SOS Management & Property Services

SOS is the absolute worst property management company I’ve ever worked with. I sincerely wish I had listened to the Unilocal reviews prior to signing my lease so seriously AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. I lived in the Bankers Hill apartments and found roaches on the regular. Yes, upon reaching out to them they will have someone come spray but it’s a consistent problem and these bugs are huge. There was a situation in which a couple of the units had bedbugs and the company didn’t even bother to let residents know until a tenant informed the rest of us. The company offered to spray whatever units wanted it regardless of bugs or not if we would remove everything from our unit… with that, we might as well move out which is what I attempted to do when I tried to get out of my lease which was denied. During that time frame Jody, was incredibly rude and condescending despite me not demonstrating any hostility towards her whatsoever. When I asked why she was being so hostile she said she had someone sitting next to her that could prove she wasn’t being hostile. she was obviously used to the hostility accusations. There was a notice posted in November from the water company stating that our water was going to be turned off due to lack of payment. Of course the property management stated it was a misunderstanding with accounting but I highly doubt that. I was charged $ 320 for painting after leaving the studio when my lease was up. I at most had three tiny picture hanging related holes. There was also a mix up when I provided my forwarding address which was my mistake but I had to consistently be on them about stopping the check and resending it and ended up getting it almost two months after I moved out which is unacceptable. The location itself has horrendous parking and is incredibly loud with numerous homeless people. I had to call the cops numerous times due to disturbances outside the complex and within. This company is absolutely corrupt and has no concern for its tenants in any way shape or form. Worst experience.

We had some troubles early on but once Debbee Elwood became out property manager things really picked up. Problems were serviced within 24 hours (faster for emergencies). I even once heard her come to the apartment and explain to a noisy tenant their blaring loud music was unacceptable. Her tone was firm but not aggressive. I was impressed. Anyways, great upgrade.

As a vendor we have been attempting to get paid on a very minor invoice since October, if the management team works like this all the time then I completely understand where all the other complaints come from. I work with top notch Property Management firms all day long so I went out on a limb for this company thinking it would be another great partnership, its not looking like it though. Looks like we will be in small claims with the other reviewers on this board.

Sandy was amazing throughout the whole application and move in process. She was thorough and explained everything to us. She immediately fixed things i brought to her attention. She even delivered on her promise of giving cupcakes to my daughter because we rented the house. It’s that follow through that tells me my experience with SOS Management will be great!

Update: Took SOS/​my property owners to Small Claims court and WON! To all who did not get their deposit from a vacated unit within 21 days (or an itemized disposition with actual dollar amounts of work to be done and contractor contact info): take them to court! You are entitled to 3 times the original deposit amount. It’s time that Property Managers learned how to operate within the law.
THE WORST!!! I have been dealing with these people for 6 months now and everything has been one debacle after the next. Even with the recent staff change, nothing has improved. Don’t expect a call back, work to be done, or to get any of your deposit back. They manage thousands of properties with zero organization. I got the wrong keys to my apt on move in day, a laundry list of repair requests never answered, and have been told outright lies about rental laws. These people have no business managing anything, let alone thousands of properties. Wish I could give a negative star.

Moving out on my own as a single mom was hard, but Nancy and Jody at SOS made the process seamless. The community was one where the neighbors would always watch out for each other making me feel safe surrounded by families and long time residents. Today is my move out date and I am beyond sad that I have to leave this apartment community and support system. Jody and Nancy would always find solutions to my problems as soon as possible and were understanding and helpful. Thanks Jody and Nancy!

This review is based on an attempt to rent a place in the Kensington area. Please consider this BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING!
In sum: TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE and POOR MANAGEMENT. We were just about to sign the lease when we experienced multiple roadblocks, explained in the following lengthy review.
I gave 2 stars (instead of just 1) because I’ve only had to deal with them for a short time, so I do not feel I can fairly assess their management style in its entirety.
RED FLAGS:
— Pictures on ad do not correspond to the correct unit (miscommunication or carelessness?)
— Multiple parts of the condo need repair despite being «move-​in ready» (broken blinds, bedroom door unable to close completely, screen door does not open smoothly, side patio door not secured)
— Lock holding keys to unit did not even lock: They allowed interested tenants to view the property at their convenience by placing the keys in a lock. You were then given the code to the lock to access the keys. We found the lock to be already open; thinking someone may have looked at the property before us and forgot to lock it, we tried to secure the lock, but it wouldn’t lock. Another example of the LACK OF CARE they have for this property.
Despite the issues with the condo itself, my friend and I decided to go through with it because we figured they were things that can be easily fixed. We are very good, responsible tenants with great credit history, so we were approved very quickly. When we went to the office to sign the lease at our agreed appointment time (we were really excited about the unit too), the property manager, Susan, was on her way out the door to a supposed emergency with an owner. I am usually very understanding, especially if it is an emergency. But she did not offer any apologies for having to leave for an emergency and did not reassure us that we would be well taken cared of by another person. And that was probably because that person knew absolutely NOTHING about the property. She told us she literally just learned she was having us sign a lease. This was a problem as I wanted to bring up some concerns about the property before signing anything. Funny thing is we could not even sign anything because it was not clear to me that our funds for the deposit needed to be certified, but maybe I did not hear the assistant clearly; I spoke to the assistant, Adrianna, during most of this process who seemed friendly enough most of the time. Getting certified funds is not an issue for us, but we basically went to the office for nothing since our questions could not even be answered. It would have been nice if someone called to let me know Susan would not be available to have us sign the lease. Is that not the courteous thing to do? Additionally, the office we were brought into to sign the lease was a complete mess, as if they were in the process of moving. Very UNPROFESSIONAL. Needless to say we were extremely upset.
So I called Susan immediately and left her a voicemail about what had just happened. I knew she would not answer because she just left for an emergency. I told her to call me back as soon as she can so we could have our questions answered and potentially come back the next day to sign the lease. The next day came and she still did not call me back by 11:00am. So I called her again. Again, it was her assistant that I spoke to and she admitted to hearing about our issue the previous day. So now I am wondering why they did not bother to call me back to straighten out the issues; if they really wanted us or cared at all, they would have called back immediately (again, BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE). So I brought up my concerns about the many things that needed to be fixed with the condo and she said she would put in a work order «right now.» She said it’s easier when there are tenants because they can put in a work order online and it can be fixed right away, but SHOULD YOU NOT MAKE SURE THAT THE PROPERTY IS IN GOOD WORKING ORDER BEFORE YOU PUT IT OUT ON THE MARKET? That says to me that they do not take care of the property.
Before making a final decision, I decided to look up this company on Unilocal to see how their management style really is (I like to keep an open mind and give people a chance). I have to say, THANK YOU UnilocalERS! This company obviously has a HISTORY of MAINTENANCE ISSUES and LACK OF COMMUNICATION. Thankfully, this was obvious to us from the get-​go.
In the end, we decided not to go through with signing the lease. Perhaps it was meant to be that we had all these hiccups along the way because if we are experiencing these problems now, how will it be later if we sign the lease and are stuck with them for an entire year? It really is a shame because we absolutely loved the place; but customer service is number one, and if this is how things are going to be, I’d rather not deal with them. This is too bad for the owner who hired this company because they lost out on great tenants.

Susan helped me to right the wrongs done by the owner and previous manager — she has done a good job of advocating for us as tenants, and handling all of the issues which should have been dealt with previously. The plumbing is fixed, and Susan has been attentive and communicative in having things fixed and dealing with the property owner.

SOS policy for maintenance requests (and doing anything to earn the money they take each month for «management») is to simply ignore them.
Hopefully 50% of people will go away, give up, or fix it themselves right?
If you chase up then they will ignore you again, and if you try a 3^rd time then they will try and blame you in some way and lie.
Lets not forget lie, lie, and lie again; that’s instinctive for managers like the frequently mentioned on Unilocal and utterly hopeless, Jody Dean.
This may suit owners of properties in the short term, because they get less costs, less hassle. But long term they lose tenants and their property is not maintained which leads to high overheads when a tenant changes. Yet they are paying SOS, every month, a bunch of money to just be a big email inbox that no one reads.
As a rental owner I know that losing a good tenant costs thousands of dollars and endless aggravation. Good tenants are something to be treasured
Keeping the person paying the bills (that’s the tenant Jody Dean; the person with the money is the boss, NOT you) happy, is the most important and valuable part of effective property management.
So lots of tenants moaning about blocked drains and poor response times? You could write that off as the everyday trails and tribulations of home ownership. But property owners should look at the bigger picture. Consider what all this poor performance, as evidenced by the reviews below, has long term on them, their property, and their wallet. Then do the smart thing, and take your business elsewhere.
Don’t expect all your deposit back either; despite a inspection where no issues came up, a deduction for something never discussed and never mentioned.

I have so much love for SOS properties it’s ridiculous! Vanessa and Jody are the most professional, genuine, trustworthy property managers I have ever worked with in my life. They were so open to working with me to find and rent the perfect apartment for my daughters and I, and they both are extremely easy to talk to. They don’t just see their clients as a piece of paper or a credit score, they find the right person for the perfect fitting apartment. They will work with you day and night to quickly and efficiently get the paperwork signed and you can trust in every document you sign. I’m SOOO GRATEUL so for this company. And you will be too! Thank you Vanessa and Jody. You made a big impact on my life. Thank you SOS!

I had a great experience working with SOS property management. Sandy was really helpful with my situation. She answered all my questions and made herself available when I needed. Everything went smooth thanks to her.

After renting in what we thought was a safe and quiet complex, we soon became aware of (and I have pictures and video) of theft, vandalism & drug dealing. I notified the property management about these issues, and not much, if anything was done to remedy the situation. It had become so bad that I had no choice but to move my family. We were told that we would be breaking our lease, but I feel we had just cause to have to leave. We even took time off of work to show the place & bite our lips when prospective tenants asked about the complex (safety, issues, etc.). Not once did SD Property Management show the place.
When it was all said and done, we were stuck with lease back fees, miscellaneous rental charges & a $ 200. cleaning bill when we left the place cleaner than it was when we moved in. Not a bit fair, in our opinion. In addition, we had to foot the bill for an old mirrored closet door when the track broke while we were opening the door & the mirror cracked as the door edge hit the floor. The contractor who quoted the fix told me that the track mount was old and had failed.
Please be careful when renting from these folks. The people are nice enough, but our situation was not taken into account. We were stuck with a $ 750. bill in the end. I am working with HUD to resolve the issue.

I do not know how this place continues to be able to operate. They are unable to follow through on pretty much anything they tell you.
I have submitted maintenance requests several times since I moved in to my place 3 months ago – some of which require immediate attention: leaking toilets, termites, or shorting electrical outlets – none of which have yet to receive an answer.
Don’t bother trying to call them to check in on the requests either. If you are one of the lucky few who is able to get a call through and speak to a human representative, they will lie to you. Otherwise the phone will ring for 5 minutes to no answer. They will tell you that it will be fixed soon, only to be waiting around indefinitely for someone to actually show up and fix your issue.
They have told me that the owner of the property «will be coming to fix things around the units» this past Saturday and to be there for when he arrives. I planned my entire day around this. No show. Great use of a Saturday Morning/​Afternoon.
If you have an immediate emergency and you call their immediate emergency maintenance line over the weekend… the person on the other end tells you that there is nothing they can do until Monday… That is laughable.
This place is an absolute joke. They are unable to meet their contractual requirements. The staff turns over faster than you can imagine. One day you might talk to someone who you finally think has the capability to handle your simple request, the next day they are no longer working there. Seriously, this has happened SEVERAL times. The only consistency is that everyone will eventually quit.
When we initially tried to sign our lease, we were told to come in the office the next day… and surprise the person that told us to come in was not there. We had to come back the next day and the person «misplaced our file.» So she tried to write the lease on the spot… pretty much everything on the lease was incorrect so we refused to sign it, only to be told that «once we sign it they will fix it after.» Yeah right… we made them rewrite the lease to our terms until we were satisfied.
Not like that matters anyway, they are unable to live up to any of their obligations as a property management company.
This place is so poorly managed, I don’t even think the staff knows that what they are doing is wrong. I honestly feel bad for them. I can’t imagine what is going on behind the scenes.
If our house wasn’t in such a great location, with great neighbors that also experience this poor excuse for a management company. I would relocate immediately.
Bottom line, approach these people with absolute skepticism and an artillery ready to fire at them for when they inevitably screw something up within your first month of the lease term.
Good luck.

Per Susan the manager at SOS: «I am training my assistant right now, I am behind and have a trillion things to do. I called Mario but can’t get a hold of him, I will send him out tomorrow.»
SOS does not meet the renters needs.
SOS threatens to have you evicted before they even read the terms of your lease.
SOS lets you know that something is being taken care of, but lies.
SOS will give you undue stress and make your living situation a nightmare.
It took the company 4 months to install answer a maintenance request. The company reports a broken dishwasher is not part of the fair housing act and since is not an object of «habitability» is not of priority to the owner. I was told multiple times that the owner has not responded and they have to wait for the owner to respond in order to have my maintenance request of a new dishwasher to be installed be approved. After 4 months of patiently waiting for this to occur, it came down to me consulting an attorney to review the rights of the contract. My leasing contract was breached and it should have been a priority to receive the amenities I am entitled to for $ 1,195/month. After the inclusion of my attorney, I was given a call that day that a new dishwasher was going to be replaced. It then took 3 additional weeks for this to happen. The company to install the dishwasher came out, and determined a water line that was leaking needed to be replaced. The maintenance worker with SOS property management had to come out twice because communication was not provided to him as to what needed to be replaced. After scheduling multiple work days around maintenance appointments, it took a week of me calling every few days to check the status of the installment. The dishwasher company reported they never heard from SOS property management that the maintenance request was completed. Long story short, no communication ever properly gets transferred to SOS management.

I’ve read the prior reviews, and like any business it just depends on who you deal with that matters. Unfortunately, the bad ones are why I feel motivated to write this review and give one star.
I lived at the Park Square property on Illinois St. The on site manager Theresa was great, and I quickly learned what is/​isn’t in her control. If there was a noisy neighbor, or garage remote wasn’t working she took care of it, no problems. However, if there was a maintenance issue it had to go through the building owners and they are obviously cheapskates. I had a leaky, rusty pipe above my parking spot which was «fixed» by duct taping some foam around it. My bathroom electricity stopped working, after I requested it be fixed because it slowly died over several months but they would not repair until it totally died. Once it died it took a month to get «approval» and then someone out to repair it.
The move out process has been horrific and completely unacceptable. The lease states you will receive your deposit back in 21 days from move out date. I received an email on the 21^st day asking for an address to send the ESTIMATE of refund to. I responded with the address (which had been left already prior to leaving), and a reminder that they were past due. I allowed another week and called and left a message for the person who sent the email to get an update. I was told she was in a meeting and she would call back, no call back. I called again the next day and was told she was in a meeting and to leave another message, no call back. I finally spoke to whom I assume is her boss (who was a nice lady) but only to find they STILL didn’t have my forwarding address to send the check to. Also, that they were deducting for carpet cleaning and to «scrub down» the apartment. I have worked in the hotel industry and I can tell you the place was way cleaner than when I received it, and that I have rented from many other property management companies and have never been robbed like this upon departure. It took them 6 weeks to refund my deposit, and that is what you need to know if you are reading this.
Finally, the person who didn’t return my calls or emails has been mentioned in this Unilocal thread a couple of times. She has some short positive, glowing reviews of her «work», but I find it suspicious that they are vague and non specific as to what she actually does to deserve them. I’m calling BS… I hope you bought your friends drinks for their fake Unilocal reviews. People that cannot be held accountable for their bad behavior are usually the ones that try and cheat the system in ways like this and its going to catch up sooner or later.

Our maintenence guy Jeff came to fix our light really fast, was in and out within 10minutes
Awesome! We dont have to live in the dark anymore

I wanted to extend a positive shot out to Rene Celaya from SOS Property Management Services. Rene represented her company professionally and address every concern and question that I had. I am grateful for her service and would follow her in the growth of her career as a loyal client.
Josie

If there was an option to put ZERO stars, they would have it.
Typically, my roommate and I preferred to live undisturbed so at first, living under this management was a breeze. It was nice to only have to be called on when things needed to be done (which wasn’t often, I think our whole building just got used to getting what we paid for). It was a 2BD/​2BA upstairs unit in Normal Heights, with washer/​dryer inside our unit and designated parking spots.
I can only recall 2 big instances that would pertain to the lack of management skills and professionalism this company upholds.
1) After Christmas/​New Years holiday this past year (2014), I came back from out of town on Saturday early afternoon and heard this dripping noise coming from my bathroom. It happened to be pouring in San Diego that night so I thought it was the roof leaking. Called the «emergency» hotline right away and was unable to speak to anyone so I left a voicemail. So I wait; luckily, our unit has 2 bathrooms and the dripping was going straight into the tub so nothing was getting damaged. Sunday, no response so I call them again — I am finally able to speak to someone on the «emergency» hotline and they directed me to give my property manager a call on his cell since he was the one assigned on-​call that weekend. I call him, no response — leave a voicemail. I start work on Monday and did not hear back anything until late morning, I get a call from the maintenance guy to ask what’s going on. He arranges to come by the apartment to assess the situation so we agree to meet after I get off work.
The maintenance guy arrived and checked out the situation — turns out one of the hot water pipes had broken and the ceiling was pocketing the water leaking out. We start talking about how this came about and he was not surprised to hear that I had gotten no response from my own property manager, or anyone from the office itself. He recommended me to submit something online so that the office managers have record of what’s happening and can handle the situation with more priority. Lesson learned! (Ceiling was fixed after 4 days of plastering, repainting, etc.)
2) This one was ridiculous and infuriates me every time I think about it. My roommate and I submit our request to move out giving 30-​day notice and our last day in the apartment was June 30, 2015. My roommate goes and turns in our keys and tells them we were both accidentally charged online for rent for the month of July — they check it out in the system and said they would prioritize it with the inspection and return the money with the deposit as soon as possible. My roommate and I were basically waiting for 2 months rent each to get returned to us.
One week goes by, I hear nothing. Two weeks go by, I hear nothing so I give the office a call to check on the status. I speak with office staff and they tell me they are waiting on the inspection/​deposit to get finalized. Three weeks go by, I hear nothing or see nothing in the mail so I give the office another call to check on the status. I have to repeat the whole story again about how we were mistakenly charged for July (this is 7÷17÷2015, 3 weeks after our move-​out date). Lady on the phone tries to give me a friendly reminder that the move-​out statement shall be mailed to you within 21 days of move-​out and I return her a friendly reminder that it’s exceeded 21 days since our move-​out. So she finally gets a move on things and says she’ll speak with her manager but checks in the system and sees that it’s been processed so they just need to get the check sent out. I later get a voicemail from the office telling me the check had been sent out on 7÷24÷2015.
Another week goes by, and another, and another.
8÷3÷2015 — I start an email with them to ask about the check’s status and reminding them about the voicemail I received on 7÷24÷2015.
8÷4÷2015 — I get a response from SOS to REconfirm about the address that the check was to be sent to
8÷4÷2015 — I respond letting them know this had been confirmed prior but yes, it is correct.
8÷4÷2015 — I get a response about the check being sent and if I don’t get it in 2 weeks then let them know so that they can issue a stop payment. [I JUST WANT MY MONEY!!]
8÷10÷2015 — The check finally arrives. 2 weeks exceeded. 21 days WAY exceeded. I email them to let them know the check had been finally received. I also indicated to them (with photos) that the date on the check said 7÷20÷2015 and the date stamp on the envelope by USPS said 8÷6÷2015. I told them that I would have appreciated them to let me know if something was wrong and update me on the delay.
8÷11÷2015 — «I am happy that you finally received the check.» — NO APOLOGY, NOTHING.
Thank you, ARACELI SMITH — you are the epitome of professionalism.
For a company that’s called «SOS» Management, seems like you’re the ones who need the help to begin with. Maybe that should be the first sign for everyone to stay away.
Worst management company ever.

We have lived in this property for a year and a half, and have had nothing but problems – usually the same problems, that are never actually dealt with by the property managers. Plumbing backs up sewage into the apartment, and it is «dealt with» by pumping sewage onto the lawn and merrily down the street. This has happened about 10 times now. It’s a nightmare, and the only response from property management has been an increasingly poor attitude. I have photos, but you wouldn’t want to see them.
The plumbing is only the most serious and hazardous issue. We had to clean messes that just aren’t common in apartments, including removing 40 year old sticky paper from all of the cabinets, torn and spilled on. We had to remove jello «made» into the bottom of the fridge. The bathroom floor and toilet seat needed replacing when we got here. Floor still there, with odd stains on it in hot pink, but we replaced the seat. People park right under the windows, gassing anyone who lives there. No response from property management or the city.
It was reasonably quiet when we moved in, but then we got all night partiers, and it went on for months. Never again.

Well, let’s just get right to it. I have been living in the ‘Bankers Hill’ location since February of this year. It’s downtown. And it is gross. The homeless crackheads wander around here like the Walking Dead.
The parking is horrible. Be prepared to get some tickets and to struggle to find a spot when all you want to do is go home.
As far as the management company itself, seriously, what the hell? I have put in so many maintenance requests I have now lost count. I have left so many voicemails and never once received a call back. I finally had to physically go into the office, write everything down, and plead for someone to call me and let me know when I could get these things fixed. This was last week –it’s July now so what in the world is taking so long? Maintenance called me today and the gentleman told me he only received the request today, which is 6 days later.
Our floor also had an issue with the mailboxes, so instead of informing us on the third floor, they just took the mailboxes out completely. For days. No explanation. We all never received mail, we are late on bills, and I have also lost a package. I really don’t even want to ask for reimbursement at this point because of the stellar customer service I always receive from this company.
The elevator is now broken. Shocker. And instead of a sign that states ‘Elevator is broken, being repaired, thanks’ or whatever, there is a sign saying that it is in fact broken. (Okay thanks, we can all see that) in addition to that, it states the cause of it being broken haha. ‘From people slamming the doors shut. Please be more respectful!’ Haha ok really? Can we know when it will be repaired? The little old Asian lady that lives here might want to know since she can barely walk, just saying.
Another thought, you place a note about all tenants being disrespectful but yet we all have to deal with awful customer service? Sounds pretty hypocritical to me.
It is so upsetting to live somewhere where the company could care less about its tenants.