Spartan Invest - Birmingham, Alabama

Ron Haendiges

INVESTOR BEWARE! If you are considering investing please consider our experience. My wife and I chose to invest in two separate turnkey properties with Spartan Invest a few years ago. Our objective, which was verbally affirmed time again by the various staff members at Spartan Invest, was virtually "headache free" passive income. We would knowingly invest in two grossly overpriced properties on the front ("new roof, new Hvac, new cabinets, etc) end with the promise to avoid headaches and short-term maintenance expenses on the back end. Our reality was quite different during our tenure (we recently sold both properties at a capital loss). Additionally, if you choose to purchase a grossly overpriced property from this company, please do your own due diligence especially when their property management company is given, as an option. My wife and I chose their property management company because, once again, we were in search of a "headache free" investment. We were out of state investors that were looking for a hands off approach managed by "professionals". Conceptually, this made sense to us at the time. After all, who should know their own properties better than the company who sold it to us and "made the initial repairs?" Another disaster!! Virtually zero communication from staff; grossly inflated repair costs that began immediately after purchase; poorly vetted tenants- many ending in evictions (we are still owed $7K+ in eviction related expenses from a prior tenant). Kiss that money goodbye if past experience repeats. One of the initial reasons we chose the state of Alabama as a property owner was because of Alabama's owner friendly laws. Spartan Invest (Atlas Rental - or whatever they call themselves now) chose not to proactively help us minimize eviction expenses. Tenants remained in these properties for months as they trashed the place and paid no rental income. To sum all this up, here was our experience: pay for a grossly overpriced product; inferior repairs are made to this property so they can claim "new"; introduced to their property management company that is absolutely horrific all along paying a fee for their "stellar" tenant selection, eviction pursuit that goes no where. Remember, the property management fee collects a fee on the front end and back end for most of what they do for the owners. Lastly, after all of the financial pain and headache, if/when you should decide to attempt to sale these horrific properties, Spartan can recommend a local realtor. Reluctantly, but because we did not know the local realtors, we went that route as we simply wanted "to stop the bleeding" take our losses, and exit these dogs. Ultimately, we sold to investment firms that bought "as is". The so called highly priced repairs that the property management team performed were inferior. Again, please consider these words (did not want to write this review but felt compelled) BEFORE making that purchase and entering a relationship with these folks. By the way, these investment firms - who buy properties across the country- told me this is the worst property management company they ever worked with. Please run, don't just walk away if contemplating a purchase. If you choose not to heed this recommendation, go in with your eyes wide open and do your comprehensive due diligence. My wife and I trusted way too much as we were simply in search of virtually headache free, residual income as we prepared for retirement. Our mistake, we own our mistakes, but we hope to help the next one avoid or minimize a similar mistake.

I don't expect to receive a response back to this review from management/ownership but you, the reader, should know that I reached out to management/ownership and received absolutely no response BEFORE posting this review. That was weeks ago.

Update to Spartan's response: There is no misrepresentation here, I shared our experience with Spartan Invest and its affiliates. Potential investor, do your due diligence before investing. Communicate by email and retain all emails, as we did.

Daniel Micaletti

Great company for turnkey investments. Both the acquisitions side and the property management side are extremely pleasant to work with. Would recommend Spartan to anyone looking for turnkey real estate!

Sunil Kurian

We have purchased multiple properties with different providers, but as far as Spartan goes, we couldn't be happier. The sales team is very professional and knowledgeable without being pushy. The Property management team is always on the ball and responsive whenever we reach out to them or need an answer. The overall performance we've had from our properties measure up very favorably against the proformas we were provided at acquisition...which speaks to the quality of the renovations team at the outset to do quality work, the rental team's amazing ability to quickly find tenant's at (often) higher than projected rental rates, and our PM's ability to keep the tenant happy. We look forward to a continued relationship with Spartan as we grow our portfolio.

Lloyd Ippolito

Spartan had made the entire investment process easy. They had a great selection of properties, worked very well with my chosen lender, partnered with a very responsive and organized title company and gave weekly construction prior to closing. After closing, they continued to give monthly updates, and made all pieces of the process seamless including introducing me to local insurance carriers, and reaching out about maintenance charges (so it wasn't a surprise on the statement). When for tax reasons I wanted to close on a property by year-end and they were behind on construction, they were proactive and swapped the property out for me since they knew this was important.

Lianne Aoki

I've been with Spartan invest since about 2020. They have the best customer service. Over the few years I've been with spartan invest, I've had several investor relations specialists and they've all been great. I am currently working with Madelynn Garrett and I really appreciate her quick responses to my questions. She is always very friendly and sends me monthly updates on all my properties. I think the customer service with the company is top notch.

Caleb McAllister

This business owns the property next door to my home and lets it grow out of control with weeds and kudzu until I ask them to come cut it, and even then they don’t always come. I hope they don’t mishandle their investors properties like their own.

Laurie Cateriano

Such a well run program, very organized and easy. Website is great, I can see my rental income, bills and history. My account manager Sarah Kinlow guided me thru the process. I was a new investor and had loads of questions. Sarah was always a phone call or email away to put any worries I had at ease. I now have 2 rental properties that Spartan manages and plan to get another one. They make it simple and painless.

Frank Farkash

Following this posting, the Investor Relations leader took quick action and has worked to provide answers in one phone call that I had been unable to get for weeks. Appreciate the service recovery in making things right, adjusting from 2/5 to 4/5 based on the follow-up

We have owned a property through Spartan for almost 2 years and overall the initial communication and processes are smooth, sales team is great, leasing process is easy.

However, now that issues have started arising with the renovation quality of the property, communication from the maintenance department has been very frustrating. It has been nearly two months and they still have not been able to let me know details about the status of the septic system (the tenant placed a complaint about sewage leaking into the yard in May). I have requested calls from the maintenance director or permission to speak directly to the plumber who was on site without success. The plumber is contractually obligated to NOT speak with the homeowner/investor “without permission from Randall,” so living out of state, my hands are tied. The Investor Relations rep is always very helpful/friendly, but has also been unable to obtain details thus far.

We planned to make a second investment purchase this summer but have obviously put that on hold due to quality concerns and lack of communication. 8-12 months ago I was sending referrals to Spartan- but something seems to have changed in their operations.