A rental property is a big investment that can come with even bigger responsibilities. If you are not sure you need a property manager, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you know the exact process in order to set up a legal rental in Washington, DC?
- Do you know if you are subject to rent control and how to obtain a certificate of exemption?
- Do you have the proper lease forms and attachments required to create a legally enforceable lease?
- Are you aware of the fair housing laws associated with advertising property?
- Do you have the contractors on call 24 hours a day to deal with repairs at a reasonable price?
- Do you have reliable means to determine fair market rent for your property?
- Do you have the means to check credit and rental history to screen potential tenants?
- Do you know what to do if a tenant stops paying rent?
- Do you have the ability to fine 1099s at the end of the year?
If you don’t feel confident answering any of these questions, it might be prudent to hire a professional management team. The cost of one bad or uninformed decision can easily offset years of management fees, not to mention all the stress and hassle involved.
Remember the thought questions on the first page? We help answer them, go over our services, fees, management contract, your timeline and market expectations. Whether you decide to hire us or not, you will leave this meeting a lot more knowledgeable about every aspect of property management and your local market.
During the initial consultation, we will provide an estimate of everything that needs to be done in order to maximize rent and minimize days on the market. It can be anything from cleaning, caulking, painting all the way to more substantial renovations. Regardless of size of the job, it’s all included in our leasing fee and we just charge for any specialty professional labor (such as painters, plumbers, etc.) and materials to get the job done.
With the property looking as good as new, we make sure it gets maximum exposure with advertisements appearing on over 300 different websites, such as Craigslist, Trulia, Zillow, Facebook, Hot Pads, and the traditional MLS Service. Our agents perform unlimited showings and open houses until a rental application is submitted.
In order to ensure we have the highest quality tenant possible, we carefully examine their credit history, verify income and employment, examine previous landlord / personal references, and finally cross check agent tenant blacklists and criminal history records.
We prepare a lease contract fully compliant with local jurisdictional law including any necessary attachments required by condo associations. The lease is reviewed in detail with the tenant as well as the landlord so both parties are on the same page as far as expectations from the beginning. The executed lease is delivered to all parties.
We help coordinate the tenant’s move to make sure it is compliant with all neighborhood or condo regulations. During the walk-thu, one last set of photos are taken to document the condition of the property at move-in. The tenants will be expected to leave the property in the same condition minus normal wear and tear. At this point, the security deposit is collected and the keys are handed over.
We continually monitor the property, perform regularly scheduled maintenance and collect rent on a monthly basis through ACH direct debit. We are aggressive with delinquency notices and have an excellent collections attorney. Emergency requests are addressed immediately and non emergency repairs are performed within 24 hours.
