Hales Property Management

Hales Property Management has a superstar on staff and his name is Steven Walter. I say that with full conviction and I am happy to have the opportunity to write this review to let all know. I have been in my condo for three years and Steve has been our property manager. Right from the beginning he has returned calls, emails and been very responsive to all my questions and concerns. One of his greatest strengths is his diplomacy when dealing with all condo folks, and that he takes seriously all that is asked of him by our association. He is friendly, efficient and quick to respond. He always has an answer, advice or a contact on how to handle all types of situations. I feel lucky that our condo has him as our property manager.

Hales Property Management recently became our buildings property management company after it was clear that the board could no longer handle the duties. The difference has been night and day ever since. Jacqulin is our contact person and she is as good as it gets. I know whenever we have an issue I can send her an email or give her a quick call and it will be looked into and addressed ASAP. She will not quit until the issue is solved and always follows up with us, which I really appreciate. These issues end up getting solved in days rather than weeks which is the big difference when bringing aboard a property management company like Hales.
I would recommend Hales to any condo association looking to take the burden off of the owners/​board members. It really makes a huge difference once you put it in the hands of the professionals. And hopefully you’ll be lucky enough to get Jacqulin as your point person too.

Our condo association switched to Hales from Connected Management at the beginning of this year. The universal consensus was we needed a more proactive and responsive management company for our 12 unit building.
Hales has been great for us in almost every way, from reviewing the budget, helping negotiate better vendor contracts, and responding to a myriad of issues that come up with a building that’s 7 years old. Jacqulin is our point person and she’s highly responsive and works to help alleviate the load for the owners who are in the unenviable position of being board members.
I would highly recommend them and glad they are helping us keep everything in order for our building and our condo association.

Initially I thought Hales was just highly incompetent, which they are, but they are also deceitful and the last people I want managing my HOA funds. Our needs were very basic, small building management with automated payments and an occasional special assessment.
Paying the flat rate they charge just wasn’t enough for Hales and they continually pulled excessive charges left and right. If you are looking for reliable, (even somewhat) honest property management, then I advise you look elsewhere. If you are currently using Hales, take a close look at your accounting.
I see Keith comes on here and knocks down the bad reviews, accusing negative reviewers of being competitors; par for the course with Keith. I am a former condo owner under Hales management and am happy to forward my correspondence with Keith/​Hales if he questions the validity of my review.
1 star because 0 is not an option.
Update: As expected, Keith came on here attempting to falsify my claims. I wish he was half this concerned or responsive when he managed our HOA. My response to Keith’s message below:
Keith — I can’t tell, are you serious? Do you actually think you run an honest service? Your futile attempts to respond to these posts are laughable. I could rebuttal every point you made here and attach emails from you contradicting specific facts you listed above. I’m done wasting time trying to speak constructively with you. Our lawyer told me we could easily take you to small claims court for the money you’ve wrongfully taken. Frankly it’s not worth my time at this point. I hope you reevaluate how you run your business because it’s shameful. Other Hales clients have already direct messaged me saying they’re experiencing similar dishonesty with you.

Hales Property Management is literally the shadiest and worst company I’ve ever had to deal with. The owner, Keith, and his company consistently pulled exorbitant charges from our budget and were incompetent when it came to managing our projects.
We moved into our 6-​unit condo building in mid-​2013, which was already being managed by Hales. When we started digging into the budgets, we noticed there were multiple checks that Hales was writing to themselves coming from our account that they were «managing». When we asked them what these clandestine charges entailed, everything we were told was ridiculous. We were consistently being charged $ 300/​yr for «stamps, envelopes and copies» in an age where everything is paid online and I cannot recall having one copy or piece of mail sent to us. We were also being charged $ 250 for «snow salt» (a quick online check showed that a A 50 lb bag of rock salt that would last any building an entire season is $ 7.77), on top of the hourly fee that we paid for snow removal. Additionally, Hales wrote themselves an $ 891 check for «renegotiating» our insurance policy. Negotiating our yearly policy was clearly something that was in our contract and part of what we paid them a monthly fee to do, so the fact that they took it upon themselves to pay themselves another $ 891 is absurd and immoral. These are just some of the examples of them taking money from us, but the list goes on-​and-​on.
In addition to all the money that Hales was taking from us, they would also raise their annual management fee 10% every year without making that clear to the Board. In 2014, we raised our annual HOA fees 7.5% to account for inflation in the market, but didn’t realize Hales had increased their monthly payment by 10%, so all of our incremental money that we were supposed to use to pay bills and build up our reserves went to them. Hales did not help us deposit one dollar into our Reserves in over 2.5 years of working with them since they basically use every last penny of your budget by writing themselves checks for erroneous charges. So while they might appear cheaper than their competitors, they certainly won’t be when you realize that each year they raise their fee by 10% or more and they are gradually taking thousands of dollars from you over the course of your contract.
Since cutting ties with Hales in July, our HOA has already saved over two thousand dollars in less than three months. We’ve also negotiated lower pricing on some of our monthly services, which is laughable since you would think that favorable pricing would be the one thing that having a property management company would for sure get you.
I’m sure Keith will comment on this post with some lame excuse or accusatory statement, but just know that he is full of it. Whatever you do, stay clear of this company. You will be happy you did.

Our condo association has been with Hales Management for several years now once it was collectively determined early on that we needed assistance. Initially the board interviewed several other management companies and it became clear quickly that Hales was the company to partner up with.
Since then they’ve always been there when we needed them; they’re professional, punctual and very reliable. They’ve kept us in the loop with very useful information via email and they’ve done an excellent job handling issues over the phone or via their web portal on the fly as issues arise.
They’ve also done a great job leading our board meetings in person, always listening carefully to resident issues, offering advice and then are very proactive with the feedback they receive.

We switched to Hales a few months ago and the level of service has been phenomenal! Amazing response times, great savings on proposals and friendly people!

I contacted Hales Property Management, Inc. for a few construction consulting work (plumbing and building security) and they were great! Got back to me right away with preferred vendors who were able to fix the issues immediately. If you’re looking for a responsive management company that provides quality service and product, this group is second to none!

I can not agree with this. I have placed several service calls into Hales Property Management Company and they are extremely unresponsive to follow-​up and follow-​through. I am a condo owner that is managed by Hales Property Mgt Company. The response time from Keith and follow through is unacceptable.
I had requested several times for our Intercom to be fixed and was never fixed after being assured by property managers that it would be fixed by a certain date.
I would suggest your condo association to consider other property management companies as this one is not responsive at all to customer service requests.

Nick C. and his team at Hales are fantastic. They are competent, responsive, and considerate. When they say they will take care of it in the next 24 hours, rest assured it will done. (More than likely it will get done on the same day of the request.) I am very happy that our board has chosen them to take care of our property. They are the best.

Property managers do not get better than HPM.
I was the Board President of a condominium building that continually had to change property managers due to lack of responsiveness and general incompetence. That all changed when we hired HPM.
Keith Hales came to our first meeting with great ideas about what our building needed and how we could best budget and plan for future expenses. He also pointed out several city code/​safety issues that had never been flagged by prior property managers. In our first year, we accomplished more (for less money) than in the prior four years.
Keith and his staff are extremely responsive and well-​organized. Their costs are very reasonable, and the peace of mind that they provide is priceless.
If you are considering property management companies, give HPM a call.