Karon Properties

Reliable and trustworthy. The Agents are well networked and hardworking people who genuinely care about you and your family.
Call them for help with selling/​buying/​renting your new house!
****Ask for Beata Willison***

If Debra Wallace is your property manager, then read no further. Debra is absolutely amazing — she made my first apartment welcoming and comforting. She is extremely professional, friendly, and caring. 10 stars if I could!
This is by far, the most critical review I have ever written here on Unilocal.Not only am I completely unsatisfied with the property manager, Pauline Zenner, but there were many legal issues presented while under her management. Pauline Zenner took over after I had been with the wonderful Debra Wallace for over a year and a half. Given the immaturity and lack of professionalism from Pauline, I decided to reach out to Stephen Karon himself for advice on how to proceed. Below is the link to my email.
After sending this email to Stephen Karon through LinkedIn, I did not receive a response, but within 2 days, was informed that Pauline was harassing my previous housemates. This was extremely frustrating since I purposely reached out to Mr. Karon in hopes of receiving professional assistance with this matter; if I wanted Pauline to have the letter, I could have just sent it to her myself. The fact is, Pauline has created an environment where I am uncomfortable reaching out and confronting her about these problems, so imagine my surprise when I expressed this to Mr. Karon, only to have him do everything I tried to avoid. Well, Pauline emailed my housemate directly claiming I sent her a mean email that insulted her. Calm down, I haven’t had direct contact with Pauline since July 2015, before I moved out. It is now September 2015. That’s a lot of twisting of the he-​said, she-​said. Aren’t you like 60, Pauline? Talk about being a high school girl spreading rumors, right? Additionally, she informed my housemates that I am subletting my place in the apartment. Subletting would require me to sign paperwork to allow the new tenant into the apartment — although being very uninformed during this move-​out process, I never signed anything, so any paperwork regarding this would have been forged.
I never heard from Stephen Karon after sending the above message, however, within the following week I received my safety deposit in full. Unfortunately, my loyalty is not bought with money, so I am continuing my review.
Since I care for my previous housemates, I am completely appalled by the way management handled this situation. To send my email directly over to Pauline was highly unprofessional and her following actions were even moreso. That said, I will not be sharing any more information regarding the incompetence of Pauline Zenner for the safety and privacy of my friends (Hey, Pauline! THAT was a stab at you, unlike my written email). Sadly, they still have another year with her, but I’ll be more than happy to share more details when the year is up! Unilocalers should know, however, Pauline has not changed at all after receiving this criticism and that Karon Properties is not taking any action to better their property managers to avoid situations like this in the future.
You would be a masochist to read this email and still proceed with Pauline Zenner. As for Jim Zenner, marriage bonds you two as the dynamic duo of the century — I’ll just let her bring him down on her own. Although, Unilocaler Tashina’s review makes it sound like you two are equally as damaging; you guys must be perfect for each other.
Unilocalers: DM me for my email. This way, you can contact me directly regarding any of this if you have further questions. I can also forward any emails as proof.
A note to Karon Properties: I would be more than happy to update this review if proven that Pauline Zenner is undergoing training/​being mentored, under supervision, or removed from Karon Properties entirely. Until then, I will be sharing my review, letter, and photos to several other sites as well.
Hope this helps and happy renting!

Is it possible to even state how AWESOME Karon Properties is? Especially one of its most respected agents, Neal Langholz? I have known Neal for years through open houses and from around town, and I have always respected how he has represented clients. When it came time to sell my own house, I called Neal without hesitation. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I have one piece of advice for you. Actually two. The first is call Neal. The second is listen to whatever he says. Just do it! He helped me get my house ready for sale, and there were many things that I initially did not want to do. But Neal guided me through the preparation process, and his 30+ years of experience really helped the sale pay off for all of us – literally.
Wish I had another house so that I could have Neal sell it for me! Maybe. ..

Jim and Pauline Zenner helped me during the period 2012 – 2014 when a problem arose with the sale of my Santa Cruz rental home. As property managers, they had been prompt in taking care of problems that came up and they hired vendors that didn’t drag their feet. Pauline was especially tactful in handling tenants, and she could be firm when necessary. Prior to my contacting them, my luck with property managers in Santa Cruz hadn’t been positive.
The strong real estate market suggested it was a good time to sell the rental house (which was well designed and in a good location). So it should demand a top dollar price, correct? Then came the awakening. The tenants hadn’t abused the place, but the structure needed better than $ 100 thousand in termite and dry-​rot repairs – which sent most buyers on their way.
Jim Zenner’s approach puzzled me at first but I gradually came to realize his judgment was correct. Complete disclosure was his main point. Let additional inspections reveal everything that needed to be done so that contractors could warrant that satisfactory results were possible.
The couple most interested in the house spent many weeks considering various bids, persevered in investigating everything themselves, and demonstrated that they were savvy. I was grateful, because following the sale, there would be no loose ends in terms of legal issues since Buyers were acknowledging and signing off on everything the inspections revealed.
The final result was, despite the serious damage, a reasonable drop in price covered most of the repair expenses. My thanks go to the Zenners for providing good advice and having enough people skills to bring things to a satisfactory conclusion.
A.R. Saratoga

Wow, all I can see is don’t go near this place especially if they employee people like Jim Zenner. What an arrogant liar and very poor at getting his facts correct. Definitely on the lazy side and not a person of his word. I am a resident of San Diego and was asked to move to Santa Cruz to help with rent on a property that is a tenant of Jim Zenner. So the tenant didn’t hold true to his word on his end of the agreement, basically I walked into a nightmare trying to be the good guy. However I have tons of evidence and documents proving otherwise. So Jim calls up the other occupant on the lease after the lease was expired, even though this occupant tried to contact him a couple of times prior to the lease ending. His poor excuse was that he was out of town, I suppose if it were a million dollar deal he would have returned the call. He proceeds to tell this mother of two young children that this tenant that had an agreement with both of us, that he has vacated the property. That she must move in four days or get a motel for $ 40.00 a night. He verbally said he was going to come on the weekend to check on the property never called never showed. Now we are involved in a lovely lawsuit and he doesn’t even have the knowledge or skill to present the correct information to his attorney. Nope stay away, unless you love drama!

I recently rented a house through Debra at Karon Properties and couldn’t be happier with her service. Everything has gone so smoothly. The house was a total mess when the previous occupants moved out, and Debra made sure that it was spic and span for our move in date.
I noticed a problem with the plumbing in the shower and emailed her late Sunday afternoon. By early Monday morning she had arranged for a plumber to come out, everything was taken care of so swiftly, I was very surprised by how organized everyone has been on every level.
Besides being organized and getting the house and paperwork ready for us with no snags, Debra has just been the kindest, sweetest woman. She really seems to care about her clients.
I highly recommend Karon Properties.

We bought and sold our house in Santa Cruz through Neal Langholz, of Karon Properties. Neil is a low-​pressure kind of guy and really helped us navigate through buying our first home. I felt like he gave honest advice and shared a lot of wisdom about the market. He did not try to up sell us, and really listened to our wishes with regards to finding a home. He took us to many properties with no hesitation. There was never a part of the process where he left us stranded, but also never put undue pressure on us either.
Neil also owns a lot of properties in the area — so has been a valuable resource in recommending handymen, painters and other services.