Windermere Real Estate

I guess it is good to remember that Monica and her staff represent the owner and not the tenant. Therefore no surprise here.
I am an owner and Monica and her staff have handled three of my rentals for better then two years now and I just gave them another one. Randy the maintenance supervisor is nothing but great to work with. The key here, from my perspective, is communication, communication, communication. I send e-​mails and call periodically with a thought or request and I do get a response. Monica is easy to communicate with and Randy has all the right people to tackle the repairs or what ever is necessary. If I had more rentals they would be handling them as well.

I have had multiple transactions with Monica Dana of Windermere Property Management. The latest was a tough request. My clients wanted to be in the country, they have a large dog, and needed to stay within a budget. Monica was able to find the perfect place and had the home ready for them when they arrived from a long move back to Washington. She was very courteous, personable, and professional. I know when I recommend Monica she will take great care of my clients to ensure an easy process. The rental business can be difficult at times but I trust that Monica will do her best for her clients as well as my own.

I’ve rented from Windermere for over 5 years now. I’ve never had a better experience with a rental company. Anytime I need a service or repair, they’re johnny on the spot and get the job done. Thanks guys. Keep up the good work!

Experience was similar to Matthew J.‘s.
Twice had no results re viewing scheduled rentals w/​Darren, even after clearly and emphatically letting them know I was seriously looking for a home, and had left my phone number in case of changes or updates.
Third time is not a charm.
1. Tenant wasn’t contacted in time, so showing didn’t occur. I was going to be 5 – 10 minutes late, so I called to notify them. Found out by calling ahead to notify them I’d be 5 – 10 min. late.
2. Appointment was moved up 30 min.; viewing had already occurred. I called 10 minutes before to avoid another realtor no-​show, the receptionist exclaimed, «Oh, you didn’t know it had been moved up?» Sounded like a repeat performance, on her part.

I paid an entire month’s rent to Windermere but due to the military had to move out on 10 December and did not stay the entire month. My family decided to relocate with me to my next duty station at the last minute and we were not able to give Windermere adequate notice. I understood it was their policy and did not have any hard feelings that I would be paying for 20 days of rent on a rental property that I would not be using. Windermere spent the next 20 days making repairs to our vacated rental home. The issue I have is that the repairs that were done to the rental property were taken out of our deposit, which I felt should have been covered by my rent. Repairs like, rehanging undamaged sliding doors that we had removed because they kept slipping off their tracks. We got tired of calling Mr Dave (the on call repairman at Windermere) to rehang them so we stored them away. When we left, we placed them so they could be rehung easily. Also, we were charged for reprogramming the remote control to our garage door. I assumed that changing locks was something that rental properties automatically did. It surprised me that they charged me for this, when Mr Dave easily reprogrammed the garage door for me when I first moved in and called about it. I understood about being charged for a lost garage remote but almost $ 400 for these repairs on a rental property, when I had already paid an entire month’s rent really upset me. These were repairs that we got for free each month that I paid my rent. I assumed since I had paid a full month’s rent, that any repairs would be covered as usual. We were told when we first moved into the rental property that the carpet we had was old and had two years remaining before it needed to be replaced. Prior to us moving in we were charged for the shampooing and cleaning of the carpet. They explained it was a state law. We moved out four years later and Windermere charged us for cleaning the carpet again when we moved out. This was gleefully explained to us by their representative Monica. I still don’t understand why I have to pay for carpet cleaning twice in the state of Washington. I would have refused to do it when I moved in if I knew I had to do it when I moved out. I was also disappointed in another charge. We were charged $ 300 to hire someone to ‘clean’ our home after we moved out. The thing is when we initially moved in and signed for our key, our home was not clean. There was a nice lady scrubbing furiously at our sink trying to get a red stain out with a pumice stone when we signed for the rental property. When the property manager gave us the keys and left, this same ‘cleaning lady’ left five minutes after her property manager left, leaving us to finish her work. Items were left in the cabinets we ended up having to remove, not to mention the additional cleaning she skipped out on. I was truly disappointed in how Windermere treated us when we left. For four years they gave us great service. My husband and I were very happy with them. Mr Dave, the repairman, was always nice and friendly. I actually thought the receptionist was always pleasant. She was really nice whenever I called. In fact I got along fine with everyone except Monica who I did not interact with until we moved out. She seemed to go out of her way to be as rude as possible and took pleasure in treating us poorly. I would have given Windermere a good review, but I feel as though their employee, Monica, discovered we were moving out of state and just took advantage of our situation. I would just encourage anyone dealing with Windermere to be cautious with the issues, I have listed. Some of the people are pleasant, just make sure you clarify about your carpet cleaning, so that you aren’t paying for the before and after like we ended up doing. Have them put it in your contract. Also, call your repairs in prior to moving out. Apparently paying a full month’s rent does not count, they can and will remove any repairs to the home from your deposit.

I scheduled a house viewing with Windermere for monday march 23. After calling earlier that morning to confirm the showing and getting a conformation I was excited to view the property. Fast forward to the house showing time that was conformed not 3 hours prior and no one is there. I wait 25 minutes before calling them back to be told they cancelled the house viewing the previous friday. This was not the case, I never received a phone call or voice mail from them canceling the showing. I think someone on their end messed up and they had the audacity to blatantly lie to me to cover their tracks. Incredibly unprofessional on the phone, they sound like they are doing you a favor setting up an appointment. I would not recommend this real estate company to anyone. I wish I looked up their previous reviews prior.

My family and I have had a terrible experience with this property management group thus far. They are managing our rental property and had the audacity authorize payments to vendors and not keep us informed with our property. The secretary on staff is useless, rude, and unprofessional every time we have spoken to her. And our property manager is constantly unable to be reached. I would not recommend them to anyone. Extremely unprofessional company.

I’ve rented a property managed by Windermere for the past year and ½. I’ve been responsible and paid the rent on time, and kept the house clean and nice.
Laura Garrett, the property manager, has been consistently rude, condescending, and threatening to us. The property is an older house and is fairly run down– but has it’s own charm and has been livable. She has consistently treated every tenant of the house poorly in the past 4 years, and seems to think whoever rents the property must be a low-​life, apparently. For example, my roommate wore a clean, fashionable sweatsuit to pay rent. She was told not to wear sweatpants to pay rent because they were not appropriate in an office environment.
The house has a lot of problems, such as termites, caving-​in ceiling, rotting windows, black and pink mold, cracking walls, and draftiness. It has no insulation in the walls and the pipes repeatedly freeze in the winter. I have had to repeatedly bother the maintenance person Dave for him to follow through with repairs. He has told be «no problem, the repairs will be taken care of» but then he fails to call me.
But I am very dissatisfied with Laura Garret specifically. Perhaps if you are renting a more-​upscale property or leasing a house it is fine. However, if you are lower income be sure to expect some discrimination and attitude from Laura Garret. Myself and 5 other people I know of have encountered discrimination and threats from her. She is a horrible property manager and must be a miserable person!

I’ve dealt with Greg Moe out of Windermere Olympia a few times over the last few years as I’ve repeatedly considered buying a house with my partner. I don’t feel comfortable giving five stars because I haven’t actually ended up going through with buying a house with his help as yet and thus can’t speak to a pretty critical part of the process. What I have experienced is five star, no doubt.
Greg was willing to work with us despite our very odd circumstances and appearance (and car and …) that was vastly below our financial means, and never really questioned our earnestness. We’ve always set our sights at sort of lower price points and so we’ve looked at some real crappy places with Greg and he’s always offered his honest opinion of the severity of problems and whether each house has been worth the asking price.
Greg has never once tried to up-​sell or to get us to look at something we didn’t want to pay for. And he’s helpful and cheerful and personable and genuinely friendly, keeping in touch even when he knows we’re not in the market and encouraging us to send him postcards when we travel. That sort of personal relationship is just unbeatable and provides the sort of comfortable environment and dialogue I really need when I’m dealing with such major life decisions.
I know others have had bad experiences with Windermere, but Greg Moe is fantastic and I’d recommend him to anyone.