Thanksgiving of 2022 we rented from Brinkley Beach Realty. The heat did not work in the lower section of the house the entire week. First night the rooms were in the forties. We had no internet or TV all week. Could not watch the Macys parade or football. ABSOLUTELY no help from the realty company. Nothing they could do. The owners were not answering their phone. They have ignored all of my messages since Thanksgiving. I received one reply initially saying they were sorry that they did not live up to my expectations. We have been renting in the banks for over 30 years and I never had issues like this. Twiddy and Southern Shores have always taken care of us.

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Rob, So sorry to hear this. We use Brindley as our PM. Have used Twiddy and Carolina Designs in the past, and have moved on from them, for various reasons.
You should definitely have received better service, and a compensation for the lack of heat and TV, if those problems could not be resolved.
PM’s usually have at least $500. in escrow that they can use, without the owner’s permission, to fix things.
I don’t know why this wasn’t put into play.

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I was finding it a little hard to believe that all that went wrong during one trip, then I read some of the 175 reviews on YELP.
It's hard to argue with a 1.5 rating.

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Rob, So sorry to hear this. We use Brindley as our PM. Have used Twiddy and Carolina Designs in the past, and have moved on from them, for various reasons.
You should definitely have received better service, and a compensation for the lack of heat and TV, if those problems could not be resolved.
PM’s usually have at least $500. in escrow that they can use, without the owner’s permission, to fix things.
I don’t know why this wasn’t put into play.

I use Brindley as my PM as well and surprised to hear you were treated this way. As fort he Yelp ratings, every OBX rental company on there is rated about the same. The highest is Twiddy as 2.5.

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Did they not at least send a maintenance person out to assess? If internet and television was also not working, it's possible the internet issue caused a system issue with the heat. That's usually a quick fix.

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"As fort he Yelp ratings, every OBX rental company on there is rated about the same. The highest is Twiddy as 2.5."

So that makes a 1.5 acceptable? Nah, it takes a lot of 1's to get down to a 1.5 average when you're dealing with 175 reviews..

Ocracoke Island Realty has a 2.5 also fwiw.

Funny thing about yelp. Looking at the OIR rating, it is based on 15 reviews.

BUT, HOWEVER... reading the fine print.

"12 reviews for Ocracoke Island Realty that are not currently recommended
Note: The reviews below are not factored into the business's overall star rating."

So there are 12 reviews that are not counted => 1 with one star and 11 with 5 STARS.

What's up with that nonsense?

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Rob, So sorry to hear this. We use Brindley as our PM. Have used Twiddy and Carolina Designs in the past, and have moved on from them, for various reasons.
You should definitely have received better service, and a compensation for the lack of heat and TV, if those problems could not be resolved.
PM’s usually have at least $500. in escrow that they can use, without the owner’s permission, to fix things.
I don’t know why this wasn’t put into play.

I am not sure your facts are correct. To say a PM has $500 in escrow is not true these days since you don't normally pay a security deposit which is held in an escrow trust account. If there were money in escrow it would be a violation of law if it were given away without owner permission - in writing. Many agents and PM's have lost a license for doing wrong things with escrow money.

What happens today is the rent money is collected by the PM and it is paid in full before the rental occurs. That rental money is sent to the owner minus the commission charged by the PM, so the PM never has any of the owners money to give away and by law they can't. They can give you all the money the PM has, but the PM's probably don't like to do that too often. The PM is an agent of the owner and they must follow some rules.

I have to wonder if there is more to this story - hard for me to believe no heat for a week.

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I'm curious as to why you're posting this now, almost six months later??

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I'm curious as to why you're posting this now, almost six months later??

Yeah, sounds like Bullsh1t to me.

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Sounds to me like the OP didn't want to flame anyone until certain that no refund was on the way.

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Brindley Beach has been our PM for years. 5-6 years ago we were notified A/C was out in the summer, R A Hoy was notified as our service tech, entire system replaced within 2 days. Nothing but good opinions of their Kitty Hawk location, sorry for your experience.....I will add that May-Sept when we rent I am looking to see if work orders are posted on a regular basis,and see techs dispatched quickly when problems are reported

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"As fort he Yelp ratings, every OBX rental company on there is rated about the same. The highest is Twiddy as 2.5."

So that makes a 1.5 acceptable? Nah, it takes a lot of 1's to get down to a 1.5 average when you're dealing with 175 reviews..

Ocracoke Island Realty has a 2.5 also fwiw.

Funny thing about yelp. Looking at the OIR rating, it is based on 15 reviews.

BUT, HOWEVER... reading the fine print.

"12 reviews for Ocracoke Island Realty that are not currently recommended
Note: The reviews below are not factored into the business's overall star rating."

So there are 12 reviews that are not counted => 1 with one star and 11 with 5 STARS.

What's up with that nonsense?

People are more likely to leave a negative review after a bad experience then they are after a positive one. That's just how we're wired for some reason and your example of 1.5 stars out of 175 reviews proves that point. Brindley manages something like 600 houses. If everyone was to write a review after staying at one of their homes they would have a lot more than 175 reviews and one could assume a higher "star" rating.

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"As fort he Yelp ratings, every OBX rental company on there is rated about the same. The highest is Twiddy as 2.5."

So that makes a 1.5 acceptable? Nah, it takes a lot of 1's to get down to a 1.5 average when you're dealing with 175 reviews..

Ocracoke Island Realty has a 2.5 also fwiw.

Funny thing about yelp. Looking at the OIR rating, it is based on 15 reviews.

BUT, HOWEVER... reading the fine print.

"12 reviews for Ocracoke Island Realty that are not currently recommended
Note: The reviews below are not factored into the business's overall star rating."

So there are 12 reviews that are not counted => 1 with one star and 11 with 5 STARS.

What's up with that nonsense?

Not saying a 1.5 is acceptable, just pointing out that there are no 4 or 5 star ratings. As another poster said, guests tend to give reviews only if the are negative.

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Thanksgiving of 2022 we rented from Brinkley Beach Realty. The heat did not work in the lower section of the house the entire week. First night the rooms were in the forties. We had no internet or TV all week. Could not watch the Macys parade or football. ABSOLUTELY no help from the realty company. Nothing they could do. The owners were not answering their phone. They have ignored all of my messages since Thanksgiving. I received one reply initially saying they were sorry that they did not live up to my expectations. We have been renting in the banks for over 30 years and I never had issues like this. Twiddy and Southern Shores have always taken care of us.

Thats nothing.... 28 years ago in Duck.... Carloline Designs

Sound Front home rental for a week. We lasted 3.5 days. Pool had a major leak only being kept full by the garden house running wide open. AC did work, we were told to open the windows. No screens on the windows (lots of bugs). We were told this was a pet free home, wife is allergic to cats. Turns out owner had 3 cats as pets that lived in the first floor owners rooms. Washer hose broke on day 2 while we were at the beach (it was not being used). Came back to two inches of water on the first floor. Realtor sent over a cleaning crew to clean up the water, they were there for 6 hours. About those cats.... I noticed some bits on my legs..... then I noticed some tiny black specs on the floor of the bathroom jumping around. Turns out the whole house was infested with fleas. Myself, wife and 1 yo old had flea bits. Realtor offered to put us up at a hotel for one night until they get fumigate the house. I said are your freaking kidding me? We ask for a full refund and then said no. We packed up and left at 9pm, drive thru the night with a crying 1 yo old. Our clothes and van had fleas everywhere. Nothing like stripping naked and leaving all of your belongings on your driveway at 4am and cleaning up outside because you don't want to bring the fleas into your house. I spent that day taking our clothes to the laundry mat, had to get the car fumigated.......

My wife wrote a long very elegant letter to CD..... we got our full amount on the rental back

THAT was the worst vacation rental

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Pet free home means guests can't bring pets (service dogs not included). It doesn't ever mean none have been there, brought by guests, or living there with a winter renter or the owner in the off season.

That's why the rental agreements usually have a paragraph to that effect, buried somewhere. Renters often miss it. If anyone gets caught without their prescription meds in that scenario, the local pharmacies are quite good at filling those vacation Rxs.

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Most of the staff was probably off for the holiday. Bad timing for things to break - no one around to fix them and no place open to buy parts.

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Rob, So sorry to hear this. We use Brindley as our PM. Have used Twiddy and Carolina Designs in the past, and have moved on from them, for various reasons.
You should definitely have received better service, and a compensation for the lack of heat and TV, if those problems could not be resolved.
PM’s usually have at least $500. in escrow that they can use, without the owner’s permission, to fix things.
I don’t know why this wasn’t put into play.

I am not sure your facts are correct. To say a PM has $500 in escrow is not true these days since you don't normally pay a security deposit which is held in an escrow trust account. If there were money in escrow it would be a violation of law if it were given away without owner permission - in writing. Many agents and PM's have lost a license for doing wrong things with escrow money.

What happens today is the rent money is collected by the PM and it is paid in full before the rental occurs. That rental money is sent to the owner minus the commission charged by the PM, so the PM never has any of the owners money to give away and by law they can't. They can give you all the money the PM has, but the PM's probably don't like to do that too often. The PM is an agent of the owner and they must follow some rules.

I have to wonder if there is more to this story - hard for me to believe no heat for a week.

Perhaps you misunderstood me, or I was not clear, the PM keeps at minimum a $500.00 balance in the owner’s account to be used for emergency allocation to take care of problems like these. It’s in our contract with the PM which an owner agrees to and signs, so IDK how it can be unlawful.
The PM is not keeping the renter’s funds. At least that’s how it’s worked for the 15 plus years we’ve owned rental properties from 3 different PM companies.

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After 15yrs renting on OBX I think most of the PMs are the same. We showed up to our big house in May 2023 and 2 beds were filled with gobs of black dog hair. But yet the comforters were on as if beds were made? Dirty fridge downstairs, none of the floors seemed vac. Dog hair piles everywhere! Food bits under tables/chairs. Oh but it was really nice to send me the door code 2.5 hr early. We spent that 2 hr cleaning and calling for bedding and then making beds. But then vacation settled in and we still had great week even tho half the hot tub jets not working, oven couldn’t bake anything properly and the grill was soooo bad.

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Perhaps you misunderstood me, or I was not clear, the PM keeps at minimum a $500.00 balance in the owner’s account to be used for emergency allocation to take care of problems like these. It’s in our contract with the PM which an owner agrees to and signs, so IDK how it can be unlawful.
The PM is not keeping the renter’s funds. At least that’s how it’s worked for the 15 plus years we’ve owned rental properties from 3 different PM companies.

You calling that pool of held back money escrow is what I objected to. If it was escrow money there are a boat-load of laws tied to it and giving escrow money to anyone other than the owner is a violation. You are saying your PM holds back some owner money for issues that pop up. This sounds sort of old school and more like the way we did things in the 90's or early 2000's. I'll have to specifically ask tomorrow.

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Worth noting that, except where a provision of the owner's contract is required by law or regulation, the contracts are negotiated, so what's in one owner's contract with the PM as agent is not necessarily in another owner's agreement with the same PM

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It would be best to know the property name/number. That way others can avoid the situation, since the owners did nothing.

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Not feeling this as an authentic complaint.

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Seems odd the OP hasn't checked back in, I agree.

I have been very happy with Midgett which has largely replaced OBR since Vacasa took them over.

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