Wolf & Kline Property Management

This review is with respect to Wolf & Kline as a property management company from the perspective of the homeowner who’s property W&K was contracted to allegedly manage. This is our experience over the last 2 years, so I understand others may have had other results.
In a nutshell, our experience has been one of frustration with the Wolf and Kline practices. Beware, if you intend to have them manage your property. They use every excuse to nickel and dime the owner, from «cleaning fees» and the transference of PP&L bills to the owner after a year long tenant (we were hit with a bill 35 percent higher than when we actually lived there, and it was for a vacant month!), to the finders fee for new tenants.
We averaged 1 year of lease per tenant, and W&K will charge a full months rent to find a new tenant. They assured us when we signed the contract that they «look» for long term tenants in order to minimize the financial pain to the owner, but I am not convinced. It’s easy money for them to go year-​to-​year and collect that $ 1100 each time.
When a maintenance issue does pop up, as they did with way more frequency than when we lived in the home, it seemed to always gobble up 30 percent or more of that months rent check to us. In 24 months of working with them, we received a full rent check roughly 60 – 70 percent of the time. Which means we got hit fairly hard with covering the mortgage for that property.
When I called to ask about incidental fees like «cleaning» in between tenants (shouldn’t that come out of the previous tenants security deposit, along with a re-​key fee of a couple hundred?) they responded indignantly that it’s all covered by the original contract and they are allowed to hit us for those fees.
To top it all off, they announced to us today that they are severing their management of our property with us as of today. When asking why, we got the feeling that we ask too many questions about their policies and practices. The latest being our desire to choose an HVAC company to replace our AC unit so we could finance it and get the best price instead of having them merely hold every rent check for the next 6 months on an expensive unit they choose. They don’t like owners who want a say in expensive repairs.
So, they terminated their contract with us, but we are still stuck with the lease to the tenants! How do you like that? We tried to get out of their (Wolf & Kline’s) contract months ago and were unable. The power resides completely with them, it would seem.
So, homeowners beware. Having W&K manage our property cost us an insane amount of money (while they certainly made theirs) and has been a painful experience. Chalk it up to living and learning.
Thanks for reading.

It’s been two more years — time to update. I still rent the same apartment from Wolf & Kline, and haven’t had too much to complain about. My rent has increased only once, by $ 25, and the total amount I pay each month is still quite reasonable.
On the plus side, my main complaint from my first review — snow and ice removal — has been resolved. It seems like they are now contracting with a different company for this, because snow removal this year and last has been done quickly AND to a good standard. They are clearing and salting the sidewalks between the parking lot and the building, which was lacking before.
Unfortunately, I can’t bump them up to a five-​star rating because of a bad experience with a maintenance-​related issue. There was a pipe leaking in my bathroom and it took them FIVE visits over a two-​week period to get it fixed properly, which was rather frustrating. To be fair, though, all other maintenance issues have been fixed promptly and correctly, including a leaky hot water heater that was replaced within 24 hours of me notifying them.

These are good people to rent from. They communicate well and take care of things when you need them taken care of.