All Forum Posts by: Steve Boss

Just in case someone pull up this thread: we had a horrible experience with Voepel. Cost us thousand of

dollars because they neglect the properties and ignored the tenants. I

politely spoke to the owner Brent Voepel about it and he screamed at me.

Wost company I have ever dealt with. Check reviews on BBB, Yelp, and

Google. terrible.

Just in case someone pull up this thread: we had a horrible experience with Voepel. Cost us thousand of

dollars because they neglect the properties and ignored the tenants. I

politely spoke to the owner Brent Voepel about it and he screamed at me.

Wost company I have ever dealt with. Check reviews on BBB, Yelp, and

Google. terrible.

Just in case someone pull up this thread: we had a horrible experience with Voepel. Cost us thousand of

dollars because they neglect the properties and ignored the tenants. I

politely spoke to the owner Brent Voepel about it and he screamed at me.

Wost company I have ever dealt with. Check reviews on BBB, Yelp, and

Google. terrible.

Just in case someone pull up this thread: we had a horrible experience with Voepel. Cost us thousand of

dollars because they neglect the properties and ignored the tenants. I

politely spoke to the owner Brent Voepel about it and he screamed at me.

Wost company I have ever dealt with. Check reviews on BBB, Yelp, and

Google. terrible.

We had a horrible experience with Voepel as well. Cost us thousand of dollars because they neglect the properties and ignored the tenants. I politely spoke to the owner Brent Voepel about it and he screamed at me. Wost company I have ever dealt with. Check reviews on BBB, Yelp, and Google. terrible.

Unfortunately, for your sake and the community's sake I feel like I should say that we had a terrible experience with Voepel and would not recommend anyone hire them as their PM. 

Their communication was really poor; their maintenance costs were inflated (especially for KC); they have lots of "extra fees" for the property owners and the tenants (not good for retaining good tenants); the owner was shockingly unprofessional about disagreements between him and the turnkey provider who we bought the house from (not the guy you used) who placed us with Voepel (granted, I now think the turnkey guy does sloppy remodels and I wouldn't buy from him again); and their terrible mismanagement resulted one of our tenants demanding to be let out of their lease and threatening to sue because of unresponsive property management, which we knew nothing about until it was too late.

If there is a problem with a property it is very tough for the tenant to get in touch with the people needed to correct the problem. (see reviews on Yelp, Google, etc. which confirm this). Voepel's maintenance manager spent as little time as possible to address issues, did not follow up to make sure things were fixed, and when I followed up to get an update was told us things were resolved. Meanwhile the tenant tried many times to contact maintenance and get the issues resolved. The tenant finally gave up and wanted out of their lease. 

When I tried to talk with the owner of Voepel about the problem, assuming that he was unaware of how badly his staff had mismanaged the house, I was subject to the most unprofessional diatribe that I've ever experienced. He screamed at me, and literally said that Voepel is not in the business of taking care of maintenance issues, they just collect rent checks! Two minutes later we got an email stating that Voepel was no longer our PM, even though that was a breach of the contract. Before using Voepel we had always managed our own local properties, and our dealings with Voepel cost us more time and money than any self-management ever has. In contrast, dealings with our PM in other long-distance markets where we own rentals have been nearly hassle-free. I would have given Voepel the benefit of the doubt that many of their challenges were because they are new and growing too fast, and some of their staff were in positions above their capabilities, but that doesn't excuse the horrible behavior of the owner. A company culture starts at the top and it appears Voepel is more interested in making maximum short term profit instead of providing a good service at a fair rate and retaining long term customers.

Sorry, but I'd suggest that you be very wary of doing business with Voepel. Proactively check in regularly and do not assume that they are taking care of things, ask for a complete list of their fees, keep very good records of communications, etc. Check into other PMs so that you have one in mind in case your relationship with Voepel sours. I wish you good luck. 

I've been happy with the service of the 1031 exchange intermediary I've used in the past. I recently contacted them about doing another simple 1 to 1 exchange and the fee is about $1,000.

Now I see there are companies like this one that states a flat fee of $495 for 1 to 1 exchanges: http://e1031xchange.com/

I know what the process is, and I know what to look out for. I'm wondering if anyone has used this company or one like it. It's seems like $500 is a more reasonable fee for a 1 to 1 exchange than $1000.

Please let me know if this is not the correct category for this post, or if asking for a recommendation / posting a link are not allowed.

This is a business. It's tempting to treat your tenants like friends but you have to look out for number #1. If you do allow dogs have enough insurance to cover yourself.

Pit bulls are big strong dogs. That's the biggest factor IMO. It would make sense to limit the weight of dogs to say 30 pounds. Rather than focus on breeds. Pit bulls are involved in more fatal attacks, however there's plenty of non fatal attacks that could cost you as a landlord. So watch out even with small dogs.

• Pit bulls were bred to fight dogs. Typically they would not breed a dog that was aggressive to humans. 
• Other breeds bite more often statistically than pitbulls. But as mentioned when they do bite they often do more damage. 
• The other dogs that cause the most fatalities are Rottweilers and German Sheperds, i.e. big strong dogs. 
• Plenty of mixes and other dogs are labeled as "pit bulls" which probably inflates the statistics. 
• Every dog has a different personality, even from the same litter. A picked on runt can be skittish later in life. 
• Pitbulls appeal to bad owners who don't always raise them right.

I would not recommend Voepel. I had to cut ties with them. Very poor communication with tenants. The person the tenant was told they must speak with won't answer the phone or return calls. Look for many reviews from tenants stating this. Maintenance issues they told me had been fixed were not. Unless the tenant keeps contacting them to resolve issues they will let them go unresolved.

I am looking for a new PM as well. Does anyone have experience with Douglas J. Hannah? or others to recommend?