I wouldn't rent from them again. Move-out charges were excessive.
We have been tenants with FBS for 8 years. Always paid our rent on time and have taken care of the property as if it were our own. I would drive the check in every month to the Rancho Bernardo location which is about 15 minutes from my property. FBS has implemented a new system that allows renters to pay rent online. I was ecstatic to not have to drive the rent in every month. I signed up and entered my bank info, it took it, and I paid my rent on time on the 1st of October 2014. A few days later I received a bill for $65 late fee and a $50 NSF (insufficient funds) notice. There was plenty of $ in my account to cover the rent. I called FBS in Rancho Bernardo and spoke to Chris to see what happened. He said he wasn't familiar with the new system and said he couldn't help me find any info on the website as he wasn't familiar with the system. He is the accounts payable person btw. He suggested we delete the account and start over because he didn't know what to do. I said how about I drive my rent in the next day and we could navigate the system together. When I went in the next day he said he would take off the late fee, (why thank you for not charging me a late fee for rent that isn't late, *sarcasm font*). But he couldn't remove the $50 penalty because it was one they assessed from the bank. He told me I entered the wrong routing #. Even though I was sent a NSF notification. Any system I have ever made payments to online either bounce back saying invalid account or if it's a bank system does a test with $1 or some amount to make sure the account is valid. If I did enter a wrong # in my routing # there was no profile area on this new payment system of theirs to look at or edit my account info. So how could I even go into my account and edit the routing # to the correct one? There is nowhere to do that. Just a page that says pay rent. That's it! That's why Chris suggested starting over. I said "why, so I can assess another $50 fee that I HAVE to pay and not know about it?" Chris said to me, "why are you getting so upset??" as I was in his office trying to understand how this is my fault. I wrote a check for the rent and said I would contact my property manager Valerie to discuss it with her. He said she wouldn't be able to help me and I need to pay it. As I left he yelled at me on my way out, "now you are just going to assess more fees!".
I sent Valerie an email explaining what happened and she said the same thing. There is nothing that can be done on their end. Valerie said, "I value you and your family as taking care of the home for the o wners and your consistency with rent." Ok, so if it's something with the bank maybe realize there is a glitch with your payment system and change it. Figure out a better solution with your system and the bank. Add a profile section so you can access your account info. And go to bat for your tenants If you "value" us so! It's not about the $50. It's the principal and the way I was treated. This is to let other potential tenants know be careful who you are dealing with. I like how one other reviewer posted FBS stand for F'n BS!
I would use FBS property management again if I needed property management services. My family was on a tight schedule when we moved out of our condo in San Diego and needed to get it rented quickly. FBS and our assigned property manager, Jay, made the transition a very smooth one. We were very happy with how he was able to get the place cleaned, fixed and rented in about 2 weeks.
There were about 2 service calls during the year we had rented the property rented out. Both were taken care of with no hassle and with documentation sent back to me. Accounting for the property is also taken care of with monthly statements available online.
They're not cheap, but I checked a couple other management companies and FBS's fees were pretty much the same as other management companies.