Carolina Beach Realty — Local services in Carolina Beach

So, where in the world do I begin? I need to start by saying that we are an experienced rental family, and experienced in the Carolina and Kure Beach markets. We have been vacationing here once to twice a year as a family for over 15 years, and have never experienced such poor customer service from a real estate management company. I was encouraged when I was able to find 2 oceanfront units at short notice in late September. We lost our previously made reservations with another company due to a last minute building closure. I searched several agencies for 2 oceanfront properties (my parents had been planning to accompany us for this trip since the spring), both 2 bedroom units, and with a pool. The pool is an absolute must as we have an eight year old, and myself as well as my mother require a pool for exercise. I found 2 properties that appeared to meet our requirements online, made the reservations, and paid both rental fees in full.

Upon arrival on our check in day, my parents were able to get into their unit without trouble (keypad entry with code sent in an email), and a quick initial inspection appeared to be acceptable. My family proceeded to our unit and we were unable to access it. The code provided for our keypad did not work. It was about 5:30 on a Saturday and we started calling the office. I left 2 voice messages as no one answered the phone. After waiting for close to an hour, my husband called the number and we realized that if you waited until the end of the recording you could wait on hold for a live person. He spoke with someone and they were able to remotely reset the code and we were able to access our unit. As with my parents’ unit, things appeared acceptable upon initial inspection of our unit.

To shorten the story, I’ll now start to condense. Between check in Saturday and Monday, we exchanged 52 text messages, 10 phone calls, 3 voicemails, and one email with the office regarding the lock on our front door, lack of access to the pool (because of a broken gate), not functioning TVs/remotes, broken doors, lack of window coverings in a bedroom (ocean front), exposed live wires at an electrical outlet, and lack of functioning outdoor lights. I started off this story by mentioning our being experienced renters because we understand rental properties. They are not perfect, there are issues, stuff gets patched and not really fixed, it is the beach and there will be more moisture than normal, etc, etc. We did not make these complaints lightly; these are major issues that someone should pay attention to when they are in these units. People pay A LOT of money to come on vacation. It should not be a renter’s responsibility to have to find and report these problems. If a renter says their digital lock is not functioning, it is irresponsible of a so called management company to send repeated texts that say “our people have been out there 3 times and this is the correct code, the lock is functioning properly”. We took a video of the lock NOT WORKING, no matter what freaking position the door was in. Did one of those people that “came” out here call us when they were here? No, because they never physically came.

After finally speaking to “management” at Carolina Beach Realty, we felt that we were making a bit of headway. We had received keys for our door to eliminate the need for relying on an electric lock, after 2 days the pool gate was repaired, and my parents had their bedroom blinds hung so that they could sleep past sunrise. Then, the communication with the office seemed to stop. No one would call us back. At this point, we started to have some pretty dramatic weather roll in. Our sliding glass door at the front of our condo had water dripping from the header above the door for the full length of it, and water blowing in from under it. The window in my parents’ bedroom did the same thing. We had to keep towels in front of the door to soak up the water. I have run out of room- at this point there is no resolution. Needless to say we will not rent...

FROM HOSTS Janelle's confirmed information

Carolina Beach Realty OLINA Br July 16, 2023 Janelle made a reservation at our condo and a few months later sent Us a message needing to cancel. We informed her of our cancelation policy and then we never heard back from her. We texted her pre-arrival information and were met with great hostility calling us names because we would not cancel her reservation. Airbnb offers trip insurance that would have definitely covered her situation but she was resentful to us and claimed we should have reached out to them to follow up. She took our parking pass home and mailed it back to the HOA instead of us. She also threatened to sue us which we did not appreciate. We are sympathetic to her situation, however, we do not make exceptions to our cancelation policy. We urge Janelle to consider purchasing trip insurance in the future and to be kinder to hosts that are following their policies.

My response

Carolina Beach Realty, I was actually waiting for this to appear on social media and you did not disappoint me. I was going to keep my experience and opinion of your company to myself. I was never going to mention the dilapidated condition of your rental property. The entrance staircase is dark with very stained carpet. You must walk up 68 steps without touching anything. It was filthy, the furniture was sticky with mildew sweat, bathrooms were not clean and the pair of underwear underneath the bed upon our arrival was wonderful. Unlike yourself (a company), I (your customer) do not gain pleasure from public humiliation. Let me further explain…I knew a company that would treat a guest as horrible as you treated me, would continue to practice and exhibit the same behavior. You clearly have shown your true colors. I am sorry I did not receive your emailed response. I was in the hospital. I thought you might have had the courtesy to make a phone call instead. You knew the circumstances and did nothing. Further more your only attempt to contact me was through one (1) email I could not access. Please make a better attempt in the future to respond to your clients using all methods of communication. People also become increasingly stressed with life threatening situations. I am sorry I was upset when addressing you. I made clear to you I would never rent from your company again. There was no need to contact me again and send the above message. I have rented many wonderful vacation homes. I have never received a single complaint from any owner let alone a company that is supposed to serve their clients best interest. I could not even locate your company on the BBB website. I want to make sure I get this correct. You are complaining that I was upset with your company for not accommodating any disabilities? You are complaining the guest staying with me (who was also helping me) accidentally took a parking pass and then directly mailed it back to the address printed on the pass? You are complaining because I could not stay the entire duration of the week, but paid you full price? Please feel free to continue to disgrace future clientel. This, right here, speaks volumes. I want to thank you for providing the proof needed to determine your character and your corporate mission statement. I learn from my mistakes. I hope your employees learn from their mistakes, because right now...they truly act like they just don't care. Janelle

November 3, 2023 Why did you respond BELOW by disrespecting me AGAIN? I asked you not to contact me! You have not even apologized for your actions, nor the actions of your disrespectful staff. You are protecting your staff? That is hilarious.YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT YOUR CLIENTS. Your reviews show MANY (26) of the same feelings from other clients. They thought your staff was rude, not helpful, and property dilapidated. Your staff needs better training They are not helpful in any way. I am sick with cancer. How could I possibly do anything to your staff? Did I transfer cancer to your staff? You truly need a really good dose of reality, karma is...

I was scheduled to stay at the unit Winds VD1 Carolina Beach from September 6-13 we arrived on the 6th and was honestly shocked at how small the place was compared to the photos I’m not quite sure how they managed to take the photos of that place but it looks 10 times bigger than the

We walked into cockroaches in all the bedrooms and one bathroom that night Dried dog pee on all of the curtains in the living room and the bedrooms also dog urine on the carpet in the living room and dry urine under the carpet

The master bedroom floor has a severe slant to it leading into the bathroom. The bathroom also has a slant the toilet is very wobbly. If you have Balance issues this floor can really be dangerous

The mattress itself was horrific. It is the cheapest mattress you could possibly buy and because the floor slants so severely the head of the bed is tilting down And the mattress is super thin, making it extremely uncomfortable to sleep on and very painful in the morning if you have neck or back issues like myself,

Waking up every morning and pain is not my idea of a vacation

The kitchen cabinets squeak so loud when you open them. I was afraid it would actually wake neighbors up. When we went to prepare breakfast, the next morning, we realized that the two frying pan that were there were so bad that they were not able to be used to cook on the Teflon had been cut completely through. It looked as if someone had tried to play tic-tac-toe on them with knives and burnt food in them and just left it.

Because it was Sunday. We were unable to reach anyone because it was not considered a real emergency.

I did reach someone Monday finally using the after hours phone number and a young man very quickly purchased some and brought them to us and then took photos of the old ones and threw them away.

These units are very old and the walls and ceilings are very thin.

The person who was staying above me It was a gentleman who Weighed maybe 170 pounds and when he walked on the floor above me, it sounded as if soldiers were storming the building. It was so loud it would literally wake you up.

While emptying trash Monday morning, I met two other people who were renting on the same floor, which is the first floor in different units. They both said it was horrible.

One of the men said his parents were with him and that he could not allow his parents to use the master suite because the floor had such a severe lean He was afraid his parents would not even be able to use the toilet in there.

The other gentleman said his unit was the exact same way.

The Sub flooring is very bad, causing it to lean, and it also went into his master bathroom.

Finally by Tuesday morning, after only being there Only 2 days into my vacation I could not take it anymore.

My neck and back was hurting me so bad from trying to sleep on the bed and dealing with that floor with a severe lean in it, We packed everything up and left and came home Tuesday morning.

I contacted Carolina Realty when I got home and told them what had happened. The person I spoke with on the telephone was very nice to me and kept apologizing and took down everything that I had to tell her and said she would contact her General manager and see if they could refund the days that I am not staying there , I told her that would be greatly appreciated.

She got back with me very quickly through a text message and said that She had explained everything to her general manager And her general manager said she would not issue a refund.

If these management companies would start issuing refunds due to deplorable conditions and hitting these homeowners in the wallet, they would start fixing some of these issues, but until they do something that really affects the money of these homeowners they’re not going to change anything why would they ?

I do not recommend renting from Carolina Beach Realty and I definitely do not recommend staying at any of the WINDS Units in Carolina Beach. It...