Garner Properties & Management LLC

We signed on with Garner Properties & Management in July 2010 when we became unexpected landlords in Michigan. We live in CA. They have been great in so many ways! We used them to refurbish the house when we first inherited it to bring it up to date. They did quality work at very reasonable prices. They have a great website that allows us to monitor expenses from afar. They have screened 2 tenants for us that have worked out fine. We’ve had only 2 different tenants in 5 years. We don’t get calls when things need repair since they email us as soon as calls come in. We don’t usually get involved since their expenses to fix things are low. Their costs are reasonable and they are courteous and responsive if we have questions etc. I highly recommend them. We have used them for 5 years so far.

They are not even worth one star. I was transferred to them by SPM Property Managers who was doing a good job without even being asked. I was receiving constant rents less the usual expenses. But since Garner took over I am the one who ends up owing them $ 1000’s every month. When I started questioning their bills and told them I am downloading and copying their bills as they all looked dodgy, they cancelled my access to my account. When the tenant starting complaining that she was never sent a water bill, I started smelling a rat. So I transferred a property to another agent. Garner evicted the last tenant in January 2015 and rekeyed the property for the 4^th time in about 6 months or so and apparently securised the property on eviction. Yet when I transferred the property to another Manager they gave false keys and said they had no other keys. I have invoices for these. So I decided to transfer my other property too to another agent and guess what the same thing happened and they had as usual rekeyed the property and worse the property has been trashed! all nder their custody and stewardship. Te properties had heating and new furnaces a couple of months before and there was a tenant all the time. Now everything is missing including toilets!!! I would not trust Garner with a barge pole!

This is the worst property manager ever. I had 7 houses under management with them and they made everything worse. They don’t answer or return calls. They are not even located in the same state as the houses. I should never have let my properties be transferred to this firm when my former property manager sold the company. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. Their customer service is terrible. They truly do not care about their clients. You have been warned.

Not sure about the other issues people are having. I am managing one home with them, and when my tenant’s furnace broke, in the dead of winter, I had a professional, reasonable priced repairman within one hour. Perhaps their rental services are uneven? I try to find my own tenants, and use them for management. They do a great job so far.

If I could give them 0 stars I would. Here’s a tip, DON’T RENT FROM THEM! They have an F from the Metro Detroit Better Business Bureau for a very good reason. When you file a maintenance request to them per their instructions you don’t hear anything back. The front desk staff while polite have NO CLUE as to when maintenance will be performed, in fact they can’t give you and answer on anything they are truly glorified message takers. We signed on a property and as soon as we went in the pipes burst, water everywhere in the basement. Although Garner came to repair the pipe within 24 hours, they NEVER came to clean the water damage they said it was our responsibility. There was an infestation of bugs in the house, the shower was non operationational, the heating vents where falling apart and the furnace they just put in had disconnected wires (a health and safety hazard I’m sure). I sent letter on top of letter to them no response I also sent video and photos of of the things that needed repairing. This was a lesson learned for me, to always check the BBB, to check reviews of a place and to check more closely when seeking a space to rent.

I own a condo that is currently managed by Garner Properties. The building has severe foundation problems because of displaced downspouts. I had to personally do a fix on them to displace the water.
I emailed Chris Garner just to notify him and never received a response. I wasn’t looking for a fix to the foundation (obviously this is a huge undertaking that requires a lot of formalities)…all I was looking for is a response to the email, just an acknowledgment. Apparently I’m just a paycheck to Mr. Garner.
I may be a small fry now, but I’m currently in the process of making large scale property investments, which will surely NOT be managed by this company. They have lost a costumer forever.

Absolutely horrible experience with this company, if I could give 0 stars I would. When both my husband and I lost our jobs we moved out of state and had our real estate agent help find a tenant. After about 6 months in our property, the tenant stopped paying rent. We hired Garner to handle to eviction and find a new tenant because it was just too much to deal with on our own from 1,500 miles across the country. (And we have zero experience as landlords.) The eviction process and all the court appearance scared the tenant’s family and they stepped in and finally paid us the $ 8,000 is back rent. We were so happy to see any of that money, that we didn’t think too much about all the invoices we were receiving that we had no idea what they were for — «Legal Fees» and «Management Fees» well beyond what was discussed just like other reviews said. Well shame on us. After the eviction process was over, Garner actually suggested that we let the tenant stay! «You know, because now he’s paid all the rent.» And because they’re too lazy to find a new tenant. We agreed because they said if he stopped paying again, they would take care of it. Well not only did they never make him sign a lease on our property, but of course 3 months later he stopped paying rent again. And they did nothing! They were impossible to get in contact with and had little to no communication with us. They actually told us that its not their job to baby these people and bug them for rent, they’re adults! What the hell are we paying you for!!! Maybe some people have enough money and don’t care whether their tenants are paying, but we need that money to pay our mortgage and bills. We decided enough was enough at this point and tried to fire Garner. This was of course another process in which cost us even more money. We have since hired a new company and now almost a year later, today we received an email stating that they found an error in their accounting system and they forgot to bill us $ 400 in «Legal Fees», with no other explanation, just send money. Garner Property Management has been a nightmare to deal with and I don’t recommend them to anyone.

I had two properties with Garner and they were horrible. The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. They actually told me my property was rented out when it wasn’t. Then they told me that I needed to lower the price because there were no bites. Only to find out… they forgot to put up the listing after a potential tenant fell through. Over a month went by and then I was the one that discovered the mistake when Googling my property got no results. They didn’t update their system. They are also not clear about billing. We would receive invoices and have no idea what they were for. I also failed an inspection because a faulty smoke detector they supposedly repaired and invoiced me for was not actually repaired. They also don’t communicate well. I had to send email after email to get any kind of updates. I think Larry Garner is a good guy, but the people he has working for him are going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people due to their deficiencies. They were my first experience with a property management company and rather than make my life easier, they made it harder. I’ve opted to sell both properties at huge losses rather than continue as a landlord.

Had 6 houses with them. Switched to a smaller outfit. Just too big and impersonal. Not that they did an horrible job. But these are my houses, and I wanted someone who carred about them as much as I did.
I don’t know the correct way to say it, but made a couple appointments to view my own houses. And the people who showed up to show them, didn’t know much about them. And weren’t shall we say, of the same quality as the people I had met to sign up with them.
If you want a big company, these guys aren’t bad. Maybe for someone with 50 houses? But if your life savings are tied up in your houses, and you worry alot, look into someone smaller.