OmniKey Realty (northern Texas)

[Brett D.]

Short story: I do not recommend OmniKey Realty.

I know a number of people have wondered about them.  Before going with them, I looked and couldn't find much info.  So here goes...

Long story:

I was referred to OmniKey by RealWealth Network, which I saw on some BP podcasts. I watched co-owner Leah Slaughter’s videos; she is very knowledgeable and sells the information well. The pro formas looked good. We bought a new construction single family in Denison, Texas. We never went to see it in person. I relied on photos, videos and discussions with OmniKey. (Anyone else buy sight-unseen, or just us?) I frequently asked questions and voiced concerns with various issues along the way. After delays that cost us thousands, the house was completed and closed at the beginning of April. The lender blamed the builder for the delays. OmniKey blamed the lender. Not being able to decide either way, I talked with Leah Slaughter. She went through the timeline in detail and was convincing the delays were the lender’s fault. Mmmokay, we just sucked it up. More importantly, she let me know most clients don’t require so much hand-holding. She told me they and we probably weren’t a good fit. She was trying to fire me! I admit, as a first-timer, I had a bunch of questions and concerns. But I still can’t imagine they were out of line from anyone else in my circumstance.

Thanks to not researching anyone else and not having a backup plan and just wanting to get a tenant in there, we continued with OmniKey for the management. Huge mistake.

Over the next almost four months, we never had a tenant.

Well, we kind of did. Some out-of-state retired couple signed the lease and paid to start without seeing the property in person. As they were supposed to be moving in, I got a call from OmniKey saying there was a problem. The couple was threatening to sue them and us. See, the house was one of three built on a strange in-fill lot where driveways weren’t included from the main street. Instead, an alley coming from a side street was the access to get to the backs of the houses. That’s where the driveways were. The couple was complaining that we shouldn’t have accepted a near-80-year-old couple because they would have to risk their lives to take the trash out. Ageism, anyone? Long story short, we released them from the lease on condition we keep one month’s rent due to the overall three+ weeks our house would be off the market due to them.

So besides the lawsuit couple that never even moved in, we never had a tenant in nearly four months with OmniKey. I believe anyone else would reasonably be calling and emailing to discuss that, like we did. I could rarely get anyone to answer the phone, let along speak with anyone about my property. They were always out or in a meeting. Over the final week or two, my phone calls were only answered once by a receptionist who insisted no one was available to help. We had had enough.

This time, I did a lot of research. We zeroed in on Angel Ridge Properties for management. I even spoke with five other investors over the phone, plus two more via email, about their experiences. Anyway, we picked them. Having that set up, and since I literally couldn’t get a hold of a single soul at OmniKey, I literally spam emailed them. Over time, I had found 14 different email addresses for people at OmniKey. I sent an email to Leah Slaughter and CC’ed the other 13 in hopes someone would actually read and reply to it. In my email, I stated OmniKey had proven completely incapable of providing us any form of management services and had been negligent of our contract. Due to their negligence, we had to pay unreasonable amounts out of pocket. I demanded they release us from the management contract without charging any termination fees or requesting/collecting anything further.

Suddenly and amazingly, they were very quick to respond. The contract was ended without any additional fees. However, they gave Angel Ridge (AR) the incorrect information for the lock box, delaying that transition. And of course, AR couldn’t get a hold of OmniKey to get the correction. And then they took another number of days, maybe a week, to finally remove their lock box and sign.

So now, we’re done with OmniKey. But it’s not over.

When AR went to survey and prepare the house for marketing, they discovered something alarming. Remember that alley I mentioned above? Apparently, that situation was a lot worse than we realized. The alley is a utility access. No one is responsible for it. But if we pave it, for example, and a utility needs to dig it up for something underground, we’re screwed. And it keeps getting narrower as you go down it. By the time it gets to my house, the third and last, you wouldn’t even be able to get a moving truck back there. And the transition from the dirt/gravel alley to my driveway was partially washed away, creating a possibly hazard for a car (only small vehicles would be able to make the turn). Oh, and the thing with there being no access from the front of the house to the main street had created such a ruckus, there was a news article about it. The City never had the issue before and didn’t have any standing code at the time about it. Well, they changed it. But of course, that was for anything newer… not my property. I fully understand it’s my fault for not going in person to look at the property. But seriously? OmniKey couldn’t ever give me a heads up about how challenging it was?

<sigh>

So, we’re looking into at least fixing the transition from the alley to the driveway. AR told some tenant applicants that and within two weeks we now have tenants.

That’s our experience with OmniKey. We’ve learned a lot. The hard way. But no, I would never recommend OmniKey Realty.