Abacus Avenue

This situation has been hard for Amateur Avenue (AA) to deal with because they are not thrilled at the idea of poor performance being shared. Marc has a difficult time accepting the criticisms of those who think systematically and critically. His communication pattern utilizes omissions (seen in his rebuttal below), changing details he believes are forgotten, and favoring an audience who thinks vaguely. Compare the precision of this statement with his below. AA resorts to evading issues in order to mislead and confuse customers when the circumstances become challenging. Examine the first paragraph of their response below where he states they never received a bad review. Going by Unilocal,the relevant medium, they had no reviews at all, good or bad, until I wrote the first one. It would have been different if they already had multiple reviews. Then it states «we are not perfect. In those rare instances we always try to make them right.» This is tantamount to stating AA is rarely wrong — a big statement indeed. Sounds like they have very little left to learn about property management.
I hired AA in March of ’14 to manage an occupied property. AA sounded very reassuring and smooth on the phone in explaining their capabilities, even saying they visit properties quarterly. They did perform well when things ran perfectly, as when the tenants paid the rent. After months of working with AA they characterized themselves as incompetent and untrustworthy.
Many points can be discussed, but I’ll limit this to two botched evictions. It turned out the property was occupied by bad tenants grossly failing to pay rent and maintain the property. Two rounds of evictions happened resulting in their eviction after much unnecessary effort.
For the first eviction AA made critical errors, which surprised me given I asked Marc Palumbo explicitly if he had executed evictions before and he had. This will prove to be like saying one knows how to drive a car and then opening the trunk to put the key in the ignition. Errors included not pursuing attorney and late fees (see paragraph 5 of his reply below «two mistake-​free successful evictions»). Marc stated these were excluded because my lease did not allow for these during the first eviction attempt. AFTER the first eviction attempt Marc stated the late fees could be collected, but not the attorney fees. A sound bite of AA–
I had a standard lease of the State of NJ providing for collecting all fees under Sections 7 and 8. This also demonstrated he didn’t look at the lease. This link has a lease identical to mine. 7 and 8 are on the 2^nd page–
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More indicative of AA’s lack of experience was when we won the judgement. Marc called me and I said to reject their offer of the rent and evict them, but he said he had to call the lawyer to ask if this was possible. He called me back saying we could not since once we accept the money we cannot evict (not accurate). If Marc understood this then calling the lawyer back would never have been necessary.
The 2^nd eviction still did not include attorney and late fees in the claim. Worse AA had no awareness of what was happening at the property. The tenants neglected yard maintenance to the point the Township became very involved calling me knowing more of what was happening at my property than AA did. Before the warrant for removal was served the tenants were gone. I determined this without any confrontation by calling the power company on December 1ST to insure the power was on for the sake of heating the property, who verified their account was closed on November 20^th. I observed papers accumulating, an empty driveway, and no lights on. I then looked through a window and saw it was empty (except for vast amounts of trash). AA stated they avoided visiting the property to avoid a confrontation (yet somehow I avoided a confrontation with minimal effort). Also, the property had been sitting for 11 days with the thermostat off. Also, crucial time was lost to return this property to the market.
On December 2^nd I called AA for maintenance on a broken water heater. Marc Palumbo asked why this was urgent (acting condescending since he was happy about this). I explained I needed to get the property ready to put on the market for another management company. I was still paying AA to manage this property and I have emails proving this, hence I called them. Marc said I should have the new management company handle this. A sour grapes attitude, such as this, makes AA worthy of the title Amateur Avenue. Since it was explained to AA weeks before they would be fired Marc held onto the hope that I would stay with AA, even though I never encouraged this. I’ve seen other people with this attitude, but eventually they graduate fifth grade and become better human beings.
AA cannot deliver. Individual realtors working for large, professionalized real estate companies can manage properties far better, but vet them carefully.

Upon the need to relocate back to NYC, my wife and I decided we wanted to keep our current home, and try our hand as landlords.
With both my wife and I having very demanding schedules we decided to solicit the services of a property manager to handle the «landlord duties» for us.
I interviewed literally (I repeat «literally») every property management firm in the tri state area.
I work in the insurance field and know 1^st hand how a property manager can make or break your dreams of being a landlord.
I’m quite the picky individual, and frankly a very demanding person, especially when I’m the customer.
Among every property management firm I met and vetted, only 1 stood out as competent, responsive and knowledgeable; and that’s Abacus Avenue.
My strong knowledge of property insurance gave me a real upper hand in vetting out the other wannabe property managers.
Honestly folks, don’t waste your time with calling anyone else.
This demanding perfectionist here has done all that work for you.
In the year that I’ve been in business with Abacus Avenue, I have nothing but positive feedback, and that’s not something I say often.
Knowledgeable, professional, forthcoming and attentive are words that sum up Abacus avenue.
The full service they provide is second to none, from finding us a tenant, to vetting the tenant, to drafting a very comprehensive and protective lease and finally placing the tenant was a pleasure.
The best part (for me personally) is that I never hear from them — they take care of everything for me and I’m confident that my property and my personal interests are in very good hands.
My wife and I are looking for a second investment home, and their is no doubt in my mind that Abacus will be managing that property as well.
Thanks Abacus Avenue — looking forward to our continued and growing relationship.

As an 8-​year year resident of Hoboken and President of our 10-​unit Condo Association, I’ve worked with four property management companies. Abacus was brought to my attention after four years with two property management companies who frankly, did nothing but collect the money. Our emails/​voicemails were left unanswered for weeks, we had to shovel and salt the front walkway ourselves, and maintenance within the individual units was never the solution; we would have to call independent contractors to fix it.
I understand that in this area, we are accustomed to getting everything with the snap of our finger. That being said, managing multiple properties does mean there can be a bit of a wait time. But, in my experience, Marc and Abacus would always return my phone calls with 24 – 36 hours with an explanation of when they were available, or why I was on the wait list. Within months of them managing my building, our front door FINALLY closed and locked properly, the building was repainted, we never had to shovel, the building was finally clean, we had actual financial reports, a WORKABLE BUDGET!, and good coaching on how to run our board! What took two companies four years to never fix, took Abacus a few months to resolve, and resolve well. Their team was always there before the morning rush. Additionally, after Sandy, thanks to Abacus, our building paid nothing out of pocket for completely rebuilding/​refinishing the basement. I appreciate and respect a company that does not only what they get paid to do, but what they don’t get paid to do; devise and strategize solutions to keep the building’s reserve fund flush, make available an online webpage where the finances can be viewed anytime and are clear, that can help the building communicate and resolve issues easily, and have a team of employees that know you by name. I feel they go above and beyond and so relieved to finally be able to actually recommend a property management company.