All Forum Posts by: Craig Oram

Thanks. I think that’s a fair statement. However generally the PM has already performed the maintenance before letting me know of the issue. 

I have a question that might be a corner case.  I have several homes with appliances less then 2 years old and the appliances are still within the warranty period from the manufacturer.  Recently on two occasions my PM received calls regarding issues with dishwashers.  In both cases they sent technicians to repair and replace the dishwasher and at no point referred to the warranty to save costs. They were obviously aware of the dishwashers "newness" since they were the company that installed them.   

My question is:  whats the point of the manufacturer warranty if the PM just replaces/repairs whenever they have a issue?  and :  what does everyone else do in the same circumstance?

spreadsheet for above:

So as you can see above there are $7511 in charges for the last 3 months.  $3200 was a turn, of which JWB does indeed charge 10% of the service rendered.  So basically if we are going to talk about how great JWB is by saying my numbers are inaccurate... lets actually put the numbers here.  So the turn... costed me $7511 + 2 months lost rent @1700/mth for a final tally of ~$11000 total.   Another way of looking at this is JWB get the 4.4 moths of rent in 2020, I loose 2 month more due to vacancy, so all told my very first actuall income for this property will be... wait for it... JULY.  7 entire months.  The next answer from JWB will be explaining how this is a exception, but it is not.  BTW the turn that occurred 18 months prior was very similar.  

So to be frank the cost are padded inflated and do not even remotely look like what other PM's are doing in the area.  For example... snaking the drains at a cost of $170 during the turn... no reason, just because.  Or the $258 that goes to JWB for up charge that Gregg says they do not charge (BTW I am fine with paying that... it just the fact that he said it is not charged).  Or the $285 charge to fix the garage door opener, along with the $85 charge a week earlier to "tune" up the garage door.  Even the $85 per yard mow seems excessive.  I was willing to let this go and move on before Gregg chimed in, but now I felt required to set the record straight.  Numbers... not words.

The property tax is $4000/year and I guess I can be thankful that I paid cash for this house because if I had a mortgage I would be paying significantly out of pocket every year since I have owned this home.  The only silver lining is this property performance so bad, that it helps offset the gains from my other 10 homes. 

PM me and I can tell you a little more  about JWB. 

Except Gregg your not telling the whole truth.  You are spouting numbers that are not entirely or even partially accurate. I appreciate your marketing skills at trying to shut down naysayers with half truths and I also appreciate you airing my private financial information on a public forum thankfully it is only partially correct.  You feel you have to rebut my comment to bolster/protect your business that’s fine, but I would suggest you steer clear of exposing client financials unless your in the business of fighting legal suites rather than real estate. 

Thanks for the reply's.  I guess I'm stuck with them for 1 year (or I guess I could spend $2100 to boot them).  I will be at the mercy of them for the next year unfortunately, hopefully I have few maintenance issues, this will reduce the opportunities for them to up charge.  

Glad... we’ll glad is not correct. But heartened to hear someone else out there with the same experience. I have been holding out on my comments for about 2 years. After today’s experience with the extra “PM” fee tacked onto the already extremely high placement fee, I felt I had to say something. I understand that placement fee if one month is often standard for PM companies, but usually a lot of work and effort goes into placing a tenant. The last two times a tenant was placed it took them all of 24 hours to get a signed agreement.  While on one hand I am happy to get it done quickly, I’m not happy that my request to raise the rent to the correct amount goes unheeded.  It’s great for JWB, quick tenant placement means less work for more money, but it’s not always in the investors best interest. 

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.