Affinity Real Estate Management Inc.

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
Once again MrR*** comes back with the same responses given previously without resolution as to our grievancesThis man is a super talker and says exactly what he thinks someone wants to hear without standing by the commitments that were made with this company
In response to the last sentence in his letter we would like to ask him...Is it unreasonable for a client to expect this company to follow through with a written and verbal agreement without our being notified , before a change is made? He gives a perfect explanation of his thoughts in his second paragraphHe agreed that we had a verbal agreement to be notified of repairs (unless they were emergencies)so we would have the opportunity to make repairs ourselves, but fails to state that his wanting to change to a new format meant spending our money without notifying us of his new way of doing businessIn MrR***s mind this was completely ethical and necessary because they know what is best for our propertiesThey also know what is best for their bottom lineIn looking over the $labor billing (yes, this amount was for ONE unit only for a job completed in less than one week and not spread out to the whole month or other properties as he wants you to think)In reviewing our invoices, we discovered where there was a new maintenance worker that worked along side of a current employeeThere was not a problem with this except for the fact that we could see we were charged double for both of these men to make the same trip together at the same time to Home Depot and Reliable parts to pick up incidental supplies for this unitAt $per hour we were obviously being charged for the training of this new employeeAs for us living east of the mountains this is another smoke screen being thrown up, as MrR*** was well aware of the fact we also have a residence in Tacoma We were almost as close as their office to these units so the efficiency of the turn around should have been our decision, not theirs, according to our agreementsI have been a general contractor and property manager for yearsWhen our agreement with this company was set up they were all to happy to let us know that they would work with us in any way that we would likeNow MrR*** wants to change the agreement and move ahead on his own without notification to us of his plansIt is on the same level as a sub-contractor in my business quoting me a price for a job but then presenting me with a much higher billThe difference here being that MrR*** had access to our rental funds, so he just paid his company first and sent us what was leftoverThis is not an acceptable business practiceWe felt we were not only covered by the wording of our contract with them, but also our verbal agreement
The bad tenant that ultimately cost us thousands of dollars in lost rent, attorneys fees and cleaning is another example of prime mismanagementWe have a copy of Affinity's "Tenant Selection Policy" that is given to each perspective tenant who is applying for the property It specifically states under " Court Records" on this document of what will or will not be acceptedAffinity did not even bother to give us the credit checks of the new tenants they moved into our units but on this tenants own application she admits to having an assault conviction in 1999, a DUI in and a theft in Their own policy, which they violated, is worded as follows:
Criminal conviction within the previous years or a history of criminal behavior that may negatively affect tenancy (Drugs, sex offense, theft, robbery, assault, active warrants,etc)Registered or unregistered sex offender or being required to register as a result of kidnapping charges or conviction (AUTOMATIC DENIAL)
This woman had no rental history and from the records we could find, lost a house to foreclosureThe remainder of her deposit and rent for that first month (according to their records) was not completely collected until the 28th of the month she moved inIf MrR*** wants to portray this as them doing everything correctly and professional handling of a clients property we have a huge disagreement hereAlso, their non-notification to us of them not taking the eviction process any further (because they were in the process of ending our agreements), until we were in the office collecting our final papers, certainly did cost us several more weeks of wasted time and lost rentThis was also contrary to their contract of managing our properties to the end of the stated time.
Again we would like to end with the question we started with...Is it unreasonable for a client to expect this company to follow through with a written and verbal agreement, without our being notified if a change is being made? Our answer is NOIf MrR***'s answer is anything different, this company's rating with the Revdex.com should be significantly downgradedOther potential clients deserve to know of our experience with Affinity REM before making their decision of who to trust their properties with
Sincerely,*** and *** ***

*** Please See Attached Documents ***
December 3, 2015Revdex.com P.OBox DuPont, WA 98327RE: ID # ***Dear Representative of Revdex.com,In order to address a few of the comments and complaints in the "customer's statement of the problem" from Mr***, our
office would like to provide the following response:At no time did Affinity mismanage the clients funds, as explained to the client on several occasions, the amounts in question are totals from an entire month and not any one single chargeIn certain instances, it can be unrealistic for Affinity to anticipate or determine the total cost of labor and materials to prepare a unit for re-rent and the total charges can exceed these dollar limitsHowever, it was expressed to us in person specifically by Mr*** that our standard labor charges were acceptable but we needed to keep the owner aware of the punch list of items needing repairA representative from Affinity actually did always give an explanation of our reasoning behind our decision making process (which is to act in a quick and timely manner and as reasonably as possible to repair, clean, and rehabilitate a client's rental units in order to advertise and re-rent for purposes of generating cash flow and stabilizing the property) but the client continued to have unreasonable expectations of our services and never seemed to be satisfied with our efforts, no matter what the case wasFor instance, the client proceeded to call us within an hour of receiving keys from a resident who had vacated a unit to ask us if we had been over to the unit yet to see what needed to be done and what our plans were to make any repairs and re-let the unitObviously, this is unreasonable and does not allow Affinity to properly conduct our business in a realistic time frame and mannerOur contract was actually not terminated with the client based on them asking too many questions on our billing process (or any other topic) but was based on the fact, we at Affinity believed we were not going to be able to satisfy the clients expectations or needs no matter what we did or how we approached the management of their propertiesFurthermore, as a provision of our Management Contract^either party has the right to cancel at any timeThe client was provided a written narrative on operations and financial reports that summarized all transactions each monthThe client also had access to an owner portal via our website in which they could easily see all transactions, rent status, etcat anytimeAlthough a
representative from Affinity attempted to explain our monthly statements on numerous occasions, the client never seemed to grasp our reporting system and was always trying to compare our figures to their own informal, home-based "excel spreadsheet style" accounting system which is like comparing apples and oranges and simply does not workOur office spent numerous hours explaining and answering any questions the client had via email or phone and offered on several occasions for the client to come into our office and go over our reports in personFor instance, the client could never quite grasp the concept of when a resident paid rent in a certain month, and it was received in our office during the month of September for example, but was for rent due in October, why our financial reports did not reflect the income in September as opposed to OctoberOur office uses a well-known professional management software program, in which you cannot apply two rental payments to the same month, so it would be considered an "unallocated pre-pay" and reflected as such in the reporting for September but not as additional income for the monthAfter termination of contract date, rent was received in Affinity's rent drop box due to a resident not receiving notification in time from the client-owner (since the client had agreed to send written notifications out to all residents with new payment address) or for any other unknown reason that may have occurred from the resident's standpointHowever, this tends to happen from time to time in business (and other businesses for that matter when a check is sent to an incorrect party, lost, etc.) but this was rectified by our office in a timely mannerSo, this issue should not have been particularly problematic to the client and even expected in some cases while re-engaging in the management of their own propertiesFurthermore, Affinity would have no reason to retain funds for a property it no longer managesFinally, with regards to the resident that ultimately needed to be evicted by the ***'s, this resident was receiving assistance from the State of Washington with her move in costsWe were told by the resident that she would receive a certain amount and when all of the paperwork was completed and the resident moved in, a lesser amount was paid by the StateOnce we were made aware of the discrepancy, the resident was contacted and the remaining balance was paid in full for the security deposit and rentThe resident was served with a Day notice for failing to pay October rent and payment arrangements were madeThe resident did not abide by the agreement and another notice was postedAt that time, we were already under the termination of the management agreement with the ***s and didn't believe that they wanted to pay Affinity to represent them in court for the eviction proceedings that would need to take place (and paid for by the ***s regardless of who appeared in court) so no further action was taken.The bottom line is, the management team at Affinity did not think it was in the best interest of our business and the client to continue our working relationship when in fact we continually felt "micro-managed" and nothing we did seem to please or satisfy the client and their needsWe appreciated the opportunity to work with the client but after several months of the same re-occurring issues, we felt it would be helpful and most productive for both parties to discontinue our relationship at this time.Sincerely,Affinity Real Estate Management, Inc

[redacted] Please See Attached Documents [redacted]
[redacted]Revdex.comP.O. Box 1000DuPont, WA 98327RE: ID # [redacted]; Follow-up response to letter 12-11-15Dear Representative of Revdex.com,In order to further address the comments and complaints in the letter dated Friday, December 11, 2015as we briefly discussed over the phone:o In response to spending limits without prior approval of client: as we stated in our letter ofDecember 3rd, the amounts in question were totals from an entire month of repairs and not anyone single charge. In certain instances, it can be unrealistic for Affinity to anticipate ordetermine the total cost of labor and materials to prepare a unit for re-rent and the totalcharges can exceed these dollar limits.o In an effort to try and accommodate the client and their individual needs, we did have a verbalagreement that we would inform them of maintenance issues so they had an opportunity tomake the repairs themselves. However, after continually trying to balance the resident's needsfor repairs in a timely manner and the owner's needs to perform their own repairs, we simplyrealized this format was not realistic, and most importantly not serving the best interest of theresidents. The bottom line is, Affinity was virtually always able to make repairs quicker andmore efficiently being based a couple miles from the properties versus the owners who livedeast of the mountains.o With regards to the resident that ultimately needed to be evicted by the [redacted]'s: the residentwas properly screened, approved, lease signed, and moved in on 9/4. The resident was receivingassistance from the State of Washington with move in costs. We were provided a form by theresident stating she would receive a certain amount and when all of the paperwork wassubmitted to DSHS and the resident moved in, a lesser amount was paid by the State. Once wewere made aware of the discrepancy, the resident was promptly contacted and the remainingbalance was paid in full including the security deposit and rent. The following month, theresident was served with a 3 Day notice for failing to pay October 2015 rent and paymentarrangements were made. The resident did not abide by the agreement and was only able topay $100.00 which we collected. By this time, we were already within the 30 day terminationperiod of the management agreement so no long term decision was made by our office with theresident due to transitioning to new management the following month. Then when Mr. [redacted]arrived at Affinity to finalize arrangements with our office the first few days of November, hewas made well aware of the situation by our staff and was advised of the resident's currentstatus so the owners could in turn proceed with the best course of action they thoughtnecessary. In no way did Affinity's actions or lack thereof, eliminate the owner's future optionswith the resident or add any additional cost to the owners.We always appreciate the opportunity to work with new clients but after several months of the same reoccurringissues, we believed the client continued to have unreasonable expectations of our servicesand unfortunately, we were not going to be able to satisfy the client's needs or expectations no matterwhat we did or how we approached the management of their properties.Sincerely,Affinity Real Estate Management, Inc.Kirk J. R[redacted]Principal and Owner

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
The owner of Affinity RealEstate Management again fails to answer direct questions concerning the owners breach of their own contract in exceeding spending limits without prior approval of client, which was signed by both parties. Page 6 #7 of this contract reads: Repairs and Maintenance: Agent shall make or cause to be made ordinary and reasonable repairs, without the prior written approval of the Client, in an amount not to exceed $500, except emergency repairs exceeding that amount, if, in the sole discretion of the agent, such expenditures are necessary to protect and preserve Subject Property from damage, to maintain services to tenants as required by law or this Contract, or to avoid or mitigate loss to Client. Page 4 N. reads: To purchase and pay for necessary and reasonable repair and maintenance supplies not to exceed $250. No where in these sections  does this refer to any one single charge. Our assumption to these limits were  per an  over all unit expense or project occuring within a one month period. We assumed and were assured during a pre-signing meeting that if any project was done that would be over the $500.00 we would be notified for approval.  These charges were strictly for an apartment turnover and had nothing to do with emergencies. We also had a verbal agreement with Mr. R[redacted] from the beginning that this company was happy to inform us of maintenance issues and it would be our choice of whether we did the maintenance or we asked them to take care of it. We believed that the safeguard of the contract limits and notification agreed upon, as admitted by Mr. R[redacted], was an assurance to us that our money would not be spent by this company, up to $500, without our approval if exceeding these amounts.   Our agreement to his charged labor has absolutely nothing to do with not being notified.
As for calling this office to inquire about a unit we knew was being vacated within an hour of them receiving keys....this is laughable. Do they think we are mind readers and somehow knew they had received the keys within an hour of us calling? They had many times told us to feel free to call their office concerning anything.
This office has a rental program that needs an accountant to figure out. Unfortunately they do not employ an accountant in their office to give the client a simplified explanation as to why the monthly check did not add up to the numbers we were given. We were told that their version was a much less expensive program than others so it was not the easiest to decipher. Great explanation for a client. 
As for the money that was collected after our contract had been terminated, we were told a rent had been excepted by one of the office girls when they were getting ready to close so they just took it, not put into a drop box as is now being claimed. They did not bother to notify us that they had collected this rent  and when we called to request it be sent to us that day we were refused and told it would be sent with the final rectification of our account which was two weeks after the rent check was due from our tenant. Also, our tenants were notified three weeks before the contract terminated with Affinity. This was a tenant that they had put into the unit so at the very least they should have also made contact with these tenants so that they were clear as to Affinity's ending of their management. In any case this check should have been sent to us when requested.
The tenant Affinity signed a contract with on September 4th, 2015 showed from their records had a balance of $1620 due at move in. We are not sure when she moved in but contracts are supposedly written on the day a tenant takes possession. From their transaction listing it says only $920 was collected from this tenant on 9/8/15 and this tenant had control of our property. The head management person said she was "told" by the resident that she was receiving a certain amount, not that they verified this claim. As of 10/31/15 this tenant had a balance of $1058 with a rent of $885. Either they did not keep good records or Mr. R[redacted] is mistaken as the files turned over to us showed one 3-day notice given on 10/9/15 with no further follow through and no notice to us to follow through. They collected a $100 payment from this tenant after this date so the 3-day process was invalidated. We do not call this acceptable property management.  Notice they stated they did not believe we wanted to pay Affinity to represent them in court for eviction proceedings so no further action was taken. As a courtesy they could have let us know they were dropping the ball so we could have stepped in and avoided the added costs to us of wasted time. We were not able to remove this tenant, screened and approved by Affinity even though she had two arrests on her record and one "being dropped", until December 7th, 2015. According to their "contract" they cannot be held responsible for this action.
When we signed up with this company, after 40 years of doing our own property management, we were assured that this company would work with us in any way that we were comfortable with. This included a specific agreement given that we could decide what maintenance we would take care of. Obviously they had second thoughts and decided that they would no longer honor that agreement without verbally notifying us or giving us the option to opt out before they proceeded to spend our money and run up bills way higher than their contract limits allowed. Now Mr. R[redacted] wants to couch that in being "micro-managed". 
Sincerely,[redacted]