Benchmark Property Management

I highly recommend Benchmark Property Management. Lee Arnold is always friendly and professional. He always responds to my emails and returns my phone calls in a timely manner. I am new to the rental property business but Lee took his time to explain everything thoroughly to me and has been doing a great job with my rental property. I am very pleased. He has made this experience easy and stress free. Thank you for all your hard work!

Benchmark has been a wonderful, professional property management company. Lee and Laura (and other staff too) have been tentative and prompt with maintenance and other urgent matters. Throughout various changes/​challenges they have been flexible and solution oriented. There is a benchmark website with maintenance and payment links that are super easy to use and convenient. We feel like they care about us and for the past 3 years we have been able to count on them and the coordination of the services they provide as needed. Thank you benchmark!

I lived within an apartment under Benchmark property for the past year and my experience was awesome! It was my roommate and, with any request we made whether it was a question regarding the surrounding area or a maintenance request, we heard from them within a few hours and normally would receive the service (if a maintenance request) within 2 – 3 days.
I recommend this property management company to anyone looking for an easy going living situation in Southern California!
**they are not in office a lot but are readily available via phone call, text, or email!
Thank you Laura and Lee for being the BEST property managers and on top of everything brought your way:)

I just moved out of a property managed by Benchmark and have to say the experience dealing with Lee and Laura was terrible. I moved out had the carpets cleaned and the condo was spotless, cleaner then when I moved in. Lee did the exit walk through and said everything looked great, smiled, shook my hand and said «will send a check to your new address». Well I received my balance of deposit yesterday and was disappointed to see I was charged over $ 700 in misc charges including $ 180 for cleaning. I have called and no response from Lee for days then and email showing two pictures of drawer that had debris in the drawer bottoms. I accept we may have missed cleaning out a drawer that just would have required wiping out yet we cleaned all the bathrooms, tubs, showed and mopped all floors. Oven was cleaned and refrigerator cleaned to brand new looking. Carpets cleaned and floors perfect yet was billed $ 180 just for cleaning a perfectly clean condo. Appalled at how we where treated. Lee is a scammer beware.

My Fiancé, daughter and I are new to San Marcos. We wanted to spend a year looking for our new home and decided to lease during this time. We found a rental we really liked and contacted the property managers «BENCHMARK». Probably one of the worst companies I’ve ever dealt with. They are super great before you get into a property; will promise you the world. After you become a tenant, «Good luck ever getting a hold of these people». This seems to be a strictly for profit company that cares nothing of its tenants. Would «Never in a million years recommend to anyone!» Please be weary when looking for management to represent your property. Please feel free to contact me if you would like further details involving this sham of a company. Would gladly give more info.

Absolutely horrible company. We’ve been using them for 1 ½ years, and will be hiring a lawyer to get us out of the contract with them, and get us our money back. Our time with them has been an absolute nightmare! Please, do yourself a favor, and go elsewhere!

Hello, my family was a tenant in a property managed by BenchmarkSocal. I found Lee, Laura, and the rest of the team to be easy to work with and rather reasonable during the two years we were in the home. I appreciated the auto-​reply emails that Lee had set up; I document everything and used those emails as confirmation that he received my original message or that I should attempt to resend it (and he was usually very quick to reply within 48 hours). I also thought the team did a great job as the go between with the owner when we had specific questions about appliances, etc. Two big things that I appreciated:
1. When it came time to schedule home showings Laura gave me 24 hours notice (and because we have 3 small children) the showing times were scheduled around their nap times.
2. At the move-​out inspection Laura offered to make arrangements to come back and roll the trash cans to the street on our garbage pick-​up day. While that doesn’t really impact my family, I appreciated the concern that it showed for the next family that would be moving in to not have a home with someone else’s garbage filling the cans.

Do not deal with these people.

Benchmark Property manages one of our homes in Oceanside, CA. I haven’t heard any complaints from our tenant (and I do check in on them every year) and as a landlord, it was been quite pleasant working with Lee. It is sometimes hard to get in touch with someone, but for the most part, I’ve always gotten a return call in a timely manner and there may have been 1 or 2 mixups but never anything major. Nobody is perfect. I do not have anything bad to say about them. Lee has always been honest with us.

Great experience! Quick to respond to any questions or repairs! Friendly and understanding! Would definitely rent from here again!

We worked with Lee Arnold as a real estate agent and he was great. Responsive helpful and the transaction closed quickly. I would definitely work with Lee again!

We are very happy with the property management service that Lee provides. It is really nice to know that we don’t have to worry about our rental. Benchmark takes care of it all.

Benchmark properties has been an excellent company to work with over the last 3 years. They have always been quick to respond to any maintenance requests via email. The requests have been handled quickly and professionally with their contracted service providers.
Jay H
Carlsbad, Ca

THIS IS A FOLLOW UP TO Daniel A. review on 2÷15÷2014
If I could rate them 0 stars I would.
I was the tenant Daniel spoke of.
I originally rented the property located in Oceanside, CA through a company called Seagaze. They were garbage. After a few months we received a letter in the mail stating the contract was not being held by Benchmark. OK–
First off, it is basically impossible to talk to a real human being because the website lists the # of a call center. So unless you know your guy, you can’t talk to anyone. I called numerous times and no one could help me they just continued to transfer me around.
We received a notice in the mail from Benchmark that stated we needed to cut our from t yard shrubs down or get fined by the city. The notice from the city fire dept was in the letter. It was dated A MONTH PRIOR!!!
We also received a water notice saying pay in full or the water would be shut off. Guess who pays the water bill, Benchmark. And since we weren’t listed on the water bill we couldn’t do anything. I had to call Benchmark and leave Laura a message saying I was calling the police. The water bill was past due THREE months!
When it came time to move we were ready.
Once we found a place we filled out the paperwork. They wanted our rental history so they faxed the form over to Benchmark to fill out. The form asks if we were ever given a 30 day notice/​pay or evict notice. Laura, from Benchmark, marked yes. We NEVER missed rent. NEVER. A check was bounced once, but I hand delivered the payment the same day to avoid any issue. So our deposit on our new place was then doubled because we were considered a liability. It took forever to get ahold of Laura and after several emails bcd and forth she finally realized she was wrong. She never apologized. The damage was done and she didn’t care.
We alerted Benchmark that we would not be renewing our lease in December. I signed and emailed the pdf with the 30 day notice and our new rental address for the deposit. I emailed them to Laura so I had proof she got them.
We moved and retuned the keys. Done. I withheld the rest of Januarys rent due to unfixed maintenance issues that I had listed when we moved in that were never handled.
After 21 day we never received our deposit back. So I try to get ahold of Benchmark. I eventually get ahold of Lee. He gives me the runs round BS. He tells me that Benchmark is no longer holding our lease and that the owner has requested it back (Daniel). I tell Lee I have no way of getting ahold of the owner. HE tells me that they sent us a letter with the owners contact information and alerting us to the change. So of course I ask, and he says the letter was sent 2 weeks prior to our old rental address because they did not have our new address on file. WHAT!!! I fwd him the email I sent to Laura with our 30 day notice and new fading address on it. Lee refused to give me the contact information. He eventually just began ignoring my calls and emails. I must have called that office everyday for weeks.
Eventually I got a call from the new property management company (who said the owner called him and asked him to contact us), a nice gentleman, who gave me the owners information.
At this point it had been a month since we moved out and no deposit. At this point the law says that the ENTIRE deposit needs to be returned in full and nothing can be withheld. I had to contact a lawyer.
Daniel eventually gave us part of the deposit back. I could have sued for the full thing but I felt bad because it seems he got screwed over just as much as we did by Benchmark.
Lee and Laura are worthless and full of lies. The are hiding under a corporate umbrella which they think will protect them.

Lee was very professional. He responded quickly and is trustworthy. I would refer him to our friends.

Lee has managed our property in Vista for two years and we couldn’t be happier. Since we lived so far away, I needed someone I can count on to take care of my tenant’s needs. He was always very quick to respond via email (usually same day or within 24 hours) and I never had any issues with him or our tenant. I only wish we were able to get our monthly payments quicker, however, we knew this going in and it never was an issue. When our tenant moved out, the place was spotless, as if no one lived in it, and was definitely ready for us to list for sale. Thanks Lee for all your help!

READ ME… SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!!! WORTH READING… On April 21^st. I went to view a property they had advertised on
. This was a perfect place for my husband and I, so we acted quickly. When we were filling out application online, it crashed on both of us. Laura emailed me to say that she had only received 1 application fee of $ 40. After my husband tried again, it worked. Laura emailed me again saying she had received everything and that the application process would start. That was on a Monday and I didn’t hear a thing back for a couple of days. I tried calling and emailing, but no reply from Laura. So I emailed the president of the business, Lee, and he quickly replied saying they were sending paperwork to owners that night, this was on Thursday, and we should hear back in the next day or two. Then, for over a week, we heard nothing. I could not get ahold of Laura by any means. She never answered when I called. I left numerous messages, almost to the stalking point… but nothing. On May 5^th, I received an email from Laura letting us know that «after an extensive intial screen process, your application has made it through phase 1 and we are in the process of completing the screening process.» Which makes no sense! If we have moved on in the application process, then the screening process should be complete! They did try calling my landlord, but she didn’t answer. She told me later that day that the tried calling Laura back 15 minutes right after, and no answer on Laura’s end. We didn’t have our other landlords info at the time of filling out application, but after Laura asked for it, I emailed the info back. Now they had everything they needed. She could have asked us earlier for the info, but that would have been to much work it seems. Then, silence for 4 days. Even my landlord tried multiple times to contact Laura, still nothing. On May 9^th, I emailed Laura asking if we were still in the process… nothing. I emailed her again on May 12^th, 20^th, 27^th, 29^th, and lastly on June 2^nd because I had received a missed call from them. NOTHING!!! I drove by the place numerous times, and one day I saw a lady putting stuff into the garage. Guess they had went with another person without telling us. They sure did string us along with their games and such. DON’T GET SCAMMED BY THEM… THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY!!! UNPROFESSIONAL!!! SCUMBAGS!!! AND IF YOU READ THE OTHER REVIEWS… THEY ALL SAY THE SAME THING!!! And lastly… Lee…I see you like to comment back on your reviews… you can check Laura’s email account and see the emails I sent. I can even print them out and bring them to you, or forward you the emails, and show you my phone log showing how many times I tried calling her. There is no excuse you can give me for the lack of professionalism in your business. Don’t waste my time replying with some bullsh*t excuse or a sob story… LA COSTA HOMES IS A GREAT COMPANY…(
)…PEOPLE…THEY ARE AWESOME!!! Lee… you could learn from them and should strive to be as great as they are!!!

I wouldnt use this outfit to rent a dog house. Never returns phone calls or emails. Number is disconnected and if answered is a answering service full of apologies. If your a property owner BEWARE look at the previous reviews, Lee Arnold is a scam. So sad this company is allowed to continue doing business, Im sure fraud charges are pending at least i hope so BEWARE

Beware of this company. Lee and his staff are scam artists. Here is a brief list of the issues we had with this company.
1) Our tenants gave their 30 day notice in December 11^th 2013. I wasn’t informed about this until January 14^th 2014. No apology from Lee or his assistant and no urgency to get the property on the leasing market.
2) 8 weeks after our tenant gave notice the property had not been listed anywhere, no pictures had been taken, and no cleaning had been done or even scheduled. Eventually a pathetic listing appeared on their website.
3) After repeated emails and phone calls about this issue Lee and his assistant stopped retuning phone calls altogether. After a week of radio silence I finally hired another property management company.
4) Lee withheld the former tenants forwarding address and contact information which delayed the return of her security deposit and has resulted in a lawsuit against me as the landlord. He also never provided receipts for any of the cleaning services.
5) After speaking to the former tenant I learned that she had just as many problems communicating with Benchmark as I did and that many maintenance issues went completely unaddressed.
This company embodies the term slumlord. Do not use them.

Very professional, informative and will always give you the best advice, not what he thinks you want to hear.
Lee is the best of the best — I wouldn’t work with anyone else.