BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Anecdotal, and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 42.8% saturation with 584 hits. Analysis detected 1,800 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,363 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.1% and a BS Rank of 39% (17,368 of 28,461 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 61.00% of the article peer group.
No landlord has been prosecuted more often in Buffalo Housing Court the past two years for building code violations than a limited liability corporation owned by Menachem Zippel.
Thirteen of Buff Real LLC’s properties have gone to court since 2024.
The company currently has seven open court cases against it.
The company owes $351,659 in court-ordered fines and demolition fees, according to public records reviewed by Investigative Post.
It also owes the city and Erie County $80,041 in property taxes and garbage fees.
More than 20 of Buff Real’s 30 properties — many of them vacant — have gone into foreclosure.
Nearly one in four of the company’s 29 properties in the city have burned.
Zippel’s company faces violations ranging from lead paint contamination and rodent infestation to sewage backups and failing to maintain vacant properties.
As the company has failed to maintain its properties and pay its bills, living conditions have deteriorated for its tenants and their neighbors.
The company's properties have:
123 active building code violations.
Generated 327 calls made to 911 since 2020.
Prompted 307 calls to the city's 311 complaint line.
“Rats live in there.
It’s been on fire.
It should be torn down,” Dennis Young said of the Buff Real property on his block of Baitz Avenue in the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood.
“Everybody in the neighborhood wants to see it gone.”
“He was always irresponsible,” added Michelle Baez, 39, who lived in one of Buff Real's properties in Lovejoy for two years.
Investigative Post spoke to a dozen tenants and neighbors who lived in or near Buff Real properties.
Those interviews and public records reveal a pattern of problems, including loss of heat or electricity, lead paint, rodents and pests, deteriorating roofs, and vacant properties with squatters.
In one case, a tenant has experienced years of raw sewage flooding her basement.
Lou Petrucci, commissioner of the city’s permits and inspections department, said Buff Real's negligence has been on his staff’s radar for years.
“This is not just one broken window.
This isn’t an individual who deferred maintenance because they lost their job,” Petrucci said.
“This is a lot of properties with a lot of violations that have not been cured.”
Zippel, 33, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Two vacant properties, one street
Buff Real began acquiring properties in 2018.
Nearly half of them are on the city’s East Side, while the rest are scattered between the West Side, South Buffalo and Black Rock.
The company purchased 124 Baitz Ave., located in Seneca-Babcock, in June 2023.
Young, 62, has lived across from the house for five years.
One night in September 2023, after a few years of seeing squatters come and go from the vacant bungalow, he watched it go up in flames.
“Everybody’s reported this house one time or another,” Young said.
“For a while they were shoveling rat poison in there.”
Young and two other neighbors said they’ve seen city workers boarding up the house.
But not once in prior years have they observed Zippel or anyone else from Buff Real checking in on the property.
He believes 124 Baitz’s vacancy is dangerous for children and families.
“We’re getting more and more little kids in the neighborhood every year.
They’re sprouting up all over,” Young said.
“We can’t keep the kids out of there.”
Down the street is 210 Baitz Ave., a property Buff Real purchased in November 2020.
It also sits vacant.
Between the two Baitz properties, Buff Real has been hit with $32,417 in court-ordered fines as of July 10.
The company defaulted on mortgages for both properties, leading to foreclosure proceedings.
A limited liability corporation owned by a different investor bought 124 Baitz in May.
Young and other neighbors confirmed that the new owners gutted the house in recent weeks.
Buff Real was a no show for its most recent court appearance on July 10.
Housing Court Judge Philip Dabney levied an additional $1,000 in fines for property neglect.
Squatters on Hamburg Street
90 Hamburg St. a vacant property in the First Ward, has been in Housing Court six times, according to court documents.
It was back there last week.
Buff Real acquired the property in November 2023.
Trouble started shortly thereafter.
Two tenants were evicted in April 2024, according to housing court records.
Over the course of that year, the property became vacant and was overtaken by squatters.
During visits, inspectors found “drug paraphernalia and signs of squatters throughout.”
On the morning of October 18, 2024, the building caught fire.
Buff Real began receiving court summonses for the property in December 2024.
The court appointed Zippel a lawyer, Richard Berger, but Berger withdrew his representation in May of last year.
“The owner has made NO effort whatsoever to maintain this property, resulting in severe and widespread deterioration,” city housing inspector Robert Roman wrote in July 2025.
That month, the city ordered a demolition.
A year later, the house is still standing.
Petrucci said the city plans to demolish 90 Hamburg later this month.
He added the house follows “the same pattern” as other properties owned by Buff Real.
“The property is not properly maintained.
It’s not properly boarded.
We get squatters.
There’s a fire and then we end up demolishing it,” Petrucci said.
“This seems to be a recurrent theme.”
Representatives for Buff Real did not appear in court for 90 Hamburg on July 10 — a third no-show in court for the property this year.
Dabney levied $1,500 in fines for property neglect.
Mitch Nowakowski is the Common Council Member for the Fillmore District, which includes 90 Hamburg.
He told Investigative Post his department initially was able to reach Zippel, but the landlord stopped returning calls.
Court records indicate that Zippel has relocated to the Miami area.
According to county records, he also owns a six-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home in Williamsville, assessed at $545,000.
Two other problem properties
Kisha Casey, 39, has lived at 20 Elmer Ave. in the Kensington-Bailey neighborhood since November 2022.
In the time she’s rented from Buff Real, Casey has dealt with everything from raw feces in a flooded basement to a collapsing deck and roof.
In March, the county health department cited Buff Real for "failure to maintain [20 Elmer] in a clean and sanitary condition," after a flood filled Casey’s basement with sewage.
On top of that, Casey has received notices that her water could be shut off.
“I’m just on edge.
I don’t know if I’m going to have to move,” Casey said.
Buff Real bought 20 Elmer in June 2021.
The company hasn’t paid taxes or sewer bills for the property since that year.
City records show the house is headed for foreclosure.
Like 20 Elmer, 42 Wilson Street has been in Housing Court since 2024.
As of July 10, 42 Wilson currently faces $39,763 in fines — the most of any Buff Real property, save for 90 Hamburg St.
It, too, burned in a fire, five years ago.
Neighbor Chris Hawley, 45, told Investigative Post that the property has long been abandoned and a blight on the community, which he credits to its “notorious deadbeat landlord.”
However, Hawley — a preservationist and urban planner working on Mayor Sean Ryan’s demolition team — thinks 42 Wilson is worth stabilizing.
“Fundamentally, it’s a good house,” Hawley said.
“It’s not one we’re angling to get demolished.”
Hawley may have to advocate for the city to save 42 Wilson.
On July 10, after Buff Real failed to appear in Housing Court, Dabney scheduled a demolition hearing for Sept.
3.
Zippel and his company are not the only problem landlords operating in Buffalo.
Investigative Post has previously reported on Andre Foster and Joseph V.
Parlato.
But Petrucci said Zippel's company has been especially challenging.
“This is more than just the routine maintenance,” Petrucci said.
“This is someone that has routinely run up a series of various fees, taxes and demolition fees that are only in the City of Buffalo.
“That is not acceptable to me.
It’s not acceptable for the citizens of the City of Buffalo.”
Adam Smith-Perez, who covers urban affairs for Investigative Post, is a Report For America corps member.
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