Azari Property Management

This review is specifically for Jenny Filchenko from Azari Properties, who has been helping us out with our lease. She is very professional, quickly responds to our emails and has been a delight to work with. She has helped us out with our initial lease, renewal process and in general any queries or interaction with our landlord. She completely deserves this 5 star rating and I would definitely love to work with her again!

I just moved into a property managed by Azari. So far the communication has been on par and very quick. They came to fix some minor issues almost immediately. Reza is one of the maintenance managers, and he is awesome! Super friendly, helpful, efficient, and hardworking. :)

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY IF YOU CAN HELP IT:
I waited 4 months before writing this review to allow my anger to die down and to gather more information to take these folks to small claims court. Where do I begin. When I first moved in the property on Zephyr Dr. in Oakland I noticed that the space was not properly cleaned (all trash cans full, other trash in the garage, zero real inspection or painted from the previous tenant.) Once I finished the inspection sheet I began contacting Candi and Jenny about painting as it was holding up my process of decorating. I got so many excuses: «she’s out of the country, she doesn’t speak english well, etc» Not only did it go on for MONTHS in regards to getting the painting done, I had to make an in person unexpected popup at their location to get things going. Finally after months of waiting the home was finally ready for me to live.
Flash forward to rental renewal time: Azari sends me an email (Jenny) that my rent would be increased 22% YES You heard it 22%! Once I called them out on the laws about rental increase what they wanted to say well we can increase it more than 10% if we give you a 60 day notice. I in turn wrote the owner an email stating my disappointment in her actions and she wrote back stating «Angel, I was not aware of the 22% increase. I will find out more from Azari and get back to you on this. Can you please do me a favor? Can you please forward me the email which you received from Azari? After going back and forth with the owner about the increase it was very clear she did not give a rats butt about a fair increase. She tried to go the Max and offer at two year agreement at 14% «to lock in the pricing» (still over a $ 300 rental increase). After going back and forth with them (and sending thing comps both in West Oakland and surrounding areas and the going rate for rental increase 2−3% a year they held firm on that 14−22% increase and I decided to give up the leasing terms.
So of course the drama begin with move out. Professional cleaners, professional carpet cleaners (which is in my lease to pay for but when I thought about it when I moved the owner and Azari are lazy and don’t know the first thing about Customer Service. So finally move out date… guess who didn’t show up for the walk through… Azari? The owner had her friend to come as they were firing Azari so she went to town with taking photos. I had nothing to worry about because I’m probably the most anal and picky person in the world so everything was perfect.
Finally Azari a day later do the walk through and the guy is on the phone with someone else the whole time telling him what to do. He tried to tell me the place was not clean enough and some other stuff (which was clearly wear and tear and when I say wear and it was like a smug on the wall from maybe someone leaning on it. No issues on the inspections sheet. So I GET an email from Jaylin and Azari saying they are taking $ 210 dollars out for two THINGS I DID NOT DO.
1. Repair and patch a spot near the downstairs door. I have never painted in that condo or repaired a wall. I remember on my inspection sheet not putting it there because I was like «oh it looks like it was painted and repaired.» Note to self, IF anything ever looks like it was painted and repaired write it down anyway. I asked to see the last tenants move out and move in inspection because that would solve that problem. DO YOU THINK I EVER GOT THAT… NEGATIVE. My response to them «Understanding that I overlooked the patch under the alarm when I moved in and did not document, for the record I did not damage the wall. Because it was painted over, I assumed it was a repair that was taken care of by Azari and/​or owner. «
2. Repair blinds pulls throughout the condo: I included this in the move in inspection.
Also, the window covering strings replacement were documented in my move in assessment. Please see the attached photo where it states that the strings were off the blinds upon move in «the stings on the blinds are off but I can put glue on them to put them on no big deal» My response to the charge (and I attached the photo of the move in info): «Also, the window covering strings replacement were documented in my move in assessment. Please see the attached photo where it states that the strings were off the blinds upon move in. «
Jenny had the audacity to say you didn’t say that plastic pieces were apart. Well, let’s think about it if the plastic clasp are not on then that means the strings are off. Note to self: if anything looks shady don’t attempt to just snap them back together yourself.
These two Move out issues should have been noted when the last tenant left as that is what I came into once moving in.
I could go on and own about how long it took for me to get my 1.5 times the rent deposit minus the repairs but part of it was my fault because I forgot to add the suite number. But a month?
Thank God its OVER!
Angel (MY NAME)

This review is several months past do. APM has been my property manager for the last 6 months. I was pleased from initial phone call to move in and still am very happy with them. Jenny, Genie and Amy have all been very pleasant to deal with. I highly recommend them.

I am on the board of my HOA and have utilized Azari for about six months now. The benefit of working with Azari is it’s a small organization which enables us to deal with the same people as it relates to management of our building, maintenance related concerns and financial matters.
Aside from ensuring the building is well maintained the other most important aspect is maintaining the finances of the association. It’s this portion that has inspired me to write this review as Jenny who runs their finance department is INCREDIBLE. I work in finance myself so for me to say this says a lot. Jenny is efficient, responsive and has attention to detail like no other. In switching from our prior management company Jenny helped us identify issues with our accounts payable (old company was paying bills late or not at all), aided us in sourcing more economical contracts and stays on top of our owners to ensure their dues are paid on time.
Has the relationship with Azari been perfect? No. However simply having Jenny as a resource to handle a critical portion of our relationship is enough reason to consider Azari.

Got several calls from Azari after posting this review. Amy has been very helpful — she’s probably taken the grunt of all my issues (which go back way back to before she was handling my unit) but is going out of her way to help.

These people are unprofessional and unreliable. My initial encounter was a phone interview where one of the employees repeatedly expressed how upset she was that the property I was interested in had been vacant for 3 weeks and that she was losing money. She told me some one had already agreed to move in in a few weeks but if we could move in sooner, she’d choose us over them. Red flag #1.
My partner scheduled a meeting to go look at the apartment listing at 330. At 330 a different realtor called and said she was 5 minutes away. By 400PM she hadn’t showed up so my partner left. At 430 I received an angry text asking why my partner wasn’t there. She lied and said she was only 15 minutes late.
Even if we’d had a chance to see the house, I would’ve never chosen a management company so disorganized and rude. Stay away.

I am disappointed I did not read these reviews before moving in, they validate everything I’ve been dealing with. They are a TERRIBLE management company that almost left us homeless because they liied about the owner not wanting to sign us because we were «asking too many questions».
Unfortunately, at the time we did move b/​c Manzar promised we would have a better experience and less than 2 weeks later we are having the same issues, i.e. refusal to professionally clean the apt, furniture items were not provided that were promised to us, etc.
On several occasions Manzar and her staff have acted unprofessionally:

I rented a loft apt in SOMA from Azari for about 4 years. When we moved we had a great experience. We told the owner that we did not actually start moving in until day 8 — we were paying double rent for that month — And she prorated those 8 days of our first month rent, we didn’t even ask! It was a start to what I thought would be a great relationship and different than all the other property management companies in the city.
I was wrong, over the years I realized Azari is worse. They told us they were full service, they even replace light bulbs. So they would come twice a year for an «inspection». One for a general inspection, taking pictures (for what I assumed was for the owner to ensure we are in compliance of the lease), and another visit where a handy man would come to fix things, even if nothing needed fixed. They also took pictures. Azari was horrible about scheduling, emailing us a day or 2 before they were going to come. This wasn’t convenient since we both work full time and didn’t want people in our place while not being there. Each we reported verbally to both the reps and the handy people our veiling fan wasn’t working and they never fixed it over the years.
The 1 star review is for our move out experience. For the duration we lived in their loft, I’d give 1.5 stars.
First they raised our rent $ 800 a month upon our lease renewal. This was a shock to say the least and totally out of line with our past renewal increases which were around $ 50. They were persistent to get an email reply acknowledging that we received the notice. We replied that we’d like time to evaluated our alternatives and would get back to them a final decision either way 30 days before the lease ends our agreement.
Second they posted our loft immediately. At this time we has not notified our move out. But I checked different sites to a) see options and b) validate that the rent increase was inline with the current market for similar apartments. I was upset when I saw our loft on craigslist. But I get they need to start seeking tenants if we decide to move out.
Third the picture they chose to post on Craigslist of the loft was OUR FURNISHED apartment, one of the pictures the took during one if their «inspections». Now I was furious. I felt personally invaded. They have pictures of the unfurnished loft, the original ones we saw when we first rented. Why did they use our furnished pictures? They didn’t even have the decency to notify or ask us.
So we moved out. In case you are wondering, rent control in SF only applies to places build prior to 1978 (I think) and this building was built in 80s or 90s. So no rent control protection for us. Also, the landlord is required to give 60 days notice for increases more than 10%, which is why they were pestering us to email a reply that we acknowledge the $ 800/​mo rent increase.
Fourth through out all the bi annual inspections we’ve always told them our ceiling fan wasn’t working and they never fixed it. We never pressed it because it’s SF, so how often do we use the fan? Not much. Anyway, I fortunately had enough sense to send a follow up email to Azari after the last maintenance inspection telling them their people didn’t have the tools to fix the fan and it’s still not working. This was a month before they sent the rent increase email. Azari never responded. So when time came to reassess the loft for our deposit, they charged us for the fan. Are you kidding me? Azari said they had no record of any issues with it… Until I sent that email back to them and then they went silent until we got our deposit check and it was not charged.
If I could I would give them 0 stars. The owner was really nice and accommodating when we first signed the lease 5 years ago. But her business has grown (good thing for her) but most of the people now working there are either rude, incompetent or both (very bad thing). I’m not even going to get into the various interactions we’ve had about a scheduling the inspection visits or trying to get things fixed.
Sorry for the long review but I was nearly fell out of chair when I saw «my» loft on Craig’s list, complete with the dirty dish towel on the kitchen counter.
If you have the choice, don’t rent from Azari. If you already are a tenant or love a place they are managing, I strongly recommend documenting everything. They seem to primarily deal with new real estate, so rent control can’t help you.

My experience is as a tenant with Azari. I began renting a place several years ago and have had a great experience thus far. The way I view any property management experience is whether or not the important stuff is handled well. I’m more than happy to do small things myself (e.g. replacing a lightbulb) and I don’t bring those up, but if there are issues with rent or the lease or a broken whatever that I can’t fix myself, that’s where property management matters.
So how are they at the important stuff? Pretty darn good. Azari has been responsive (less than 24 hours) when I have had issues and I’ve been happy with the outcomes. When email didn’t suffice, Manzar has been available to get on the phone to discuss things and has always been reasonable and friendly. Tenant screening was a non-​issue — honestly I appreciate the existence of it as it lets a good potential tenant stand out, and if I were a property owner I would do the same.
Maybe its just me, but when I’m living in someone else’s place I want to get to know who I’m renting from. I’ve lived in short term apartments and the experience is totally different, and maybe thats what some people are looking for. I am a long term kind of tenant, and I believe that to have the best possible experience for everyone involved you have to build and maintain trust. Put simply, if I have an issue with my property, I can trust that we’ll come to a reasonable solution. Thats what I care about!

Update: these folks were very nice as we moved in. Once we were tenants, they were anything but nice. They were unhelpful, unfriendly, and downright hostile. Eventually our landlord fired them because she was sick of their incompetence. I wouldn’t recommend doing business with them under any circumstances — as a landlord or as a tenant.

I own a number of investment condos in the City and have used Azari Property Management exclusively as my leasing agent for four years. I recommend without reservations Yianni and Manzar to any investment property owner looking for a responsive and hard-​working property leasing agent and management company.
The Azari team prepares detailed rent comps and helps with staging of the property — the photographs and advertisements are always well presented. No one knows the Financial District/​SOMA/​Yerba Buena market better than Yianni and Manzar. Yianni is absolutely wonderful to work with — leave him a set of keys, and he schedules all of the property showings around your schedule and promptly. The in-​house staff handles the credit checks and tenant due diligence with care, and also professionally prepares all leases on current San Francisc-​specific C.A.R. forms — Genie and Jenny are the best. The tenants Yianni has placed for me are all terrific folks who pay their rents on time and take care of my properties. I don’t ever recall my property sitting on the market for more than 2 to 3 weeks, and best yet, Yianni pretty much hits the targeted rent each time. All but one has renewed for another term or two, which is a saving to the Landlord as well.
Azari’s in-​house property repairs and maintenance crew is first-​rate — Shawn and Luis are courteous, professional, and cost-​effective in getting a property ready for tenant move-​in. I have chosen to manage my relatively new properties myself, but when I’ve had an occasional malfunctioning appliance or something of that sort, I contract with Azari’s team to have my property taken care of – all I have to do is call Manzar, and Shawn is right on top of it, scheduling repairs with my tenant promptly.
It’s been a pleasure working with Azari.

My wife and I did not want to use a property management company but thought it best for our needs being that we left the state. Few things we wanted, issues for our tenant addressed in a timely helpful manner and make sure no interruption in the rent. We have only used them for about 4 months and thus far few issues with the house (unrelated to them) were fixed in a ½ day with subcontractors. The prices for work done was not marked up and that is all I could ask for. Additionally the owner is very friendly and will pick the phone up if Jenny is out of the office. Small things like that make me feel much better about the company and using them for the next lease. As for us we live out of state and peace of mind is a nice thing when using any property management company.

I used Azari property management to rent out my condo and the company managed the property for me. The managing part was mainly collecting the rent each month, and sending service guy if there is anything broken in the unit.
The convenient part was the company’s accounting would collect the rent and send out a statement each month. The accounting person was nice and replied e-​mails fast. For service part, I usually got a notice when there was something broken reported by the tenants. Then Azari would send someone to fix then charge me service fee which was in addition to the regular monthly charge.
The service is good for busy or lazy landlords who don’t want to interface with tenants at all.
Originally I thought this type service was good. However I like to know the overall situation and understand the details. Sometimes I got nervous that the communications with tenants were not transparent to me and wondered if some messages were delivered correctly. Also I thought some of the charges were a bit high.
I will rent out my rental units by myself in the future. I don’t think I will use any other property management company either.

APM has been extremely helpful ever since they started managing my apartment. They are very quick to fix apartment issues and make sure it’s done right. They have been very nice to work with and I recommend them as a properly mgmt company.

Incredibly dishonest and shady business. I could write a 5 page paper on how incompetent they are, instead I will just highlight a few things:
1) they were dishonest about the deposit amount
2) they were dishonest about whether or not we could have pets in the house
3) we had to go directly to PG and E, the water company, and the city for the garbage. as a ‘property management company,’ shouldn’t they be managing property?
4) the water heater broke, and we suffered through this for 3 weeks before they finally came to fix it. all i got was a phone call and an apology from the owner of the company saying that that wasn’t how they run business. well clearly it is!
these are things right off the top of my head. do yourselves a favor and steer clear of this company. if you want honest business, you won’t get it here.

Bottom Line: I did everything by the book and they still cheated me. I don’t recommend doing business with these people. You’ve been warned.
Specifics:
1) The pre-​move-​in inspection and checklist was a useless exercise. When I moved in, I even provided them with pictures of carpet stains that were there before I moved in. Result: I had to pay for the stains when I moved out.
2) They charge flat rates, taken from your deposit, that you can’t challenge. $ 250 «cleaning fee» when you move out. An extra $ 100 fee for each imperfection — whether it was there before you moved in or not — even if you have evidence that you told them of the imperfections before you moved in.
3) They come by and take pictures of your place. It’s intrusive and violating, and you can’t do anything about it.
4) I had to battle for even the most simplest of services (e.g., water heater repair, toilet repair, lock repair)

This is a review I wrote in 2009. I eventually took it down after getting repeated phone calls from the owner, Manzar Azari, and then later her agent’s, Sopida Siadat, husband. Sopida’s husband suggested that he was an influential businessman who was friends with partners at my company and would use his influence to make life worse for me. Manzar would then call me on a daily basis relaying those threats to me, telling me that Sopida’s husband would follow-​through unless I took down my post. I removed the post to avoid the potential hassle at work than out of fear of their threats. A year after taking the post down though, I continue to feel cheated — not just because of how poor their services were, but also because of their childish and unprofessional response to criticism about their company. Let me preface the below with one more thought: there are a ton of other real estate companies and property managers. There is absolutely no reason to go with Azari given their repeated reputation for malfeasance.
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I teamed up with Azari in 2009. I had bought my home in 2007 and was genuinely concerned about getting back what I paid for. It was also my first time selling a house and I really had no knowledge about real estate law or the process of selling a house. Azari was recommended to me by one of my friends, a sales agent who previously worked there but who also left shortly after her experiences with them. My initial impression of them was positive. I worked primarily with Sopida Siadat and Eugenia Mantzoros and occassionally with Manzar Azari, the owner. The below is less a complaint about Eugenia (who was wonderful) and more about Sopida and Manzar.
During our first meeting, the agents completely undervalued my home by $ 100,000. They suggested my home would only sell for $ 720,000 and that I should price it as such. I pushed back and argued that the average selling price per square foot put my house in the $ 820,000 range and rejected their advice. I was right — we got an offer from a buyer at my price. Had I listed to Azari’s agents, I may have sold my home for a substantial loss.
I was also withheld important information. For instance, Sopida once informed me that the buyer wanted an extension on the date of closing. I asked her why and she told me simply that they wanted more time so that they could move out of their old home. That didn’t make sense to me, so a couple days later I pushed her on the topic again. She finally told me that the buyers were having difficulty financing their purchase of my home. A buyer on their home had fallen through. This was critical information that she withheld from me and only disclosed after being pressured.
I was also lied to or given incorrect advice about my rights. Due to the buyer’s failure to obtain financing during the time set out in the contract, I wanted to proceed on cancelling the sale. I asked Sopida to immediately cancel the contract and asked her how much notice we needed to give the buyer. She told me the contract required 48 hour notice. I spent 2 hours reviewing the contract to identify the clause Sopida referred to. After not finding any reference to a 48 hour notice period, I contacted her. This time she told me that the requirement was part of California law even though not part of the contract. I spent another 2 – 3 hours researching California law. Again, nothing. She was wrong. In fact, I found forms stating 24 hours notice was more than sufficient (and industry practice). We gave 24 hours notice and cancelled the deal. I then terminated my relationship with Azari.
I don’t know if the horrible service and misrepresentations were intentional or simply due to incompetence. I know real estate agents have an incentive to sell homes quickly. Their commission doesn’t change when the house sits on the market and they are forced to exert more time and effort. A seller, on the other hand, has the incentive to sell it for a price that (especially now) doesn’t bankrupt them. We have a lot of money invested in our homes. Whether the house sells a few thousand dollars more or less does not dramatically impact the agent’s commission, but could dramatically affect the seller’s livelihood and investments. Given that the agent’s interests are not perfectly aligned with the seller’s, the importance of hiring someone you can trust to represent you, to consult you, and to sell on your behalf is all the more critical. And my recommendation to you: do not trust Azari.

I want to update this review with further compliments for Azari. While working with them to get that «perfect» San Francisco apartment, I found what I was looking for, only to have the owner of the property reject me because of qualms about my employment situation. (I am a consultant, so I don’t have the every-​two-​weeks pay stub to show). I loved this apartment so much, though, that I went straight to Manzar Azari, the owner, with all my bank statements and perfect credit report, and Manzar went to bat for me with the owner, explaining my situation in detail and why I would be a perfect tenant.
I had never met Manzar and she didn’t know anything about me. But she listened patiently when I explained my situation, then she took up my cause. What property manager does that? Manzar said it’s because the tenants are as important to her as the owners, and I believe it. It makes sense, because the owners are counting on the property management to get them good, stable tenants, while the tenants want to know that their tenancy will be trouble-​free. It’s like a match-​making service!
I really can’t say enough about Azari. They went the extra mile for me and now I have an apartment that I just love and hope to stay in for a long time.

I find it funny that all the 5 star reviews are from people without profiles and have only 1 review: 5 stars for Azari! If you look in their filtered reviews, you can see that Unilocal filtered out some of these false 5 stars, including one written by the owner herself.
Avoid renting property managed by Azari. They avoid repairing anything, and when they do, they take months to respond. (Including not having a working smoke detector for two months even after several calls and emails). They either ignore your requests or send someone to jerry rig it. I hope the owners aren’t actually paying a real repair company, because their solution to fixing a violently shaking washing machine was putting a piece of wood under it. It still shakes violently.
If you do rent from them, keep meticulous records of every interaction and payment to them. Keep your deposit slips if you pay their bank, if you give them a check, get a signed receipt showing you paid them on time. If you mail your rent, send it certified. If they make their deposit late, they’ll charge YOU for being late. They will look for any excuse to charge you their exorbitant 8% late fee. Don’t submit maintenance requests on their website or via the phone, because they will deny ever receiving it, and you won’t have a record. Email them so you have your own record.
After writing this, the owner emailed me several rambling and threatening messages, implying she will sue me for writing a negative review.
If I was a property owner, I would be angry that I was paying for such poor service. We are polite, responsible tenants with well paying jobs and take good care of our apartment. Because of Azari, though, we’ll be moving out as soon as our lease is up.
I’m really hoping this isn’t reflective of what it’s like to rent in San Francisco. The staff itself is very friendly, it’s just disorganized and the owner is shockingly unprofessional.