For many people, Yelp is the go-to online review site for finding a great restaurant or the hottest bar in town. Increasingly, it is also used to find good doctors, lawyers or home service providers.
All of the above searches will have a plethora of 4/5- star reviews and any listing below 4-stars often gets passed over by the most committed Yelp user. After all, why patronize a business that other people don’t love?
Sometimes that is EXACTLY the business you want to hire, especially in residential property management!
Our company Mesa Property Management Inc. (www.mesaproperies.net) currently has a 3.5-star rating on Yelp and trending LOWER. We have either 1-star reviews or 5-star reviews and very few in between. Although we hate to get 1-star reviews the ones we do get are almost always from applicants we have denied.
People turned down on a rental property because of their credit profile or past references are particularly hard to respond to because we cannot disclose any information about our decision online as it would be a violation of the applicant's privacy. It’s like getting sucker punched and not being able to defend yourself.
We all have three basic needs to survive:
- Food
- Clothing
- Shelter
When you deny somebody one of these three basic needs, they will often want to lash out. Yelp is a great place to vent and give only one side of the story.
To get a more complete picture on a potential property management company, go to sites like Google+ & Angie's list. Typically these sites are used more by owners instead of disgruntled applicants and tenants.