Local property manager dives into the junk business

Ralph Reahard’s franchise purchase included a fleet of Junk King trucks. (Courtesy Junk Kings)

The owner of a local property management company has added the title of Junk King to his resume. 

Ralph Reahard, who owns Real Property Management Richmond-Metro, last month purchased the Central Virginia franchise of cleanup firm Junk King, which he says will simplify the move-out process for the properties he manages. 

Reahard bought the business from Bill Taggart, who had owned and operated the local Junk King franchise with his wife, Jody, since 2012.

While they’ll operate under separate franchise agreements, Reahard said his RPM and Junk King businesses will operate as sister companies with a goal of dealing with the copious amounts of trash, ranging from couches to broken appliances, that are left behind by residents. 

Reahard said junk removal has been a “pain point” for RPM staff and the affiliation with Junk King’s same-day or next-day service will alleviate that stress and increase efficiency. 

Ralph Reahard

“You really don’t know until you go to do a move-out inspection what’s going to be left behind, so we may have a tenant moving in five days, seven days and we show up to do a move-out inspection and all of a sudden we find an apartment full of trash,” Reahard said. 

The deal was finalized May 18. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Virginia Credit Union helped finance Reahard’s purchase. Five Junk King trucks and five employees came over as part of the deal. 

An RPM staff member will become Junk King’s operations manager, Reahard said, and the two businesses will share other RPM staff, including accounting and marketing.

“We’re ready for a busy summer season and we expect to have all the trucks on the road,” he said. 

Both Real Property Management and Junk King are owned by Neighborly, a home service holding company that acquired the brands in 2018 and 2022, respectively. Neighborly’s other brands include The Ground Guys, Mosquito Joe, Mr. Appliance and many others. 

Reahard said he and Taggart began talks about the transaction in the wintertime after Taggart mentioned an interest in selling his franchise at a networking event. Taggart declined to comment for this story. 

Reahard sees other benefits in having the two brands under one roof. He said he’ll look to provide junk removal discounts to RPM clients and offer property management services to Junk King clients. Junk King’s strong online presence will help attract landlords to RPM to assist with advertising, leasing or maintaining their properties. In addition, Junk King will provide discounted junk removal services to entice tenants to discard their trash prior to their move-out date. 

“We want the tenants to be more proactive in removing their stuff versus reactive, because then we’ve got to deduct it from a security deposit, charge for the time and labor to remove those items,” he said. “Whereas if they did it themselves, it would be a lot more efficient and a lot cheaper.”

Reahard launched his local RPM franchise in 2014. He had spent years in the golf world and was seeking to open his own business amid a decline in the golf industry at the time. Starting with a single-family home on Patterson Avenue, he has since expanded the firm’s management portfolio to roughly 1,500 properties across Richmond, Staunton and Newport News, with 40 full-time employees.