Sandbridge Beach Great But Don't Rent from Siebert Realty

We recently spent 2 weeks in Sandbridge. It%26#39;s a beautiful place. We wanted to get our family together so rented one of their largest homes (Absolutely Stellar) about 8,000 sq. ft - around $10k per week. When we arrived it was clear that no one had done an inspection of the house. Holes in the walls, lots of light bulbs burnt out, remotes to main wide screen in ';theater room'; did not work - remote to dvd in living room did not work, the kitchen was far from equipped to handle 20+ people. Railings at the head of the stairs had broken and were taped back to together so when you pushed on them they popped out - when my 18 month old grandson grabbed ahold of one of them and we realized what was going on we almost had a heart attack.

Now the worst of it. One of Siebert%26#39;s maintenance employees who had been to the house a couple of times, sold drugs to one of my daughters. My son in law (a Marine) witnessed the transaction and then we caught my daughter and daughter in law enjoying these drugs later on. I reported the incident to Siebert management and they have ignored it.

We will definitely return to Sandbridge Beach - but we won%26#39;t have anything to do with Siebert and neither should anyone else.

Sandbridge Beach Great But Don't Rent from Siebert Realty

I cant believe your post because we just rented a house from Siebert too! One of their biggest ones, Sun Haven, and the same thing happened to us. Not the drugs... but the condition of the home. And they ignored us.

How old are your daughters? Can you press charges?

We paid $4000 for the week but that was because value season. The house sleeps 22 people but was filthy. Water all over the carpets as in we were sloshing in it. My parents, my wife and I, and our little kids were all sick when we came home and we think it is because of the mildew etc from being in there the whole week. We had a terrible ant problem and Siebert just said the owner choses NOT to do a pest control program and they cant force him. He has his own housekeeper and they cant force him to use theirs.

How did you attempt to get the situation rectified? We called everyday w/ no response. Then met with Connie the rental manager at Checkout. I have actually started to research legally if there is tenant recourse in this matter. I am wondering if you have considered that as well?

Sandbridge Beach Great But Don't Rent from Siebert Realty

To JohnsonTravels:

They fired the guy who sold my daughter drugs (she was over the age of consent by a long way). But they never responded to my issues. I think next time I would try to rent directly from someone rather than go through a realty company. The contract is a joke if you read it all - they could have just put us in a ';comparable'; unit when we arrived or ousted us while we were there. It is criminal but I don%26#39;t think anything can be done. Just do what we are doing - post for the world to see. Find as many opinion web sites as you can and post something about them. Losing business is the only thing they will care about.

I consulted two attorney friends of mine and they seem to believe the realty owes a refund. I am trying to decide if its worth pursuing or just chalk it up to a bad experience. I just hate the fact that they knowingly rented that house to us, knowing that it had problems. The rental supervisor told me they had complaints all summer about it! Did you even attempt it or did you just decide its not worth it?

I thought maybe your daughter was a minor, so that is why I asked that.

It is so sad that companies like this take advantage of customers. All we are trying to do is take that one week out of the year to relax with our families and then to be taken advantage of, when we are willing pay money to get something nice, is just so awful.

The sad thing is that there arent many options from who to rent houses, so Siebert will probably continue to do these types of things to customers, and still get business and still profit.

We never tried to get a refund alhough I sure wouldn%26#39;t mind getting one week back given the trouble. The real problem is that any action you take would have to happen in Virginia Beach - which is a long way from California. And I am an attorney!!! Again, I think posts like these for all to see will ultimately cost them a great deal of money over time. It is a shame.

We also rented Sun Haven from Siebert realty this summer, it was a great disappointment. Downstairs bedroom too moldy to sleep in, old charcol grill that was rotted out, ceiling had a leak while we were there. And just as posted here, Siebert took no real responsibility, blamed the owner for not properly maintaining the house. Do not rent from Siebert. Next time I will try Sandbridge Realty; they can not do any worse.

Hi, we rented from Siebert Realty for years and had a similar experience a few years ago. The house we rented was, for lack of a better term, a dump. Old, wallpaper falling off the walls, glass top of a table was broken, a room that had been added on was unfinished, the entry-way was full of old furniture. We started to unpack, seething all the while, and finally my husband jumped in the car and went to the agency. They did find us another house -- the owners were there and they cleaned the house and were out in two hours. My husband talked to Jean Siebert, and she did react quickly, and right after that I noticed that house was no longer listed on their site. So while they did okay by us, after some inconvenience, at least we salvaged our week.

The problem with Sandbridge is that rental agencies are limited -- Siebert and Sandbridge are the only ones that are well known. We would like to go back next year to celebrate our daughter%26#39;s high school graduation and don%26#39;t want to end up with a similar issue as I%26#39;ve ready about in these posts.

OK -- this entire thread has sent up red flags making me suspicious that any of it is true. Only 2 posters have more than one entry on Trip Advisor, and all the posts are the same gripe. It sounds as if someone has a grudge against Siebert and is deliberately trying to smear the company%26#39;s reputation.

I hope I%26#39;m wrong.

I can%26#39;t speak to any of the earlier posts, but mine is legitimate. This was in the summer of 2003, and if you will note, unlike the other situation, I mention that Siebert did make it right for us. My husband met with Jean Siebert when he went to the agency and she handled our situation. The house was below standards and, even though our standards are not necessarily extremely high, for the price we paid for a week, it should have been inspected prior to rental; there was actual damage inside the house, not to mention a dingy and unfinished appearance. Based on our observation, it apparently was not inspected, or Siebert did not expect anyone to complain. We work hard for our summer vacation, and we felt we were being treated unfairly based on the advertisement/pictures vs. what we actually got. I cannot recall the original property, but we ended up in Moonglow, which was a delightful house, and we rented it the following year.

I can%26#39;t assess whether the other comments are real or phony, but what does amaze me is that, if the conditions were as bad as noted, why did they not do exactly what my husband did -- jump in the car and complain and see if they could get a comparable property.

Believe me, we LOVE Sandbridge, and in fact are shopping for a rental for summer 2007. Based on our experience, though, we are seriously leaning towards Sandbridge Realty to see what type of experience we may get with them. Previously we rented from Siebert and then privately through family acquaintances.

The point is -- when you pay $3-5K for a week%26#39;s vacation home, you should get a clean, well-maintained property, and one that has been previously inspected and rated by the company who is responsible to represent the property and owners. I sincerely hope no one has misrepresented themselves in previous posts, but I forget there are a lot of sleazeballs in the world. I don%26#39;t happen to be one of them. I am not Siebert-bashing, I am merely sharing an experience I had. It may have been a rare experience, but I would like to hope it will make renters aware that you don%26#39;t always get what you think you%26#39;re getting, and you need to complain when you have a bad experience.

Hey:

Look again. I am an owner of a Siebert Run Property-Grande View, a Semi Ocean Front (Across the street from the Ocean) Property with six large bedrooms, large bathrooms and great views of the Ocean and Bay.

I can tell you that my unit is not in the shape you describe. We can sleep over 20 and it is well-stocked. I wish I could afford to live there year round, because it is a beautiful place to live.

We get rave reviews from people who love the pool and the hot tub. Both are ckeaned every week and looked after by a commercial pool company.

I stay there myself with my family, and would not stand for it being in bad shaope for others on vacation. I have rented a lot of other beach houses, and we pride ourselves on making this place nicer than you would expect.

Other than touching up the paint from fingerprints, the place is in ship shape when we go down at the end of the season to fix things up as needed.

I guess the best indorsement would be that we have many repeat customers year after year. So please don%26#39;t sell us all short, we depend on our rentals to make it financially, and we try very hard to get things right.

We have had two complaints that I know of: once the grass was too high for horseshoes (we had it cut immediately) and once the pool chemistry got out of whack and we had to ask the folks not to use it for a day. Both times we gave a discount and called the tenants directly to apologize. The horseshoers got a fruit basket as well. We would have moved them if they needed it, but everything worked out fine.

All I can say is that if you rent my place, you will not have the experience that you see above. You are welcome to look it up online on the Siebert Realty Site. Look for Grande View.

By the way-if you provide more information on the person who you say sold drugs to you, I will check it out and try to get the details. I want to make sure that it was taken care of and that Siebert knows that at least one owner will not stand for that kind of stuff.

Thanks

Jeff (Owner of Grande View)

It%26#39;s nice to have some feedback from an owner, and particularly one who is completely involved in taking care of the properly. I know that what you%26#39;ve read here are exceptions, but it does make one wary, particularly when I look at pictures of what appears to be a nice house and either hear or experience quite the contrary.

Your house looks great and in a wonderful location. That%26#39;s probably why that, and your yearly repeat customers, have it reserved the week of 6/9/07, which is when we plan to visit. If you have any other home recommendations, based on your knowledge of the area, please let me know. I%26#39;m still shopping around but realize I need to book something soon. My daughter is graduating from high school so it%26#39;s a big year for us, and I%26#39;ll do almost anything to keep her from Senior Week at OC, MD! Going to Sandbridge for a family vacation is her idea for celebrating.