KRK Realty, AKA: KEVIN KIRKWOOD, is a small, "shoe-box" real estate company, and an unprofessional one, in my opinion.
It is likely just one person, KEVIN KIRKWOOD, who only gives out his cell number. Okay, so a lot of agents give out their cell so what's wrong with that? Well he doesnt answer or return messages half the time. When he does answer or call you back he does a slippery dance on the phone that should send an alarm to anybody looking for a reliable agent.
I contacted KEVIN KIRKWOOD, around the 10th of May regarding a rental property he currently has listed on his website: krkrealty.com. The address is a townhome for rent located in Tempe, AZ. It's still on his site as of today, July 17. On the 10th the rent for the home was listed at $900 for what was described as a 3 bdrm / 2 bth. For Tempe, and the location, that's not bad for three bedrooms. Well, hold on, it gets better. Two minutes into speaking to him and requesting to meet him there for a look-see he says, oh I dont have the time to meet you there when you want, here's the lock-box key-code, go let yourself in...
Hello? Did I understand correctly that a PROFESSIONAL agent just GAVE OUT A PROPERTY OWNER'S LOCK-BOX CODE TO AN ANONYMOUS CLIENT OVER THE PHONE? Well he did, and this was a red flag. Not only did he not take down my name or address, but he didnt ask for my drivers lcense number or anything else. Not that it would have mattered much as a criminal type could have lied and vandalized the place, or worse, lie in wait and prey on somebody unsupecting who stopped by.
Anyway, I told my girlfriend about this and we drove over there, code in hand, and let ourselves in for the grand tour. Nice and easy. Granted, no one was there to answer our questions so this was a double edged sword. When we were done we locked the place back up securely. So far so good, right?
Hang on...
Well it turned out that the THREE BEDROOM townhome as adverstised on his site, was actually only TWO BEDROOMS. Granted, the second bedroom was LARGE, but unless you were prepared to hammer in a 10' x 10' section of drywall to divide the larger bedoom in HALF, it was still a TWO BEDROOM HOME. It was also kind of in need of new carpeting and repair. My girlfriend and I discussed this and in the end we thought we could manage with the inconvenience of the missing third bedroom as long as the price was right and the place was cleaned up.
By cleaned up I mean replace the carpeting, which looked like it had been fast-forwarded from 1962, it was that old and dated looking. If John Kennedy had come for tea back then Jackie probabaly would have flipped her bufont hairdoo over the carpet, but for a young couple in 2009 it looked pretty garish. There were also missing doors from several rooms, many of the lights and ceiling fans did not work, and a section of moulding along the bottom of the dining area wall had seemingly been eaten by jackalopes.
So the next day I called and discussed all this with KEVIN KIRKWOOD. He had already told me in the previous call that the owners will take care of cleaning the place up, fixing lights, and replace the carpeting no problem, but the rent would then see a natural increase from $900 to $1050, otherwise, if we accept the place AS-IS the rent will be at the advertised $900. Okay, well by this time after having already looked the place over. We had actually given this some thought and for the improvements involved it seemed like it was still within our budget at $1050. Anyway in the course of discussing our interest in the place, KEVIN KIRKWOOD says, well now there may be a problem. Yes it seems that the owners actually prefer to SELL the place rather than RENT, he suddenly says, so he's not sure about this. What? That's right, he says the owner was an older lady who died, and her kids on the east coast inherited the place and they dont want to be landlords...
Let me get this right, you gave out the lock-box code to strangers, had us spend our time tooling around in someone's home unescorted, gave us details on how the rent is actually going to be $1050 instead of $900 (if we ask for the place to be fixed up), then you tell us its possibly not for rent after all?
Okay...
He says, well let me talk to the owners and get back to you, maybe we can work something out. After I got off the phone I told my girlfriend about this and we were both pretty dissapointed and felt liked we were being misled, but were still willing to give this fella the benefit of the doubt. And because we liked the location and there were some nice things about the property we decided to wait for KEVIN KIRKWOOD to call us back, as HE HAD PROMISED, and let us know IF, we can still rent the place. Or not.
Mind you, all this is while we are on edge after having looked at a dozen apartments and homes in the last couple weeks and were just plum tired out. We have agents calling, asking if we made a decision yet, pushing us to rent their units, so the fact that KEVIN KIRKWOOD has us sitting around waiting to get back to us to find out if the owners will even accept our rent at $1050, up from the original $900, is a major annoyance.
Tic-Toc. Tic-Toc. Tic-Toc...
Well 5 days later, and still no word from him, I start wondering what is taking so long. So what do I do? This morning I go BACK to his website, and what do you know, he now has the place at listed as TWO BEDROOMS, instead of the original THREE (which is what drew us in the first time around - well, at least he's being factual). But the minimum rent is now showing at the full $1050, up from the originally posted $900 of five days previous.
Rather than my calling him to find out what the bottom line is, my girlfriend instead calls him from HER phone, and as he rarely answers, she left him a message, playing dumb as if she is a newly interested party. Get this! Within a couple hours he TEXTS her that the rent, is not $900 like the website said a several days ago, not $1050 like the website NOW says, but is at $1000 even... What? He cant even get his dollars straight, it almost seems like he's making all this up on the fly depending on who he's speaking / texting to!
So this evening I call him, playing dumb myself, and I dont mention anything about my girlfriend having called him earlier today, or my knowledge of the text he sent her back.instead I just cut to the chase and flat out ask him, is the place for rent OR NOT? He says, well I'm really sorry but the owners have decided to sell. Repeat: they do not want to rent, only sell... So I interupt him and I tell him, hmmm, thats really funny, because you texted MY GIRLFRIEND earlier today saying the place was available FOR RENT AT $1000/ month...
Can anyone say, BUSTED?
I hear him stammer something that kinda went like this: "Ugh, well, ummm, uhhh, ya, ohhh... Well you see... Ughh... Ohhh, I ahh didnt know that was your girlfriend... Uhh, ohhh golly, ohhhhh geeeee, ohhhh boyyyyy...
I'm thinking, uh, yeah, I know you didnt know my girlfriend called, that's why I confronted you with your changing stories. So after gaining his composure he lays this on me: Well the owners will actually WILL sell OR rent, whatever offer comes along FIRST.
BUT, he adds, if the place is rented, IT WILL BE AT THE FULL $1050, AS-IS, NO IMPROVEMENTS. NADA.
By this point I was so mad I could have spit nails, but rather than curse at this and lower my dignity I cooly thanked this guy and hung up the phone.
-never again-
Moral to this tale: we reccommend that you thouroughly scrutinize kevin kirkwood and his business before choosing to work with him. Maybe his methods will be to your liking, but they insulted our intelligence.in my opinion there are far far too many reputable licensed real estate agents out there. Our opinion was that what happened to us shows unprofessional conduct. We were a genuinely interested party and feel disrepected at the changing stories, lack of follow up, and having our time wasted. We fell sorry for homeowners that have property listed with this person. If for no other reason than the fact that he allowed clients to enter a home unescorted, this is thoroughly unsafe for all concerned.
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