Plus Property Management

They are nearly 5 stars for property management, but they are a weak 2 Stars when it comes to the yahoos they send over to do work on your properties. My experience anyway.

0 stars
I rented from PPM for 3 years. When my initial one year lease expired they also canceled my automatic payments. Shortly into the 13^th month I received a phone call from them informing me that as a result of failure to pay I owed them a late payment fee (approximately $ 100) it took me half a day, on the phone, to correct the issue with them. They’re really good at collecting the rent check but when it comes to actually managing the property it’s another story. To illustrate this, here is another example: Once I had a pipe break in my house and water was flooding my garage on a Saturday. They have an «emergency line» I called it twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday they never answered or responded. I only got a hold of them on Monday during business hours. Anytime I would call for any issue the secretary would always say «oh they’re in a meeting, would you like to goto their voicemail?» what are they meeting about? If I owned a house in Santa Maria and I needed to manage a renter I would look for another option.

PPM was decent during the time that we rented from them, the troubles began when we moved away. We were given the standard list of things we were responsible for cleaning before we left in order to get as much of our deposit back as possible. We thoroughly cleaned the house, including all of the very large windows, cleaned by my mother who used to be a professional window washer.
We called PPM to let them know that we were doing everything in our power to remove a dryer we were having trouble with, but it was another few days from when we’d moved out before we were able to unhook it and take it out. The new tenants were our neighbors, who were not at all worried about the dryer situation. PPM was extremely rude in dealing with this situation.
When we finally received what was left of our deposit check (if I recall correctly, it came 6 – 8 weeks after we’d moved out, which another Unilocal reviewer mentioned too), it was significantly less than I’d expected. I wasn’t expecting to receive the entire amount back, but I was truly alarmed at how PPM handled things from this point on. The write up of what they’d charged us for included things that were not on the list they’d given us of things to clean, and included things that were spotless when we left, such as the windows and blinds.
I called PPM right away and asked how this could be. They had stated on the original move-​out list what the cost of every hour they had to spend cleaning up after us would be, and when I calculated how much work they claimed they had to do after we left based on how much they charged us, it was impossible! This began a grueling series of communications with PPM. I called them often, left messages, sent emails, and offered to go in to the office, and they would often say they’d get back to me the next day, and then wouldn’t. Eventually, Steve J. s assistant send me the photos PPM had taken of the condition of our apartment after we left. Some of the photos were of nothing in particular — you couldn’t tell from them what it was that we supposedly should have cleaned. One of the photos was of ONE DRAWER that had some crumbs in it. Again, I didn’t expect to receive every bit of the deposit back, as the original clean-​up requirements said not to try and fix paint scratches ourselves, etc. Also, we were unable to clean behind the dryer that we were having trouble moving, but that was about 2 square feet of dust bunnies — not something it would have taken 2 people 11 hours to clean. I’m not avoiding my share of responsibility, but what they charged us was truly wild.
The photos, the itemized list of what came out of our deposit, and the list we were asked to clean did not match up with one another. After I wrote a long email (such as this) explaining everything that I didn’t understand about the situation and asking for clarification, and after the usual weeks of trying to get a response from PPM, etc. etc, I finally had a meeting at the PPM office with Steve J. where I explained everything yet again. I was very polite, and at the end of the meeting, he said he would at least give me $ 50 back for the fridge they had cleaned (which wasn’t the property of PPM, which they would have realized if they looked at the pre-​move in photos), and that he would contact the cleaners and ask for a more detailed list of what they had actually cleaned since my main issue was that what they claimed they charged us for did not need to be cleaned. He said he would call me the next day. At this meeting, I also returned the check issued to me by PPM of the remainder of my deposit, which I never cashed, because I was disputing the amount.
I never heard back from Steve. When I got around to dealing with this yet again (left more phone messages), I got a one-​line email from Steve saying that after reviewing things, they were re-​issuing me a check for the exact same amount as they had before. I replied, asking about the $ 50 for the fridge and what had happened to talking to the cleaners? No reply.
Another detail is that the returned amount of the deposit and what they charged me for clean up didn’t add up to what my original deposit amount was!
I wish I had more power to hold PPM responsible for being dishonest, but I can’t afford the time or money to take them to court or whatever the next step would be. A Unilocal review probably isn’t worth much in the grand scheme of things, but if enough people speak up about how PPM has treated them, I hope they will no longer get business from property owners or renters. I’m ashamed of myself for giving up on getting my money back, but I’m tired of fighting them after 9 months. This is probably how they make money: waiting it out on unfair claims until the
other person gives up and they get to keep more than their share. It’s disgusting, and I would avoid working with them at all cost.
I have more details and documentation of all of this, but I’ve reached the review word limit.
STAY AWAY from this company.

Quick and easy move out. Plus Property made their end of the move out and transition back North easy peesy! We moved out and left the place as is and didn’t have a horrendous drop in our return of deposit.

Steve J. fails to acknowledge or even comprehend that Plus Property has done anything wrong in handling this situation with my family. Our notice to vacate was delivered 48-​days prior to our planned move-​out date. Plus Property’s initial response was that we had to resubmit our notice because it was more than 30 days early. It took them an entire day to get approval to accept our notice early. Additionally, we scheduled and completed our initial move-​out inspection with Steve J. During this inspection we were provided a move-​out checklist to complete which included a section for the forwarding address to send our security deposit refund to. An updated address was provided at this point, in writing via said checklist. Plus Property’s receipt of this checklist was confirmed, but conveniently for them, they now won’t provide a copy of this checklist. Also, Plus Property could not produce any evidence that an initial attempt to deliver our refund was ever made as they claim. We requested three times that some form of official confirmation of the postmark date be provided. They verbally responded to our first two requests with two different, unverifiable postmark dates, which shows that their best case scenario is that they have disorganized accounting. Our third request for valid confirmation of a postmark date was met with an email response of «our business is concluded». We would’ve accepted a simple apology for this mistake, but the dishonest, disorganized, unprofessional, and rude manner in which they handled this matter is unacceptable. The only confirmed attempt at delivering our security deposit refund was postmarked 12 days past the 21-​day requirement per California Civil Code section 1950.5 (g).
Steve J.‘s comment that «the tenants had area rugs everywhere» is simply a lie. We had two area rugs measuring 5’x8’ and a runner measuring 2’x8’. This amounts to a total of 96 sq ft, which covers less than 14% of the 700 sq ft of tile in the home. Interestingly enough, Plus Property’s pictures of the tile after our move-​out were all of areas of the house that were nowhere near where our rugs were placed.
Plus Property only provided their pictures, a copy of our 30-​day notice, and our security deposit disposition AFTER we called them on numerous occasions and posted our original Unilocal review. They did not provide any move-​in statements/​receipts as Steve J. stated. We do have a copy of our initial move-​in inspection checklist, which documents that the property was in «average» condition, with some specific items marked as «dirty”/“rusty”/etc. as well as a general comment that the house was «fairly dusty». There is also a section of this document which clearly indicates that the carpets were cleaned by a specific vendor, but the section regarding janitorial services does not indicate that such services were performed by any vendor. When asked how it could be possible for a professionally cleaned house to be in such condition as documented on the checklist, Steve J. ignored us altogether. As for the pictures that Steve J. claims «clearly indicate that the property was not returned in the same condition» only one picture shows an unclean condition, which was due to us forgetting to wipe away the Tilex from the master bathroom shower door and handle. Regardless of the level of cleanliness shown in the pictures, Steve J. still fails to understand that showing the end-​state condition does nothing to prove the initial condition of the house. Furthermore, when we requested that they provide pictures of the house at the time we moved in that would contradict the move-​in inspection checklist, Steve J. stated they provided everything that they were able to. However, we have pictures of the house when we moved in, which specifically show that the tile and grout was not clean. Plus Property has now argued on four separate occasions via phone and email that they do not receive any up charge for services rendered by their vendors. They became rather defensive about this entirely on their own. We told them twice that this wasn’t one of our concerns. That being said, this type of reaction usually makes one wonder whether or not there is actually some sort of collusion. In fact, the receipt we were provided for janitorial services rendered didn’t include the date the work was performed, the duration of the work, or an hourly rate anywhere on the invoice. We also performed a Google search for the vendor, which ended with zero results for any such business. We can’t even contact the vendor to request the missing information because there is no phone number listed. The irony of all of this is that we didn’t even think to validate the vendor until after Plus Property became so defensive without provocation.
As for their «excellent rapport» with military families: WE ARE A MILITARY FAMILY, and our experience with Plus Property has been horrible. A mere 3 out of 5 stars on Unilocal is far from excellent.

As owners of a property in Santa Maria, we have used Plus Property Management’s office in Santa Maria for over ten years (when it was part of Prudential Hunter). We have been very happy with their service as property managers. They are courteous, responsive and timely. They have done an excellent job in screening and selecting tenants and manage to keep vacancies to a minimum time. I highly recommend them to any property owner looking for a management firm.
Perusing the reviews of them here on Unilocal,all of the property owners rate them highly. The negatives are all from disgruntled tenants. Yet, hidden back behind the recommended reviews are several tenant reviews that are very positive. Having worked in property management myself, I can understand that there are always going to be negative tenant issues — it’s just a part of doing the residential rental business. And, having been a manager of property managers, I can safely say that after investigating many tenant complaints less than 1% of them are valid. Why Unilocal*chooses to hide the positive reviews and highlight the negative seems awfully suspicious to me. I’ve frequently seen where reviews — both positive and negative — are inexplicably hidden by Unilocal*.If I were to rate Unilocal*I believe I’d have to limit them to a single star.

I will start my post by saying I have not been a tenant nor do I own a home with Plus Property Management, I was in the market for a new rental in the area and placed a call to Plus Property Management. The Santa Maria area is highly competitive for decent quality rentals, sometimes a sign will go up in front of a home several days or weeks before the information is updated the their website. When I called asking in general if any homes were coming available in a certain part of town in the coming months the receptionist answered without checking her listings in a rude tone «you need to check the website, we don’t have time for that». As a property owners I would be upset if my home was sitting vacant and the front office doesn’t have time to offer basic customer service to callers. I do understand the market is competitive, but I would not do business with a company that treats potential customers so poorly, I can’t imagine how they treat the customers who pay them.

We rented a 2 bed from them and the house was FILTHY when we got it. I had to srub the walls, floors, toilet, and the cabinets before movign in. Also, the windows facing the backyard were missing screens and the lock on the gate was falling apart. They kept a total of $ 369.75 of my deposit. They charged to replace the lock, the screens, and to clean. I left the house spotless, I cleaned the cabinets as best I could. They had no hope, they were filty when we moved in. I had to use thick liners to place my dishes and cups in there, after cleaning them. In addition, after the guy did the walk through he told my husband the house was very clean and the only thing it needed was carpet cleaning. The only charge I agreed with was the carpet cleaning which was $ 130. Oh, and they waited amost a month to send us the deposit, my husband and I had to call a couple times to see what was going on.
I just called them, and Steve is going to call me back, if not today on Monday :/

Steven came to the apartment and did the pre-​move out walk through with my boyfriend, so full disclosure, I wasn’t there. This is where the person from Plus Property would tell you all the stuff that you should clean or re-​clean to make sure you get your deposit back.
We were charged $ 180 for cleaning the tile and $ 165 for cleaning the carpets, which we expected. What we did not expect was an additional $ 245 deduction that no one could tell me what it was for other than «general cleaning».
Update:
I recieved a call from Joyce at Plus Property and she offered me an additional portion of my deposit back. I feel much better about the situation. This was a learning experience on both sides.

This rental company in Lompoc is horrible. They are unprofessional and a have an old crabby lady that works there. They are unrealistic and it took forever to get a repair done. I would never rent through this agency again and DO NOT recommend this agency to anyone. They deserve 0 stars and not worthy of even a 1 star. They are nice at first to get you to rent then they turn into complete a-​holes.

I called to view a house for rent. House has been available for 2 weeks already and due to the fact that I hadn’t already given my 30 day notice at my current location I was told I couldn’t see it. You would think that since its been available 2 weeks and no one has rented it they should be more then willing to show it. I could have overlapped and paid rent for both if it was what I wanted. I called a couple days later to talk to a property manager. I explained the issue and she apologized. She scheduled and appointment with me a couple days later at 10:30 to meet at the location. I showed up early. 10:40 comes around and know one is there so I called. Apparently she forgot to write it down. She meaning the Property Manager. I was told someone would be there right away. Someone finally showed up but to my surprise not the property manager instead the rude girl that wouldn’t let me see it in the first place. The house was in a great location but the management company showed the property not ready. It was dirty in the kitchen and all the walls had nail holes and needed to be painted. The lady was rude and still with the «I didn’t give 30 days.» I found a home with another property management company that is great and I did overlap my rent. I would never call or reach out to this company again. Renter beware!

I’ve recently moved to the area and thought working through a property management firm that had a decent number of properties would be a great idea. I scheduled a viewing relatively quickly, and everything seemed good. Then, when I went to view the house, we were rushed through it, not really given any time to ask questions about the property and the lady acted like we were inconveniencing her. So, since she is so busy, we are not going to burden her by becoming tenants. I really liked the house, too. Such a same.

We have several properties managed by Plus and I can’t say enough about them. They have a great staff and have been reliable when placing tenants in our properties. The tenants have been a good match and have been screened for their rental history. They are professional and are always available in emergencies. They know the laws that protect both the owners and the tenants and will go to court to represent you if necessary. It’s so nice to have their office handle the tenant placements and the rent collecting so that we don’t have to!

I have never been dismissed by someone I wanted to give money to more than by them. We are looking for a larger place and have tried to schedule appointments to view homes on several occasions with no luck. I have left several messages without a return call. I have actually talked to the lady twice, she didn’t remember who I was and when we talked about a time to view each property I never heard back from her.
My boyfriend has a property with them already and they are very slow in fixing problems. He was without hot water for 3 days when the water heater broke and flooded his garage they didn’t answer the phone (at any of the many offices) and when he did get ahold of the actual company owner he was told she would call back and he did t hear from anyone for 3 days. He has been without a microwave for 7 weeks which is also his vent for the stove.
We would NOT recommend!!!