SVN Real Estate Associates

SVN helped me tremendously, not only did they help me get into a place that was lovely, but they also were super patient with me during my 2 years at my rental. Adrian helped me get into a house, then Jim and Jasmine helped me during my stay. Just wanted to say Thank You to all of you at SVN!

Tiffany manages our commercial property and has been an asset to our property management needs from day 1. She has always been responsive, helpful, and on top of things to keep our property going. She advises for budgets, puts forth recommendations, and is honest about when/if assessments need to happen. She inherited a mess, and has done a brilliant job of working to get us back up to speed. Her diligence is amazing as she knows the industry and who to contact for bids, and negotiates the best deal for us. She handles all issues so that we are truly hands off. It’s great to have an advocate on our behalf managing our property for us so we can work on other aspects of our business.

SVN and in particular, Jaime Morris, has gone above and beyond any of our expectations in managing our property. Jaime has always been very knowledgeable, attentive and prompt almost to within minutes and has handled every aspect of management for us including filing reports and giving DETAILED accounting. We would never use anyone else to stand up and represent us!

We are students from UNC who received this house from SVN. We bought the furniture from the previous girls and they painted the walls a new color for us- this was the last thing they ever did that worked in our favor. First of all, we lived in the house for 2 years (we were very kind, clean, and low-maintenance tenants. especially for college students). One year through our lease, SVN lost our lease for the 2nd year. They genuinely tried to tell us that we did not have a lease signed and gaslit us when we said that we had signed copies for a 2nd year. Eventually they found our lease and apologized for causing a huge panic a week before we were “supposed” to move out. A similar thing happened 3 months before we moved out. They texted us asking if we planned to move out in May. We quickly responded and said yes. Then, after saying “awesome!” the proceeded to email us informing us thar we had to pay rent until October (5 extra months) of rent because we did not give them a 6 month notice. We had, because we had put them in contact with the next tenants. We had contacted them multiple times about these tenants and had received NO response until they attempted to squeeze more money out of us. Secondly, we had a serious black mold problem in our bathroom. The bathrooms had no ventilation which was “grandfathered in” which I do understand. But when we had repeatedly complained about the mold they sent seemingly young boys (whose dad had dropped them off) to paint over the mold. The manager had appeared uncomfortable when he showed up and saw the situation. The black mold did reappear a couple weeks later. Thirdly- and the most frustrating moment. We had gone out of our way to arrange the purchase of our furniture for the next tenants. When the house was given to us the house was FULL of furniture we did not buy- stuff in the unfinished basement that had clearly been there for years. But okay- we did purchase this. understood. However, when we tried to sell a clearly defined list of furniture to our next tenants, SVN said it was completely unacceptable due to a new clause they added in 2023. This included the washing machines (which we had to buy brand new and many companies refused to install because the unfinished basement was so treacherous) and the window AC units (which came duct taped into our windows which are painted shut and do not open or close). So naturally we called them and they explained. It took us weeks to get in contact with a single member who worked there (email or phone). Finally we managed to track down the landlord and talk to him about our situation. He called SVN and told them this was ridiculous. We thanked him because he was a very kind a rational man. However, we called multiple days in a row to check on the situation- and when someone finally replied, they hesitantly told us that they would make an exception. So after our landlord called them and advocated for us, we still had to beg SVN to update us on the situation. In whole, SVN is a horribly disorganized company. You will never know who works there and who you can talk to about any situation. If they answer, consider yourself lucky. If you are a student- make sure your parents can fight for you since this company has a clear disrespect for anyone under the age of 40.

I am counting the days until I can leave this townhouse. I moved in at the end of July ‘23 and have had problems with the HVAC from the day I moved in and while the maintenance team has been responsive, putting temporary fixes to larger issues is not a long term solution. There are no windows on the first floor, only sliding glass doors, but due to issues with two sets of those doors, I am not able to open the doors on cooler/warmer days so as to not use the HVAC as much to help balance the cost to run the HVAC. A problem I reported the week I moved in. When I do use the ac or heat, it is for the lowest possible temp to keep the home bearable and I have spent hundreds on fire wood to supplement the crappy system. I have spent a lot of summers without AC in a hot country, I am not blasting it to make the home an ice box. But still my bill quadruples on the days I turn it on and in the winter I have to rely on space heaters and fires or my bill would be over $300 a month. I renewed after going into the office to discuss the sliding doors and window screens I had reported A YEAR prior had still not been fixed. Because I am a single mom and could not really afford to move at the time, I believed the portfolio manager I spoke to who promised the doors would be taken care of and to give her a chance to make sure it was handled. That was over 5 months ago and neither set of doors has been replaced. The portfolio manager seems to have washed her hands of it and told me when I reached out after the 60 days she asked me to give them, that maintenance issues aren’t her responsibility. And maintenance just keeps telling me they will get an update and nothing happens. The maintenance team was aware for 3 weeks in early November that my heat wasn’t working and no one came to look at it until I submitted a work order. I keep being told “I’ll check with Lowe’s about when they are coming.” But here I sit 18 months after moving in with broken doors, and a heat system that costs $12 a day to run. I have asked in writing on three separate occasions for a rent concession because of the cost to run the broken ineffective HVAC system and my request has not even been acknowledged let alone handled. I have tried to be patient and trust the process, but two months of waiting for my heat to work normally this most recent time and 5 months to have doors replaced to keep in the heat that I pay so much for is ridiculous. If I could give zero stars I would because I would never recommend this home or this management company.