We had our property managed by Halo/John Keenan for 6 years. My experience was completely…read moreaggravating to borderline circus -- cuts corners, arrogant, uncommunicative, disorganized, takes no responsibility.
Halo's contract says they take care of all municipal ordinance requirements. Except Halo never registered the home, so it racked up over $1000 in fines. When I listed the house, I learned there was a lien on the property because of Halo's mistake. John left me a nasty voicemail, "Your husband is sticking his nose in your business [by asking the Township about the fines accrued], and causing you a lot of problems." He had the nerve to blame us for the fines, as if my husband created the tickets by calling the building department. Mind you, John puts himself out of there as a real estate attorney. You would think he would follow local housing laws. Once John paid the fines, he made a big deal about how he did us a "favor" by paying the bill.
Organization is really not Halo's strong suit. At first, we had our draw sent by the 15th every month. As the years went on, it was later and later. Sometimes I would have contact them to ask. The response time got slower and slower. I would be told that they were on vacation, or he'd blame the postal service (even though some of the stamps would be cancelled reflecting he hadn't mailed it til the end of the month.
Other companies that managed my property kept a running spreadsheet for our income and expenses, and took care of tax documentation. Not Halo! This proved to be problematic with knowing how much money was held in the owners reserve (I had originally been sent two contracts-- one stated "one month," and another stated "two months"), when repairs occurred, etc.
John was slow to respond to my request to end the tenant's contract. John was pushy with me for six months not to sell my home, and once he realized it was going to happen one way or another, he pushed me to hire his buddy RE agent. As soon as he realized we were done, he was done working for us. It took him a over month to even serve notice to the tenant, another month and a half until move out, and another almost two months for him to finish our contract out and settle up our security deposit. He wouldn't return my calls or emails about the return of the security deposit and owners reserve, and when I did get him on the phone, he was loud and rude with me.
I asked repeatedly for pictures after move out & a final copy of the water bill. He never produced anything, but did keep the vast majority of security deposit for a water bill, cleaning ($550) junk hauling ($600), all on hand-written receipts. Even though the contract stated any work over $500 would be done with our permission, he went ahead and did it preemptively. He ate up most of the funds that should've been made available to me. I never saw any before/after pictures, nor any real receipts.
The house was still a complete disaster, as evidenced by the photos my RE agent took. Looks like he never went into the property, or even inspected the exterior.
Halo ripped me off with an H2O tank repair. He took $700 from my monthly draw for a new tank, which ended up being a scrapper unit with "$300" written on it in Sharpie. Serial number scratched off, dented and rusty. He also cut corners and violated ordinance by not pulling permit or having it inspected. I discovered all this through the buyer's inspection, which revealed an improperly installed & damaged unit, leaking CO. At first, John denied it, until I produced the $700 deduction. Then he went super ridiculous, and told me he thinks the little old lady tenant stole the new tank, and she must've replaced it with a lesser unit (John must've slept in the day they went over Occam's razor in law school). John let himself back into the empty house & declared all was well because he turned on the tap & hot water came out! Eureka! And that's the last I ever heard from John Keenan and Halo Real Estate.
Do yourself a favor and stay far, far away from these people. Unless you're a tenant, want to trash a house, and hope that old prune never catches up with you. And if he does, please know he'll accuse you of stealing hot water tanks. But if you're a home owner, I wouldn't trust Halo with your property!
