CWD Group, Inc., AAMC Review

CDW Group manages the condo we own. The "engineering" team is a joke after Chuck left. John Handley doesn't reply back so don't expect any issues to get resolved.

This is the worst property management company I have ever dealt with in the 20 years of belonging to HOA's. The manager,Ann Hart, is extremely unprofessional. Since bringing them onto our HOA she has managed to rack up the fees (money in HER pocket since they apparently are al la carte) and discontinue services we have received since the building was built.

Management companies are plentiful out there. I have one word if you are considering hiring CWD......RUN!!!!

Having lived at the Continental House since 1993, we had hope for improvements when the CDW Group begin to manage our building in April of 2013. Two years later it is obvious that their management has failed. Shayna Schuermann was our first Com. Asst. Mgr. who has been recently replaced by Brian Bixler. Recently problems of Parking, Park space storage, Building Security and Charging (Homeowner Assessments) Fees for non-existent rules have become worse. On January 2015 from Shayna threatening to fine us for failing to register our unit's vehicle information, this had never been a requirement before. The Board seems to be trying to require it? On February 18, 2015 we got an UNSIGNED letter requesting payment of $150.00 for Lockbox Pmt from the CWD Accounts Receivable. Shayna got promoted and was replaced by Brian Bixler became. On August 27, 2015 Cherise, CDW Accounts Receivable called and left a message about this Balance Outstanding. On September 24, 2015 we got another UNSIGNED letter requesting payment of $365.80 for Lockbox Pmt and Finance Charge from the CWD Accounts Receivable. It also had some threat about charging Late Charges on our monthly assessments, which have NEVER BEEN LATE!
On September 9, 2015, after several earlier phone communications voicing our concerns and displeasure with these and other problems that he should be aware of and able to control we sent a Certified Letter to Mr. Marshall Johnson, President of CWD Group. On a September 30, 2015 phone conversation with Brian about the Accounts Receivable attempt to charge us for something not owed, he said that enforcement of this rule was coming from "someone on the board", but would say who (on the Board) it was. On 0/6/15 Cherise told us we can Dispute these charges by writing letter. We sent Certified Letter to Marshall Johnson, President on 9/9/15 delivered 9/11/15, but she was unable to find it. On my second try to reach Brian, he changed his earlier statement of knowing who on the Board is pushing the fine to it was the United Board's actions? When asked if he could identify the perpetrators to PARKING (LONG TERM/hours to days) in the designated CAR WASH area, he said he could not?
In conclusion on 10/7/15 conversation with Brian requesting this Vehicle Data Base, he said that he had to get the Board s approval to give it to us . He told me that I was Negative in talking to him and asking for these things. THINGS, that belong to ALL the condo owners and who pay for these services. On 10/08/15 in a call to Cherise we found out that everything had been turned over to Brian to take deal with but he was not available! In summary it looks like Shayna and the Continental House Board devised this Vehicle Registration to be able to cheat us out of money, be able to selectively control parking for owners and board members and continually miss-use Guest and Car Wash parking spaces. They seem to be failing to manage anything positive for us! The other 4 negative of 6 reviews given are truer than the two that were likely written by them. In dealing with the CWD Group, so far we have dealt with 4 (named above) different personnel, none of which were able TO TELL THE TRUTH, PRODUCE ANY RESULTS, OR ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING POSITIVE!

I can t have a goose because their regulations effect my HOA.

Officious, incompetent, abusive, dishonest. A perfect illustration of the observation that condo managers are more or less failed realtors, who failed because they lack the basic social skills to show a house and write-up a contract without pissing everyone off.

No wonder, a lot of bad experience already...They are not efficient and they change words. They falsely charged us for repairing fee of more than $2,000, which a year ago the maintenance manager said it was from the common area (in between the subfloor and the ceiling, my insurance refuse to pay). We have long term tenants so we paid in the end. Then they went very very very quiet....no emails, not even email for home owner meetings anymore - just the letters. And they couldn't find the root cause of sudden water usage hike for the condo building my property at so they jacked up the HOA fee by $100/mo so now it's $500/mo for a 2-bed apt. If I live there I will be on HOA and change the property management.

Poor communication, difficult to work with, eager to impose fees

We own an investment condo in a building they just took over managing. I am appalled at their lack of any response. Our family has had 1-4 units in this building for about 30 years and this is the worst management experience we have ever had. I have been waiting 3 months for someone to tell me who to call when someone parks in my parking spot. 3 months! Several emails, a few phone calls, three months later still NO ANSWER. Such a simple question, and they can't even handle it. This isn't my only issue, just an example of their "Pass The Buck and Do A Little As Possible" company motto! Why our Board hired them I will never know, but I hope they get rid of them post haste!

The building manager of this company is a joke, they don't care anything about the owner. They are unresponsive, unprofessional and not trustworthy at all.

Our HOA just switched to CWD from Phillips, and so far I could not be happier. They've shown to be swift and effective at taking action and have been professional and friendly in all communication thus far. If things change, I'll update my review, but to date they've made me a happier homeowner.

Wow, I was surprised at all the low star reviews and decided to leave a review based on my very close experience with CWD. Unlike the vague negative reviews, probably posted by competitor management, I'll provide specifics based on 3 years of being a treasurer of a 229 unit condo association managed by CWD.

First off, CWD is not perfect. We have issues with them but they are incredibly responsive when we speak up. Paul in particular gets things fixed but most issues are resolved simply by communicating with our manager. They come onsite and meet us in our buildig to hear us out, explain what they're working with, develop a resolution, and provide status emails on resolution.

What issues we have with CWD pale in comparison to what we hear from peer associations managed by other companies and being on the email group for the Downtown Presidents' group, I know that many associations are switching to CWD, not the other way around.

CWD is also very economical from a fee standpoint, which makes all the comments about fees very suspicious. We pay a very reasonable management fee compared to peer associations managed by other companies and we rarely get charged extra as an association. Homeowner charges are always the fault of the homeowner- late dues, parking violations, smoking violations, etc. and they always get a warning letter first with the option of meeting with the board to discuss fines so no excuses. Large fines are typically the result of the homeowner ignoring the warning letter(s) and letting the late fees accumulate until CWD, with the support of the board, gets aggressive in collection.

The key with CWD, and this would be true with any management company, is the association needs to be involved in projects and signing contracts. CWD will sign whatever vendors put in front of them and swing from paying vendors late to paying vendors before the work is done. The owners need to be involved to make sure projects and services are delivered as expected and contracts are written to protect the association and hold vendors accountable. I wouldn't expect this to be any different with any other management company.

I always recommend CWD to peer associations who inquire about our association's management.

It s sadly reassuring to read so many mostly 1 star reviews which copy my experience of unresponsive/slow, unprofessional/inefficient, and fee-threatening communications with CWD.

My condo building hired them, so I am actually paying for their services, but they continue to show little desire for us to work together to help keep my community safe and functional.

48 reviews with 1 star already. Why am I not surprised. Terrible company and they hate veterans.

Horrible apartment/condo management company. I filed a complaint on the BBB site (which they already had 6 complaints against them) and they still took no responsibility and refuted my claim. Stay away from this managing company at all costs!

The condo I live in used to have GFK managing it, but starting today switched over to the CWD group. GFK never really cared much about problems in the condo, such as when I called them for a blown circuit breaker or a condo-wide power outage. We typically call them if we are unable to get a hold of our condo's caretakers, and we have an emergency issue. Though, my experience with them always ended with them telling me to call the caretakers (which I already told them I did) or telling me to "wait it out", without any real assistance. Today when I called for a blown circuit breaker they told me that they no longer managed our building starting today and to google the number and call the CWD group since they now managed us. They however apparently called the CWD group for me, and I got a call from Zack Page who called about my issue and said he was trying to contact the caretakers of my building himself. After attempting to get a hold of them, he finally called me back and actually came out to the building himself, with no prior knowledge of the building in order to try and flip the breaker himself. Unfortunately the door to the breakers was locked, so he was unable to personally help me. However, he persisted and called various board members until he was able to get a hold of one of the caretakers to fix the problem. I've never had someone before who cared so much and persisted until the problem was fixed. I am so glad for the change to CWD Group, since we now have a maintenance manager who truly cares about the people living in the building, and is willing to go out of their way late at night to make sure whatever problem there is gets fixed. I definitely recommend this company and I highly recommend Zack Page as a community management professional.

would've given zero star if I could. Unprofessional staff who never actually give help when needed, but gives out fines for fun. SHAME ON YOU Florera and CWD is the worst community I've ever lived in. They are kicking out my emotional support dog, imagine how horrible is that.
Getting an attorney and will sue.

Unresponsive to most resident concerns. The management's neglect of our property, lack of concern and or unwillingness to do their job makes living in a condominium community rather unpleasant.

Those bloodsuckers only knows how to rip you off using all kinds of fines and fees. Definitely need to stay way from this company. They do nothing to make things better, only making you feel miserable as a home owner.

We switched from a local small management team to CWD Group since they are much bigger and modern. Yes they are. However, their staffs seems are leaving too frequent to imagine.

It's a huge headache for me, as I communicated to pay my HOA over the phone (I was in travel) with accountant 1 on Jan 17, then he disappeared.

I talked with our building manager on Feb 17 after I realized there was sth wrong. Obviously there was no information handoff and after the story telling, he apologized and said he would set everything correct. While he left the company too!

Now it's Aug already and I had to talk with the new building manager about the whole story. Surprise! she thinks it's not CWD's fault and reverted all the decisions of previous two staffs made. WTH!

So technology challenged and difficult to work with on most anything. Very little automation, only checks (who carries checks) for payments, program changes (auto payment, etc) without notice. Worst I have worked with in 18 years of condo life...

CWD has managed the HOA I have lived at for the last 3 years and I think they have done a great job.

So unhelpful. Kept getting passed along to different people because no one wanted to deal with our leak, meanwhile our apt was uninhabitable. Had to call multiple times a day just to get someone to talk to me. It really seems like they have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Chelsea was rude and unhelpful.

Unfortunately, our HOA is managed by CWD, and I'm going to start lobbying to get them to switch over to another company, or at least switch managers if at all possible. Our previous property manager at least responded to emails, but it seems to take several weeks to even get a response from them now, and when I do get a response, it's usually "I will have an answer for you by X", which they usually reneg on anyway.

When I call, the receptionist always asks who I am first, and proceeds to tell me that our property manager is 'in a meeting' or 'on the phone'. While it may be true and she may actually be in a meeting, I find it a little rude that they first ask you who's speaking - as it feels like they base their response on whomever is calling. In either case, they never respond to emails, or call back, and somehow always seem to be in meetings or on the phone, and that would be my main reason for not recommending them.

Terminated their contract in favor of a more responsive, reasonable, and respectful management company.

EDIT: They re all terrible.

Goes without saying, this company is terrible. Those fees are crazy high and nothing gets done

CWD group manages the building of the condo we own. A month ago, the parking garage door was broken (reported to the company), and as a result we had overnight car prowls. We called and emailed multiple times because our garage door opener was stolen, but haven't heard anything back. Also, the front door code was changed, but it was not communicated to us. We have emailed many times, but we still don't know the code to get into our own condo building. CWD group, can you please respond to our messages?

What a mess they left our HOA in. We are finding and solving things one at a time - from the past few years! We're just so glad to not have them pretending to work for us any longer. Don't use them: extremely incompetent.

yeah this company is a total joke, they hire people like Kate Hurlocker to manage their property. They hire completely incapable and unfit people for positions and then laugh at the residences while they reap the rewards of the HOA payments and the residents are stuck with the most worthless building manager in the world, Kate Hurlocker. The company isa also unresponsive on top of that as they do not care to know how awful their staff is as they are not going to fix it. Just like the owner of CWD, the company is a joke.

They have been (poorly) communicating a variety of issues and the HOA dues have been steadily climbing over the years.

We get letters from them that are inappropriately hostile worded and they don't seem to be actually doing much other than billing us.

Money-oriented firm. They would impose unreasonable penalties on you however they prefer.

I just moved to a buliding managed by CWD and if possible I want to rate them 0 stars. This is such a nightmare experience. While emailing or calling them, their attitude almost make me explode. Never get things solved with them, it s always my lovely neighbors helped me out.

I am just curious about why this company is still running and having business? Is the mgmt company that not competitive within Seattle area? Zero professionalism. I will work with my building to ensure this company is replaced soon. Stay away.

They billed me for damages that 3rd party inflicted on common property and threatened with fees if I didn't pay them. Stay away from this company.

I m reluctant to even give a star. So far my experience with them is horrible.
My fobs had problems to open the garage bar gates. It took them four months to take it seriously when this became a problem to more residents. Before that I had to call the on-site manager to open it most of the time.
It is a blessing if they get paid and doing nothing harmful. But they are just capable to even make it worse. Say, you lose your entry to the building in midnight even after you audit your fobs with them on time. I remember when I saw them writing down the numbers of fobs just on a piece paper and got the bad feeling at that time and here it comes.
The churn rate is also high. You see new staffs frequently. They don t know nothing about the building.
How can this kind of company survive?

I'm a current tenant in a CWD-manage building. Following a string of incidents over the last few weeks (package thefts, poor building maintenance, solicitors roaming the halls...), I reached out to the new building manager voicing some concerns, offering my assistance, and offering a few easy, cheap suggestions that might help improve the situation (ie. advising the postal workers to place packages on a different wall, out of sight for those outside the building). I also asked that the management review the security tapes from the TWO cameras we have pointing at mailboxes and elevators.

These types of e-mails can be annoying, I recognize that, so I tried to be as informative and calm as I could. I thought I did a good job too. Unfortunately, when she got back to me 10-days after I wrote her, I was left feeling let down and like the management company did not have time for the concerns of its building's renters nor was concerned about holding themselves accountable for what happens in a building they manage. I was fed lines like "due to the age of our security camera equipment, the system glitched and no image was available" (the building is less than ten years old) and informed that I should not reach out to the management company, but inefficiently go through my landlord instead. Essentially, she asked me to go through a middle-person who would then relay the SAME exact message to her.

All in all, the entire experience left a very sour taste in my mouth, and lot to be desired in terms of improvement not only within the building, but from the company in charge of keeping it a nice place to live.

I couldn't be more happy with Ann, she took over from a very unqualified resource and has since done a great job for us.

They have changed the locks in the entire building and access code to the front entrance without letting people in the building know! I was stuck in the stairwell for hours! THE WORST PROP MANAGEMENT!!!!!

This company is a disaster. Unpublished fees are constant - $250 for a resale certificate normally available free on their website, $101 for a payoff statement to close.

I closed on a sale in July, it s now October, and they STILL haven t refunded the balance they owed me at closing. All I can do is sue.

Getting any documentation from CWD is painfully slow. Our closing date on a different home has been delayed two days (so far) while we wait for docs on our condo that our lender has to get from CWD. I hope our HOA will find a new management company!

CWD is ABSOLUTELY terrible! My husband was trapped in the elevator at our condo for over 1 hour and when he called CWD from inside the elevator, they put him on hold! When he texted me, I called them and they were giving me attitude when I was worried about him being stuck in elevator. They told me they would text me with at ETA and nothing I called back and they still didn't have a answer and our condo is in Seattle! Then CWD had me call the elevator company myself and the elevator company was closed for the day!!! Are you kidding me!