Better Business Bureau gives Diversifed Real Property Management and Business Services, Inc. a "D" rating. Definition of a "D" rating is as follows:
We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it.
There are 9 rankings ABOVE a "D" score, and only 1 BELOW.
http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/RatingExplanationPage.aspx?CompanyID=13213609&sm=
10 comments:
The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) is a division of the National Association of Realtors and is the professional organization that provides education and accreditation for commercial and residential property management. Both individuals and companies can be accredited through this organization which requires members to earn a designation and then keep this designation current by participating in continuing education.
NEITHER DIVERSIFIED REAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT NOR JULIE GLASSER APPEAR IN THE MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY OF THIS ORGANIZATION (see membership directories at the national site: www.irem.org and the Orange County chapter: www.iremoc.org).
Therefore it would seem that neither Diversified nor Julie Glasser are certified/accredited to conduct property management.
Be careful when dealing with the BBB. They only accumulate complaints. They do not investigate, evaluate, or follow up on them. Nor do they follow up on the results of any litigation or other civil action that may be taken against a firm.
In addition, they do not make available firms responses to the complaints. In other words, all they have is negative complaints and their rating system is all different degrees of bad.
As far as the IREM goes, I've never heard of them. However, there are many legitimate reasons for not belonging to a local trade orgaization. Perhaps they belong to a a different asociation (there are over a dozen real estate associations nationwide to which they could belong) or the IREM's dues are too high. The company I work for actually belongs to a worldwide trade organization, but not to any national, state or local one.
If the Board wants to put together a case against Diversified, that's OK by me. Let them do it and take responsibility for it based on Diversified's performance. Don't let them blame it later on these organizations. My only advice is to not jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I've been here over 15 years and been through GoldenWest Property Management, Associated Management & Consulting, and Community Association Services, who sold our account to Diversified. (I might have missed one. I'm getting old and the memory fades) Out of all these outfits we've had, the only thing they've all had in common is the inability to return a phone call.
I have been here for a while also and I agree. The Better Business Bureau is no more than a clearing house for negative information (like this Blog! HA HA).
The major problem with property management companies seems to be that they assign 10 to 12 complexes to each agent and I don't know how in the world they expect one person to give good customer service to ten accounts.
Any change this HOA makes should also be based on other factors: the cost, for example. Otherwise us residents will be faced with the same situation, just with a different face.
I own six condos and townhomes in North OC and East LA Counties. Having dealt with many, many property management companies, I feel qualified to say that they all are pretty much the same. They all have strengths and weaknesses but the one thing they all have in common is poor customer service.
It seems like when a management company gets a good, competent rep, they move them from residential to commercial accounts.
I can't prove that, but that's what it seems like.
I can't remember when Diversified took over, but if they've been here longer than 4 or 5 years, I say get rid of them just for change sake.
I agree with parts of all of the above, particularly with the guy who owns six "managed" properties.
In 2000, I was on the Board when it was decided to change from AMC. There were several reasons, but the principal reason was deteriorating customer service. I was elected to conduct a search for a replacement. I sourced out 30 property management companies within a 25 mile radius that ranged in size from small, one person companies to huge, national type companies.
The first criteria was length of time it took to respond to my initial inquiry. As I recall, 5 or 6 actually had someone answer the phone, but, out of the remaining 25, only 10 replied within 48 hours !! That should be no surprise to anyone here. After an initial Q & A, I only had about 4 or 5 potential candidates that were interested in our business. So I called another 10 companies or so, just to get more estimates to choose from.
After they were through looking over the property, and a couple of them actually made presentations to the board, we voted to select Community Association Services. They started out OK, but soon after, his office help quit and this was about the same time the City of Fullerton required the changes to the backflow preventer system on our plumbing system which, as anyone who's been here awhile knows, created a lot of problems. Their customer service was terrible during this time.
At one meeting, when we really leaned on him, the guy who ran CAS confided that the only reason he took us on as a customer was to increase the value of his portfolio so he could sell his company. Of course, we didn't know it at the time but the deal to sell our account to Diversified was all but signed. And that's how Parkridge ended up in the hands of Diversified.
The moral of the story is this: After a couple of years of very hard work and 5 different property managers working for 3 firms, we ended up EXACTLY where we started in terms of customer service, which is where we've been for the last couple of years.
I'm not offering any advice or taking a position on making a change, just the story. Draw your own conclusions.
Todd in 122
Wow. That's kind of sad, Todd, that you went through all that work to find what you thought was a decent property management company only to come out with...well, we know. Did anyone want to find a new company after this happened and all the problems began occuring? Or, did you not want to do all that research all over again? It's understandable if you didn't. I'm sure you wanted to work with Diversified.
Thanks for the sympathy, but that wasn't what I was looking for (although after re-reading my last comment, that's what it may have seemed like).
My point was that you can listen to presentations till your ears fall off, you can call references till the cows come home, and you can research and research and research these companies, but at the end of the day, you will most likely arrive at the same conclusion that the gentleman above who is dealing with six management companies has arrived at. All residential property management companies are fundamentally the same.
Todd in 122
Does anyone know whats going on with the water?????
I work for a PR agency that has a property management client. I'm not going to disclose the name of the company, but I do want to say that there are associations and accredidations that can help make the search for a HOA easier.
With my particular client, all of the managers are certified by California Community association Management, to ensure that client receive quality service.
There are also awards given out by industry of property management.
Finally, a little research into the trades (ie Condo Management) may help as well.
The LABBB rating system is a joke. Some businesses have 70 complaints with an "A" rating and others have one complaint with an "F" rating. The people who run that office need their heads examined. They are both totally out of control. Oh, and they are attorneys. So, businesses employing attorneys get an A rating! They rate based on the mood they are in that day. There's no consistency or accuracy of any of the information the LABBB determines its A-F scors. It's a JOKE. HUH!
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