Lora W Vance, Realtor

Beware! Do not ever rent from this company! I rented an upstairs apartment from them for over a year. In December, my youngest daughter was sexually molested by the caretaker’s son who stayed downstairs at night. We told Mary immediately and asked he not be allowed to stay on the property. She talked to his mother who said he had been «talked to» about it and Lora Vance continued to allow him to stay on the property even though he didn’t need to be there. My girls and I were traumatized and scared of another attack. I stayed home every night to protect my girls and wasn’t able to use the washer/​dryer, patio, or throw trash away every night from 6pm to 8am due to him being in the downstairs apartment. The house was up for sale and the owner of Lora Vance, Marlys Vasterling was rude, demeaning, and disrespectful. One time she walked right into our living room with a client with no notice or warning. When I told her I hadn’t been given notice and wasn’t ready to show the apartment, she argued with me and forced the issue. She let her client take pictures of my apartment without getting permission. Another time she asked us to leave our home so she could show it to a client because the client felt uncomfortable with us there. I told her I didn’t feel comfortable leaving and she argued with me and forced the issue. All of these were illegal and direct violations of renter’s rights but they didn’t care at all. They never even admitted they were in the wrong. I felt forced to move out and left the apartment in beautiful clean condition. They refused to do a walk through with me. They wouldn’t answer any of my emails or letters. They didn’t return any of my $ 2000 deposit and didn’t answer any letters or emails about the deposit. This is the worst nightmare I have ever had renting ever! They didn’t care that my daughter was sexually molested and took no steps to make sure she was safe in the future by actually allowing the perpetrator to continue to stay on the property even though he wasn’t a renter and didn’t need to be there. Marlys, the owner was entitled and rude every time I spoke with her. She walked into my apartment without giving notice or allowing me to answer the door, trespassed, talked to clients about living there in front of me while we were still hoping to rent after it was sold, insisted on us leaving while she showed it to clients, and generally treated us with such disrespect and rudeness that I was shocked after we had been such good tenants for over a year. Please do yourself a favor and stay far far away from these horrible people unless you want to lose $ 2000 of deposit money, and have a lot of stress and rudeness!

I am a bit confused from some of the reviews where people said they had a bad experience with Mary. I feel like I have to defend her because she had nothing but the utmost professionalism and was very attentive to our needs. For the 9 months that I lived in our home, I had nothing but good experiences despite the noise from the trash trucks that seemed to come every midnight, the Starbuck’s delivery truck that actually came at midnight and some of the noise from people walking by. The only minor things that I can really complain about are the aforementioned, as well as the parking nightmare on weekends and especially on holidays. But it is expected as it is a tourist spot and I came to accept that very early on. Would I live on Balboa Island again? Maybe. I loved the «small town feel» and my neighbors and every person I ever came in contact with that lived on the island were wonderful, friendly people. I would also go to Lora Vance Realty again because I was pretty satisfied with my overall experience with them in those 9 months.

If only no stars were available. Rude, unprofessional, uninformed and useless. Rented a house from them in July 2014 really useful info was not given like the house is a shell and you’ll need to show up in a moving can to actually be able to enjoy yourself there. No toilet paper, not one roll, not one square, zip, zilch, zero and never a mention to bring your own paper products. While I absolutely planned on having to re stock during our weeklong stay I never imagined showing up to a 4 bdrm 3 bath home and there being no toilet paper upon arrival. No hand soap in any bathrooms, no dish soap in the kitchen, no trash bags for the kitchen cans, no hangers in the closets, no Tvs in the bedrooms, no propane in the bbq. Wait cause it gets better ac didn’t work and lora vance did nothing to try and fix it they put me in direct contact with the owner and then made me schedule 3 appointments with a repairman who never fixed the issue! 7 days in a 3 story home with no ac in the middle of summer. They even asked if the repair man could come and start at 730 in the morning! I not only have multiple children I have a toddler who is asleep at 730 in the morning! The upstairs ac dripped so much water on the tile hallway it was dangerous and the 3^rd floor ac poured water out directly onto a TV mounted right below it forcing my son to disconnect his ps4 for fear of ruining it or you know getting electrocuted. There were tons of flies since we had to keep all the doors and windows open (no screens) and a ton of construction that wouldn’t you know Mary at lora Vance failed to mention. When I inquired upon arrival to Mary as to why both trash bins out back were already full and what did she recommend I do with the trash (mainly half eaten food that was left in the fridge from the previous tenants that the cleaners apparently missed) she responded there would be an extra pick up tomorrow (a Sunday) which was a lie. The cleaning company cleaned and filled every can leaving us with nowhere to put our trash for days. My husband ended up loading it and taking it to a dumpster. It was a working vacation at best constantly fixing something here and discovering something missing there along with frequent trips to the store to buy well everything!!! Almost a month after our stay I called Mary to inquire about my $ 800 deposit being returned which she said would only take a week to return when I rented the property. Mary made excuses for two days and when I said I’d come pick it up she surprisingly had «just dropped it in the mail». When the check finally arrived it was $ 785.01 and made out to a different first name than mine with my last name. Mary had deducted $ 14.99 for a bike lock she had a workman drop in the garage during or stay that she said she now couldn’t find. Mary is a bold faced liar we brought our own bikes and our own bike locks but right until the end this woman is trying to screw you. I called to speak to Mary who shockingly never returned my calls, emails or texts. The refund check being made out to the wrong name actually made the situation comical while the bank wouldn’t cash it because you know the name didn’t match my license my bank did so the saga was finally over. The part that kills me is Mary and I signed a rental agreement all which had my name printed and typed into her file and even my check I wrote for the initial deposit. To just disregard a clients name on the deposit refund is a great example of how haphazard and unprofessional lora vance and especially Mary really are. Vacation renters beware!!! I’ve rented multiple beach houses and live in OC lora vance is a joke. You will regret ever visiting their tiny office or dealing with their disheveled, raspy voiced employees. Hope the $ 14.99 was worth it Mary!

I have never come in contact with a RE/​Rental agent that is as rude as Mary. I emailed 3 times about «available rentals» in one week. Called 2 times in 3 days and finally on the 3^rd call she answered. I asked if she got my emails and calls and she rudely said, «well…I’m on the line now… what do you need?» WTF??? I started asking about listings on their website. ALL 4 listings I asked about were already rented, but the agency was too lazy to post them as «RENTED». When I asked about another rental listed Mary curtly said, «That’s not an available rental!» I asked, «Why…then…is it listed on your website?» She rudely said, «IT“S NOT!». I asked her to look it up and tell me if I was seeing things… she looked it up… sure enough it was there… and she had NO explanation as to why it was on their… if it wasn’t their listing! She simply said «It’s NOT available– I am the rental agent… and it’s NOT our listing.» Well… then UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE, for Christ’s sake and save the public the hassle of dealing with you all together!
What a joke. Save your time and frustration and DON’T CALL MARY AT LORA VANCE!!!

I drove Balboa Island practically every night for 2 months looking for a place to live. My roommate and I finally met Mary at Lora Vance Realty and she saved us. She is so kind and helpful!

This agency will advertise a rental property without confirming the amenities. Advertised as fully equipped, we were highly disappointed with 800 S Bayfront when two kitchen appliances did not work at all. It took the bulk of the week to get resolved. What a waste of time. The property looked like someone moved out in a hurry. The walls were stripped of pictures but not the tacky hooks and faded wall paper… left behind for the guests viewing pleasure.