Downtown Real Estate Consultants

Avoid this Property Management at all costs! I attempted to meet with GREG BERNAVE twice to show me a unit and the first time I called 30 minutes before to confirm and he told me he didn’t have record of me setting up the appointment (as I had done the Friday before). He informed me that he could meet the following day at the same time. A little irritated, I decided to give him another chance. After all I set an hour aside from my busy workday to meet with him.
The following day, my roommate and I showed up and waited for 30 minutes for him. Both of us were there on time– even another group of potential tenants were there waiting for him. HE NEVER SHOWED UP!!! We called him multiple times and he screened our calls. My roommate called from his phone and he answered (since he didn’t have my roommate’s phone number) and once he realized it was us he hung up.
COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND WOULD NEVER WORK WITH HIM OR REFER ANYONE TO THIS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT.

Even under the best circumstances, moving is stressful — Greg and his team managed to only add to the stress for our recent move. My wife and I located a lovely property managed by DREC and quickly submitted an application. After being unable to get ahold of Greg to confirm details of the lease in a timely matter, we decided to opt for a sub optimal unit rather than attempt to deal with DREC. To get ahold of Greg we tried everything — calling, e-​mail and even stopped by the brick and mortar office (where we we were greeted by a the most unprofessional disinterested assistant ever). It was clear from the beginning that our business was not valued. So, we chose to take our business elsewhere. Judging by the other reviews here we made a good choice, as I could not imagine trying to get ahold of DREC acting as a management company in the event of a problem at a property. Good riddance…

Avoid at all costs. Having DREC as my property manager/​landlord reminded me of dealing with the shady slumlords from my undergrad years. If you have a plumbing issue don’t bother calling them because they are apparently busy bees who are NEVER available/​responsive, they will blame you, then drag their feet on calling their «preferred plumber», or will tell you to wait it out if it’s the evening or weekend. Ridiculous. The only way to get them to do anything is to use legal buzzwords and drop strong hints that you’ll lawyer up.
Also if you’re ok with them keeping your deposit for 6 weeks instead of the California legal 3 weeks then these guys will be great for you.
Him and his «assistant» are terrible. Don’t be dumb. Run away — not worth the headache!

This guy has been sued 11 times in San Diego Superior Court alone. Here’s why:
Greg Bernave is perhaps the most unprofessional and incompetent person I have come across in a long long while.
For tenants: Despite being «property managers», neither he nor his assistants will lift a finger to do their job. Be prepared to make copies of your own keys, meet any and all inspectors, and arrange for your own repairs. Ask them to actually do their job, and they will literally scream at you over the phone. Greg suffers from a bad case of «little man» syndrome, so you have been warned.
For landlords: Lest you think ignoring tenants is a good thing for the cash flow, Greg ignored and/​or refused to make necessary repairs which cost my particular landlord thousands of $$$. He was then caught red-​handed trying to shift the blame to the tenant – exposing himself and the owner to liability in the process. Not worth my time, but again, you have been warned.
In short, this guy isn’t qualified to clean rental properties let alone manage them. I would try to avoid at all costs.

I have no issues with DREC. I rented an apartment through them and everything was done to expectations.

Dang. Looking for a place to live is probably the most stressful thing ever! I’ve recently have been looking into moving back down to San Diego, and took a recommendation from a close friend to call them up.
Once I talked to them on the phone, they were nice and personable. They have a wide range of prices, and I think I may be moving back down to SD. Thanks to Downtown Real Estate Consultants — of chorus. They know there stuff, and they have almost anything you would need. I’d definitively call them up.

Greg Bernave is the most unprofessional real estate agent I have ever dealt with in my LIFE. Not only did he stand us up for a showing, he NEVER contacted us back. We called and emailed while we waited for an hour, and then when my boyfriend emailed him again the next day, he did not own up to any of it, claiming that his assistant was available to show it. Apparently communication and appointments mean NOTHING to GREG BERNAVE. NEVER use this company!

Can you say SHADY. He said he would write an offer for us, never called back, and never followed up. I wish I had seen these reviews before, not after I was going to use him!!!

My husband and I had the worst real estate experience of our lives. We agree with other reviewers… stay away from this agent.

Probably the worst and most unprofessional property management company I have ever dealt with. Greg Bernave tries hard to appear as a successful and competent realtor, however you will quickly find out he is one of two people managing 175 properties. He does not return calls, neither does his assistant Donna. Beware, Greg will try his absolute hardest to threaten and shift blame to his tenants. He will make every attempt to do business over the telephone so that there is no record of conversations. He will bold-​face lie when speaking on the phone or in email. He has been in the business for about 14 years and gets repeat business from his investor clients.
If you are a property owner, he’ll charge you for services whether occupied or not, use craigslist (free advertising and no co-​operation with other brokers) so he does both sides of every rental deal. Absolutely no ethics or personality, just an awful attitude. Rarely stays put in his office because of his shady business dealings, signifying that he’s fearing some sort of retaliation from his clients. He will cost his tenants and property owners hundreds if not thousands of dollars due to his lack of attention to inspections of units he manages after tenants move out, damages and service requests.
Overall, eventually shady business will catch up to people and I’m sure things for Greg are quickly headed in that direction. It must be hard to sleep at night while hiding from your angry clients. Although he has some nice units listed, it’s not worth the hassle, money and awful service coupled with unethical business practices. And make sure you have a great attorney.

Downtown Consultants does an acceptable job as long as tenants pay their bills on time. Be wary however, if any type of unusual situation arises. The tenants bounced a personal check for their initial deposit and first month’s rent and then paid late rent several times. Downtown Consultants’ continued and repeated errors on my account exacerbated the situation even further. It took my personal efforts and countless hours to correct my own account over the course of 4 months. It could have been avoided, if only the owner or employees would have earnestly reviewed my account like I asked them to do time and time again. Instead, the company collected approximately $ 7000, none of which I received until I was finally able to convince them of the extreme errors on my account throughout this time period. I was living out of town at the time as well due to military PCS.

Ultimately the company was unable to hold the tenants accountable to uphold their lease agreement. Seven months after the tenants broke the lease and moved out early, I was still trying to recoup unpaid rent from them because Downtown Consultants quit trying far sooner. I never received the money I was owed (more than $ 500).
Word on the street is that this company is responsible for managing about 1500 properties in downtown San Diego. Over the course of more than a year, this company dealt with me repeatedly as if my business was an acceptable loss to them. Responses from the owner and employees were often slow or absent altogether. I normally support giving people the benefit of the doubt; however, this company wasted every last chance and exhausted my patience. Based on my experience with Downtown Consultants, I would advise others to expect to be an acceptable loss to them if something goes wrong, and to expect little or no attention to detail once they get your business. My business relationship with this company consumed months’ worth of my time and was a liability to me. I will not hire Downtown Real Estate Consultants again, nor would I ever recommend them to anyone else.

Sucks that others had a bad time with this company, I found them nothing but professional and easy to deal with. I moved into a unit that was flooded by an upstairs neighbor (on the day I as moving in) and any and all calls were returned promptly and any issue or question was answered in a timely fashion.
Cant speak to the contractors but Greg n crew were great…

These guys get the prized «you suck» one star. I concur with the first Unilocaler these guys are idiots. Let’s see now… if I did my job as good as these guys did theirs I’d be… yeah totally fired.
We rented a condo from these guys as well and if it weren’t for the fact that we loved the unit and location… we would have walked. These were some of the most unprofessional people I have ever dealt with. If you are considering dealing with them, either to lease from them or have them manage your property… beware. But then again if you don’t mind not having your phone calls and emails returned, they may be perfect for you.

Rented a condo from here. the second worst experience of my life, the first experience was the triple craptasic company the property owner moved to.
mmm where to start with these idiots. Greg gives us the keys early we offer to pay for extra days and he says ohh no it’s fine. so after packing and moving stuff we come back and someone parks in our spot, we leave a note telling them to leave, the next day (moving day) they are still there so we call Greg’s answering service, and after about an hour of waiting to hear back we had to have them towed. about 8 hours later the owner shows up wondering where his car is. and Greg gets pissed telling us we should pay what whaaaat?!
The entire time these people managed our condo is suuucked, nothing got done no one would call us back. We ended up having to work directly with the building’s management company to get anything fixed. Stay away. far away.