REI Nation pros/cons

[Greg Schreffler]

Any issues w/ REI Nation?

Hi GREG, Since you recently found our company, whether you recently downloaded one our e-books from Bigger Pockets, found us on Google, or perhaps you heard about us from a friend or colleague, I wanted to touch base with you to see if you would like to jump on a call with me to discuss your investment strategy. The purpose of the call would be to determine if we would be a good fit for you as an investment company.
Here are a few bullet points about REI Nation:


- Family Owned turnkey company with 19 years of experience assisting out-of-area real estate investors to build their passive income portfolios.

- We own our own property management company, where we manage 7,300 properties exclusively for the 3,200 investor clients that have purchased properties from REI Nation.

- We offer cash flowing, fully rehabbed properties in Memphis, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, St. Louis, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

- We do not publish our properties on our website. You will need to speak with a portfolio adviser, who will help you determine whether we are a good fit to work together as a company and a potential investor/client.

- Our average properties are priced between $200-300k depending on the financing method and market.

- Our average tenant resident stays 6 1/2 years. Our average maintenance per property is less than 3.5% of gross rents annually, and our average vacancy per property is less than 2% annually.

- Over 1/3 of our clients have 4 properties or more with us, and over 50% of new clients come in as referrals from existing clients.

- We have every piece of infrastructure in place that an investor could ever need in order to invest, including our network of approved lenders (Fannie Mae conventional financing, non-conventional financing, and non-recourse financing for retirement accounts such as solo-401ks and self-directed IRAs), a discounted group policy property insurance, closing attorneys, title companies, 1031 exchange companies, and IRA custodian companies that can help position your retirement accounts so that you can invest in real estate.

If you have not already checked out our site, please visit www.reination.com when you get a chance today and you can learn more about us. In particular, I encourage you to watch the client videos. Our clients will all tell you some version of the same message- that we are not perfect, but we take great care of them.

So now that you know a little more about us, let's schedule a call if you feel like this is possibly the right path for you. You can use the link here to schedule a call with me this week at a time that works well for you.


Thanks for your feedback.

[Chris Clothier]

Hemal - I'll give you credit for one thing. You forced me to break my rule about BP posts. I hate duplicate comments. If you can't be original, don't post. But, since you went on your cut-and-paste journey last night, I am forced to post my response on each thread.

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I afforded you the same courtesy that I afford every owner who posts an issue or a complaint, and I waited to respond until you had an opportunity to speak with me. Given the way you’ve conducted yourself over the last few days, it wasn't easy to wait. However, I chose to act with integrity and wanted to allow you to speak with me and share whatever your grievance may be. You have not taken that opportunity, so as I said in my voicemail to you, I am responding here.

You purchased this property in April 2023. It was newly built and one of roughly two dozen in this area that we sold to investors and continue to manage. The property was appraised for its full sales price and was rented on the day you closed the sale. You have experienced zero days of vacancy, the resident pays every month, and also signed a two-year extension of their lease with an increase in years two and three between 3.5% and 5%. You currently have a rental rate of 79% rent-to-price ratio. You have had exactly $212 in minor maintenance expenses since the day you purchased the property, excluding this occurrence. I’m not sure what else an investor can want from their first 27 months of owning a property…

Our customer service team has called you multiple times to check in, and although you occasionally spoke, you rarely take or return their calls.

Now, your complaint concerns the fact that we did not call you before performing work exceeding $400. Why did we not call first? Because it was over a weekend involving a quality-of-life issue for a nearly perfect resident. We moved quickly to protect the resident’s well-being, your asset, and your income. You took two days to respond once we notified you of the work completed. Imagine if it had taken you two days to respond to a request, and then you wanted to perform the work yourself? This is the very essence of why investors buy a truly Turnkey property and experience. A professional, turnkey company is responsible for the well-being and performance of investors' assets. This is what we've been doing for the past 22 years, and we excel at it.

The weekend before July 4, the resident called with an AC issue. Air conditioning in June and July in Birmingham is a significant issue, and heating and cooling concerns are always a quality of life concern for our company, especially during the hottest and coldest times of the year. We sent a technician to the house twice over a two-day period. He quoted a price for repairs, and we checked with a second AC company on the same repair list, which allowed us to negotiate the price down by roughly 20%. Although extensive work was done and explained in detail to you, most of it was covered under warranty, resulting in a final bill of $1,440.

Your resident was thrilled with the quick response and grateful that they were not left without AC on a hot summer weekend. The property management agreement allows us, as the property manager, to make repairs exceeding $400 in instances where your property would suffer greater damage if the repair were not made, or the resident would be in a poor quality of life scenario. This is the precise job that you and all of our 3500+ owners have hired us to do. Our reputation is critical, and how we treat residents on behalf of our owners is the primary reason for our ability to secure long-term occupancies and minimize vacancy.

It is clear to me from the messages you’ve sent and the way you spoke to our team on the phone that you are not a good fit with our company. You do not view the value of the services we provide and the respect we afford all parties in the same way. This could have been solved so easily. You could have easily asked to use the credit to cover the costs. However, you were offended that we would even consider doing the work in the first place. As another example of just how far off we are in philosophy, you offered a solution to us – “Break the lease and increase the rent by $100 from next month because the tenant wants to use the AC”. That is asinine! Subsequently, we have sent you a termination notice for management purposes.

In many cases, I provide other companies as references in the area for you to contact; however, I’m afraid that in this case, I don’t know anyone whom I would refer. I'm sure you will find someone, and hopefully for your sake, they are not on BP. Regarding the credit referenced, it was a credit for management services provided by Premier Property Management. It does not follow you to whomever you want to manage the property. Unfortunately, you chose this reaction and this path—best of luck in your future endeavors.

FYI – you also posted this same review with 1 star on Google. Here is how three recent residents in a similar situation to your resident reviewed our service. If you want to manage this property yourself, take these into consideration.

5 Star - “@Candice Burgner sent someone out to check our AC within a couple of hours. They fixed it in 30 minutes. All is working well.”
Mark G

5 Star - “My husband and I recently had to have some maintenance requests serviced in our home and our Zone Manager @Megan Weaver worked with a sense of urgency and efficiency that helped to get our issues resolved in a timely and professional manner.”
Maggie D

5 Star - “I had an issue with my Ac unit over the weekend and of course the offices were closed. @Candice Burgner the zone manager ended up contacting me that same day after I put in a work order using the online portal. She assured me that the order had been put in and she was just waiting on a company to get the order and reach out. That night the company company contacted me and let me know they would be out the next morning. The company came out and did repairs and my ac unit was back up and running. I appreciate the prompt attention to this matter especially when it is so hot outside! Thanks so much Candice you were awesome!!!”
Agrapina W