Re/Max Benchmark Realty

Helped my mother with renting a home that was managed by Re/​Max Benchmark. Dropped a rent payment in what we thought was a night drop. When we notified the property manager, she was pretty much told she was stupid for having done so. We had dropped payments into the office a few times before that and were never told not to so we assumed it was ok. The response was just so rude. We were also told that we had replaced the recessed lighting with the wrong bulbs when we used the original bulbs as a sample to purchase the new bulbs. Half of the bulbs were not working upon move-​in and we replaced them all since we didn’t want to be petty. There was no real walk-​through at the start of the lease nor were we asked to do a walk-​through upon leaving. There was a very minor carpet damage in the corner of one of the closets and one door had to be replaced when we moved out. There were also a bunch of «miscellaneous» things that ended up costing us nearly $ 1000 of our security deposit. It wasn’t a great experience overall.

these people are crooks. I had to file with state against them.

We use Derek Markovic as our agent. Currently we are renting a house. (Beats apartment renting!) Derek has been nothing but fantastic. After years of apartment living and dealing with shady apartment complex «managers» Derek is a breath of fresh air. He has been easy to work with, he’s reasonable… and he’s a nice guy.
I can’t imagine using any other agent.

I had an absolutely horrible experience with this particular office.
Initially, we had a very sweet, helpful and patient Realtor (not with Re/​Max though) by the name of Candi (her last name escapes me ATM). & she was great!
Candi showed us numerous homes and never complained, and or pressured my wife and I in the least … She was pure gold.
However, once she found us the house we were looking for (later it became apparent that the house had many hidden problems though) we were immediately turned over to a Michele Brown (property manager) representing this office.
Our first impression was not a good one at all, not in the least.
Michele brought a contract over to the residence for us to sign, yet she neglected to include a very important document that would insure Candi was paid her % for showing us the home, etc…
She then told Candi that my wife and I simply did not sign the papers, and that she would «try to get it signed again» … Shocking behavior, to say the least.
This went on for several weeks until I had had enough and stopped by the office to sign the papers so that this poor woman could be paid!
As time went on we noticed that if anything went wrong they would initially send a handyman of sorts over to try and conserve money. The problems always seemed to be too much for this guy though, and they would eventually be forced to send a real repairman over. The problem was that we had to wait much longer for any repairs because of their attempted circumvention of added costs.
I will try and move the story along much more quickly, as there is so much to tell.
A filter under the sink (a filter that we absolutely had no idea existed), popped off from mineral buildup (the well water was very heavily laden with mineral content). The filter was from 2006, and this happened in 2010 … the problem being that the filter was supposed to have been changed every six months (we still have the filter in our possession).
We were on vacation at the time so initially we had no idea exactly what had happened. We walked into a house with ruined floors, damaged furniture, etc… It was a gigantic mess, yet Michele only stalled the situation out (although she eventually admitted that the insurance co. was refusing to cover the damages).
Later, we talked at length with the man that was sent over to «figure out exactly what had happened» for the insurance co. … and he told us as plain as day that the reason they would not cover it was because the owner had left an outdated filter in there for four years of use!
So, there we were. four young children on a severely warped floor (we have numerous photos, video, etc…) AND the air conditioning stopped working for whatever reason (it was the middle of summer). Sadly, to top it off my wife’s Mother came to visit and she was suffering from severe COPD. which, not only prevented her from staying at our house (she was forced to stay in a hotel), but she could not enter the house without difficulty in breathing as it was around 95 degrees in the living room area (which completely ruined her visit, and she passed away only a few months later BTW).
God, there were so many issues …
Michele also claimed that we stole closet doors, screens from the windows, dug the yard up, and left the place in bad condition.
OK, first of all … the closet door kept falling off the track, and their «handyman» could not seem to fix it … so I put it in the garage with a blanket over it for storage. It was laying against the wall in the garage the day we completed our move out of the residence.
Secondly, I have video and photos that clearly show that only four windows had screens when we moved in.
As far as «digging the yard up» … again, her own people did the damage while looking for the septic tank (our then neighbor, Eva witnessed this).
And lastly, we had several people help us clean up before we completely vacated the premises. I have photos of it and the date is very firmly watermarked into the photos …
Oh man, it’s still amazing to me that she has no problem at all blaming others for things that they’re clearly NOT responsible for.
If anyone is interested in seeing emails, photos, etc. then feel free to contact me through this forum and I’ll be glad to enlighten you as to what a nightmare you could be running into by going through Michele to rent a home.

BEWARE!!! We paid nearly $ 2500 per month and were treated as follows:
In my opinion, Michele Brown also of «The Home Shop» is the most dishonest Property Manager I have ever had to deal with. She rented me a house that flooded due to owner negligence, which she failed to have repaired in a timely manner. We lived for MONTHS waiting for repairs to happen, only to be strung along until we were finally told that they would have to tear up the wood floors in every room while we were living there. They refused to put us in a hotel with our 4 children, (including toddlers and babies) for a week even after the hell we had been living in up until that point.
My dying mother was not able to visit because Michele Brown would not fix the air conditioning or the floors as promised.
She kept promising to fix a refrigerator that ruined hundreds of dollars of our groceries. She lied and said that her repair people couldn’t get a hold of us, but when we called them, we were told that she was lying, she had never asked for repairs to be made.
The house had the smell of sewage so bad we could barely stand to be in the house. As it turned out, the septic tank had not been cleaned in about a decade and no one even knew where it was! They dug up the yard trying to find it, then charged the yard damage to us after we moved out.
She made up phony charges so she could keep the whole deposit. For example, the closet door was on sliders, the neglected to fix it and kept falling and fell on my daughter so we removed it and put it wrapped in a blanket in the garage. She lied and said we stole it. The windows had no screens when we moved in and she claimed that we took those. The house was completely spotless and beautiful when we left it, so she had to make things up.
There are more issues. If you are looking for a home, PLEASE DO NOT allow Michele Brown to ruin your life as she did ours.

Hire Heidi Winston as your Realtor and you will be 100% satisfied. She goes above and beyond the call of duty time and time again. Her knowledge of the market is second to none. She has an uncanny ability to figure out exactly what you are looking for. Her professionalism is unmatched. Even her assistant, Kat, is super.
The offices here are new and clean. All the staff I’ve encountered have been great.
In case it isn’t clear, give Heidi a call and thank me later!

I have edited this review due to threats of legal action. This is the Email that I was sent.
«I have always been professional with you and your family. I always made time to show you homes. I was shocked to see your posting since I actually liked you and your family. I am able to dispute your claims that I did anything improper or unethical. Your posting is not only unfair and inaccurate but false and slanderous. I don’t know what caused you to post those statements but it can directly affect my ability to earn a living and harm my family. All I ask is that you delete it and we all move on with our lives.
I have RE/​MAX legal counseling me in regards to your slanderous and false statements you posted 8÷22÷2011 on
. I was advised to try 3 times to make contact with you before they will move any further. This is my last request that you just delete the post. Should it not be removed by 11/​01/​2011 I will let our attorney move ahead with next step with the legal process.»
Everything with a * is an edit due to the preceding.
We started our home search with Micheal Ray, of ReMax. He sent me to his preferred lender, who was either an idiot, or a con-​artist. Being that he has an M.A. I’m thinking it is the latter. (*The lender told me of conversations that he and Micheal had in which they both agreed that I am stupid). Micheal also was showing me comparable’s that were not comparable to the properties that we were looking at (*He said that he had to pull comps within a mile, my current experience with an agent has taught me this is not true). He went so far as to include homes in gated communities in Summerlin, when we were offering on a home in Spring Valley, to try and convince us to offer more (*I can not prove his intent, but it is the conclusion I drew). Obviously he would happily see us pay $ 10,000.00 more than a home is worth so that he could make an extra $ 600.00 (* Mr. Ray corrected me on this, it would have been $ 250.00) in commissions (*This too is my opinion). He is very personable, and it is hard to see through!
* It is also true that Micheal did make time to show us homes on short notice, and was good about that. That’s the nicest I can get about him though.

I do not recommend this agency, real estate Jan Fowler or her broker Cameron Yates-​DeAngelo. In May, 2007, I purchased a home from her, and asked her to fix a few things prior to purchase. One of them was a thermostat on the pool and spa. During the walk-​through, rather than keep her from her dinner for three hours while we tested the thermostat, I just asked her if she had it repaired. She said that she did. A few months later, when I attempted to use the spa for the first time, I noticed that the thermostat was not repaired. I asked that she have it repaired, and she and her broker indicated that they were not obligated to do so. Moreover, she indicated that she had it professionally repaired, but could not recall the company name, locate an invoice or any record of payment to said repair company. I am sure that there are honorable real estate agents in Las Vegas, but this agent is not one of them.