My story begins with a new job that required me to relocate. This move wasn’t terribly far, but it was across the DC metro area…far enough time was that it wasn’t commutable. With all the excitement and the seemingly never-ending list of things to do while taking on a new position for a new company, finding and purchasing a new home, moving, and working long hours to wrap up everything for my previous employer I really thought that hiring a property management company to handle renting out my first home would be the least troublesome area. I was wrong.
I found Kennedy Hunter’s company, All About Real Estate, LLC., with a quick search on Thumbtack. I had no real idea how to find a property manager, but sites like this have treated me well as far as tradesmen had gone, so I was hoping for the same luck here. She only had a single review on this site and it was a 5-star stating that this individual had their home rented out in only 10 days. Awesome. I was a bit suspect about a person who had been in this industry for supposedly 15+ years yet had only a single review, but perhaps they were simply new to Thumbtack. Gotta start somewhere.
Needless to say the information Kennedy sent me about AARE’s services was exactly what I was looking for. Not only that, but she was extremely prompt and receptive to my requests. I decided to give her a shot even though I had apprehensions. I didn’t find much negative information on her company, though there was a huge lack of much on the positive side either. This was my big mistake. The positive interactions stopped here. As soon as I signed the contract and she left my home is when she pretty much disappeared.
I hired AARE and signed the contract approximately 1 month prior to moving out of my home. I ensured that Kennedy understood that I was extremely flexible and wanted to have someone rent my home as soon as possible after moving out. I worked from home and could leave the house in with 5 minutes notice…no big deal. I’m extremely clean etc etc…showing the house at a moments notice was not an issue. In order to capitalize on the upcoming long holiday weekend I even worked out a way to move out 2 weeks prior to ensure my home would be move-in-ready during that weekend as Kennedy recommended.
After complaining about the house not bring listed anywhere via email, phone, and text for a week someone from AARE finally responded to let me know that Kennedy was on vacation and they were waiting on her to return in order to list my property. Ok. Somewhat understandable, but I was told it’d be listed the next day. So someone finally decided to list it on a bunch of random websites, none of which were MLS. Perhaps trying to cut costs or something, I don’t know (later I discovered that no one I interacted with is a licensed real estate agent…that’s why). Finally, the house is “available,” only the entire listing is completely f**ked up. The pictures were horribly pixelated, the county was wrong, the city was wrong, the checkboxes about the house were wrong. It was just FUBAR’d. This was fixed a few days later when they figured out how to do what seemed like their job. Next problem…
In order to make things happen quickly, obviously Kennedy (or someone at AARE) needed a key to my home. I emailed and called a few times each week until the the day I moved out trying to get someone to come by and pick up a key. Or tell me where to mail it to. Something. Anything. All the while, the few emails I received from Kennedy said that she was showing my house during the upcoming weekend and she would give me times that I’d need to leave the house…then she’d become completely unresponsive. Nothing. The indicated time would come and go, we didn’t bother to leave the house because we knew it wasn’t even possible to show it because she didn’t have a key. WTF?!?
The day comes for me to move out. I call and email her the day prior to moving out and let her know that this is her last chance to get a key. Surprisingly she responded to let me know that someone would be coming by the next day to grab a key and put it in a lockbox on the door. Finally! At least is *POSSIBLE* for her to show the house….in just under a MONTH after I hired her. Impressive to say the least. But perhaps she was just waiting for us to move out. Maybe.
Nope. Kennedy assured me that a professional home cleaning company would be cleaning my place the next day after I moved out and she would be actively showing it that weekend with 3 confirmed appointments already. Perfect! That was the last time I heard from Kennedy or anyone at AARE. I went to the home myself 2 weeks later to see what was going on for myself. No one had stepped foot in the home. No cleaning was performed. not a thing had changed since we left the house. I sync’d with my Nest thermostat and it let me know that no one had walked by the thermostat since I moved out, confirming my own assessment of the situation. I mowed the grass to avoid penalties from the HOA, which is another thing Kennedy assured me would be done and hadn’t.
At this point, I went home and hired a lawyer to fire he useless a*s. Now 6 weeks after I hired her and she had done nothing to rent out my home. Awesome. The lawyer reviewed my contract and advised me of my options. I asked her to draft an offer letter and offer to buy out the contract for a fair amount of money considering that Kennedy & AARE didn’t do s*. Another 2 weeks went by with no response. I did notice that the AARE websites are no gone and they have been removed from a number of other 3rd party websites including the building management site. Perhaps they are out of business. Perhaps they’re in jail. Who knows…they’re gone without a word none the less. Someone else left a review on another site stating this is what happened with her last company. She just disappeared with all the rent and deposit money (which I confirmed with the Maryland Court System — see that page)…so I figure that’s what happened here.
With the advice of two law firms I’ve moved on. I hired a new management company based on the recommendations of the realtors that helped me purchase my new home. We’re moving on. F* her and her bulls* company.
After such a s*y experience and wanting to do something to prevent her from f*g over other people I put together this website and did all the research that I should have done prior to hiring her. So that’s my story about Kennedy (Kenya) Hunter. Now I’m going to pay $100 to have the organization (NARPM) that enables her to continue to do “business” in Maryland read this site and hopefully do something about her.
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