JMW Group | Windermere Property Management - Seattle, Washington

julie P.

Nicki Callahan - BEWARE!! Requested Banking information over email.
I was in the process of working with Nicki to rent a specific property. After reaching out to view the property, she informed me that there were already other applicants and encouraged me to apply quickly, which I did for a non-refundable $50 fee.
A few days later, she emailed me requesting that my 18-year-old also submit an application, but I missed those messages. She then informed me that she was moving on, which I understood. However, I later received an email from her requesting my banking information—not through a secure link.
At that point, I called her to clarify where I stood in the process, and we also discussed some undisclosed costs. I could immediately sense her agitation during the call, so I told her I needed time to decide whether to proceed. Later, I sent an email asking if requesting banking information via email was standard practice, and her response raised even more concerns (see below).After reading other reviews about her, it all started to make sense.

Nicki's response:
Julie,
Unless your friends and family are seasoned property managers, I'm not sure why you'd turn to them instead of me—given that I was your point of contact and have 15 years of experience in property management and managing over 600 units—for guidance on what’s standard. I do this everyday, all day. Windermere has more than 300 offices and 6,500 agents and has been in business since 1972. I would be the one to ask what was standard. Our call would have been the ideal time to ask these questions, and provide your information then via phone as opposed to email (if that was a concern), rather than waiting until I had to inform you (after extending a second chance) that I needed to move on to the next applicant.
This process has been unnecessarily time-consuming and frustrating. As I mentioned before, we have to move quickly when we have multiple applications on a property, and can't wait around while potential tenants vacillate or explore other properties while we chase them down. You either want it, submit an application and move forward with the lease once approved, or not.
The rental market—especially at this time of year—is extremely competitive for quality properties, and things move fast.
This property has been offered to another applicant, and I have sent them the lease.
Best of luck in your search.
~Nicki

William V.

I have the displeasure of living next to one of their rental properties. Had an issue with one of their contractors cursing at me for not allowing them to use my driveway for moving of garbage and building materials. Contacted Nicki Callahan about the issue and received a half-baked apology and a lecture on “neighbourly cooperation”.

This organization cares about nothing other than their bottom line. I would highly recommend looking elsewhere for your property management and rental needs.

Nadia D.

Absolutely disappointed with Reece Bergau’s service as a property manager. We signed a contract with him 3 months ago to find a tenant for our townhouse in Seattle, and he failed completely. Not a single showing during the entire time. He was not proactive, ignored our requests to lower the price, and lacked any communication or professionalism.

We had to chase him for updates, and his responses were consistently delayed. When the contract expired, he didn’t even reach out to properly close things. Once we took over and showed the property ourselves, we secured 6 showings in less than two weeks.

Reece’s passive and unprofessional approach cost us valuable time and money. I strongly advise against working with him.

Lorenzo D.

Utterly disappointed with their services. I hired them to get my townhome rented in Seattle and in 90 days not even a single showing. I urged Reece to be more aggressive with strategy and pricing and my requests were completely disregarded. When asking for updates, he was dodgy, unprofessional and hard to get a hold of.

Bottom line is at the end of the 90 days I had to get things done myself and I was able to schedule 6 showings in 10 days. I don't know what this guy was wasting time with, but he can't get no job done.

He made me waste 3 months and especially we're now in the slow holiday season, thanks to his incompetence.

AVOID AT ALL COST!

Josh D.

I had an absolutely horrid time renting a home from the JMW group. The home had persistent issues with flooding, sewage backup, and ants. I had black mold and fungus growing in the finished basement, so I could never use it. I lived with these issues for 6 months (of the 8 months I lived there) and was not reimbursed (got a one time $500). On my way out the door they charged me a $200 cleaning fee for a couple hairs on a vent and few crumbs in a cabinet as well as tried charging me for an extra microwave they told me I could give away when I moved in (which I did). I have lived in a lot of places and this is the only one where I had a negative experience. Truly felt like slumlords charging me a lot of money for rent and expecting me to put up with horrendous living conditions without any compensation or support. The one courtesy they did me was letting me leave my lease early. I will never rent a home from them again.

Mitchell W.

Andrea and Breah have been excellent managers for my property. Prompt responses and always actively keeping me informed of what's going on. I actively recommend them to friends and family seeking property management given the importance of their roles in my success as a rental property owner.

Min H.

September 2023
It's been fabulous working with Rebecca in the past five years. We were renting a 1-bedroom condo for about 5 years - maintenance has been always on time. If something isn't worth fixing it, they are happy to change the appliance as needed. The rent was reasonable, it's been only rhe past two years that we've seen the increase in rent due to this crazy inflation (less than 5% of what we've paid in the prev. year + they'll give you a notice way before, like 6 months in advance).

Highly recommending if you're looking for a place to rent - the management has been by far the best one we've worked with in the neighborhood.

Mike S.

If you are an owner, avoid them. I couldn't imagine how they could be doing a worse job.

I use Windermere manage my rental property in Seattle and am completely frustrated with them. They authorized non-permitted construction that was a severe code violation, causing major water damage to my basement - so bad I lost a tenant. I was absolutely clear with them that I wanted all construction permitted (the whole point was to get my basement to be a conforming rental unit). They've refused all responsibility and forced me to burden over $10k in expenses.

My manager will go for months without responding to my requests. For example, in July 2016 I requested to have my sewer lines cleaned as part of maintenance . After sending many emails with no response they were finally cleaned at the end of October.
- Their contract states that they will not ever be liable for any reason. This was their defense for allowing convicted sexual predators with over $50,000 in federal debt plus an eviction to rent my house they couldn’t afford. The said to a judge that these people have excellent history. I only found out of their history after the SECOND time the couple attempted to sue me for Windermeres failure to fix .electrical me other problems
- The couple had an adult child who was a sexual predator move in with no background check
- Their agent committed felonies due to gross negligence
- The owner promised to pay thousands due to prevent me suing, but then failed to pay
- They signed a lease agreement for less than what we agreed on and also didn't put the escalation clause for the second year. This lost me thousands.
- I was billed $700 to clean my roof (a single story very small house)
- I was billed $200 to install a new outdoor outlet (there were 3 already!)
- They refuse to get their work permitted as required and I've been forced to pay to get work up to code

The people are nice and friendly, but nothing can justify the incompetence / negligence.