The Property Shoppe

We were not told our lease would not be renewed and it seemed Kim has no intention of telling us until we inquired regarding a renewal. She left us with one month to move out even though my spouse was deployed and I was also leaving for 3 months. I was left to pack an entire house and put it in storage while finding a new place to live in the time I had off from work. No negotiation or additional time was given, shortly after within a few days of moving out someone else moved in.
Military steer clear… Do not use this business not military friendly at all!!!

As new landlords, my wife and I are very happy with the service we have received so far from our new Property Manager, Ms. Kimberly Cox.
Our initial meeting was very informative and she addressed all my questions as a soon-​to-​be landlord. In a matter of days, the FOR RENT sign was already up, and a couple days later we had our first potential renter visit the property.
Every step of the way, Kim has kept in close contact and has promptly answered every question we had.
Not even two weeks after our first meeting, she had secured the security deposit, a lease, and the FOR RENT sign was removed as quickly as it appeared.
We are confident that the upcoming handoff and ongoing management will be as worry-​free as these first couple weeks and we look forward to working with her and her Property Shoppe team.

I am a military member who lived in the house mentioned by Deb S. when the rats were infesting the back of the house. I had to hire my own extermination service because the homeowner would not provide the funds to properly remove the rats. During the six months that my family and I lived in that house we were constantly trying to get necessary repairs completed, like the air conditioner, because the homeowner installed the fan backwards on the compressor unit. to the floor coming up in the kitchen, to the roof leaking. The Property Shoppe worked with the homeowner for to try to get the repairs done but after six months and a rat hanging from above the back door, that my wife and I knew we couldn’t live there, when we threatened legal action against the homeowner and the Property Shoppe to get out of the lease, Kristi our property manager got us into a new home for the last six months of my tour in Virginia. When the home owner sued the Property Shoppe based on his «independent investigator» I was asked to testify, I gladly testified as to the conditions of the house and why it was necessary to terminate the lease. I am also glad that the judge agreed. My wife and I can not express enough just how happy we are with what Kristi and the Property Shoppe did to support us through this challenging time, and got us out of that house. If I am stationed in Hampton Roads again I will definitely look to the Property Shoppe first.

We rented a house through the Property Shoppe for over a year. During that time, it was very difficult to get ahold of our agent for repairs. We were without heat for two separate weeks in November 2012 while we heard nothing from anyone about furnace repairs, even though we phone regularly. While the heat was out, the outside temperature dropped to below 40 degrees and the inside temperature dropped to 60 degrees. The heat went out again sometime in February, and it was the same story – contacted them and heard nothing for a week. They sent the same company in to make repairs as before and they did a crappy job again.
Later on, in April, the air conditioning went out (new unit just a year before), and they sent a new company in to assess repairs. It turns out that the furnace was never really repaired the two previous times and we were told not to run the heat because it would leak carbon monoxide into the house! The air conditioning system also needed a complete overhaul. Again, we heard nothing from anyone, but this time it was for a month. For four weeks in April/​May, we had no way to heat or cool our house and heard nothing back from the agent despite repeated attempts to call/​email and arrange repairs.
Our lease was scheduled to be up in February and we were interested in renewing. Around the first of the year, we made it clear we’d like to renew. We were told they’d get back to us. We didn’t hear anything for three months and then we got a letter stating that we had 30 days to get out because they weren’t going to renew our lease due to the owners wanting to sell the property. I was able to speak with the property owner directly and extend the agreement for another three months. When we moved out, the Property Shoppe put a ‘For Rent’ sign in the front yard. I don’t understand why they would make us leave and then turn around to rent it out again. We were good tenants. We kept the house clean and pest-​free and we paid our rent on time every month. We never had any complaints from the neighbors, (in fact, many were sorry to see us go), and we didn’t even put holes in the walls to hang pictures. It seems to me that we are exactly the kind of tenants a landlord would want.
After we moved out, we were told we’d get our deposit check within 45 days of lease termination. 50 days later, we contacted them and were told that it was up to the owners to send the check. Well, that may be, but we signed a contract with the Property Shoppe, not the homeowners, and we made out the original check to the Property Shoppe, not the homeowners. Therefore, it’s the Property Shoppe’s responsibility to follow through. I feel like they were just giving us excuses. We finally received our check 60 days after termination. This was handled poorly, in my opinion.
I know the Property Shoppe likes to let people know that they represent homeowners, not tenants, and their job is to manage properties for owners. They may do a fine job at that, but to me, it’s equally important to provide good services to tenants. Without tenants, there would be no one to rent the homes they are managing. If I were a homeowner, I would want to make sure my own tenants were taken care of and it would bother me to learn if anyone was treated the way we were. Read the reviews and make your own decision, but I won’t be renting through this company ever again. And if, for some reason, I ever own a home here and need a property manager, it won’t be the Property Shoppe.