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Right around the same time that the rape was committed on my property, I received an offer to buy the building, from Joe Jepson, the owner of Diamond J Management.
"...Kier has not done that well of a job maintainting your property..."
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I now realize that Mr. Jepson was NOT trying to negotiate a better purchase price at all. He was simply pointing out the fact that, Kier Property Management had clearly been mismanaging the building and maintaining it in a very poor condition, as early as April, 2008 and by Mr. Jepson's account, Kier had been doing so for quite some time and it was apparently evident to everyone who saw the building.
Mr. Jepson goes on to state in the email that: ~
"...I have rented to 3 people in the past year that used to live there (Peery) and they said they hated Kier..."
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Establishing Kier's mismanagement as far back as April, 2007.
If a tenant hates their property manager, it's generally NOT because they have a personality conflict with them. Tenants usually end up hating their property manager because they feel that they are being mistreated.... or they ARE being mistreated.
Also, tenants who hate their property manager, don't really have much of an incentive to take care of their apartments or the complex very well... a fact that Kier repeatedly went out of their way to prove, given the condition of the building on November 30, 2009.
Surprisingly enough, I recently received the email below, from a member of the Utah State House of Representatives , voicing his opinions on how Kier does business in the City of Ogden.
Interesting that a well respected property owner / manager and a member of the Utah State House of Representatives, BOTH have similar takes on
THE KIER CORPORATION
Corroborating Mr. Jepson's statement, are statements from every single resident at the building. According to them, Kier's treatment of the tenants was exceedingly poor, or as one Kier tenant put it, 'they treat us like low-lifes'.
Reportedly, Kier had routinely threatened the residents with eviction, or the loss of their housing benefits, if they complained about anything at the building. Kier had also placed numerous, threatening signs around the property proclaiming that, "THIS IS YOUR WARNING." The residents also informed me that Kier rarely addressed anything around the building in terms of repairs or maintenance, unless there was a catastrophic breakdown and that service calls from the residents, were routinely ignored, or addressed days, weeks or even months later... if ever.
Click to read these transcripts of my Resident's statements.
...Three months later, after the murder on the property, Mr. Jepson politely backed out of the sale.
- April, 2008 - Joe Jepson's initial offering was: _____________________ $895,000
- May, 2008 - The final agreed upon price was: ______________________ $980.000
- June, 2009 the Weber Co. Tax Assessor valued the property at: _______ $820,000
- In December, 2009 the building's assessed value was reduced to: _____ $600,000
The Assessor's decision to reduce the assessed value, was based in large part on an in-person inspection of the building and its exceedingly poor condition.
Before I had discovered how severely dilapidated Kier had allowed the building to become, I had listed it for sale using the services of Marcus & Millichap, the agency that I had bought the building through. The listing price reflected the comparable sales in the area, for buildings that were in a similar condition to my building when I bought it in 2005. (assuming that Kier had maintained it that way)
The offers that were received were significantly lower than the offering price.
On December 4, 2009, Michael Beckstead, a realtor with Marcus & Millichap confirms with this email to me, that it was apparent from the exterior, that the building had been neglected.
He also suggests that I do one of two things:
- Get the building under better management;
- Drop the price significantly, in order to find a buyer.
Apparently, the ONLY thing that Kier successfully did at the building was
LOWER ITS VALUE
Sure it is
