Desperate people do desperate things. Because my previous landlord decided to sell the home I was occupying with only a 30 day notice, I had to quickly find an apartment that allowed a 70lb dog. This is when I met Steve, the owner of Reconnect Realty. I have a mice infestation and Reconnect refuses to properly address the issue. TIMELINE 7/2: Reconnect was notified via email of 3 different mice sightings in less than 24 hours. 7/3: Reconnect notified me that someone would be out. They set up 2 glue traps and poison in the apartment and in the basement. 7/4: Reconnect was notified that a mouse was in a glue trap. Reconnect responded that they would bring more traps, but never showed. Additionally, Reconnect was notified of an area of drywall in the pantry that had been chewed by the mice. 7/5: Reconnect notified me that they would be out that day. Maintenance (Christine) brought more traps, explained to me where they were in the house and basement. She has been the most helpful throughout the process, explaining everything she knew about mice. 7/7: Reconnect was notified of another mouse in a trap. 7/8: Reconnect was notified of 2 more mice that were caught, with 1 being in the shower with me. Current total: 4. Reconnect was made aware the problem was growing in severity. They refused to respond to the question about the escalation policy and did not respond to the prior three (3) attempts of communication. Reconnect notified me that they will be showing my apartment on 7/11 to potential renters. Side note: The week of prior to the infestation, I had expressed concern about their policy to show apartments for 60 days prior to moving out. I bought a home and will be out 30 days earlier than the lease date and asked that they wait to show the apartment due to safety and security concerns; they refused, citing the need to market the apartment, reminding me that I signed in agreement to this in the lease. 7/9: Another mouse was discovered in a glue trap. It was discovered that the mice chewed a hole in the bathroom near the seal of the tub and an additional place between the vanity and the baseboard. It was also discovered that the mice had taken up residence in the back of the fridge with a stockpile of dog food and random items, creating a fire hazard. Due to the growing safety issues, I attempted to notify Reconnect in person, but was told Steve didn't have time. After pressing, Reconnect reached out via text to schedule a sit down meeting with Steve at 1pm on 7/10. When alerting each of my neighbors of the mice infestation, I learned from the upstairs neighbor that they had bedbugs. Reconnect was immediately made aware of this situation. Reconnect is in breach of the lease agreement due to a failure to maintain a safe living environment. The city was notified, and a complaint was filed. The city will schedule an inspection to investigate the occupancy status. This is currently pending. Reconnect received a courtesy email to let them know of the city inspection. Reconnect notified me of another showing of my apartment on 7/12. 7/10: Received communication from Reconnect in response to the breach of the lease. Verbatim response, "At this time I am not aware of any habitability issues that have not been addressed. Can you reply with what you think the habitability issues are?" Reconnect is ignoring all of the safety issues and refusing to address them. I cancelled the meeting at 1pm and requested communication be only in written form as this will lead to legal action if not addressed. Signs were created and hung in my unit reading, "This unit is infested with mice. The upstairs unit has bedbugs." Concerned neighbors contacted Reconnect in response of the signs. Steve told the neighbors that I was lying because I was angry that they were showing the apartment. The neighbor said Steve told her, "If you find out she is lying, let me know." STL Pest Control estimated it would cost $95-$165 to remedy the problem. Reconnect was notified of this estimate. Reconnect notified me at 9:30pm that there would be a building inspection from 3-5pm on 7/11. 7/11: Reconnect completed the inspection of my unit and the building, only addressing the concern of bedbugs. When asked about the mice issue, Steve refused to respond. Additionally, I asked if he was going to continue to tell other tenants that I was lying. He told me he would not address this at this time due to my hostility. Reconnect left me with another box of glue traps and poison. I also walked a Crew Leader through the apartment to show the damage caused by the mice and ask about a course of action. Reconnect notified me that upon visual inspection of the unit, there were no bedbugs found; however, to be sure, a pest control company would be out at 10:30 on 7/12 to confirm. 7/12 A certified bedbug specialist examined the property and determined there were no bedbugs. Removed portion of the sign re: bedbugs. read more

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I say this with one caveat - I have only been a Reconnect tenant for 2 weeks, at this point. That said, Benjamin, David, and Steve at Reconnect Realty have been excellent to me, throughout my tenancy with them thus far. David made promises around certain things at the unit I chose to rent being handled by the time I moved in, and that has been done. His presentation of the units I was considering and respect for my comfort levels during a global pandemic were also impressive. He was also thorough in his explanation of the rental and move-in process, expectations around the sort of neighbors I would have (noise is never an issue, and that's part of their expectations - I love this), and even made sure to include my bearded dragon in the lease to ensure there are never any issues around its being here. While my interactions with Steve have been minimal and all business, his attention to detail and dedication to ensuring the terms of the lease are clearly understood prior to signing are greatly appreciated. I also had an incident with identity theft (completely unrelated) ON my moving day, and Steve worked with me regarding my checks for rent and deposit to guarantee I was able to resolve that issue comfortably. In addition, Steve would have aided in communication behind the scene with the actual property owner regarding the issue Benjamin helped resolve for me. Benjamin has been wonderful, as well. Benjamin has been my point of contact involving replacing the fridge which was present in the unit, when I moved in. I'll be honest, I was shocked to find my freezer to be borderline non-functional shortly after getting settled in here - meat wasn't freezing thoroughly, and my celebratory ice cream was more or less soup. That said, Benjamin spearheaded efforts to get it diagnosed within a couple of days, and I now have a new, working fridge and freezer (my ice cream is ice cream, again!). Again, I've only lived here a couple of weeks so far, and this process would have taken a number of steps to approve - they got it taken care of quite promptly, and I'm happy to have not lost any food to this issue. I cook on the daily, so this would have been a huge financial loss for me. I won't lie, I'm worried about all the negative I see on others' reviews - but, especially given that the circumstances leading to my move weren't ideal, and Reconnect's team have done nothing but impress me, thus far. This is especially welcome, given the state of the world in 2020, and my move taking place at the head of December (never fun). I'm hoping this positive relationship with my Leasor continues for the duration of my tenancy, as I have truly been nothing but impressed, thus far. read more

Don't rent from here if you want reliable landlords. This is definitely a company that just wants you to rent from them and then they don't care about their apartments after. We were asked to pay double security deposit, $1600, because we were young and no rental history. I assumed I would walk into a clean apartment if they were being that cautious. When we finally got our apartment after, it was disgusting. It didn't even look like they swept. The fans were never touched, food left in the fridge, the tiles in the bathrooms were coming up, holes all over the walls, blinds caked in dirt, the oven looked like it hadn't ever been cleaned and nothing was painted over. My roommate and I had to clean the entire place. We should have called them, but we knew it would take a week before they answered us. It was quite the shock that they took $125.00 from our deposit for a "cleaning crew" seeing as they clearly don't use it for cleaning. We had to cover all the holes in the walls, which we made zero. We painted over every hole. We fixed every problem from previous renters. We left it sparkling just so they had no choice but to give us our deposit. This place is sketchy and we knew they would try and take all the money they could. Please make sure to take pictures of EVERYTHING. Our building also didn't have hallway lights for 3 months. We had to walk up to the third story in pitch black every night. We emailed them about it. It was fixed for a could of days and then went out again. It's clearly a electric issue that they won't fix. Dont expect to get a response from them within a week of emailing. Their lease is 16 pages long, basically stating that you're responsible for fixing anything. They never once cleaned our lobby. It's clear they just rent their apartments and never look back at them. They actually want raised the rent after we moved. I don't know how they want to raise rent in a building where there's no hallway lights.... They send us text about them showing our rental still. We haven't rented from them in two months and they still send reminders. I had to block the number because it automatedI'm currently renting from Helix properties and now I see what a landlord should actually be like. They are amazing and so helpful. They are unprofessional. Dave just stands there on his phone while you look at the place. If landlords don't care enough to walk around with you, that should be a clear sign to walk away. I made that mistake. read more

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Terrible company. I actively pursued renting through them for weeks and Steve Prane rarely responded. For someone who is responsible for facilitating the process between renters and landlords, they are terrible at their jobs. Canceled appointments at the last minute, ignored emails, and just was awful at communicating. I felt very put off by our (very few) interactions. I'm eager to rent in the St. Louis area but I won't be renting any properties that are managed by these people. read more

I've worked with Steve and Reconnect for three years now and they've been extremely professional, courteous, competent, and responsive. I highly recommend them! read more

I've called Steve twice this morning, no response: yet he can respond to my reviews. If you wanna work with someone that takes 50 years to get a hold of. Feel free. Imagine you leave this apartment and your new landlord has to reach them? My friend had to delay the signing of her new lease just because these people wouldn't pick up the phone. Far from professional. Again , proceed with caution do not ignore these reviews. Of course they will save face, it's their business but their customer service is horrible. Don't stress yourself. read more

I rented a house from them back in 2010. We were young and did some damage, they sued us rightful so. They waited 4 years and hoped we lost all our paperwork to take us to court. This was our first rental and we didnt get reciepts of damage and when we moved out they sued us for it. They are re-suing for a double garnishment aganist two seperate adults on the lease. So instead of 4700 They are receiving 9,000. They are scam artist. Avoid at all cost possible. They place we rented was less than stellar. Our experience was Steve was the exact same. read more

Steve Prane has a tendency to not meet his tenants needs that should obviously be met. In the 2nd floor apartment that I rented from him, we were seeing anywhere from $250-350 power bills in the summer. His solution was for US to weatherproof HIS apartment. There was a 60+ year old balcony door that had no sealant, that would constantly let outside air in. His suggestion was to have us get blackout curtains for every window in the apartment. That is not our job. Twice while we were in the apartment, the fridge stopped working. Twice our food went bad. Twice, Stephen told us we were SOL when it came to being compensated for lost food. The shower handle in the apartment wasn't even designed for the shower. It turns infinitely to the left or right. For our entire 12 months, we were repeatedly told it would be replaced. It never was. 3 Months after moving into the apartment, we heard running and scratching in the walls. We discovered there were at least two raccoons living inside the walls/ceiling of the apartment building. I mentioned this to Steve 9 different times in the span of 7 months. A few times, his own maintenance people came out and strapped metal down on some of the shingles, but that did not stop them. He finally decided to get a wildlife control person to come take care of the problem... the literal day before we moved out of the building. The problem with Steve is, he hates being wrong. He cares more about being right about a problem rather than actually righting the wrong. He's terrible at communicating on the phone also ( so be prepared for extremely awkward silences when you are trying to make your voice be heard to him. He doesn't care, and it's weird trying to get him to actually speak when you call him. Sometimes, it's like I was actually talking to air.) We paid for 1.5 months on our initial deposit, so $1350. When we moved out, there were paint scuff marks on the wall behind where we had a microwave, and also some nail holes that needed to be filled in the bedrooms. The oven was not completely cleaned either. Because of this short list, he thought that was worth giving us almost $500 less for our return. He also made us responsible for cleaning the furnace. I left messages for Steve concerning this, and I never heard back from him. Steve is a scumlord, emphasis on scum. I would avoid Reconnect if you value your sanity and if you want to be treated with respect. Steve is in this for himself and people that rent are low priority to him compared to people that buy property from him. read more

I will start with the short and sweet version: Steve's first priority is being "right" and proving his point and his last priority is customer service. I rented a property through Reconnect Realty and had a less than stellar experience. They were very eager to get my application in, sign the lease and pay my ($900+) deposit. Once they cashed my check their communication was minimal and inaccurate. I contacted them to see if the apartment had been cleaned and was ignored. I had to reach out to them about the move in process and getting the keys to the apartment. I was given incorrect information as a response. When I discussed this with Steve he was horribly rude and made it very clear that he knows very little about customer service. He blamed the entire miscommunication on me, saying that he told me all the information at the lease signing which was a month earlier. None of the information was in writing or included in the lease, but he continued to blame me in a rude and disrespectful manner. He even went as far as to say he didn't trust that I was going to pay my rent (despite my spotless rental history). He knows very little about treating his customers with respect and the importance of keeping your customer happy. Landlords, take a serious look at this company before choosing to use them. Customer service is certainly not their first priority. read more

I have worked with Reconnect Realty for many years and always been treated respectfully and professionally. I am very pleased with their responsiveness to any issues I have needed addressed. I recommend them and their services wholeheartedly. I will continue to use them to meet any real estate or rental needs in the future. read more

When I first met Steve at Reconnect Realty I was ready to sell my investment property and be done with the whole mess. It takes a special person to deal with tenants and I am now not ashamed to say that I can't. Steve on the other hand can and does it the very best. I am now so glad that I didn't sell because Steve gave me peace of mind. I give him 5 stars because when it comes to the property management portion of Reconnect Realty, he is the best! read more

Do NOT rent from this real estate firm. They don't screen their tenants, they'll rope you into signing a lease that only protects the interests of the landlord and not the tenant, and besides that, Stephen Prane is just an a**hole to deal with. They will rent to anyone with cash and a pulse. Yikes! read more

Reconnect Realty & Steve Prane do nothing but try to steal your money at any cost. Their homes are constantly broken in to, which they do nothing about. As a single mother, I sometime am late on rent and will discuss it with Steve and they always charge me $150 for it even though I was told he would work with me when I needed it (I have never went a whole month without paying rent, just a couple days late). Steve will make a deal with you with the lease and conveniently screw you every time (and make you pay more money). I would never rent from them again. After paying my rent every month for 4 years, they have shown me what money hungry thugs really are. Its sad to see the day where people do not care about others while I am working hard to take care of my family. It's just really sad! read more

In response to another poster. The whole point is to protect the landlord. They are a management company. The decision to rent is not the management company's either it belongs to the property owner. I use ReConnect for some rental property in the city of St. Louis and they do a good job. read more

We have used Reconnect to purchase 3 homes and sell 2 of them. Steve is great to work with. Some of the homes that we have purchased needed work done and he is great at helping visualize possibilities and he knows what is within a realistic budget of work. You don't want to purchase a home with amazing expectations and find out that the work you were planning cost more than you could afford. We highly recommend Steve! read more

I have rented from Reconnect Realty for a couple years and recently moved from one of their units. They were pretty easy to deal with to get approved, though I had to submit extra information which I guess is thorough but good to know they take screening seriously. They helped me get the unit I preferred on the 2nd floor, and got the owner to approve a couple things that I requested be completed before I moved in. During the lease, they seemed to respond to any maintenance issues quickly and were easy to reach if I had a question. I even referred a friend to one of their other units and they gave me a thank you gift which was very cool. As far as property managers go, they were a good company and I would rent from them again. read more

I understand from my first conversation with Dave Mannion, He obviously had a bias against first time renters. And instead of taking the time to find out that my boyfriend and I are perfectly reliable adults with great incomes and perfect credit, he was rude, insulting and unprofessional. having a 9-5 job and traveling for work is hard enough and he would not budge on HIS schedule for setting up a time to view properties. When one was finally finalized he didn't confirm with me at all I had to send him an email the day of to cancel. I may be a first time renter, but I know A LOT about professionalism. read more

I've worked with this company before. I was looking for investment property and called them up. Not only did the owner give me free advice he made sure all my questions were answered and even recommended some options that wouldn't benefit their organization. Nice to see integrity isn't lost in business today. Next time I buy a property I'm calling Reconnect. read more

I am a property owner and have been working with Steve and Dave at Reconnect for around 4 years for their property management services. I have worked with several property management companies in the past and have found that they are responsible and fair in their work, timely and honest. My experience with them is head and shoulders above other agencies I have used. They are selective in the tenants they place for my units which makes for a better long term rental experience. I have been very happy with their service. I would rate a 4.5 if yelp would let me. read more

My husband and I had a really fantastic experience with Reconnect Realty and Steve Prane. As first time home buyers, we were unfamiliar with the whole process, but we felt very informed and at ease having Steve as our realtor. He is very knowledgeable and really familiar with the Saint Louis area. He was also very accommodating of our unusual schedules, which helped alleviate any stress that we had about viewing homes. We would definitely recommend him and Reconnect Realty to anyone looking to buy or rent. In our personal experience, Steve was extremely friendly, professional, and easy to talk with. read more

Can you give zero stars? Their showing agent called me a bitch after he was late to the showing, offended I wanted central air, and talking on the phone the whole time. I would rather live in a van, down by the river then ever rent from this agency (which would probably be safer than living in one of the apartments I was shown). I also wrote a letter to the company and never heard back. Within 15 minutes I went from apartment shopping to deciding I was better off where I already was. read more