The Ultimate Online Property Management Guide for Missoula, Montana

— List

My fiancé and were recently engaged (vid) and as such, we started looking for a new place to be our own in the Missoula, MT area. Looking in the paper always seemed to offer dated listings and some newspapers favor some property management places over others which makes for a slanted view of what is available. The image that appears below is from the web application that I’ve been working on called Grūpthink. This is the results of users of the Missoula grūp rating some of these places. Just click on the image and you can see comments and ratings for the major property management places in Missoula. I found this to be the best resource to help me get started.

Click to vote or add a new answer!

However, what I couldn’t find was a resource which listed all the different property management companies available with the necessary details such as the phone number, website, etc. In addition, some websites did not list their hours of operation so I had to call to find out. Hopefully this guide will help you out in your online search for the perfect rental in Missoula, MT.

I will list the top 10 in the order they appear in the Grūpthink topic as of Tuesday March 25th, 2008. Along with each listing you’ll find the phone number, a link to the address in Google Maps and a review of the listings on their website.

  • Garden City Property Management
    Phone: (406) 549-6106
    Address: 422 Madison St, Missoula, MT 59802
    Hours: Mon – Thurs — 8:30am – 5:30pm
    Fri — 8:30am – 5:00pm
    Sat — 9:00am – 1:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    The listings are updated frequently and it lists them all in a very readable and understandable format. There are not photos available for every property and some of the photos are for other units. Overall it is a simple website that runs rather quickly. Ultimately, Bonnie and I decided upon this rental agency. The staff were helpful and friendly and the price was right.

  • Grizzly Property Management
    Phone: (406) 542-2060
    Address: 1601 South Avenue West, Missoula, MT 59801
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 9:00am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    The website is usable and well organized. They have a lot of photos to go with their properties and good descriptions as well. However, you cannot view many different types of properties at the same time. You are, instead, confined to look at only 2 bedrooms or only studios. In addition, you have to click and look at a property to see what utilities are included rather than having them all listed out together. They have plenty of information about the company and the staff was friendly when I called.

  • Biterroot Property Management, Inc.
    Phone: (406) 549-9631
    Address: 414 W. Broadway, Missoula, MT 59802
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 8:30am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    This is another website that is well designed and quick. It offers photos for many of the properties as well as an easy to read and understand layout. Here, again, you are restricted to only looking at certain listings rather than viewing many. Overall, the listings are helpful and up to date and the staff was friendly on the phone.

  • Summit Property Management, LLC.
    Phone: (406) 549-3929
    Address: 500 N. Higgins Suite #208, Missoula, MT 59802
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 8:30am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    When Bonnie and I were searching last year, there were many more properties listed. However, this is no longer true. The website is informative and there are photos of the properties. However, as of this writing, there are only 3 properties listed in the 2 bedroom residential section. Overall the website could use a face-lift but it works.

  • Lambros Real Estate
    Phone: 1-888-735-RENT
    Address: 3011 American Way, Missoula, MT 59802 (rental office)
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 8:00am – 5:30pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    The website offers some very detailed listings and the ability to modify your searches. However, you cannot look at only residential listings. You must choose a category of listings (1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, etc.) or include commercial listings in your search which is annoying. Overall, the website is pretty well done and very functional. The listings are usually full of detailed photos.

    The comments from the users of Grūpthink do not offer very good reviews of this rental organization. You can see what some of them had to say here. The person who I spoke to on the phone was helpful and friendly.

  • Clark Fork Realty
    Phone: (406) 728-2621
    Address: 512 W. Broadway, Missoula, MT 59802
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 8:30am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    This website offers a list of all the rental properties with a photo if one is available. Overall, the design of the site is a bit clunky, but the detailed listings are informative. However, like some other sites, you have to click into the listing in order to find out what utilities are paid.

  • Professional Property Management, Inc.
    (not to be confused with Professional Property Management Company)
    Phone: (406) 721-8990
    Address: 2685 Palmer Suite B, Missoula, MT 59802
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 9:00am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    The first thing I noticed about the site was PHP 3 which, is a bit dated. However, the site is not too bad. There are photos of a lot of the different locations. However, the big gripe that I have, is that many of their listings have no vacancies. This means that while searching, you might see a perfect property in the list, only to click on it and find out it is not available. In short: don’t list a property if it isn’t available.

  • Caras Property Management (other site)
    Phone: (406) 543-9798
    Address: 125 E Main St, Missoula, MT 59802
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 8:30am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link, link)
    The first problem is that they have two websites for the same properties. Both websites display errors on some of the pages. The listings do contain helpful information such as the average utilities, but then, it depends on what site you’re looking at. Overall, they should pick one website and go with it. Just have the other forward to one. Unfortunately, the websites alone make this property management company seem to be far behind their competition.

  • Missoula Property Management
    Phone: (406) 251-8500
    Address: 2809 Great Northern Loop, Missoula, MT 59801
    Hours: Mon – Fri — 9:00am – 5:00pm

    Online Listings: (link)
    There are none. This is disappointing considering the necessity for most to utilize online listings for making a decision for a rental property. In addition, the site has visible areas and offers a great deal of information about the company, but little to do with their listings. In addition, the address listed on the site is not the address I was given over the phone (I listed the latter). Overall, you’d be better off giving them a call.

Well there you have it. The top 10 online property management places for Missoula, MT. I hope you find this guide helpful. If you enjoyed this post then be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed. If you would like your website to be listed here, then send an email to writer at ilovebonnie.net.

Montana Marijuana “Bust” Leaves Registered Patients’ Already Short Life in Agony

— Misc

[UPDATE] – Thanks to this arrest, Scott Day got to spend the last few months of his life in fear and anxiety. He has now passed on. You can find more information about his passing here.

The police raid occurred on February 1st, 2008 at the home of a terminally ill Dillion, MT man and his girlfriend. The gentleman lives with a disease which usually overtakes its victims by the age of 12. For this, he has become a registered medical marijuana patient in the state of Montana.

According to the Dillonite Daily article:

“The indoor marijuana grow utilized a very sophisticated venting system that was intended to keep the project hidden from the outside.”

The police seized 96 plants after what they call a three-month “investigation.” The terminally ill and suffering patient and his girlfriend are now facing 2 years to life and a fine of, up to, $50,000 for the offense.

The Montana Standard reported that Blair Martenson, an agent in charge with the Southwest Montana Drug Task Force in Butte, had this to say about the home:

“This was a marijuana growing operation that was pretty well sophisticated with the way it was set up.”

Of course, obtaining the medicine in question will probably not be easy for the patient during the investigation. To top things off, according to investigators, the processing is taking unusually long. This is due to the “huge amount of evidence in this case.” Martenson added that the delay was due delay in charges is common as agents must send the marijuana to a crime lab to confirm that it’s an illegal drug.

I would have hoped that somewhere during the three-month investigation they would have enough conclusive evidence to determine that it is marijuana.

This private garden served as the source of medicinal marijuana for registeredpatients in the area. Bob Meharg, chairman of Patients and Families United, said in a news release:

“Taxpayers have just footed the bill for an untold number of wasted dollars in this sad incident near Dillon and, if the government charges and manages to convict the patient involved, we’ll be paying more than $136,000 every month for the patient’s medical care alone. I am shocked to see that the government is claiming that it investigated this case for three months, yet when the government acted against this poor patient it was in such complete ignorance both of our state’s medical marijuana law and of the basic facts of this situation.”

In 2004, Montana voters – by the widest margin in U.S. history – approved making medical marijuana legal for patients suffering certain medical conditions. Dillon’s Beaverhead County was one of the many counties where a majority of voters passed the measure. The law specifies that qualifying patients may grow and possess enough marijuana to meet their legitimate medical needs. Currently, nearly 600 Montanans in 34 counties are registered medical marijuana patients based on recommendations from 145 physicians across the state.

This is not the first medical marijuana tragedy within recent months that have occurred at the hands of Montana law enforcement or federal law enforcement in Montana.

Unfortunately, this has not been picked up by major news sources in the state or the country. In fact, the title for the Montana Standard article read as:

“Felony charges pending in large pot growing operation near Dillon“

The ignorance of people surrounding medical marijuana was further reflected in the comments left on the page:

ulvejaeger wrote on Feb 14, 2008 9:04 PM:
” Isn’t it quaint how Beaverhead Co. & surrounding area’s despise the Fed’s until they want to get rid of a bunch o bad asses? Congratulations SWMDTF! Job well done! Hope Mr. McCann puts the hurt on em. ”

CalRipken wrote on Feb 14, 2008 3:18 PM:
” Good Job Martenson. You should get a raise. Keep plugging away. Another one bites the dust. Chalk up another one for the good guys. You should take him Federal and lock him up for 15 years. 96 plants should meet the Fed standards. Tell the other guys who worked the case Good Job, too. And do a high five for me, Yes! “

I was under the assumption that our country was supposed to be helping those most in need. Even though this individual took the time to obtain his medicine through legal avenues that were accepted and voted upon by a government within the United States of America, prohibition still reigns supreme.

For more information, please check out the following links:

Maybe, one day, we’ll live in a world where our children won’t ask why the bad man is going to jail, but why the bad men are taking the nice man away.

Google Maps Version of the 2008 Submarine Cable Cuts

— Misc

Finally got this completed. If you want to take a look at it in Google Earth (or just want a bigger look), then check out this link and click on the “Open in Google Earth” link. You can also just download the .kml file directly from here. For the most detailed information about the cuts including detailed maps of the cables check out “The Submarine Cables – A Complete Guide to the 2008 Internet Outage.”