TJ Harrington

TJ Harrington Integrity Property Management; Success Track Marketing Out of town investors beware! Rochester, New York

6th of Mar, 2011 by User184774

In 2008 we purchased 2 investment properties, site unseen from TJ Harrington and whatever the name of of his company was at that time. We were out-of-state investors and had read about how Rochester, NY properties were one of the best in the country for positive cashflow. We spent hours on the phone with TJ and he claimed to be a "Christian" man and even a deacon/elder at his local church. BIG Mistake! I could fill a book documenting our issues over the last 3 years with this man and Integrity Property Management. We lived over 2000 miles away and honestly used it as an excuse for years for not firing TJ and Integrity and finding another property manager. For the first couple of years, we never got paid our rent proceeds in a timely manner. On 3 separate occasions we were told Integrity was updating the software. These were the excuses used for hard to read statements or checks that arrived over a month late at times. As owners of a duplex and a single-family dwelling we were rarely contacted when tenants moved out and NEVER contacted when things needed repair. For a season, the company was run by Aaron Beckler instead of TJ Harrington. At least when Aaron was running things we got our statements every month on the same day and miraculously the software got updated and was user friendly. Most recently TJ Harrington notified us that he was taking back over the day-to-day activities of the company. He goes on and on about how this is what he loves! and even implicated that Aaron Beckler had been running the company into the ground. Unfortunately for us, as soon as TJ is running things we always have problems with our properties. Tenants vacate. All kinds of damage and repairs need to be made AND strangely enough we don't get our statements on the 10th of the month anymore..... In July 2010, surprisingly, TJ contacted us about some major repairs he felt strongly that needed to made at one of our properties. I was so amazed that he called and even sent photos. We spoke on the phone (which I regret now not having the conversation in writing) and I explained to him that our personal financial situation had taken a bad turn and that IF he were to do these "repairs" that we REALLY needed to have $x.xx amount of dollars from rent proceeds so that we could make our mortgage payments for the month. Long story short, he did the repairs anyway and left me in the negative for the month. Due to that set-back we got behind on our mortgages and have not been able to catch up as a result. The real problem/conflict is that he is the property manager AND the contractor on all the repairs. He's making money off you from every angle. $250 for gutter cleaning on a 1000 square foot house I find a bit excessive. His response to my question about the high cost...."I'm sorry, we have a contract with the gutter cleaning company, and that's what they charge." He failed to mention that HE is the gutter cleaning company. He charges his owners over $500 to evict a tenant, when the paperwork to file cost $120 at the most. And that's if you hire someone to serve the papers to the tenant at $50. Being on the verge of foreclosure on our properties now, we decided to terminate our relationship with TJ & Integrity, since we were letting the properties go back to the bank, we didn't see any reason to continue paying fees to TJ. He got very short and even a bit catty with me via email. One of our tenants set a grease fire in the kitchen prior to the end of our 30 day notice with him. He refused to email photos to us, since we were ending our management relationship. He also was being difficult when we asked that someone give our contractor access, saying he would be out of town until after our 30 days was up. I think it very short-sighted of him as a business man to behave the way he has. Why wouldn't you want to be as helpful and accommodating up until the end?? I have the power to refer people to him OR NOT. Our 30 days notice to terminate agreement has now passed. I still have no rental report for January 2011 (and it's March 7th). Integrity continues to post bills onto my account and I have no idea if any of my tenants have even paid rent in 3 months?? Connie Harrington (who does the books) has not returned any of my 3 phone calls and neither TJ nor Connie have returned my last 2 email requests. Do yourself a favor and don't buy property out of town unless you see the property first AND personally meet your property managers. Better yet, get a referral. They're hard to come by because there are so many bad property management companies out there. We feel fleeced by TJ Harrington & Integrity Property Management. His communication is poor and his service level sub-par. If he's not making money off you anymore be prepared for him to be less than professional.

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