Marbella Properties

My experience with this company has been great. You hear so many horror stories of landlords and property management companies, but his company has been fantastic so far. I am renting an older home in Palo Alto from them for over a year and things naturally go wrong with plumbing, etc. They are always so polite, sympathetic and get things fixed quickly. I really feel like they care that my family is happy and comfortable in the home and even though it is an older home, this is one of the best rental experiences I have had. Every once in awhile they even just check in with me to make sure everything is okay.

Marbella Properties has managed my Palo Alto home for the past 6 years. They have proven to be efficient and courteous. Both CARLA and the rest of the Marbella staff have gone the extra mile to make sure my rental is in tip top shape to attract the best renters. They made excellent recommendations as to what improvements I could do to the house and helped me make those improvements. They have been fantastic each and every step of the way. They handled all of our needs as well as those of our renters in a very courteous and professional manner. They are the“go to” management company for Relocation Professionals, who gave us access to Executives and CEOs moving to Palo Alto from around the world. Their rates are fair and reasonable, and the personal service is above and beyond.100% recommended

Thusfar, my experience has been relatively poor with this company. As an owner trying to rent a property, I’ve had very little luck getting them to respond in a timely manner (or at all). I’ve tried on 3 occasions for multiple properties (June 2011, November 2012 and March 2013). I’ve only been this persistent because they came recommended from an acquaintance.
I’ve left both emails and voicemails for Carla. I was able to reach her once, and she was quite nice, but she never followed up on my inquiry and emails.
This may be a great company per Jeff P’s review. My difficulty has simply been in getting them to respond. Perhaps they are so busy that they aren’t even really needing any more business!

We have had such a good experience with Marbella Properties. This company was bought in March of 2008 by Carla Bunch. She has made such an improvement in the services that this company provides. The former property manager was not nearly as structured and customer service oriented. Carla has shown great enthusiasm for her work and has restructured the company to run much more efficiently. She will definitely take good care of any home owner that uses her services. I would absolutely recommend her to anyone who has a property to rent although she really specializes in the high end.

Avoid if you can!
I was trying to rent a vacation home for memorial day. We found a place in Aptos managed by this company. After we had decided on a price, filled out the rental agreement and sent in a credit report they told us they rented it out to someone else.
They even lied to us about it by saying they didn’t know what weekend we wanted. This after filling out the paperwork with the dates. They then tried to say we were late getting our credit report in, which they gave us a deadline on and we got it in early by two days.
They obviously rented it out to someone else and then tried to deflect blame. They even hung up on us once when we called. Really bad experience. Either they are super flaky or super unethical.
As I said, avoid this company if you can — find another place to rent.