Hi all. I've recently purchased a duplex in the 44105 area of Cleveland. I live out of state and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good property manager. I've called a few myself but they all say they won't manage properties in that area. Can anyone recommend a good property manager in the area?
@Tim Lewis Reach out to
She is with AllStar Management in Cleveland............They manage several of my units. I can also tell you who to absolutely positively avoid out there as well because I have had to fire two PMs I used to utilize out there.
You will not find a property manager that can fog a mirror outside of the West Cleveland area (44102, 44109 etc) There are parts that are too dangerous for property managers outside of the west side of Cleveland/Brooklyn area to go to. Many of them stop managing on the east side of Cleveland after they're robbed.
***Fake mortgages are being filed against properties in Cleveland and they are targeting out of state investors.
Our signature was forged as the "borrower" and the notary notarized the signature of the supposed lender-for $98,000. We were getting ready to close with an end buyer, but now we can't sell because of a fake mortgage that we are forced to legally remove with due process at our expense. How many people of thousands to throw at attorneys to defend property rights?
Cuyahoga County said they just record. Notary says they just notarize. Neither the county recorder or the notary reviews documents for validity or enforcement, they said.
We found out about the fake mortgage when reviewing title work in preparation of closing with an end buyer. No notice was sent to our office or any addresses for our LLC that owns the property. It's possible notice of the fake mortgage recording was just sent to the property and the tenants brushed it aside because it wasn't addressed to them.
Financial Crimes Unit for Cleveland has had the report for almost two months and the case has yet to even be assigned. They do not return phone calls and we aren't even sure they exist.
We have almost $3,000 into attorney fees so far and Cuyahoga County has blocked the emergency hearing so that we can all get on a call and kindly ask the fraudulent lien filer, Garrett Neal of San Diego (dba Neal Aviation), to please remove the mortgage lien. What a joke.
Garrett Neal filed the fake mortgage under an LLC, which was formed in Wyoming May 15th. The fake mortgage was filed under the LLC as the supposed lender earlier May 15th-before the company was even formed. The notary notarized the signature for fake lender LLC with no signing authority, resolutions....because the company didn't exist yet. The notary is in NJ and his name is Bipin Sabharwal. Bipin provided his log showing that the person signing started to sign my name, then crossed it out and signed as Garrett Neal. No red flags here???
We found Garrett Neal and called him and left a voice message. The returned phone call was a phone number associated with Neal Aviation out of San Diego and to that of Garrett Neal.
Garrett states that someone owes him money and he trying to get to the bottom of it, so he filed a fake mortgage, forged signatures and is now refusing to release it. We even explained that we had nothing to do with any loans or debts associated with him.
We found several other fake LLCs of Garrett's set up around the same time with names like Adios LLC, Adios G LLC, Adious LLC and similar names filed in Wyoming and Florida. The organizer information was left off of the other LLCs leaving other property owners to fight a ghost with additional fraudulent mortgages filed, it seems.
Garrett Neal is also a pilot listed on FAA website. Sounds like there are several unhappy customers of Neal Aviation (Garrett Neal is the owner of the company on record) for being sold bad parts and they're burning suppliers with hot checks for parts for privately owned aircraft (in their more recent business reviews).
I've been a real estate investor for almost twenty years and I never thought this was even possible, but here we are. Other investors may have seen a quitclaim deed filed where there were no mortgages or liens.
If we drafted a release and had it notarized and recorded, we'd be facing felonies for fraud.
@Brian Garlington Are you talking about the Allstar Management with Wayne? I was thinking about checking them out. I'm curious as to who you had to fire, because I think I'm about to fire mine. I'm currently with Progressive Urban Property Management. I've only been with them for 2 months, but I'm not feeling it.
We had very bad experience with Progressive Urban Property Management, they have been very unprofessional, not interested. I would not recommend using them at all.
@Brian Garlington Hey Brian, can you share your Cleveland PM recs with me too? And the list for who to avoid would be awesome too, I have my own very small list (Howard Hanna) to avoid. Thanks! - Fellow Oakland resident!
Hi, congratulations on your real estate investments. Please reach out if you have any questions regarding Ohio's real estate and PM. Best Wishes!
Don't use Shoreway Realty. Where do I start with the headache they are?
Cleveland passed stricter rental registration requirements over the last year, and Shoreway did not order the needed lead testing or HVAC testing to meet the required deadline, and when I asked if they had ordered such since the city sent me a letter, they have no timeline to! They filed incorrect and invalid registrations with the city. Huge red flag to not have your management company up to date on the local regulations, that leaves me as the owner in a very bad position. Then their professional advise was to not do the required lead testing and to register myself as the in-area contact even though I live 2,000mi away, which clearly goes against the rules of the law. Now they also won't let the property transfer to the new manager for 30-days even though I found a management company willing and able to correct the issues immediately, and offered to let Shoreway keep the following month management commission for the 1 week that would be under their management anyway.
Unit turnovers have been way too slow, usually taking 3 months just to get rent-ready (all cosmetic, no mechanical replacements). One they took 6 months to do! On the last one the contractor said they would be finished by December, deadline passed so I asked for progress photos from the management company since the contractor from their vendor list kept delaying in sending them. When I responded to the photos with some questions I got a lecture from the owner, Kathleen Bassett, how the person who had taken them was her highly paid bookkeeper who was doing a favor. They take 10% for all managed construction, so this is not a favor to ask for progress inspection on a project that was behind schedule several weeks, and was a vendor from their list. It is their job! Also, I didn't ask the bookkeeper to be sent out, send someone with construction knowledge. Overall just find she is very arrogant, don't let the fake schmooze fool you.
I also go out once a year to check properties. Their landscaping personnel constantly let the ivy grow up the side of the house, which costs money to pull and damages siding, versus being at all preventative in pulling the ivy when it is small which is what every gardener I hire in the area I live does. I raised this issue several times and it never changes. They don't follow basic instructions. I asked for concrete expansion joints to be sealed, very specific, and then they emailed me back and asked it the cracks should be sealed AS WELL! I said yes. When I got the repair photos they only did the cracks, not the expansion joints, and then wanted to charge me more to quote the expansion joints. This type of so-called "miscommunication" has happened on several occasions with other repairs even though instructions are in-writing.
I regret not firing Kathleen Bassett and her team at Shoreway Realty sooner, but finally done! Save yourself the headache!