Matrix Property Services

Review: We hired [redacted] to manage our property in Modesto, California in October 2013, but we completely regret because he made us waste 3 months and a lot of money.Our house had never been always rented, no difficulty at all to find a tenant even before the previous one left, but with this individual, things turned into a nightmare from the beginning. He never suggested to put an ad on the newspaper or showed any interest in the house. He is interested in the big deals that bring him thousands. Our house was nothing to him, hence, neglected it in every possible way. 3 weeks after now results to rent because he did not want to advertise on MLS, and on Craigslist only once a week, we decided to do some update on the paint, tile, and other small repairs. We ended up paying 2-3 times for the same items to be repaired, and many of them were never done.The quotes of his contractors extremely high, and they never did the job correctly. So, we ended up doing all the work from long distance: looking for contractors, quoting, sending emails and texts; advertising on Craigslist on a daily basis, etc.He gave all the contractors the lock code and never checked on them to make sure they were doing their job correctly. So, they would not go to work every day as they should, hence, took them as long as they desired. He never received the job personally to make sure it had been done satisfactorily. As a result, the tile contractor left the door off, the toilet uninstalled, the garage, and driveway dirty, baseboards and carpet divider uninstalled; everything he used he did not wash. Mr. [redacted] only realized the contractor had left without finishing days later. However, he allowed him to be paid in full and even stole money from us. We always requested him to confirm the quality of work, and he said he had done OK. After this, we hired the paint contractor, and [redacted] tried to get him into fixing what the other one left unfinished. Bu this contractor even did worst than the tile guy; He painted with a color that was not the requested color and did a very sloppy job. I requested [redacted] to confirm if the paint was the right one, and if it had been applied correctly for a full month, but he never wanted to say a word or to confirm he had done such a horrible job. He completely ignored our repeated requests. We requested close-ups on video and pictures, but instead he sent us pictures that did not show how bad it was. Since he did not want to confirm we withheld the payment for this contractor waiting for his answer, but instead he put pressure on us to pay such contractor. We ended up paying for such a sloppy job because this individual seemed to be against us and favoring the contractors for doing such an unprofessional jobs. We ended up losing $6,500 dollars during the time this unprofessional individual managed our property.Right now, we have a new realtor who is in charge of the house, and has gone extra miles to help us. He has accomplished everything we expected from Mr. [redacted] in just a couple of weeks. He did send us the close-up pictures showing the horrible job done during the time [redacted] was in charge. He did accomplish to get the house ready as we intended for several months with Mr. [redacted]. Our new realtor is everything a management company should be: responsible, attentive, help with budget; deliverance of excellent jobs. Etc. He is definitely an excellent real state professional.We had to paint the entire house again, and practically paid for the 4th time for several repairs we had already paid for under [redacted]s management.We were devastated when saw the new pictures by the new agent. We completely wasted all our money during the time Matrix Management Company had our property.This individual completely harmed us ignoring our entire request and behaving like an enemy instead of taking care of business the way he is supposed to.He even dared to raise calumnies by saying that the contractors did a bad job because I had not paid them. I have all the proof that I even overpaid many of them.This is summary of all the atrocities done to us by this individual, but we can write 10 pages with all the complaints, and details. There are 274 emails to prove all our claims.This individual should be banned from managing properties. He is a disaster as property manager. We completely hired an enemy to care for our house.We had let him go, although the contract was for a year. We should have gotten rid of him earlier, since he broke the contract in every way possible from the beginning.Desired Settlement: We want him to contact the painter and make us return money for a sloppy job he did. He is in complete fault for putting pressure on us to pay the painter, because he was threatening with damaging the house. So, Mr. [redacted] decided to make pacts with the devil instead of doing the right thing to make him correct the paint, and to tell us he did not deserve the be paid until he fixed the paint.

Business

Response:

RESPONSE TO

[redacted]’ COMPLAINT TO Revdex.com:

As most

people understand, in business, a written agreement serves as the foundation of

a relationship. When expectations and demands fall outside of the written

agreement, it often follows that the business relationship falls apart. This

pattern has played-out between the [redacted] and my company (Matrix Property

Services, Inc.), between the [redacted] and the various contractors providing

services at their property, and between the [redacted] and the property manager

who eventually replaced me.

As stated in

our Property Management contract, the [redacted] hired my company to rent their property

“at market rate”. However, the [redacted] failed to make it clear from the

start that they instead expected me to serve as a General Contractor, and

without compensation. Our written agreement states that I would not

charge the [redacted] to improve their property, because I only agreed to collect

bids and give the [redacted] professional advice on how to proceed. In

accordance with our agreement, I did collect bids regarding improvements and provide

the [redacted] with my professional advice regarding same. The [redacted] ultimately chose to neither

follow my professional advice nor the advice of professional painters. In

addition, the [redacted] consistently broke the agreements that they made with both

my company and the contractors whom they chose.

Initially, I

worked to rent the property at well above “market rate” to make sure that we

were not leaving money on the table. However, as time passed, it became

clear to me that the [redacted] had no intention of lowering the asking rent

amount to “market rate”, nor any intention of renting the property at all, as demonstrated

in part by the fact that they have currently listed the property for

sale.

The following

paragraphs are examples that illustrate the difficulties in working with the

[redacted]’ unrealistic expectations and demands and the problems it caused with

those hired to perform work at the [redacted]’ property.

The [redacted]

had years ago purchased tile flooring and stored it in the garage. After I was hired, the [redacted] asked that I

supervise the installation of tile. The flooring contractor agreed to

install tile flooring in the kitchen, pantry, hallway, downstairs bathroom, and

laundry room for a total charge of $500; a good deal for the [redacted]. I visited

the house at least five (5) times to inspect, measure total space, take photos

of progress, and coordinate with the tile installer. However, after the

tile installer completed most of his work, the [redacted] told him that they would

only pay $320 of his total $500 charge.

As a result, the tile installer walked off of the job. I made many

phone calls to bring the tile installer back to complete the job, and I finally had

to promise him his full amount due ($500).

I eventually paid the tile installer an additional $150 of my own money

to encourage him to finish the job, which he ultimately completed.

I also

collected bids for an interior paint job. The painting contractors recommended

that we spray the entire interior of the house with one color (off-white

eggshell, semi-gloss), including the doors and trim. Both painters told

me and the [redacted] that they could paint the interior for no less than $1500,

since it is a two-story, 2300+ square foot property. This was a fair and good bid, and I emailed and called the [redacted] with that

same advice.

Instead, the [redacted]

ignored my and the painter’s advice, and chose to hire a painter who agreed to

roll the walls with yellow paint, at the [redacted]’s choice. Since this painter’s bid was so low, the

[redacted] told him that he did not need to paint the trim nor the doors, which

left the trim and doors scuffed and dirty. I visited the property 5-10

times to take photos, video, and badger the [redacted]’s painters to hurry with

their work, pursuant to the [redacted] consistent email demands. The [redacted]’s

painter did everything that he was told to do, and more. Of course, when

he requested payment, the [redacted] again refused to pay the agreed-upon

amount. In order to make payment, the [redacted] demanded that their painter

paint the ceiling, baseboards, and more. As with the tile installer, the

[redacted]’s painter walked off the job and asked me to join him in a small claims

lawsuit against the [redacted]. Stuck in the middle once again, I asked the

[redacted]’s painter to complete tasks - above and beyond their original agreement. The [redacted]’s painter called me regularly

asking for help and asking for payment.

In my efforts

to rent the house on behalf of the [redacted], I showed the property to at least five

(5) different potential tenants. One potential

tenant offered to rent the house if the [redacted] would credit them one-half month’s

rent in exchange for replacing all of the carpet in the house. The potential

tenant agreed to pay for most of this new carpet. I emailed and called the

[redacted] with the potential tenant’s offer, which the [redacted] refused.

The [redacted] felt that the carpet was fine as-is, so they wanted to wait for a

tenant who would not only pay above “market rate” but also accept the carpet

as-is.

Most people

understand a few basic life and business principles; as the cliché goes, “you

get what you pay for.” Most people understand that an agreement,

especially a written agreement, is a guideline of specific tasks to be

completed for an agreed upon fee. However, the [redacted] do not seem to

understand or abide by these basic principles. Instead, the [redacted]’

pattern is to 1) enter into an agreement; 2) next, play the aggressor and make

demands above and beyond their agreement; and, 3) finally, play the victim of

their own circumstance; all of which makes them impossible to please.

Since my due

compensation would not arrive until after I rented their house, I continued to

answer potential tenant inquiries regarding the property. Many people were surprised to learn upon

visiting the property that it only has three bedrooms. I later found out

that the [redacted] were advertising the property as a four bedroom house on their

own Craigslist ads.

I recognized the

above pattern a little too late, but I ultimately decided in December 2013 to

release the [redacted] from our agreement-- free of charge. I just wanted

to move on at that point, and terminate our relationship. Not

surprisingly, the [redacted] refused to sign the cancellation and threatened to

complain to anyone who would listen about how they had been damaged by me.

In reality, I am the one who has been damaged and lost money by their actions —

including my money spent on materials, and the value of my time and labor.

The [redacted] have not

paid me a dime for all the services I have provided to them, including but not

limited to my time, multiple visits to the property and to Home Depot, showing

the house to multiple potential tenants, and overseeing the renovations. The

[redacted] wrote me over 250 emails, each with new demands and criticisms of me

and the services I performed. I answered most of these emails, printed all of

them, and created a file which shows all of my time spent, costs advanced, and

damages sustained by my business.

Two separate contractors

as well as the property manager who replaced me have offered to assist me in

pursuing a small claims action the [redacted], including testimony to support my

claims and address their interactions with the [redacted].

Now that the

[redacted] have filed a public complaint with the Revdex.com, I may lose future business as

a result of the [redacted]’ unrealistic expectations and demands and their baseless

complaints about my business and services, all of which will cause me additional

damages in the future.

Accordingly,

I have instructed my attorney to send a letter to the [redacted] demanding payment

of all sums due to my business and notifying them to cease and desist making

false and defamatory statements regarding my business and services. If

the [redacted] fail to pay the amount due to me, and/or continue to make false and

defamatory statements regarding my business, myself, and/or my services, then I

will be pursing all legal remedies available to me, including but not limiting

to litigation of my claims.

Thank you for

the opportunity to respond to the [redacted]’ baseless complaints against me and

my company, Matrix Property Services, Inc.

Sincerely,

[redacted], President

Matrix Property Services, Inc.

Consumer

Response:

This is our answer to Mr. [redacted]’s statements. All in green font.

We have not had time to respond earlier. This type of claim is time consuming.

Since there are so many emails and pictures, in order to expedite the process, I decided to make the following videos with all the Snapshots from Outlook, my email program, containing every single email with [redacted], and Slideshow of Pictures:

Before Pictures (1.21 minutes). State of the house when we released him.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/tfebQUCRsWw

After Pictures (26 secs). The house after being fixed with the present agent.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/gGoLipV1RlE

Emails on Outlook (3.51 minutes). All emails with [redacted].

http://www.youtube.com/embed/lEL3CtTUd5I

Craigslist (25 secs). Ads I posted, edited and reposted for 3 months.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/9URmKrhcv_g

Payment to Contractors (37 secs): Proof of some Payments and Re-Pay for the wrong services done during the time [redacted] was in charge. Not all payments are there, but mostly the last ones, and the one paid to [redacted] the first painter. The one paying the tile installer is at the end of this document, plus therecent one repeating all the jobs, but I can provide every single payment either receipt or bank statement if I have to.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/bLOmVYXgN4w

Each video can be paused for details or to read an email. It will be in full screen for easy reading.

As most people understand, in business, a written agreement serves as the foundation of a relationship. When expectations and demands fall outside of the written agreement, it often follows that the business relationship falls apart. This pattern has played-out between the [redacted] and my company (Matrix Property Services, Inc.), between the [redacted] and the various contractors providing services at their property, and between the [redacted] and the property manager who eventually replaced me.

We hired him as property manager, and this does not exclude to supervise possible repairs. How can he try to convince us that it is not his duty? We are not going to hire a service like this just to receive the rent that the tenants can deposit themselves. Although, in the beginning we did not think we had to do all the repairs we had to. We thought he would just get the house cleaned and find a tenant soon as it happened all the previous times with the other company.

As stated in our Property Management contract, the [redacted] hired my company to rent their property “at market rate”. However, the [redacted] failed to make it clear from the start that they instead expected me to serve as a General Contractor, and without compensation. Our written agreement states that I would not charge the [redacted] to improve their property, because I only agreed to collect bids and give the [redacted] professional advice on how to proceed. In accordance with our agreement, I did collect bids regarding improvements and provide the [redacted] with my professional advice regarding same. The [redacted] ultimately chose to neither follow my professional advice nor the advice of professional painters. In addition, the [redacted] consistently broke the agreements that they made with both my company and the contractors whom they chose.

The rent rate was right, we rented for almost the same rate for the past 5 years, why not now that rents went up everywhere. The reason the house did not rent was because the house was in such a deplorable state. Please see these video links for pictures of the way it was left by this individual after having spent at least $3,000 in repairs painting, patching, carpet cleaning, regular cleaning, etc. The second video link is with the present good state of the house.

The present agent took before and after pictures a couple of weeks ago. It took him only two weeks to get the house repainted and the carpet left like new for $150 removing every single stain. Detail the painting very well done an extremely affordable. All done by his contractors. We did not have to quote with anybody or warn him about anything. He is an honest and very efficient realtor and property manager. We will issue excellent reviews everywhere we can online. And by the way, we are not paying him for this; it is a courtesy because he will be selling our property for a simple 1%.

Initially, I worked to rent the property at well above “market rate” to make sure that we were not leaving money on the table. However, as time passed, it became clear to me that the [redacted] had no intention of lowering the asking rent amount to “market rate”, nor any intention of renting the property at all, as demonstrated in part by the fact that they have currently listed the property for sale.

Who would rent a house like this? Who would think this house was ever cleaned? [redacted]’s housekeeper charged $200 for cleaning.

The following paragraphs are examples that illustrate the difficulties in working with the [redacted]’ unrealistic expectations and demands and the problems it caused with those hired to perform work at the [redacted]’ property.

The [redacted] had years ago purchased tile flooring and stored it in the garage. After I was hired, the [redacted] asked that I supervise the installation of tile. The flooring contractor agreed to install tile flooring in the kitchen, pantry, hallway, downstairs bathroom, and laundry room for a total charge of $500; a good deal for the [redacted]. I visited the house at least five (5) times to inspect, measure total space, take photos of progress, and coordinate with the tile installer. However, after the tile installer completed most of his work, the [redacted] told him that they would only pay $320 of his total $500 charge. As a result, the tile installer walked off of the job. I made many phone calls to bring the tile installer back to complete the job, and I finally had to promise him his full amount due ($500). I eventually paid the tile installer an additional $150 of my own money to encourage him to finish the job, which he ultimately completed.

This individual is a professional liar. Please see all the emails regarding this issue mentioning the tile installer inflating the square footage to make more money. He agreed on $1 SF, which would come a little over $300, since the square footage is around 322, and [redacted] confirms this on email dated November 27, 2014 (See minute 1.42 on video Emails), after we requested him to take measurements and take pictures in order to pay the installer.

I also collected bids for an interior paint job. The painting contractors recommended that we spray the entire interior of the house with one color (off-white eggshell, semi-gloss) including the doors and trim. Both painters told me and the [redacted] that they could paint the interior for no less than $1500, since it is a two-story, 2300+ square foot property. This was a fair and good bid, and I emailed and called the [redacted] with that same advice.

Another lie. Where are these bids? We were done with his bids and contractors very fast after his third astronomic quote to just clean the house, and replace a microwave. I completely did all the work to find contractors for everything else. We would only request him to confirm if the job was correctly done, but even this he could not do. As you can see in the pictures, the tile installer never replaced the base of the toilet for the guest bathroom (minute 0.40 Bad State House). He never put back the carpet divider either. He also left the house very dirty, and [redacted] never demanded him to clean. And he dares to say that he paid him to come back. What courage!!!

The tile installer was overpaid in $78 because [redacted] said he did a good job, plus $27 fee to Western Union to send him the money (See receipt at the end of this letter). The tile installer said he would send me a check to refund for the fee, but he never did. See video Payment to Contractors”, minute 0.15 secs.

Instead, the [redacted] ignored my and the painter’s advice, and chose to hire a painter who agreed to roll the walls with yellow paint, at the [redacted]’s choice. Since this painter’s bid was so low, the [redacted] told him that he did not need to paint the trim nor the doors, which left the trim and doors scuffed and dirty. I visited the property 5-10 times to take photos, video, and badger the [redacted]’s painters to hurry with their work, pursuant to the [redacted] consistent email demands. The [redacted]’s painter did everything that he was told to do, and more. Of course, when he requested payment, the [redacted] again refused to pay the agreed-upon amount. In order to make payment, the [redacted] demanded that their painter paint the ceiling, baseboards, and more. As with the tile installer, the [redacted]’s painter walked off the job and asked me to join him in a small claims lawsuit against the [redacted]. Stuck in the middle once again, I asked the [redacted]’s painter to complete tasks - above and beyond their original agreement. The [redacted]’s painter called me regularly asking for help and asking for payment.