All Forum Posts by: Kristina Anderson

Quote from @Jay Y.:

Just a quick update, doesn't look like I'll be getting May rents anytime soon. My new PM can't even get security deposits right away, we're told perhaps within 30 days of transfer and not to mention they lost some keys. Evernest is treating all owners like institutional owners, let this be a warning to those who are thinking about using them. I have June mortgages payments coming up but they don't seem to care at all. At this point, I cannot wait til they are wrapped up with my portfolio - I'm sure my tenants feel the exact same way!

That is just horrible and I’m sorry to hear it. I’d post a review on google/Yelp. Good luck let us know how it goes!!

Quote from @Jay Y.:

Kristina, which office did you terminate from?  Atlanta office told me they will hold ALL funds until no later than July 1.  I'm waiting on my local PM for a response after requesting an escalation be made.

I have new management in place, it's so nice to deal with a single human being vs Evernest's bots and multiple virtual assistants. I'm sure the tenants will feel the exact same way!!

But how and why would they hold rents? That seems very weird. I wouldn't be surprised if they said that but then you got your distribution on the 20th. They say one thing and then do another! We also got those final funds (securities, reserves) middle of the month ... so it's likely you will too. They are just reading whatever line they have in the client handbook ha!
We terminated from Columbus.

Quote from @Chris Turner:

I guess blogging about my experience with Evernest is my new thing.  It's actually pretty therapeutic and everyone's advice has been so valuable.  

The new company I hired took over on Friday and has uncovered so many things!  The tenant claims she put the rent money into an escrow account in April due to issues with the home.  I don't believe she really put the money into an escrow account.  They told her she needs to give them information about the account and reissued her a 7-day notice. I wish she would have done it the legal way but after what the new company has discovered, I don't blame her for not paying rent.  Here's why:

Evernest had been billing me for some crazy non-essential things ever since the tenant moved in and has been wiping out my reserve every month.  It got a little heated between me and the PM after I told them a few times that I don't want any work done on the house without my permission.  I even told them numerous times that I'll fix what's needed, but I was sick of the surprises.  Instead of contacting me with the tenant's maintenance requests they instead passive aggressively let everything go to hell and just kept telling her that I declined the maintenance requests.

I don't have a full report yet but in the first 2 business days the new management company has discovered:

1.  The tenant has been frustrated because she was also billed for the flooding, but it has since been reversed. 

2. The tenant reported that the handles snapped off the shower and was told that I declined to fix it. 

3.  She hasn't been able to use the washer and dryer because of power and plumbing issues with the washer (I was billed to make sure they were functioning and told they were working.)

The new company did a walk through of the property today and I don't have a complete report yet, but so far:

1. There's a leak in the roof (I don't know if she reported it to Evernest)

2. The tenant doesn't have power in the living room and one of the bedrooms.  I assume she reported this but that's news to me

3. Misc. issues like the tub needs resurfaced, but can probably wait

4.  Evernest never made recommendations on the 2 floods, obviously there's something going on there.  

The new company is doing a great job.  They even told the tenant that I've been in the dark too.  She seems reassured that at least now she feels heard and that there will be a plan shortly to address the problems.   

I feel like when it's all said and done that I need to make an effort to make it right with her.  I just am worried that I don't have the funds to fix everything, but I'm going to have to figure it out.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?  I don't know if it's an option, but I am inclined to forgive April and possibly May's rent if she'd sign a new lease after the issues are fixed.  The problem is I don't even know if she can afford the house because I think they just let her move in and most likely would end up evicting her anyway.  But at least the 2 months relief might give her what she needs to find something she can afford.  I also can't shake the feeling that she's retaliating against me by causing damage, but who knows.

I also want to reach out to her personally and apologize, but I like the idea of her not being able to contact me, but we see where that got me.  Does anyone else give their tenant their phone number when you have a management company?

While I believe every word, I will add - we've changed PMs now 3 times and every time the tenants come forward with how poorly they'd been treated. That the old PM was horrible and blamed us for not fixing things, etc. The new PM relishes in the fact that the "former management" didn't do their job. I think for this tenant, have the PM fix the critical issues and move on. No need to personally reach out. The PM will form the relationship for you. But do not be surprised if she's one of those who continues complaining well after things get fixed! If she can't afford the space it's as much on her as Evernest - she will need to move out. 

Quote from @Jay Y.:

Well I finally bit the bullet and sent in my 30 day termination letter on May 1 ending service on May 31. 

 Hi Jay! If I remember correctly, rents still went out on the 20th as normal, but they keep reserve and securities for a few extra weeks just to zero out the account. You should be ok. In fact at this point focus on getting your new PM in place and enjoying a stress-free future :)

Quote from @Phillip Austin:

@Kristina Anderson I totally get it. Many folks were acquired by Evernest and stuck between a rock and hard place. Absolutely. 

Very rarely, if ever, will a business owner selling their business trash or talk negatively of the person purchasing their business (at least not in the beginning). 

It's also worth noting that each of their markets will vary drastically in terms of quality of service. They have several core markets around the country that are fantastic with property managers and team members who have been there for several years. 

If your existing PM company gets acquired by Evernest, I highly suggest meeting face-to-face with your new Evernest point of contact. Interview them. Ask a ton of questions. Ask how they structure their organization in terms of team members; who is responsible for what, how many team members manage a single property, who is licensed, etc.. @Kristina Anderson If they didn't provide any real responses that should be a giant red flag.

The best advice I can give to landlords is choose your PM wisely. Smaller PM companies with 150-300 tend to provide better quality of service overall because they're in the business of managing properties. Once you get north of 300-500 properties as a company, it becomes a game of people management and that's where the companies like Evernest struggle.

Yes. This is all basic. It was almost a week and a half post-acquisition before we got any responses to our emails besides “hang tight we will be in touch” and then finally a meeting where they answered all the above and more questions correctly. At this point they’ve been our PM two weeks. Disgusting. Again we felt “give them a chance”.  Lots of false promises. They kept acquiring in our market and exceeded realistic capacity. I learned this from a mutual investor acquaintance. Long after we’d left. My point is all this advice wouldn’t have worked for us. It took a few false promises to show their true selves. 

I tried to reply but don't see my post. Wanted to suggest that we are victims and do not own any responsibility. Many of us were with a small mom-and-pop PM company who sold their business to Evernest. Acquisitions is the key strategy to achieving your target. We tried to vet (see above) but didn't get any real responses. We were actually convinced by our former PM who sang Evernest's praise as a large-company with a small-company touch. Obviously they were duped. As were many of these small PM companies who sold to them. As part of the package, they obviously were told when to give notice. For us, it was 5pm the night of the takeover. We were already a customer! In addition, pricing wise, they were comparable. 

I don't think you'll get the application packet but your new PM would know what to do to change over to them, using the lease... You will get the tenant ledger that will be the start. We have changed PMs 3 times and honestly - the new PM knows what to do.

@Chris Turner and to anyone else worried about canceling a PM contract (including Evernest). If you are unhappy - just do it. Focus on finding someone who can take over, then give notice and move forward. There are ALWAYS hiccups but they get resolved. We spent way too much time unhappy with Evernest before we fired them. We kept believing their promises. Ironically, it was anticlimactic. They didn't really respond to our termination notice, but did indeed close out and forward securities and balances and the final accounting reports. 

I started this post and as a follow-up, we did continue on with Evernest. They started out very strong in their promises - which seemed an improvement over the PM company we had been using, and who they had bought. Like so many, and in response to @Denise Evans, the issues strung out forever. We would express an issue, they'd say "on it" we'd find out several weeks later it hadn't been addressed, we'd follow up and share our concern, they'd express sincere apologies and then make lots of promises, another several weeks would go by. . . It also would take several emails over those several weeks before we ever got responses. We were in this horrible cycle. We are very nice, generous people - we gave way too much leeway. The last straw was two situations: one we were assured a new meter panel had been installed at one property but no bill ever came. We were assured over 5 months. I finally called the vendor to ask why they hadn't bill us yet - it was because the work hadn't even started, the part was on backorder (covid) and the vendor had moved on and hadn't gone into the backorder queue. THEN at the same time, we had a stoop that was start to disintegrate. We had had 2 bids at that point which were both very expensive. We had asked for a 3rd. We waited and waited. Kept asking and no responses. But during a visit to the city, we saw it had gotten WORSE and we went in person to our PM and said "please just take the 2nd bid" and a month later we checked in. We were told it was all set and invoice was just delayed. It's at the point where someone can get seriously injured, right? So I decided, let's call that vendor TOO! and I called the vendor and they said "well you sat our our estimates so long we took a look and it needs to be revised. i have left a message some time ago with your PM." That was the moment we gave notice we were leaving Evernest for good.

Overpromise, under deliver, and making promises about work you know nothing about. It's supposed to be passive investing. Here I am calling vendors myself. Big disappointment.  We managed to work with them about 6 months. They are master salesmen. We learned a lot though about PM -ing and I'd say people need different things from their PM and it can take 2-3 before you find one that works well for you.

@Ling Rita

It took us a while to know what we wanted in a PM. Now when we check references - at least 2, but we want 3 - I like to ask about communication (of course) but now it’s more about response time than getting updates. But we also focus on how long it normally takes the PM to rent out units, what the PM does when they have trouble doing so, how well they take care of a property, and how expensive the work is. I also ask whether the reference feels the PM is treating their rental money like it’s their own or doesn’t mind spending. That’s a big flag - a great PM might say “that estimate was way too high so I got 2 more and by the way I don’t think we need to replace the entire roof” whereas another might say, “your roof has a leak, so I have an estimate here for a full replacement.” I hate when PMs suggest pricey work for an issue that might be solved a cheaper way (before the naysayers jump on that I’ll say we keep our properties in great shape but we’ve had managers who like to spend well beyond necessary. Well beyond.)

All that said - don’t overthink the decision. As we can attest to, you can always move to another if you aren’t satisfied.