TexasTurnkeyProperties.com Reviews PLEASE HELP

[Brandon S.]

I'm looking to buy a new construction rental property with Texas Turnkey Properties. Looking to see if any other investors worked with them and how their experience went. Any and all information is appreciated.

[Jay Hinrichs]

First class company for sure.. been working with them on and off for 6 plus years.

[Caleb Heimsoth]

Make sure you get the property taxes and insurance costs down. Those will eat your cash flow alive in Texas

[Brandon S.]

Thank you @Jay Hinrichs! Have you personally purchased properties with them? @Caleb Heimsoth said something that I've already fear which is the taxes and insurance in Houston.  Pretty higher than what I'm used to.

[Al K.]

Due to bad and costly experiences  I do not recommend this company and the affiliated Real Property Management Preferred. This review is for both. There’s many brutal experiences from true disgruntled owners and tenants described here and in other sites such as google and yelp that I read and that are in line with my experiences  

-2 COMPANIES, SAME OWNERS

Texas Turnkey Properties (texasturnkeyproperties.com) and Real Property Management Preferred (htownrpm.com) are 2 companies owned and operated by the couple Shawn and Joni Wolfswinkel. Their business model is selling flipped houses to investors and then managing them.

I initially believed that this model would incentivize them to manage investors’ properties in the most efficient and cost effective way. It would make sense this way because investors would come back to buy again. After thousands and thousands of dollars lost on make-ready and other types of repairs as well as time (money) lost on excessive turnaround time frames, I don’t believe that any longer. It takes time to realize this though. The relationship is a long road filled with opportunities for them to milk owners on every repair call and every make-ready, all the way to the end of the road when you decide to fire them. Their interest to flip houses quickly (time and resources diverted to their interests) and manage properties that they themselves own, comes into conflict with the interests of investors.

-EARLY TERMINATION FEES This is their last opportunity for them to make money out the owners. Once the sign up for property management is completed, the owner is trapped by contract for a year. The contract will renew automatically every year. The window to fire them without penalty is 30 days prior to anniversary. If the owner cuts them at any other time, for any reason, no matter how long he’s been with them he’ll pay the fees. Rest assured. The amount can be substantial and upwards of hundreds of dollars.

-MARK UP FEES ON REPAIRS

Every repair call is an opportunity for them to make money out of the owner. They charge 15% mark up fees on every repair. At least that’s what they say when you ask them, but who knows? They do not disclose this figure in the contract agreement and they don’t tell you which vendor they use on each case. Many vendors I have called quote less and they take credit cards directly from the owner but to use the credit card through RPM preferred you would have to pay a hefty fee.

-MAKE READY, my experience.

The tenant that they vetted abandoned the property they managed 1 1/2 months before the end of contract. I was notified of this on Nov. 22. I received the make ready estimation more then 3 weeks later (Dec. 17). It took 3 weeks for them to complete an estimation report and that was only after I begged Shawn to speed things up. Price tag? $6200. Shawn agreed to renegotiate the price but it took another 2 weeks for them to come to the estimate of around $5000. It took them almost 4 weeks (close to end of January) to finish the make ready. It took another 10 days to go live (early February). They found a tenant by the end of March to occupy by the end of April. 5 months loss of rent and more then $5000 in the hole.

What was one of the first complaints the new tenant filed once she got in? The carpet they supposedly cleaned stunk like dog and urine. The expense for this cleaning and others right after were not part of the negotiated price tag.

They also said they will send the previous tenant to collection for damages and report to me but they never mentioned it again.

-MAJOR REPAIR, my experience during Texas freeze.

Tenant reported damages from pipe break Feb. 19. The emergency cleanup/mitigation/pipe repair was completed by March 3d and they quickly asked for authorization to represent me in insurance payments which I declined. In authorization form there was a disclosure of $200 penalty if I were to cancel them as my authorized entity in repairs and payments. They sent estimations for some repairs related to the same event which I approved and paid. For the rest of repairs despite my inquiries week after week they never sent the estimations until April 14 (44 days later). The tenant didn’t return to the property and missed April payment. I fired them from the last property on April 9. They sent the $6300 cleanup invoice on May 12 (3 days after the end of their service). The invoice was written in the most general terms. No explanation or documentation of expenses by categories was given. Explanation from Kevin Sodke, the director of maintenance to my inquiry was: “I reviewed the invoices and can assure you they are correct”. That’s it. No need for me to review them too. Just trust Kevin and shut up.

-Documentation for repairs (invoices and pictures)

For the most part I have had to request repeatedly several times to get them

-Inspections

It’s inconsistent across properties. Sometimes and in some properties they do it and sometimes and in some other properties they don’t do it even though I signed up for them.

-Customer service

The agents are always nice and courteous. But they have constantly offered help at the times when I needed nothing. When I have contacted them, in general they have responded within 24 hours. Not always. Many times inquiries about invoices, documentation of repairs, delays on repairs, discrepancies on charges, have gone unanswered, delayed or answered in irrelevant ways, but always nice. This will not however make up for the substantial monetary loss bound to happen down the line.

[Ronald Rohde]

Do you think you could have avoided this from the contract stage? Or only once you started leasing?

[Al K.]

TTK (texasturnkeyproperties.com) and it’s affiliated property management RPM Preferred are very active among investors especially those out of state. I hope that my experience would open the eyes to the future investors. 
As far as contract is involved in hindsight I would have refused the service of RPM preferred but they (TTK) provided me with an entry to Houston market and I gave them the benefit of the doubt. In every business there is contract and a certain degree of trust. If you don’t have a certain level of trust you wouldn’t jump into business regardless of how good the contract is.