the tenant broke the lease due to work. Because the tenant broke the lease and owned a pet, I was expecting to receive 2 months rent. Here is where a few things start feeling sketchy to me.

1. They still considered the early-termination fee and pet fee as rent so I was charged the usual management fee.

2. They charged me a lot of fees on move-out, one of which was a double charge for lock change that I had to ask multiple times to remove before they finally did.

3. Even after these move out fees, I'm still getting charged for things such as utility ($139.50), lawn mowing ($45.00), and house cleaning ($50.00). This does not seem right as I did not have to pay for these during the initial three months my property stood empty.

I feel like this is an attempt on their end to recoup losses caused by COVID. Anyone else having these issues with them?

[Mario Ingrao]

they all seem like reasonable fees as just ask for proof! it’s your property as gains and losses are on you! on all investments there are good and bad times!i was taught to have at least 10 k in reserves for each property owned! have an exit plan as if you feel being a landlord is not for you then sell within the next 3 years! your peace of mind is not worth it !

      cheers 

      mario

[Jay Hinrichs]

Utls are your expense  lawn care is as well. and if it only cost 50 bucks to clean the house and is ready for a new tenant then that is a major miracle.. Most turnovers cost 500 to 2k each time a tenants unit needs a turnover..
and maybe that bill is yet to come..

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Joseph Lin:

Hi,

I would like to talk to other people who are investors with Spartan Invest in Alabama to see if they are seeing similar issues.

A little background. I purchased an investment home with them around 12/2018. It took them a while but was finally able to get tenants in around 3/2019 on two year lease. During that three months, I was not charged anything and because it took 3 months to put in tenants, they did not take first months rent as placement fee. Around 2/2020 the tenant broke the lease due to work. Because the tenant broke the lease and owned a pet, I was expecting to receive 2 months rent. Here is where a few things start feeling sketchy to me.

1. They still considered the early-termination fee and pet fee as rent so I was charged the usual management fee.

2. They charged me a lot of fees on move-out, one of which was a double charge for lock change that I had to ask multiple times to remove before they finally did.

3. Even after these move out fees, I'm still getting charged for things such as utility ($139.50), lawn mowing ($45.00), and house cleaning ($50.00). This does not seem right as I did not have to pay for these during the initial three months my property stood empty.

I feel like this is an attempt on their end to recoup losses caused by COVID. Anyone else having these issues with them?

 Grass doesn't stop growing when a tenant moves out my man. It's actually mind boggling that you'd expect a property manager to cut your grass for free. In addition, Why would you think that the house doesn't need to be cleaned after a tenant moved out? These are the costs of doing business. I think you need to take a deep dive into the realities of what you as a property owner needs to do in order to maintain a product that tenants will pay for.

[Joseph Lin]

@Jay Hinrichs - I've been billed several times during the date the tenant moved out. One bill for $525 was labeled as MOVEOUT, which I assumed was all the repairs/cleaning required to get the place ready for the next tenant. 

@James Wise - My issue isn't with the fee itself. It's a question of discrepancy. Why would these fees have not shown up when the property was initially vacant but is showing up now? In terms of cleaning, as I mentioned to Jay I was already billed $525 for moveout fee which I thought covered cleaning. Also, they take the first months rent once a tenant has been placed (if can be placed within first month vacancy), which I assumed covered all the fees to get the place rented (advertising, lawn mowing, etc).

My question was really directed towards other customers to see if they were seeing similar experiences. I have no issues paying for fees but when the fees don't match what I've seen historically, then there's a problem.

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Joseph Lin:

@Jay Hinrichs - I've been billed several times during the date the tenant moved out. One bill for $525 was labeled as MOVEOUT, which I assumed was all the repairs/cleaning required to get the place ready for the next tenant. 

@James Wise - My issue isn't with the fee itself. It's a question of discrepancy. Why would these fees have not shown up when the property was initially vacant but is showing up now? In terms of cleaning, as I mentioned to Jay I was already billed $525 for moveout fee which I thought covered cleaning. Also, they take the first months rent once a tenant has been placed (if can be placed within first month vacancy), which I assumed covered all the fees to get the place rented (advertising, lawn mowing, etc).

My question was really directed towards other customers to see if they were seeing similar experiences. I have no issues paying for fees but when the fees don't match what I've seen historically, then there's a problem.

A leasing fee is going to cover 1 thing....Leasing your property. That's industry standard. Every additional service will of course need to be paid for as well such as cleaning, lawn mowing, fixing repairs etc....Again industry standard.

As for you not being billed for grass when you 1st bought the property, you're right man. Spartan Invest should go back and bill you for the grass cutting you didn't pay for. Good catch.

[Scott Kaczmarek]

@Joseph - I own a couple of house bought from and managed by Spartan. The $525 was the move out repairs after the tenant vacated the house. You should ask for the details on what this covered. The utilities and grass are just carrying cost that owners need to cover when not rented whether Spartan, another PM or you manage the property. The cleaning fee covers cleaning the house each month while prospective tenants tramp through the house on showings. I’d rather have them clean it than have mud, grass clippings or whatever accumulate. I won’t even talk about what can be left in the toilets. A clean house shows better. So why now and not on the initial rent up when you bought? They did that for me too and it turns out they covered those costs as a value add to a new investor. None of these charges are outside the norm and not invented by them. You always need to question your PM and stay on top of things, but you may just need to reset your expectations a bit regarding the costs above. My two cents.

[Michael P.]

There are plenty of other property managers if you are not satisfied with spartan. NOT paying for certain fees the initial three months was probably part of some sort of turnkey guarantee.

[Joseph Lin]

@Scott Kaczmarek - Thank you. I think the issue with the double charge and lack of communication (had to find out tenant broke the lease myself) left a bad taste in my mouth and start to question a lot of the things I was seeing. My intent for this posting was to affirm that the charges I'm seeing is the norm, not to make false accusations.

@Michael P. - Thanks, looks like it was.

[Mark S.]

Did their ownership change relatively recently?  I thought it was Clayton but now appears to be someone else.  Wondering what happened there.  

[Steve Vaughan]

Originally posted by @Joseph Lin:

Hi,

I would like to talk to other people who are investors with Spartan Invest in Alabama to see if they are seeing similar issues.

A little background. I purchased an investment home with them around 12/2018. It took them a while but was finally able to get tenants in around 3/2019 on two year lease. During that three months, I was not charged anything and because it took 3 months to put in tenants, they did not take first months rent as placement fee. Around 2/2020 the tenant broke the lease due to work. Because the tenant broke the lease and owned a pet, I was expecting to receive 2 months rent. Here is where a few things start feeling sketchy to me.

1. They still considered the early-termination fee and pet fee as rent so I was charged the usual management fee.

2. They charged me a lot of fees on move-out, one of which was a double charge for lock change that I had to ask multiple times to remove before they finally did.

3. Even after these move out fees, I'm still getting charged for things such as utility ($139.50), lawn mowing ($45.00), and house cleaning ($50.00). This does not seem right as I did not have to pay for these during the initial three months my property stood empty.

I feel like this is an attempt on their end to recoup losses caused by COVID. Anyone else having these issues with them?

Early termination issue aside, these fees seem more than reasonable.

As someone who chooses to self-manage,  I charge myself more than they are charging you, accidental small doublecharge excepted.  

Do a turnover or two on your own and feel what it's like. Tons of small little punch list items need a whole repair van to address it seems.  Consider yourself lucky!

[Cj Powderhorn]

Hi, does anyone else have any recent experience with Spartan?  Or comparision shop them against other TK? Are they actually a TK or more like a Marketplace?  Thanks, Cj

[Kyle Nelson]

@Cj Powderhorn

Yes, they are a turnkey company, not a promoter like some companies. I purchased two properties this year from them.

[Natalia Sturza]

I have 2 properties with them as well. Both are performing as expected, one performs even a little better than planned. 

First one 100k, with 20% down almost $300 in cashflow a month.

Second one 88k, with 20% down, around $200 in cashflow. 

[Chase Maglangit]

Aloha @Natalia Sturza, what area did you invest in? I was looking to buy from Spartan in the Hartselle

Area

[Natalia Sturza]

@Chase Maglangit they both are in Birmingham, 35214 and 35215 areas.

[Jay Compton]

@Chase Maglangit You may want to steer clear of 35215 going forward...and possibly even parts of 35235. Those two zips are quickly making the daily headlines for shootings, car jackings, break-ins and all the fun stuff that goes with it. There's a lot of really good people in those areas, but those good people will leave if they keep reading about shootings in their backyard every other day.

And locally, I've never heard a bad word about Spartan.

[Chase Maglangit]

@Jay Compton geez!!!! Ok, thank you for the heads up! Yeah I’ve heard a lot of ghee at things about Spartan!

[Chase Maglangit]

@Jay Compton too be honest, that all sounds a lot like Hawaii now days, sad to say ...

[Lane Kawaoka]

That is just how it is when going with a TKP. That is why I sold my turnkeys. Its just really hard to keep people honest and not get abused as a OOS. Everyone thinks you are a rich OOS landlord.