Smart Management

Our HOA is relatively new to Smart Management, hiring them a the association’s management company in December 2015 after an extensive search for a management company that could handle a 40+ unit town-​home association with a few unique needs. Not only has Smart Management been very receptive, but they also picked up the slack in November when our current management company all quit after we gave them their 30 days notice. Smart Management is organized, knowledgeable, brings multiple vendor bid for projects, actually accomplishes action lists, responds to owners quickly and has really raised the bar for «quality» HOA management. We’ve been very pleased with our transition to Smart Management.

I hired Smart Management (owner Mark S.) and team 9 years ago to manage our 8 plex in West Des Moines since we were out-​of-​state owners. This year I started looking into many of the management details after a tenant was delinquent with rent for over a year and Smart Management didn’t start eviction for an entire year. This situation was not discussed with us until I noticed non-​payment just prior to eviction proceedings, nor was it their decision to make by allowing the tenant to scam them with promise of payment. This opened a huge can of worms with maintenance requests being ignored that violated Iowa Landlord and Tenant law; safety and health, fit and livable conditions. Tenants had no way of contacting me directly and many of them asked, they were also told by 3 different employees of Smart Management that any repairs would have to be approved by us, as owners. We were never notified of any of these requests and would never decline the critical work that needed to be done. This was our choice to make and our money to invest in the property but they ignored it and instead, let people live with mold, resulting in replacing furniture, no heat for 3 weeks, leaking bathtubs/​shower that couldn’t be used as it leaked through to bottom unit, and that was for 18 months, tenant tried duct taping holes in the tub as a temporary fix, windows that don’t close in dead of winter and heat of summer, delays with fixing washer/​dryers, ovens, dishwashers, not cleaning apartments between tenant moves but charging me for it, refunding full deposits when tenant left the place filthy, not replacing smoke alarms or installing ceiling fan/​lights correctly which has to now be contracted out to prevent wiring short and possible fire, not shoveling snow but charging me for it when same tenant has shoveled common sidewalks all winter. Jay P. was assigned to manage my Units and every single tenant has complained about him not responding to their requests. They also mentioned Marilyn I. telling them when they called for maintenance requests, that Owners needed to approve repairs and then Marilyn doing nothing. On top of the % they charge for Management fees, they really make their money by over charging for maintenance work. They charge an hour minimum to visit the property which is fair but what they do is make 3 different trips in one week to check, change and check again on a lightbulb.?? When they have lots of minor things to fix they could be doing that with one visit instead of multiple trips or at least documenting and charging us that way. They charged us one week for snow shoveling and salt, checking on snow and there had been NO snowfall for over a week, we’d already been charged a week prior. They also do not have the leases updated with appropriate tenants and in one case have a completely fictitious person listed on the lease. I don’t trust them, the owner, Mark S. endorses this unprofessional and unethical behavior for all his employees, Jay downright lies about his communications with myself and tenants. I have probably only scratched the surface with their unethical practices as there are 9 years of records which will be completely daunting to review. But they have been reported to Better Business Bureau, their own Errors & Omissions insurance company and several social media organizations.
They are a million dollar company but take advantage of homeowners associations, property owners and especially out of state owners. I suspect that most property owners don’t have the time to pour through the detail and it’s why we hire a «Management» company. The «Smart» in Management is obviously not an adjective in this scenario .Oh, and by the way, when I brought up the non-​payment of tenant rent to Mark S./Owner, he retorted with letting us know he would be more than doubling our monthly management fees along with charging his unethical repairs on top of that. Now there’s some business relationship resolution!!! I can only hope that other people who employ Smart Management do a careful review of their property and tenant records. No hire and definitely fire!