Spotlight On Businessman And County Councilman Joe Kiefer

By Michael L. Smith, Jr.

Staff Writer For The City-County Observer

This series of interviews aims to find Evansville locals making a positive impact on the community to showcase their amazing contributions. 

This week I had the opportunity to speak with Joe Kiefer, Vanderburgh County Councilman and President/Managing Broker of Hahn/Kiefer Real Estate Services.

QUESTION: Tell Us About Yourself And Kiefer/Real Estate 

 I am an Evansville native, married to Jo Ann with four adult children and 7 grandchildren.  I have been the owner and Managing Broker at Hahn Realty Corporation, doing business as, Hahn/Kiefer Real Estate Services, since 2015. I joined Hahn Realty as a sales associate in 2008 at the height of the recession. Fortunately, every year has been a better year than the previous one. It has been a blessing for me, to have stepped into the real estate business world, because we have had a lot of good fortune. I think a lot of that good fortune has come to us because here at Hahn/Kiefer Real Estate, we try to do our best to use integrity, honesty, and doing the right thing above all else as our guiding principles. I preach that to all of our staff and salespeople: integrity, honesty, doing the right thing. I think that is where our success really stems from, that theme of integrity.   

We have built an amazing team. When I started, there were only a couple of us, but now between our commercial and residential business, we have twenty-plus agents. The team we have assembled has a lot of great relationships with people in the community, which allows us the opportunity to help those people to buy, sell, rent or manage properties.  We also, intentionally, do not want to be the firm with the biggest number of agents.  We like being a boutique firm that can treat our staff and agents like a family.  We like our size because it allows us to best serve our clients.

One of the things I really emphasize with our brokers is that it is not just about doing a transaction. I do not want to be a transactional broker I want to be a relationship broker. I have always felt that if we build that relationship with our customers, do the right thing, and service our customers above and beyond their expectations, they will come back to us again and again or refer us to others. 

Prior to working here, I spent six years working for a real estate company that built and developed shopping centers. That company was Regency Properties, and I worked with Regency for six years helping them with the properties they owned. That experience really launched me into the career I have, today, because they taught me the “ins and outs” of real estate. They taught me how to evaluate properties, how to evaluate deals, and so that really was a catalyst for me; it gave me an education that is far beyond what you can learn in school or by simply getting your real estate license. 

Before Regency Properties, I worked for twelve years at Vectren, which is now CenterPoint Energy. It was there that I began building relationships with people in the community. I was doing customer service-type projects that helped people get their gas and electricity hooked up for new developments or new housing. Much like my job, today, I was involved in the process of new construction, new projects, new developments, but only from the perspective of the utilities. I learned a lot from that experience that applies to my current work, such as understanding where the sewer and water are located, where are the electricity and gas hookups. I learned a lot from Vectren when I worked there.

My degree is in Construction Technology, which trained me to be a construction manager. That has been useful too because as a real estate broker you are constantly looking at buildings, perhaps remodeling, building new additions, getting the infrastructure in place. So, I have really been blessed with some great jobs and my education.  It really fed into a funnel where all of the experience and education came together, to get me where I am today.

Most of the thanks for my success are due to my many mentors, truly. People who saw me as someone with potential and would guide me. Even today, at 59 years of age, I still look to people that are my mentors, people that I can call, those who can give me guidance.  Whether that is about decision making, something to do with running a business, politics, or whatever it may be. Now, what I try to do, is to take those advantages given to me by people who mentored me and turn it around and give that back to young people. I love doing that, it is the circle of life. People give to you, and you try to give back to other people. I recognize that without other people who have helped me in my past, I would not be where I am today. It has really been a great blessing.

Another thing, something people do not always give credit toward, is family. If I did not have my wife to back me up, I would not have been able to do this real estate business or my political career. My wife’s support has been crucial to my success!  I knew when I was taking risks that if things did not work out, she would have my back. I have to really thank my wife for a lot of my success today, her support has been instrumental. As I said earlier, it is all about other people who have helped me.

I would be remiss to not mention my faith in God, because my everyday life, my thoughts, and actions are rooted in my spiritual faith in God. If I did not have my faith, I would not be where I am today. It keeps me grounded; it reminds me of what is, really, important in life. Success is important, in a way, but is it more important than my family? No. Is it more important than my faith in God? No. So, I have to keep things in perspective, keep things prioritized.

QUESTION: Can You Tell Me About Your Work On The Vanderburgh County Council?

I first got involved in government in the late 90s. I served on the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and I was also involved in a couple of campaigns. I was involved in Jim Price’s City Council campaign, and I was involved in Betty Lou Jerrel’s campaign, as well. I ran for City Council and won as an at-large member. I served two terms, so I spent eight years on the City Council. After that, when Lloyd Winnecke became mayor, I took his seat and served as a County Commissioner for 5 years.

It was around this time that I underwent a sort of shift in perspective because up to this time in local government, I had started out as a real “big picture” guy, with a focus on trying to enact these big, paradigm-shifting, things in the community. Somewhere along the line, I had a change of mindset and began to focus on helping people with, every day, little things. Small, everyday things that do not necessarily make the paper, create the headlines, but things that are just as important and things that really affected everyday working-class people. That brought me the most joy, the things that were making an actual difference in people’s lives. For instance, when somebody calls me and asks, “Can you help us get gravel in our alleyway? There are big potholes out there and it really has just become a hazard.” Getting something like that fixed by making a phone call or whatever it takes. Working on that kind of stuff is really what drives me. So, I think to myself, sometimes, maybe I’m not changing the face of Evansville with city-county consolidation or some big watershed project, but I am making a difference, or at least I hope so for somebody.

QUESTION: How Has Your Experience On The Vanderburgh County Council Compared To Your Experiences On The Evansville City Council?

It is extremely different. In the sense that City Council hears zoning issues, it votes on ordinances, it does a lot of stuff that is related to everyday “happenings” in the city. The County Council is a fiduciary body, so it’s 100% wrapped around the cost of county government. We do not pass ordinances or sign contracts; the commissioners do that work. We vote on budgetary items.

As I said, the County Council is the fiduciary body, so I am always incredibly mindful of where we are spending money, making sure I am not putting an extra tax burden on people, or any other kind of burden for that matter. In local government, there is a lot of ways to spend money, and there are a lot of ways to slip into waste, especially if your elected government officials are not being watchful. You have to really make sure that local government is doing the right thing, doing what they need to do for the community. 

Now, I will say, Evansville and Vanderburgh County have a really good group of elected officials. All of those elected officials, in the city, the county, the school corporation, whether they have differing viewpoints or opinions, they are all good people who have their hearts in the right place. They are trying to be careful about how they spend money, what kind of projects to take on, etc. I mean, you can walk into some communities and say, “Oh my gosh, this community is wasting millions of dollars over here”, but here in Evansville and Vanderburgh County, I really believe we have managed to cut most of that out. We have chiseled away over the years most of the “low hanging fruit,” so to speak.  Perhaps, so much so, that now there are areas where we need to spend more. 

QUESTION: How has the pandemic affected your work, both with your business and with the County Council?

With the County Council, we had downtime, where you could not get access to public services because the Civic Center was closed, the courts were closed, etc. Plus, because businesses were hurting, we were really affected by a decrease in tax revenue. We took a big hit for a while due to the pandemic. 

On the other hand, now we are reaping some benefits because we have recently received millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act. So, we have access to some federal funds that we did not have, before. Also, now that Congress has passed the infrastructure bill, we are going to see another influx of federal funds that will really allow us to do things we have wanted to do but were unable to due to limited funding. So, we have seen both sides, we have been badly hit financially, initially, but now have also seen an increase in funds, particularly federal funds.

On the business side of things, Hahn Kiefer Real Estate never really slowed down. We were always busy. The thing about real estate is if you have downtime, then people have opportunities to buy, and if you have uptime, then people have opportunities to sell. As long as there are fluctuations in the market, there are business opportunities.  

QUESTION: What Motivates You To Continue Your Good Work In The Community?

I am at a point in my life where I have been blessed so much that I derive my gratification from helping other people. I love the work, I love helping people, I love being out in the community. Every day is something different. Before I met with you today, I was out touring an old factory. Before that, I was out driving parts of Warrick County with someone from Cincinnati looking at some farm ground.  Tomorrow, I might be out on the river looking for some ground for barges to park. There is diversity in what I do, I get to see a lot of different things and meet different people, and I just love that aspect of my job.  I always hope, that my main focus is helping people, both in my business and as a County Councilman.  Both are service orientated.  Helping people buy a property or sell a property, that’s helping them fulfill a hope or dream of theirs.  I get a lot of joy out of that.  I get a lot of joy out of helping younger people find success, especially the young people here at Hahn Kiefer Real Estate, I love the fact that I’m able to employ people and help them find success. 

Footnote:  Joe Kiefer is a husband, father, mentor, Vanderburgh County Councilman and President of Hahn Kiefer Real Estate Services. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Construction Technology and a Master of Public Administration from Indiana State University, as well as a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Southern Indiana.

Michael L. Smith, Jr is a profile writer for The City-County Observer and is currently completing classes at Ivy Tech Community College in pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. 

If you know someone who deserves to have a spotlight shined on their contributions to the community, please email the author at msmith1221@ivytech.edu