Nomadic Real Estate

Read the other reviews here before you sign on to live in a Nomadic Real Estate property. I moved out of my unit in late-​July. Nomadic finally refunded my security deposit in mid-​October after I bombarded them with letters and emails.
Tip: When Nomadic ignores you and dodges your calls regarding your security deposit, the law you should cite is D.C. Municipal Regulations, Title 14, Section 309.1.

Trying to get info on a rental property on Craigslist. Took multiple emails before getting a showing. Was told he would send an application to me and nothing… for days. I’m not sure if he got fired or what but someone should of been checking his email accounts. Finally got anther contact and still very slow response time. Guess they don’t work weekends so I get a return call at 6:45 on a Monday morning to tell me the place was rented.

I have only worked with Nomadic through the viewing and application process. It has not been a pleasant one. The short version is that Nomadic has terrible communication practices and misled my friends and I through a horrible application process, telling us that pets were fine with a $ 300 deposit, and then strongly encouraging us to complete the rental application and pay the $ 35 fee for each person, only to be told the owner (quote) «will not budge on not having pets permanently living in the home» after taking our money.
The other reviews here about Nomadic corroborate my experience with their terrible and misleading communication practices. And just as a kicker, the photos on Craigslist of the rental were completely misleading. When we showed up to view the house the current tenants hadn’t even bothered to make their beds or take the dishes out the sink. The house was absolutely disgusting. While I’m sure a good cleaning would have taken care of that issue, presenting a house in that condition just perpetuates their lack of professionalism.
The Long Version:
My friend and I contacted Nomadic Real Estate through Craigslist regarding a property for rent. The property details said «no pets», but still my friend emailed the address listed and asked if there were any exceptions. On the email back the agent ignored the question about pets and stated he’d love to show us the house. We scheduled a time and went to the look at the house. While at the house we again asked about the pet policy and the agent informed us that pets we okay with a $ 300 deposit. A day later we informed the agent that we’d like to put rental offer in on the house and a day after that our offer was accepted, and the agent emailed saying he strongly encouraged us to complete the rental application.
All four of us completed the application, each paying the $ 35 rental application fee. A few days later the agent reached out and said quote, «My colleague (cc’d) just pointed out to me that you listed having a pet. I do not recall you mentioning this when you reached out to me initially but I know for sure the owner will not budge on not having pets permanently living in the home.» This was of course upsetting, not only because we’d mentioned the pets in our initial communication and at the viewing, but because we had just each paid $ 35 for the application and now we’re being told that pets aren’t acceptable. At this point the agent said he was going on vacation and turned our application over to an agent we had never met or worked with previously. The new agent emailed and asked that we send references for the dogs and he’d check with the owner. We did this promptly and waited for an answer.
A few days later we received an email saying the owner had denied our application because she did not want dogs in the home. Again, we felt as if we had been misled and jerked around. If it would have been a simple issue of not allowing or allowing pets with approval that is fine, but we were never told that. We were told that pets were okay, then they weren’t okay, then they might be okay — and currently the agent is standing with his assertion that pets are a case by case approval. All of this after strongly encouraging us to apply and then taking our money. I have asked for a refund to be given of our $ 35 but that has been denied. The agent disagrees that they ever miscommunicated and refuses to take responsibility.

I was invited to view a house this weekend. Ben Rieling (of Nomadic Real Estate) did not show up or communicate at all to let me (or the other party there) know he would be late/​absent. After reading the other reviews (including the ones that are hidden), I think I will abstain from doing business with Nomadic Real Estate in the future.

Since writing the last review, I would have to say Nomadic’s customer service towards us as tenants has significantly improved! Ray, our new contact, has been extremely responsive, polite, and helpful in regards to maintenance requests and other administrative issues — thus keeping our stress down as tenants. It’s been a really good experience!

I deal with Nomadic on many properties and things always seem to go smoothly. I usually deal with Ray and he is always courteous and more importantly competent. I recommend them highly!

I live in a beautiful Nomadic property in «up and coming» Columbia Heights. Our property managers and the Nomadic staff have always responded promptly to service requests. Really love that they draft the rent right out of my checking account! Would recommend to a friend.

Great location and price… However, the customer service and promptness of the landlords have been extremely awful.
–We have caught over 12 mice and called our landlord about it. It took a few times before somebody came out.
— The main office seldom answers their phone.

Currently renting an apartment through Nomadic. My property manager has been friendly and is helpful with other situations but there have been several issues (more than one would expect) since moving in not even a month ago. My biggest issue with Nomadic was that when shown the place, I was told a parking spot was included with the place. This was not true and other than blaming the agent showing the place, the company did nothing to help the situation even though it was a big reason that I got the place. Overall, no other major issues so far.

This guys have been great, very responsive with emergencies, easy to work with. Have been renting through them for almost three years with no complaints!

I have been a tenant in a Nomadic managed property on Capitol Hill since August 1. The condo is in a great location, for a great price, and is in pretty good shape. However, since move-​in (and even before) my roommates and I have had several frustrating incidents with Nomadic. Some of the problems have been beyond Nomadic’s control – for example the owner canceling maintenance and repairs that the company scheduled – but all incidents have been exacerbated due to poor communication from the management company. When a problem arises, my roommates and I rarely, if ever, receive a follow up email, unless we contact the company. Even when Nomadic and/​or our property manager informs us they are going to do something – pick something up at this date and time, drop by the apartment to check the locks – it never happens.
Please see below for specifics.
1) Failing to show up when showing the apartment. On three separate occasions, one of my current roommates showed up to see the condo at a time and date determined, and the agent never showed up as scheduled. At the time, we considered forgoing the condo, purely due to this disrespectful treatment. However, we were looking for a three bedroom, and those can be hard to come by in the DC housing market.
2) Failing to ensure that all keys to the unit worked, leading to a lockout late on a weekend night. I will take partial blame for this, as we should have insisted on testing the locks during our initial walk through. HOWEVER, what was particularly frustrating about this situation was lack of communication. It happened on the weekend, and Ben/​Joseph dealt with it, but failed to inform our property manager John of the issue. When I emailed John on Wednesday following the incident (which has taken place on a Saturday night), he has no knowledge of what had happened.
3) Losing my direct deposit form that included my routing number and bank account number. I had emailed it as requested to my property manager. However, they «lost» the email as some point. This situation was eventually worked out. However, I would expect a higher level of professionalism with a company that has such personal information.

I had a HORRIBLE experience with Nomadic Property Management Company this year. Nomadic’s slogan is «peace of mind.» They do not live up to this and dealing with them is very stressful.
I’ve used Nomadic for three years — the first year for property management services, the second year for finding a tenant and property management services and this year also for finding a tenant. Part of the reason I used Nomadic is that you are able to show your apt and if you locate your own tenant, they do not charge you a month’s rent. This year, Nomadic recommended I allow the current tenants to get out of their lease a month early. Joe recommended this because he said it would be a better time to find a tenant. I agreed, but wanted to make sure the tenants kept my apt nice so it would be easy to rent. Mary Kathryn said she did an inspection and did not find damage. So, I agreed to let the tenants break the lease and the apt. was advertised in July. Joe recommended the listing price. I agreed to his recommendation. I then also advertised the apt. I did a showing in mid-​August and discovered how dirty and cramped the apt. looked. I was upset because it is very difficult to rent an apt. that does not look nice. I followed up with Nomadic. I think Nomadic may have also shown the apt. one time between July and August. I did more research on my own and discovered the market had changed so I agreed to lower the price a little. I also asked the property manager (Mary Kathryn) about a make-​ready, underscoring that work would need to be done quickly, given the apt’s condition. Mary Kathryn told me not to worry and that make readys could be done in one day. I responded that was great because I was really busy and would not have time to do the work. So, I waited until the tenants moved out. Then, I wanted to go forward with painting and repairing the apt. It took several days for Mary Kathryn to get me initial quotes. I tentatively agreed, but noted that she needed to complete the move-​out inspection before the work could be done — I needed documentation showing what damage the tenants did before fixing it. Mary Kathryn took about 10 days to do the move-​out inspection. During that time, I decided I could not rely on Nomadic nor wait for them to arrange for someone to do the work, so I did everything myself. Exactly what I did not have time to do. Then, I asked about returning the security deposit. I was confused and thought I had to return the funds to the tenant. I asked Mary Kathryn and Ben and they gave me that address to mail a $ 2000 check to. I double checked my records and discovered that the funds were in Nomadic’s escrow account, not my own. Nomadic should have told me this, instead of sending me an address to mail a check! Then, it took them close to the full 45 days to return the deposit to the tenants. They did not return the funds for the damage to me until I followed up. At least they did wire me the money when I called them out on it. Finally, when I fired them, they asked to keep my business by providing mgmt services for 6%/mo and charging me 50% for finding a tenant. This was a horrible offer, as I already paid 6% (not 8%) and found that prospective tenant myself — so again, they were trying to charge me an extra 50% as I was the person who found that tenant for myself!!! I would definitely not do business with Nomadic, nor recommend them to anyone.

John Brathwaite is my property manager at Nomadic Real Estate. Since he took over my properties everything has been going excellent. He responds quickly to emails, finds information out for me, and makes sure the items that need to be handled at my homes are taken care of. I am sure the tenants appreciate him as well. Thank you for all of your help and assistance.

Worst renting experience I’ve ever had.
Nothing wrong with our property upon move-​out – no ostensible damage done to walls whatsoever, and Ben and Joseph Reiling used hundreds of dollars of our deposit to repaint the entire house. That is a remodeling repair, not a repair of damages.
They held our deposit until the last possible day, were unresponsive until I called multiple times, and were withholding about information.
They also didn’t have us paying the water bill (or the previous tenant hadn’t switched it from his name – either way, we weren’t getting invoices) for 11 months, and then had to pay out of pocket $ 500.
Poorly, poorly, poorly-​run business with awful individuals – just notably bad people – running it.
The ratings speak for themselves.

$ 1350/​mo fully furnished English basement apartment on 6^th and H, Capitol Hill.
Short version:
misleading photos,
filthy,
no thermostat,
no lock on front door,
burned out lightbulbs,
cat hair and urine stains,
tons of «showings» beginning 6 weeks before my move-​out date,
Had to call the DC Housing Authority to get back my deposit.
Owners and renters are both underserved by this company.
Advice to renters: read up on DC tenant laws and VIDEO RECORD the move-​in condition!
Long Version:
I was living in Seattle and had 2 weeks to find a fully furnished apartment in DC with no time to fly out for a walk-​thru prior to move in. I was leery, but the photos were nice and it was a fair price for the location and within walking distance of my office.
Sadly, the property photos posted online were completely misleading. I video recorded the move-​in condition but am unable to upload video to Unilocal,so I attached some of the stills I captured of random surprises found later on. These may seem trivial to some, but the presence of urine stains, cat hair, and trash under and around the bed mean the unit was not actually cleaned. So just think of the stuff you CAN’T see.
The unit was filthy upon move-​in, with dead insects in every room, MASSIVE stains all over the torn up piecemeal carpet, and filthy broken windows. Yes, there was actually packing tape holding the windows together! The previous tenant had a cat, apparently, as there was fur all over the place. The couch had stains and cigarette burns, but, like the carpet stains, these were nicely hidden with carefully placed décor.
As if that was not bad enough, the unit did not have a separate thermostat! Nomadic insisted they were unaware the unit did not have a separate thermostat and suggested I ask the upstairs tenants to crank the heat. Interestingly, however, there was a small space heater in the unit when I arrived: right next to the bed. Ben came over and realized I would catch pneumonia if not frostbite without my own heating unit, so they ordered a larger space heater for me. It took two weeks to arrive and promptly broke a couple weeks later. They never even offered to replace it.
The dishwasher broke the second week, which led me to notice chunks of wet newspaper and broken glass stuck in the bottom of dishwasher — not my doing.
After a month of living there, and only because of a severe wind storm, I realized the front door did not actually lock! it kept blowing open during the storm! That entire time, I — a solo young female — was living and sleeping without a locking door! In DC! The «screen door» locked, but it was only bars (no screen or glass) which were far enough apart for anyone to reach their hand through to unlock from the inside, especially after just opening the non-​locking front door (see photos)! What a mess.
Open houses and «showings» started! 6 weeks prior to my move-​out date. They were literally every other day AND NIGHT!!! One night the leasing agent showed up ten minutes late and then left after a few minutes, assuming the potential renter was a no-​show. Nope! The appointment knocked on my door a few minutes later expecting me to let him come in to take a look around.
To top it off, like everyone else, I had to call/​email numerous times to get my deposit back. I finally called the DC housing authority who informed me they have a first-​name relationship with Nomadic’s owners because they have a habit of not following the deposit return timeline. Once I emailed the owners directly, my deposit was returned in full. I am certain the only reasons I was fully refunded are 1) I let them know upon move-​in that I video recorded the move-​in condition; and 2) I indicated in my final email that I was well versed in DC tenant laws which require a full refund after 40 days.
The one redeeming quality about this place is that they were quick to respond to each issue while I lived there, and the woman who handles the office line is super kind.
Advice to Nomadic: 1) hire a new cleaning company that actually cleans and sanitizes. 2) do your homeowners a favor and tell them to replace carpet with laminate so renters don’t ruin the flooring, as carpet is gross and needs to be replaced at each new lease. 3) don’t allow pets if you can’t get the place hypoallergenic afterwards. 4) be upfront and tell tenants the true condition. Or save yourselves a ton of bad reviews and just tell the owners to fix stuff! They’ll get more money out of their rentals.

Rented a house for a year. No major issues

I am currently a tenant of Nomadic. They were very accommodating when it came to viewing the unit when I was in from out of town and have been responsive about any issues with my place ever since. The owner decided to raise my rent by $ 200, and since my unit is exempt from rent control, that is their right. I decided to look for a new place (since that’s a little ridiculous) and Nomadic has been extremely helpful going so far as to let me out of my lease early– and I’m not even moving into one of their other units. If you look at my review history, you will see that I’m a pretty tough customer. I see a lot of negative posts on this site and the only thing I can think of is that people with bad experiences have been inspired to review and the majority with good experiences just haven’t bothered. I would absolutely rent with Nomadic again and recommend them to owners and tenants.

I lived in a house managed by Nomadic a few years back and when I went to the open house for the first time, there were about 40 people applying. I got discouraged and left without filling out an application, but Ben followed up with me asking if I wanted to apply, and Lo and Behold we ended up getting the house!
Everytime we had an issue, the guys at Nomadic were quick to fix it. I think we had our AC or heat break in the dead of winter or summer and they had it back up the next day.
I miss the amenities they offered like direct deposit — my current LL takes our checks and deposits them whenever he wants and it’s always screwing up my accounts.
These are good guys and are very easy to deal with. Straight forward, no BS, didnt bother us about anything and were quick to respnd when there were issues. I’d use them again in a heartbeat.

Update re: security deposit
We finally received our security deposit today fifty-​five days after our move-​out date. Until we threatened to take them to small claims, there was no action to return the check from the management office. We had to initiate contact on day 45, and it took another email and ten days for them to actually mail our security deposit.
This is part of the code that we cited:
MD Code, Real Property, § 8−203(e) states in part:
(e)(1) Within 45 days after the end of the tenancy, the landlord shall return the security deposit to the tenant together with simple interest which has accrued in the amount of 3 percent per annum, less any damages rightfully
(e)(4) If the landlord, without a reasonable basis, fails to return any part of the security deposit, plus accrued interest, within 45 days after the termination of the tenancy, the tenant has an action of up to threefold of the withheld amount, plus reasonable attorney’s fees.
Additionally, MD Code, Real Property, 8−203(g)(1) requires a written list of damages with a statement of loss actually incurred, provided by first-​class mail, within 45 days after termination of the tenancy.
Nomadic disregarded the 3% accrued interest and returned only the original security deposit amount, but at this point it’s not worth fighting with these amateurs. It’s obvious that the office has no clue about landlord/​tenant law or just doesn’t care; be aware of your rights!

I’ll keep it short and sweet:
I was a tenant in a nomadic managed home for over 2 years. The owners may be nice people, but they run their business poorly.
Timely maintenance is non-​existent. Communication with the management office is difficult because of the high rate of staff turnover. I gave up trying to contact the revolving door of property managers. The only constant contact is Ben, the COO.
The leasing staff is rude. They don’t always give a 24 hour notice prior to showing the home. They track dirt in, leave lights on ect. They also schedule at least 4 walk-​throughs a week with no thought to the current tenant’s schedules.
Be sure to document all communications with the company. Make an EXHAUSTIVE inventory of any and all damages to the home at move-​in. If you don’t, you will likely be charged for little things.
Return of deposit had to be negotiated through several lengthy emails. I finally received a portion well after the 45 day requirement.
I also feel they didn’t adequately represent the home and known issues prior to signing a lease.
We also had some rodent issues. The management DID take action swiftly on that front. They had it resolved quickly so that was good.
Basically I only stayed because the rent was cheap.
I can’t recommend leasing a home managed by Nomadic.