Zabace Property Management

Eamon and Elise were a delight to work with in my successful search to find a rental in Davis. Eamon was responsive, informed, professional and his friendly demeanor eased my long-distance nerves. Elise was on time for our FaceTime property showing, she gave a thorough patient tour, happily responding to my “can you show me” remote requests . She too was a competent professional. Thank you Zabace!

If I could give zero stars, I would. This property management company is an absolute nightmare to deal with. Their communication and lack of accountability is abysmal--getting a straight answer from anyone is nearly impossible (even though they claim they're currently working 7 days a week), and when you do finally reach someone, you're met with hostility or false promises of a response. I had to continuously call, text, or email to even TRY to get ahold of someone. At one point, Eamon even raised his voice at me over the phone, and made numerous false promises (such as a September lease start date after the previous tenant fell through and I didn’t want to pay two rents in a month), which is completely unprofessional, and also not his call to make. Their manager is impossible to reach and you're almost always communicating through an overworked middleman. I was told multiple times I'd get a response by XYZ date/time only to be met with crickets, or a lame excuse. Oh, and they like to all throw each other under the bus because they can't take any sort of accountability for themselves. The first red flag was when we all arrived to the viewing, and the current tenant wasn't even aware there was a second showing scheduled that day. She was clearly uncomfortable by this. They also mislead prospective tenants with a so-called $250 "holding" deposit that doesn't actually hold anything. It's essentially a way to for you to flaunt your money if you're really interested in a property-- with no guarantee attached. They actually told me multiple applicants left one on this property (which I found out was a lie), and Eamon gaslighted me when I inquired. What does it "hold" if multiple people can place one? You need to rename this and stop scamming people. If you somehow sign with them, read your lease carefully. There were numerous items with red flags, such as a $500 higher than expected security deposit. They also dont re-key the property in between applicants, and claimed they collected the keys/openers from the previous tenant, which was a lie, and a huge safety issue. On top of that, they make false promises during the leasing process and then expect tenants to shoulder the cost and responsibility for property issues that are absolutely the landlord's or management's responsibility. For example, I was told the landscaping (foxtails EVERYWHERE, a massive fire hazard and hazard to my dog, an ESA) had been "taken care of" which was a lie. The lawn was completely dead. I was told if I wanted the lawn fixed, I'd have to install a new one myself, and the home owner was unwilling to split the cost as he was going to be installing sprinklers per my request (which they made sound like SUCH an inconvenience). Then, they decided to add it as an addendum to my lease that if any spots were bare or dead, it would be my dime. Plot twist, I can't force a plant to live. And if it's in the lease that the tenants are to upkeep the lawn, how were the previous tenants supposed to keep the lawn alive if there was no way to water it? I backed out of my lease and I am so grateful I did. Oh and best part? I wasn't even the first prospective tenant for this rental period-- they screwed over the previous applicant so badly they backed out. I feel sorry for the next unfortunate soul. This company operates with zero accountability and zero respect for tenants. Save yourself the frustration, time, and money--look elsewhere for housing. Their only saving grace was they refunded my application fee when I called them on their BS.

We’ve been renting from Zabace since 2020, and the entire time it’s seemed like the company is being run haphazardly by people who have no idea what they’re doing and are barely completing the required tasks to keep the company functioning. One would think that the staff of a company whose entire purpose is management would have a certain level of competence and organization. But based on the level of unresponsiveness, coupled with the fact that they seem to be in a constant state of triage, that assumption clearly does not hold in this case. It’s ironic how they demand responses from their tenants “ASAP” when they need information all while actively and repeatedly ignoring maintenance requests and emails from tenants. Their priority is obviously keeping the landlords happy, as evidenced by the numerous 5-star ratings left by property owners. In the cases when they have responded to maintenance requests, they’ve always sent the same person. He’s done a great job overall, and I feel bad that they seem to be stretching him thin and running him all around town. It makes me wonder if he’s the only person whom Zabace has hired to do maintenance. If being short-staffed is the issue, then hire more staff. I’m assuming Zabace takes a cut of the rent from the property owners, so I don’t see why they can’t afford to hire enough maintenance staff to handle the volume of requests submitted and enough office staff to handle the volume of emails sent. It’s extremely frustrating to be ignored over and over and to have to spend our own money and time repairing a house that we do not own.