Inman Realty was the company that was represented by our property manager who in turn represented the tenants of our house. The tenants believe they are entitled to 100% of their deposit back even though floor damage, badly stained carpet, cracked doors and broken stair banisters are not covered in the normal wear and tear listings and more importantly not covered in the move in sheet. I have been advised by multiple real estate agents and attorneys that the move in sheet is one of the most important pieces to getting resolution and that I have every right to expect these issues to be fixed. The law also states the tenants have a right to dispute each claim.

All good with me until last night. At 2:30 in the morning my wife awoke with a highly elevated heart rate. It would not come down and we were quickly on our way to the ER. After getting there and getting settled I had some time to think. Where is the end game with this house? Is the stress and anxiety worth a few hundred bucks? Do I fight based on principle for my damages? Why are we even discussing these issues, they are clearly visible? What good is going to come of this?  Nobody can win.

Nothing is worth the health and well being of my wife, or my family for that matter. Today I emailed JD, the owner of Inman Realty, and let him know that I was disappointed in the way this has turned out and that I strongly stand by my claims of damage to my house BUT none of this was worth the stress that would come over the next few weeks of “debating” who is right and who is wrong. I informed him I would be signing the release on Monday.

Now I know, because I’ve talked to some of you before I did this, that many will disagree and that by law and principle I should continue to fight. The debating and fighting would be long and tough but showing grace and forgiveness is way harder for me than any of that. It’s not pride that is the problem, it’s the “wanting to prove I’m right” (I guess a form of pride, right?) issue that get’s me fired up. In the end we know that we could have continued on and probably been successful in getting some stuff fixed. Who cares.  As of now this burden is off our shoulders and we can continue to move on with our lives.

Thanks for all the notes, emails and support.  I hope Inman Realty can understand why we were vocal and I hope that others will read that they acted quickly as possible to get this resolved.  Inman Realty is not the bad guy, they were the ones stuck in the middle and ultimately responsible for managing this process.

Thanks JD and Inman Realty Group.

I won’t post his email without permission, but it was an assuring and positive email.  He did however feel like I misrepresented his company by saying that we had been abandoned.  I, however, felt abandoned and like I was the bad guy for expecting my home to returned in the shape it was left.

Like I said we have been assured that we will work through these issues.

Thanks to J.D. for responding promtply and willing to listen to our issues.  I really appreciate it.

Below is our first email to our property manager… we’ll call her “Jane”.  You’ll notice we mentioned some cleanliness issues and lightbulb issues.  We are not being petty but when we moved out, we were told to fix these things and it would be returned the same way.  We are just calling out the things that we were told would be taken care of.  I realize some is normal wear and tear but since it was brought to our attention before we left we thought we would remind them of how it was “left”.

Hi “Jane”,

Below is a list of items to be addressed that you and I discussed on the phone last night.

-Water damage to the hardwood floor at the back door. The wood is split and bleached and the poly has bubbled.

-Bedroom paint – painted over vent, fixtures not removed (previous color still exposed), paint not coated on ceiling (previous color bleeds through),  closet corners are not painted.

-Overall cleanliness of the house… Inside cabinets and drawers were not wiped down in the kitchen & bathrooms. Both the master & upstairs bathroom floors have a thick build up dust on the tile & baseboards along with hair and nail clippings. The entire master bath shower door has soap scum on it. The upstairs bathroom tub was dirty with soap scum and tonight when giving our children a bath we discovered it was clogged! I have pictures of what we were able to get out of the drain…4 razor blade covers and lots of hair. There are spider webs in several corners of the bedrooms.
-There is an ugly stain on the carpet in the hall closet under the stairs.
-There are dirty finger/hand prints on almost every door and several walls.
-The baseboards were not wiped down in any of the rooms.
-The upstairs return vent filter doesn’t appear to have been changed in months. It’s completely grey/brown from a collection of dust & dirt.
-The microwave light is not working… may be a burned out bulb. One of the back porch spotlight bulbs is burned out.
-There is a gum like substance on the hardwood floor of the 1/2 bathroom.
-The date on the refrigerator water filter reads 9/12.
-Also, when putting up a baby gate at the base of the steps today we noticed the support wood has been separated from the rest of the banister. Upon further inspection it appears that 2 screws have been put in the rail and one of the rungs (sp) is no longer attached to the banister on the staircase.

We were expecting our home to be move in ready with minor “normal” wear not a list of things to clean & repair. We have been renters several times before and have never left a house unclean for the owners or next renters. What we found instead is neglect. Being a realtor with multiple properties we feel sure that you would point out such things to a potential buyer. Water damage and broken banisters decrease the value of a home significantly and are unsafe.

We’ll be glad to get estimates for the re-painting of the bedroom, the damage to the floor and staircase, and the cleaning.

We have photos documenting the items above which I’ll be glad to send however we’d rather you make a personal visit to see for yourself.

Thanks for handling and working with us on this,

Jason & Renee

So there you have it.  A nice note to get these things fixed, right?  Nope.  We get a phone call ( a week later) from the broker telling us we are being petty and that the prop manager and renters are saying all that was already there.  Really?  I remember a walk through sheet that was done and NONE of that was marked.  Not to mention that I lived here before I left and we bought this house new in 2004.

After my wife called me and filled me in on the broker conversation and that we were being petty and that none of this would hold up in court (which by the way, we’ve never sued anyone and no mention of court came from us) I decided to start compiling my documentation, photos and any information to get this resolved.

Now, my most recent email back to the landlord and broker.  As you can see, I’m a little frustrated that the people we trusted our house to has now turned their back on us.

“Broker” & “Jane”,

Thanks for giving Renee a shout back.  I apologize in advance for the long email but working in real estate/development myself over the past few years I know how important it is to document every discussion.

I find it unacceptable the condition this house was left in.  I also find it very interesting that you guys have discounted our claims without even coming to look at them for yourselves.  I was really only concerned about the water damage (normal wear and tear?) and the broken banister (again, normal?).  However as we continue to get settled in we are finding more and more issues that show the renters did not care about our home.   You’ve seen the list and it’s actually grown since we sent it.  A kicked/smashed in door?  Door stoppers completely removed from the wall?

We’ve rented many times in our lives and we’ve gotten our deposit back every time.  If something was broken I fixed it.  It’s a matter of respect and in the contract we signed it says the home will be returned the way it was when we left.  It wasn’t. I understand the normal wear and tear (scuff marks on the wall) and I can live with  the horrible paint job in my daughters room and the absolute grime, dust, fingernails and general non-cleaning of the home.  I can deal with that.

As for the physical damage to the home, I can’t understand how you guys would call that normal wear and tear especially without coming to see it and understand how it could have happened.  As realtors these are the things that you warn potential buyers about when trying to sell a home… I would hope you would warn or advise your clients against purchasing a home with water damage, broken banisters, broken doors.  So, for me, when I try to sell my home I’m the one who is stuck fixing issues that should have been taken care of by the renter and I feel that as my broker/landlord representative you should remember that you guys were working for us not them.

I am not going to sign this release until I know that you guys know what we are dealing with.  I can’t.  I understand that the “renters” and “Jane” have now both turned and are saying that the house was the same.  I hate to say it but that is a complete lie and I’m amazed that we are hearing that.  I also understand the “renters” have submitted an email “giving reasons” for the damage.   It is a shame that the integrity of two people I trusted in my home has come into question.  We are not petty people and we are not looking for money.  I am looking for someone to take responsibility for the damage that has occurred in my home.

If we can not come to an agreement on the above issues I will be composing a formal letter of complaint to the Williamson County Association of REALTORs & the Tennessee Association of REALTORs about the handling of this matter over the coming weeks.  I will document all aspects of the move in and move out with pictures from before we left and when we returned.  I will also be including all email correspondence over the past year and a half along with any other documents that may have been exchanged.

Finally… I found this on your site and it’s amazing that I live my life the same way: ‘committed to Biblical standards in our every day life and in our work place’.  I’m amazed that we are having this conversation if we are truly committed to living to those standards.

I apologize that it has come to this but as our landlord/broker representative I feel that you have abandoned us, your clients and friends.

Regards,

Jason Bradford

What next?  I don’t really know.  We’ve talked with some other realtors here in Nashville and they don’t understand why the property management company, Inman Realty Group would be acting that way.

I’m not looking to bash Inman Realty Group.  If I wanted to bash people then I would have used the real names of the individuals I’m dealing with.  I’m not about harming people or trying to hurt people… this is a “business” issue that can be resolved with a little bit of communication and understanding.

Let’s see where we end up.

In the middle of moving to Tennessee my blog site was hacked and I lost my last template.  For now, I’ve settled on a Circus type thing to go right along with my life right now.

No matter the circus, I’m blessed beyond belief.  Our move has been pretty easy on the kids and the only real negative is getting pushed off by AT&T two times for internet/tv service.

Inked Digital has taken off well.  Daniel Island is keeping me very busy, but I’ve signed on to help 5 new clients in just the past two weeks.  I must say that I was a little nervous about jumping on my own again but wow, it’s been amazing.

Thanks for hanging in there with me and laugh at my theme once again.  I hope to life under control soon thus getting a blog theme to match my “control”.  We’ll see.

McNair had a huge heart, he was a huge contributor to the Nashville community and to others as well.  He didn’t know the word “quit”. He played through more injuries, aches and pains than any other player I’ve ever seen.  He was a warrior.

Just wanted to give you a shout out my friend.  You were an amazing human being and a pretty dang good football player.  You will be missed.

Let me be the first to say that I’m a fan of Twitter.  Twitter has revolutionized the way we communicate and connect with others.  It’s an amazing tool.  However, I discovered a pretty big snag last week with Twitter, one that made me look silly for depending on a free communication tool.

Let me also say that I’m not bashing Twitter, I’m simply offering some constructive criticism to help Twitter become that dependable and even “critical” application.  Enough build up… Here are the details.

On Wed, June 23rd I wrapped up my day with a simple Tweet about the day being long or something along those lines.  The next morning I grabbed my phone to see what was happening in Twitter world.  Uh, oh.  It wouldn’t take my password.  I panicked and immediately thought my account had been hacked.  Crap.  I tried to get a password reset and that process worked but when I saw my actual account on Twitter.com it said the account had been suspended.  Not only did I think my account had been hacked but it had been hacked and someone used it to spam the Twitterati. Great I’m suspended.  Hasn’t happened since high school.

No worries.  I would email Twitter support and get this taken care of immediately.  After all, I’ve been using Twitter over a year, have a pretty healthy group of friends (followers sounds so cultish!) and was very vocal against spam and all the crappy auto direct messaging that has been going on.  Easy fix, so I thought.

I went to the help desk and submitted a request.  I was given this <a href=”http://twitter.zendesk.com/forums/26257/entries/15790″ target=”_blank”>link</a> and continued to read that my account could be held for 30 days for “research”.  30 days?  Not me, I use Twitter to communicate with clients and to stay on top of the happenings in my area of work!  I NEED Twitter.  This is where the problem comes in.  I needed Twitter.  I had just successfully landed a new client and was a Twitter evangelist only for them to see that I was actually a suspended evangelist.  Talk about looking silly.

Here’s where the kicker comes in.  I have never been told exactly why my account was suspended.  I was sent an automated response saying it could be one of many things.  After reading the list I’ve determined that my account was suspended because my personal blog site had been hacked.  My blog.  Not Twitter, my blog. After connecting some dots I’m pretty sure that when my blog was hacked the hacker put a piece of code on my site that linked to malware/spyware.  Twitter saw this link in my bio and thought I was distributing the malware/spyware.  Technically they were right, but I had no clue this was going on.  Thankfully it was brought to my attention and cleared up quickly.  Google had put notice on my site that is was a malware site, however I contacted and updated them and was taken off that list in less than 24 hours.

While I’m happy that Twitter is watching out for this sort of thing and keeping us all clear from the crap that floats the internet, that is NOT why I think they are not dependable.  My problem was the communication and the customer service. This is what I had to figure out on my own.

• Account suspended
• No notice of account suspension except red box on twitter.com (I use Seesmic and don’t go to Twitter.com so it makes it tough to see that)
• No explanation of suspension
• Request from help offered no information immediately
• 30 day estimated resolve time

Again, I’m glad that Twitter is taking the time to protect us from the crap that is floating the web on some sites.  I believe there is a better way to handle these issues and the contact from customer support. Some simple ideas to help Twitter out:

• Send email to address on file notifying of suspension
• Give exact reason of suspension
• Suggest ways to correct/fix the issue
• Automate the research process- It’s easy to read and see if a user is a participating asset to the Twitter community
• Setup @helpusers to assist suspended/questionable accounts
• Don’t put up that it takes 30 days to “research”.  That sends users into an immediate panic.
• Create an automated process that users can use to “protest” their suspension.  With my problem I could have easily taken off the link to my blog,  submitted a ticket to re-check my account and been back up and running in minutes.
• Listen to other users in the community.  I had multiple friends contact the Twitter help users on Twitter to see how to get help with no response.

These aren’t the answers to all of Twitter’s customer support problems but this is a start for some one who depends on and uses Twitter daily.  And just for the record my account was offline for 7 days not 30.

As Twitter moves into being a critical app for business I hope they will take the time to realize that most users are legit and want to be a part of their community.

Oh, Twitter.  I’m going to help you re-write your suspension guidelines and more importantly your appeal and re-instatement guidelines.

Frustration.

The news coverage has now jumped on the band wagon of loving MJ.  It’s sad to think he thought many in the world hated him and only thought of him as a joke…  he died thinking that.

I’m not without fault.  The dude went off the deep end with some of the stuff he pulled and the way he acted, but when it comes down to it, he had a child, he had a mom, he had a dad, he had brothers and he had sisters.

Michael Jackson, thanks for recording your life.  Thanks for making some of the best records ever.  You truly were Off The Wall.

Check out this collection of Michael Jackson Music…  Lot’s of amazing stuff, you’ll be surprised.

Please don’t make fun of me while I figure out my theme/design fiasco.  My last site was customized and now I’m without it.

I’ll be back in a few days… hopefully.