| Why Do We Keep Requesting Reviews?
If you have not been asked yet from us to share your review to Google, or another service, you may not be reading this newsletter or your email. We all know it is annoying and, trust us, we would rather spend time on something else. But, let's face it. We all use Google to find service providers and we can’t help but to filter based on reviews. Did you know, in competitive business segments, companies with reviews under 4.0 will often not show on the maps and they are dinged in the search results? All for the sake of providing the searcher with the best results.
We don’t find fault in this and frankly, it is helpful when searching for a business to hire or restaurant to visit. Certain business types are very prone to being the easy target of unhappy reviewers, and not as easily the recipient of positive reviews. Property management is an excellent example.
Real world example. This week we received the following review on Google.
"Wilmoth group are a bunch of scammers. I moved out in November and I have yet to get my deposit back. I lived there for 4 years and they charged me for normal wear and tear on my unit. They charged me $800 to replace carpet $400 to replace blinds. When the septic tank backed up and flooded the basement with sewage they charged us to come out and unclog tank. SLUMLORDS!!! I do not I repeat I DO NOT recommend them to anyone."
Lets break this situation down to reality.
This tenant moved out in November. We compiled a thorough claim package against the tenant’s security deposit. These were not normal wear and tear items unless you consider tears, burns and stains in carpet, and removing baby toys from the sewage system normal. After applying their security deposit they owe the owner of the property almost $5000! Many pictures were used to prove and bill the former tenant this balance, all within the 45 days allowed by Indiana law. The former tenant has refused to make payment so we turned the package over to a collection agency. It appears the collectors have located the tenant and what other choice do they have? "Lets trash WILMOTH to the public and we can do so for free, on Google!"
Every week, while we do our fiduciary job on rental owner’s behalf, we upset potential tenants and tenants. Not approving them for application, collecting rent, charging them for damages, filing for eviction. Not sure what percentage, but many of them turn to the mouthpiece of Google reviews to tell the world how bad WILMOTH Group operates.
So bad we are protecting our owners' interests!
So, when we ask for your review, just consider we are probably asking you to offset one of your tenant’s or former tenant’s reviews. We only can hope a 5-star review offsets a 1 star and we do not lose anymore traction in this crazy measuring stick we all now use.
All The Best! WILMOTH Team | 
