REI Real Estate and Property Management Review

Jason Cassell was a total A**. It's not even worth the one star that I'm required to give it. The ratings are low on the company but I was willing to give it a shot because the rentals were close to where I wanted to live. He's gruff on the phone and has no social/customer skills. The man is rude and dresses and professional and basically told me I was wasting his time when I asked about the pet policy. His words "why are we even doing this!?" I walked out immediately and didn't bother with his next showing. He lost my business and will not get a referral from me. Don't waste your time.

I rented a place for five years and for four of those years the owner used this property mgmt group. I paid 1795.00 in a security deposit none of which was returned to me. I received a letter detailing ridiculous charges some of which were completly false. I was charged $1000 for cleaning alone which was insane because i cleaned before I left. A couple hundred sure i get that but $1000? I was charged for yard issues although the yard was never my responsibility since it was taken care of by an association. The letter detailing all of the charges stated that i was to contact the owner if there were questions but when i reached out they wouldn't provide the owners number. Considering small claims court. If you can do not rent any property from this company or just ssy goodbye to your security deposit.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!!! Will never deal with this company again. The income guidelines require the income to be 3 times the amount of the rent. Not only does my income alone meet the requirements but it exceeds it. Yet I was told it did not qualify. It did not qualify because I had used PTO and PTO is not considered income. I have never heard of anything so ignorant. PTO is irrelevant and has absolutely no effect on my pay rate. Even if I took time off without pay, that still does not effect how much I make. Yes my checks would be smaller, but my pay rate stays the same.

I attempted to inquire about a rental home and the woman told me they were uninterested in me as a tenant because of a misdemeanor I had at the age of 18. They were not even willing to hear me out. I find this very rude because I have a perfect renters history and credit score. Would not reccomend to anyone.

Layla Shea has been our Property Manager for over a year and will be for several years more. She's been radiant with positivity in every interaction with us.

Even when discussing the necessary and perhaps burdensome requirements of renting a property, Layla has always been forward and informative with our litany of questions... even stern when necessary. We appreciate that.

Layla is such a fun and charismatic person. We hope we can pay something forward to her in the future, should she be inclined - an evening at a hamburger joint, a night of goofy fun, anything. Our family is so happy with how REI has treated us.

I just moved into a place yesterday in Eden Prairie. I had previously walked through the place with Mike Wolf and the place looked great besides some things that I pointed out needed to be fixed. He told me the bathroom faucet would be replaced before I move in (the handle faucet was not attached and there was no stopper) and that the lights would be working in my bedroom and closet. I moved in and neither of those things are fixed. I can't use the bathroom sink at all. Also my dishwasher won't drain at all so I can't use it. I've contacted him the past couple of days to get these fixed and I've heard no response. This is unacceptable!!!

Our experience with REI has by far been the worst out of any place we ve ever rented from. Not only were we not allowed to move into the property a month later than we were originally told ( which caused many problems finding a place to live in our previous occupancy!) but we were forced to pay rent for the month we did not live there. REI did nothing when we complained of this. I m addition to this the place was filthy upon move in. I don t know how it is from an owners perspective looking to use REI as a landlord- but Tenants I would suggest you are careful.

Poor experience with this management firm. During our last month of tenancy they wanted to redo the floors, which was fine, but they ended up leaving the house looking like hell for the rest of the month, totally uninhabitable. Don't rent through them.

Our finished basement flooded and was destroyed. Owner and property manager both don't care and have no plans to fix it. We lost about 300 sq feet. They were not even willing to reduce rent by $50.

I feel like losing 300 sq. feet at a property you rent should be an issue. They don't seem to think so.

I had REI manage my 4-plex for 2 years and they did a great job. Beth Ann was the leasing agent and manager. She found me quality tenants for a ruff neighborhood in the Frogtown area of St Paul. She would handle all the repair calls and showings of the property. The fee was reasonable and they did a professional & great job!

This company has OLD rental listings on multiple sites. They do NOT return calls after leaving voice mail messages. When I did talk with them after calling 3 times they seemed abrupt and RUDE. Not sure how pukey companies/people like this can stay in business. I will avoid them and their listings in future searches for properties.

Shari from REI is the absolute best! Couldn t be more pleased with her.

We started with HALO Property Management and we loved them. REI purchased their account and after that it was not the same level of service that we had with HALO. Our property manager used the same vendor for everything and if I ever questioned him on it he told me that I was welcome to shop around myself. Many times our renters contacted us directly because they were not getting a response from REI. One time the sump pump broke which resulted in several thousand dollars worth of damage to our property. The renters indicated that this could have been avoided if there was a quicker response from REI. Overall I would not recommend them to another person, I would look elsewhere or manage the property yourself instead of choosing REI.

SAVE YOURSELF THE NIGHTMARE
Dealing with Philip has been absolutely awful.
Lets start - shows up late to the initial viewing, with no notice. Doesn't have the key to the place, but thankfully has garage code. Gives me application and checks in the next day to see if it's in. Application was submitted in less than 72 hours
Application approved, we discuss fees, agree to everything, schedule to sign paperwork Monday for a move the last week of the month. We text him saying we needed to reschedule signing paperwork on Monday due to my husband being called into work, zero response from Philip. Continue to contact him all week via email, text, phone calls, the REI Management office, the company owner, every method possible. The trulia listing closes, and we assume that's because we're signing papers, but then it reopens. We attempt to continue to contact them all week. Then comes Saturday where he FINALLY gets in touch saying he has another family that wants the place, and because we asked to reschedule for the following Monday he "assumed we weren't interested." So now this other family is moving in, and we have lost time that is now spent rushing into another place. I cannot stress enough at how awful these people are at their jobs. Even immediately after Philip texted me today, I called him to see what was going on and he doesn't answer, and then suddenly there's an "emergency," and then finally he can get around to me and has zero answers, fully admits that he clearly has failed at his job, all communication, everything. Then turns the table saying he has another property available that we should look at because we have dogs. Then claims we are less desirable due to one dog poop complaint at our current residence aka pulling any excuse to make us as the bad guys, when he is the one clearly failing at his job. So here's to a huge waste of time from everyone involved (even after contacting the owner), and hopefully this review saves another family the never ending nightmare this whole situation was.

I worked with Beth Ann Bretoi and rented a wonderful house in a great location in St. Paul. She was very friendly, very flexible in regard to setting up appointments, and easy to work with. She made the application and check out process painless. I would highly recommend this agent and company.

Edit: Not their customer? Are you kidding me? How would I have all of this information, why would I go through the trouble to WARN OTHER HONEST PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES if I wasn't an REI customer? What a joke. You're right though, I did not hire you. The owner of the property did. But I paid my rent checks to REI, so therefore, I was your customer.

Completely unprofessional. Will not recommend to anyone, ever, nor will I do business with them again in the future. Upon the last 2 months of our lease agreement, we've had too many problems to count. They simply refuse to listen, or believe anything other than what they think is right. We weren't given proper notice for a showing to new tenants, and so the home wasn't quite perfect, and I even warned her (Vicki Ellefson) that this was the case, and she showed it anyway. She told us that she simply doesn't have the time to coordinate with us on when a good time for showings would be. Really? You can't do your job? That is all you do, is coordinate with people for showings and visits. What a joke.

The garage door has not worked since move-in, and we were assured it would be fixed promptly. Fast forward to a year and a half later (today) and it's still not operable. Not only that, Vicki tried to say that the garage door damage was *MY* fault! We have it in HER OWN HANDWRITING that it was in a non-working order upon move-in. I had emails with her regarding when it would be fixed, and it never happened. She even tried to claim on our move out that I *not once* brought up an issue with the garage door! I forwarded all of our emails and she replies with "Oh, I guess we did have some discussion about it." Ya think?!

I was responsible for repairs on the house, simply because they refused to do it at "a high cost to us" and said they'd reimburse me for any costs. They did, but it took over 3 months to get it.

They completely ignore all civil common sense and do whatever they please. They enter your home on a constant basis for "review", they have showings whenever they please, without any coordination or advance notice, even during my son's 2nd birthday party. Completely ruined the day. They asked us to leave so they could show the home. During the party. My two year old son was CRYING HIS EYES OUT for having to leave his brand new toys and yummy food inside while STRANGE PEOPLE walked through the home. When I confronted Vicki about this, she simply laughed and said it's "not my problem."

At the end of our living time in the home, the move-out was terrible in every possible way imaginable. They will try to play games with you and nickle and dime you for every single dollar they can get out of you, or your deposit. Make sure to read your lease agreement, because they sent us a "checklist" for things to do upon moveout, half of which wasn't in our lease agreement. When I called them out on it, Vicki Ellefson told me to "Stop it" in a single email with nothing else. Very childish. Very unproffessional. She tried to get us to pay for a broken window, which was NOTED VERY CLEARLY IN HER OWN HANDWRITING on the move-in report. She claimed "it's not there" and when I sent her my copy of the move-in report, she claimed she didn't see it, and didn't even apologize for the "mistake". She's simply trying to get us to pay for things that were already broken before we moved in, including the inoperable garage door. She claimed she never once heard from me about the condition or that it didn't work. I forwarded the 27 emails we had with each other regarding that exact thing. Yes, you read that correctly, that's not an exaggeration. 27 emails about the garage door, and she claimed to not once even hear about it from me. This lie-filled sack of crap will try to play every single game she can with you to get every single dollar she can out of you, period. She has no moral compass, and will do whatever it takes to get more money. BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE!!! Vicki Ellefson will be reported to the BBB for her unprofessional and deceiving business practices.

Absolute worst company to deal with. My wife and I rented a property in Shakopee, MN. Took them forever to come and fix something. It took them three weeks to come and fix a broken toilet handle. When the guy showed up it took him all of five minutes to fix. We were charged a late fee last year in July because apparently our rent was late. Do they not know that mail does not run on the 4th of July?! Luckily we got that taken off. Our property manager (Sheila Olson) was difficult to get a hold of. Every time we needed something we got an attitude from her. Stay far away from this company!!!!!!! I have to give it one star but trust me it would be in the negatives!!!

The worst rental experience of my life.
I m so glad I am free of this place, and it s 2 years later. I had to speak to the owner of the property about problems the property manager wasn t addressing, and then I got yelled at for them getting yelled at.
Maybe address the problem? Such as a fridge that is 22 years old and leaking Freon? Or the sliding glass door that didn t have a lock on it, and was against Minneapols building code and almost got me killed?

If you see REI Property Management on the place you re looking at, keep scrolling.

My girlfriend and I decided to rent a home through REI this past April, 2014. The realtor was initially very friendly. The home itself was still in the process of being moved out of. This did seem unusual, but we were assured that all the previous tenant's personal possessions would be removed from the home if we were to rent it.

We decided to rent it as the price was fair and it was a good location. Our move in date was 1 month past the date we looked at the home. When we arrived at the home to begin moving our things we were surprised to find a tremendous amount of possessions from the previous tenant still in the home (grills, lawn furniture, a garage full of miscellaneous items, closets with trash in them, etc). We contacted the realtor who asked if we could keep it until the tenant had time to pick it up. REALLY?!?

We refused and emphasized that we would not pay full rent for only part of a home. This involved days of back and forth emailing and calling until finally the realtor got someone over to remove the items. Then we find that the front door deadbolt does not work, the screen door on the patio is missing and the main kitchen window leaks. We again, contacted the realtor (who is supposed to be our contact person) about these things. Again, we had to put up with several days of keeping on the realtor to have anything done about it. Her response was, "it passed inspection." This all occurred the first week of living in the home. The realtor refused to have a new screen door put on the home and the neighbor (not associated with the company) helped US fix the dead bolt and window. The realtor finally offered us a discount on the 1st month's rent due to US doing HER job. When rent came due she asked for the full amount, rescinding on her agreement (which we had in writing). She then offered to have the first month's utilities covered. Come this month, June 2014, no big surprise all the bills came with late notices for not receiving payments the prior month. We have now contacted REI once again to find out if she plans to uphold her agreement.

It rained for majority of our first month living in the home so we kept the windows shut and began to notice a odor from the basement. The carpet, which was mildly stained during the walkthrough, now gave off a distinct pet urine odor. Again, we contacted the realtor who responded with, "it passed inspection." We borrowed a carpet cleaner and cleaned the carpet by rinsing and cleaning taking out bucket after bucket of dark brown water in order to dilute the smell. The realtor has refused to provide professional cleaning despite the fact that she visited the home and sent us an email acknowledging the odor.

So far, two months of working with this company, has cost us weeks of our time in doing the job a property management company should be doing. I strongly recommended that you go anywhere else to rent, buy or have your property managed. As the service offered is not professional, not honest and frankly very difficult to work with.

We recently had a poor experience in dealing with REI president Steve Rajavuori and his associate Sandra. Sandra invited us for a showing knowing our situation and requirements. But after the showing and submitting the lengthy application that took us more than an hour, Steve said it is not acceptable. We were surprised, only reason we went ahead with showing and submitting the lengthy application because Sandra told us everything is fine. Without her assurance, we would not have wasted a second on the property. Steve was not willing to accept any reasonable alternative. He did not even have the courtesy to respond to our communications. These people with REI are not sincere and they are not respectful. If they are so deceiving on what they say, I wonder what to expect from them in case of financial dealings.

Inquired about a listing. Email was replied to in the Subject line only. When I responded surprised they didn't offer any other listings etc, I got an Oh well reply from Terri Leeds. Glad it happened now and not after!

And @steveaj, makes sense after reading your "review" and explanation why your employ's act so unprofessional. Maybe the current economy is making you a profit! Look at the complaints and attacking responses on BBB's site. Horrible, horrible.

Terri @ REI has been our property manager for 3+ years and is always responsive and helpful, even on the basic questions. The #1 thing I ask for in a landlord/property manager is responsiveness and I've never once had to wait longer than a day to receive a reply. I'm very pleased with their service.

Worst. Company. Ever. You would be better off having a second cousin who lives in a different state manage your property. Completely unprofessional.

Amazing!

I worked with Renters Warehouse for 90 days and while they had a number of showings they never were able to rent the house. Then I spoke with Beth Ann Bretoi, and she rented the house on the first showing. Beth Ann did an amazing job in renting the house, but her work did not stop there. She has in a timely fashion responded to every request to our tenant or to our questions. She is truly amazing in her performance and professionalism and I would highly recommend Beth Ann!

HP Rental LLC

I would like to thank this owner for writing this review and emailing to REI - Beth Ann

Hi there. My fiance and I live in a duplex that is managed by rei and we have had nothing but problems since the day we moved in. First we had to deal with a door that was not hung properly. Then our fridge started to go and it took almost a month to get a new one. Third our washing machine broke due to over use by the people upstairs and it took over a month to get replaced. And now we are expecting and are having to deal with the people upstairs smoking pot and having it travel into out place. When called about these issues our person called back and the we have not heard anything. We are not very happy.

My experience with REI was good. I can't complain about the staff because they always responded to my repair requests, etc. I do want to warn any potentials customers of REI: DO NOT MOVE IN TO YOUR APARTMENT UNTIL THEIR CONTRACTORS HAVE CLEANED THE ENTIRE PLACE. The day I moved in, the previous tenants were still moving out. the place did not get cleaned. Now that I am moved out, I am being charged for cleaning. I bet for windows and all else. Years of dirt before I moved in and I am left with the bill. I should not have to pay for cleaning of cabinets, oven, etc, but they are charging me anyway. Now I get to pay for the dirt left from the previous tenants. I think it is wholly unfair for them to do this. They tell me that the previous folks had cleaners come in before they moved. That is not true. they were still living there the day I arrived! They left their dirt behind.

I will never make that mistake again. IF THE PLACE HASN'T BEEN CLEANED BY THEIR CONTRACTORS, STAY IN A HOTEL UNTIL IT IS CLEANED OR DO NOT MOVE IN AT ALL. Don't make the same mistake I made. Who knows how much that cleaning bill will be and I am stuck with it. What a shame because I think this company treated me quite nicely--until now.

Terri Leeds was wonderful and knows her stuff. She took the time to answer all my questions until I felt satisfied with the options available to me. I would recommend her with the knowledge that she wants you to be happy and if what you inquired about is not available she will find you the right place. Shopping for a new place to live is stressful and Terri helps you through that making sure that you are happy and knowledgeable in your decision.

We've leased through REI for a year now, and definitely renewing. Working with Lorie has been great. The company has been very quick to respond to maintenance requests, they were able to get us in 2 weeks earlier than expected, and the home owner has introduced himself and made himself available to us. The property was well maintained.

Do NOT work with this company, avoid if possible. Very dishonest & unprofessional. They are skeevy and sexist. They lied to my face, over and over again. I tried working things out, but they refused. My property manager actually said, I m not here to help you. Here are some photos of what they considered clean for me to move into. However, when I moved out and left the place so clean, they kept part of my security deposit, even after telling me to my face, I would receive my full security deposit back! AVOID THIS COMPANY!!!

If you have other options, PLEASE consider them heavily!!
I understand this was a rental situation, but the lack of professionalism from REI is beyond reason. The only positive experience was the "lack" of communication throughout the lease (most have experienced the landlord who is too nosey; they were non-existent which was nice to a point, but frustrating when they were actually needed).
I could potentially write a very LONG complaint review about this company, but let's be honest... no one is going to read it all.
Just please understand that from start to finish, our experience with REI was a disappointment to say the least and I sincerely urge you to look elsewhere!

Our property manager, Terri Leeds has done a tremendous job assisting us in renting our property for seven years. Not only has she found us amazing renters, she keeps in contact with them, and us on a regular basis. Whenever there has been an emergency or a problem, Terri has far exceeded our expectations in solving it, and keeping us informed. She calls often, checks on the status of the property, and has always been helpful and courteous to the occupants. If every agent were as wonderful as Terri, REI would not have any competitors! Sincerely, Tony Smith & Kathy Lee

We rented a house last year from a family and they used REI as the property manager. Our specific property manager was awful. They rarely return phone calls and take forever to reply to emails. I'm not quite sure what purpose they even served. After moving out it took then them 3-4 weeks to return our security deposits. And after we got it they screwed up the amount (obviously less than what we were owed). We are still attempting to contact these people to get our money back. I always thought that the point of using a property management company was so that they could be the point of contact regarding any issues. Clearly it s just a place to collect checks. They basically serve the same purpose as a P.O. Box. I would not recommend using REI to manage your rental. These people are dense, aloof and unresponsive. Those are all traits I look to avoid when finding someone to deal with my money.

Kari A. has gone above and beyond with helping us. She is quick, professional, and is always there to help with any questions or concerns that we have. Thank you Kari, we appreciate you!

This company manages a rental home next to me. I have had to contact them on a number of occasions with property concerns. Each time they were unhelpful, didn't communicate well, and did not take appropriate action to address the concerns. I called the company and emailed the "owner" several times and they ignore concerns related to their managed property. Latest issue was property damage. Couldn't be any more unprofessional and irresponsible.

Great company for the 3 years we were tenants; however, when it came time to find out our security deposit refund, we were passed from one person to the other with no help from anyone.

I had a showing with Mike Wolf at a property. When I got there, there were 6 other people in the driveway for the showing. I thought it was completely unprofessional that this was not communicated to us. I was under the impression that it would only be me looking at the property. I found it very difficult to look at the property and was very put off to the fact that we had to compete with other people for the property. In the future I would recommend that this is communicated to other potential renters.

Avoid working with REI at all costs for any facet of real estate business. Our property was Dawn Sadler and she was completely unprofessional, unorganized, and full of every excuse under the sun. REI corporate office in Bloomington was equally as terrible.

We rented from this company and upon occupying our property, the unit was filthy and infested with animal urine. They advertised the unit with a gas fireplace but during the fall (2015) I found out that it was inoperable. After informing Dawn Sadler about this, she promised to have it repaired just after deer hunting season was over (she claimed that there were no repairmen in the Forest Lake area for a fireplace....) but she never followed up, never had the fireplace fixed, and never offered us compensation for such a highly sought after amenity - one which thoroughly influenced our decision to rent there.

Avoid REI for property mangement, and real estate transactions in general. During the 2 years that REI managed this property, the level of service from REI was so poor that they could not even establish a relationship with the property owner to secure their position as the listing agent on the home. The owner of the property also avoided REI and instead hired a Coldwell Banker agent to list the property.

Google will not let me give 0 stars... but that's what they deserve.

Overall 3/3. I am probably one of the property owners who does have luck working with the REI. REI manages my property in 4 years. My property manager, Mrs. Sheila Olson, is very communicable and resposible person. All e-mails were responded in timely manner, phone calls returned. When problem appears she always actively participated in resolving it working with the tenants and the association. As a result I do have the same tenants in almost 4 years. Don't see any problems working with REI for many years to come.

I've worked with Terri L. for around 6-7 years now managing my property. She has done nothing short of an amazing job. As soon as the tenant reports any sort of issue or question, she knows the many ways to reach me and will try all of them since it's hard to know where I am at day to day (text, email, voicemail) immediately to ensure I get back to her right away to move forward with resolving any issue. She has a great network of appliance repair and handy man services she can call at any time and is great at setting up the fix needed. Well worth the money to hire a management company to manage your rental property!

Company is highly unprofessional not only did they hire me before they told me what their requirements of hiring someone was they allowed me to do work and then suggested that they were not going to pay me at all . after a month and a half waiting for a payment they told me I needed to have Workmen s Compensation I already had insurance for my company I may only person who works for my company and I am insured through my company so if I get injured personal injury is covered under my insurance never once did they tell me that I needed that before I did the work so a month later when they still haven t paid me they asked me for that they never ask me for any of that before hand . When they finally did pay me they refuse to pay my late fee and then try to slander my name on Google or Dare miscommunication with one of their property managers that company is highly unprofessional they allow people to move into discussing home that aren t even near the queen that they should be and they have tons of maintenance problems there shysters. Not only will I be taking them to court for their slander and their unprofessionalism and my late fee and the time I had a wait for my money I m also going to report them to the Better Business Bureau and a pop of the Better Business Bureau I m going to report the reporting them to the state of Minnesota this is not how you do business and you don t slander people clean because you didn t do your due diligence before hiring someone

Stay as far away as you can. Long story short they tried to keep our security deposit. However the post mark on the envelope was after the 21st of the month. Had to take them to court and the rep of the company and the lawyer blamed it on the post office for holding the mail. Let's just say we won the case.

Property owners be wary of this company! REI was our landlord's property manager. The contract between REI and our landlord stated that should the landlord sell the property to us (the tenants), REI would be owed 5% of the purchase price of the property. Five percent. We did end up buying the property and 5% is more than our own realtor was paid.

Aside from that, the property manager was unprofessional. Her emails were illegible and she rarely returned calls.

Update: Sassy email response I received from the office manager regarding my review: "I hope you feel better after venting your false claims with online reviews." They specialize in 2 star customer service as well as 2 star property management. Impressive resume! Professionalism at it's finest, folks.

If you can help it, I would stay far away from this property management company. We had the ability to speak directly with the owners of the house we were renting after we exchanged information since they still had some maintenance they wanted to do after we moved in. Thankfully we didn't have to deal with REI when it came to issues being fixed quickly. The furnace stopped working in the middle of winter and I contacted our prop manager. Shari had a slow response, gave us DIY ways to fix it, and did not offer to expedite our issue. We contacted the owners directly and they had it fixed within an hour. My current property management company (not REI) has never had us attempt to DIY-fix a problem like a non-functioning furnace in the middle of winter. It gets fixed; quickly. Very happy to no longer be legally tied to this 'company'.

If you are stuck renting with them: TAKE PHOTOS OF THE PROPERTY + ANY DAMAGE BEFORE YOU MOVE IN! Read the lease carefully and understand what you're signing. As I saw with many reviews (not just on Google), they are not a company that will play fair. The only positive reviews they have are from people whose houses they are managing. Seems like every tenant that has decided to rent from them have had nothing but problems. Their extremely long and wordy lease makes sure they/their clients are held responsible for very little.

Sure they'll find you a house to rent, but there's a high likelihood you will regret signing a legal contact with them. They have a poor rating for a reason.