What can I expect as a Landlord? 1. How long will it take to lease my property? The time it takes to lease your home on the rental market varies depending on local market conditions, the condition and availability of the property. We can begin showing your rental home as the current residents give us their 30 day notice of their intent to move out. Our property managers answer hundreds of prospective tenant calls and e-mail inquiries every month. 2. When you find a tenant for my rental home, how do you qualify them? Our comprehensive but not ‘scary’ application process checks: - A national credit report on each and every adult applicant.
- A court/eviction search for the state/county where the tenant resides.
- Verification of former landlord references.
- Verification of the applicant's employment and/or income.
- Nationwide criminal background check on all adult applicants, including terrorist and sex offender lists.
3. When do you process the monthly rents to property owners? We have a quick turnaround of your rents and statements. We offer "Electronic Direct Deposit" to your bank account. Rent proceeds are deposited into your bank account by approx. the 10th day of each month. 4. How often are property inspections conducted? The move-in inspection is completed just before the residents move in, where we detail the condition of your property on our written report, and we take approx. 100-200+ photos of the entire property inside and out. We inspect the exterior of our properties on a periodic basis and we conduct a routine walkthrough inspection of the property approximately 2+ times a year. Between the 10th & 11th month of the lease, we discuss with the residents and the owners their intent to renew their lease for another year. We provide or recommendations and if they are not renewing, we prepare our advertising in order to get the home re-rented quickly and we start showing the property the last 30 days of the lease. When the tenant moves out of your property we complete a detailed move-out inspection similar to the move-in inspection. The move out inspection is done to make sure that the rental home is returned to us in the same condition as when first rented except for minor wear and tear. If damage is found, then we impose a claim on the Tenant's security deposit as required by the Florida landlord tenant statute (F.S. 83), if no damage is found, then we promptly return the security deposit to the former residents. 5. Can you help if I wish to sell the property? Yes, we have experienced agents that handle both leasing and sales. 6. How do you handle rental collections? Our collections policies are as follows: All rents are due on the 1st of each month and late on the 4th of each month. All residents who have not paid by the 3rd of each month receive an automatic late notice, a firm reminder their rent plus a late fee is now due. We also attempt to reach them by phone. Any remaining residents who have not remitted their rents by the 5th (or next business day if the 5th is on a weekend) will be served the following week with a 3-day notice, the legal prerequisite paperwork to file an eviction. At this point there is no additional cost to you. While an eviction is rare, as we carefully screen all prospective tenants, sometimes financial hardships do arise which require prompt attention. Should it be necessary to file an eviction we: Forward all paperwork, (including, but not limited to) copies of the lease, and our notices served upon the resident to a law firm around the 15th of the month (or sooner if you request) to proceed immediately in filing the eviction action. Some evictions are settled with the resident paying all costs and remaining in the property, however, should it be necessary to proceed further we assist you free of charge for our services during the eviction. You would be responsible for the court cost and legal fees. 7. Do you guarantee the residents that you place in my rental home? No, we cannot provide a guarantee as to whether or not a tenant will default. However, we do not assess a charge for an eviction if this happens. 8. Are you the cheapest company? No, however our fees are very competitive and fair and there are no hidden charges. When all fees are considered for benefits received, we are actually less expensive than most companies around. 9. Who handles problems after hours or on weekends? Our property managers are on call for our residents. Our voicemail and e-mail will take the residents emergency calls and we check these regularly. 10. How do you handle maintenance requests? This important issue is discussed with the tenant during the move-in inspection when all the appliances are tested and everything in the property is checked to be in working order. Tenants are expected to make repairs for minor items or tenant-caused problems, as outlined in their lease. For other issues they can call, e-mail or submit maintenance requests online. We contact the landlord prior to sending out a repairman and then we will arrange an estimate to be completed. For appliance repairs most appliance companies will complete the repair on the spot if it is under $175 and then invoice us, otherwise they contact us for authorization. Properties that are well maintained are good investments and they tend to attract the best Tenants. We aim to place Tenants in properties which are well maintained and in a clean, sanitary condition. We will make recommendations if we believe your property requires improvements or maintenance. Maintaining your property at a good /high standard will preserve your investment and keep your Tenants happy. 11. Do you charge a cancellation fee or administrative fee? We are so convinced you will be pleased with our services that we do not charge a cancellation fee if you wish to terminate our agreement. Provide us with 30 days notice and we will release you with no fee. We do not charge any setup fees or extra admin fees to your or your tenants. 12. How and where do you advertise?
It is beneficial and cost-effective for us to find the highest qualified tenant in the least amount of time, therefore we aggressively market our rental properties with the latest methods. Currently, the majority of tenants are first looking online and driving around to find rental homes so we personally own 2 websites that bring in hundreds of inquiries every month, plus we syndicate with thousands of top rental portals online including Google, Yahoo, Realtor.com, Trulia, Hotpads, Craigslist, Backpage, Point2homes and many more. We put up large attractive signs & signposts on every property and this also generates an abundance of calls every day. We take several wide-angle professional photos of the inside and outside of your property and create a detailed description of the home and the area. You can see this on the property listings on our website and this marketing is far superior to most other management companies. Since we have been in the business for many years we have relationships with other agents in the central Florida community, plus we belong to a national Realtor referral program. We offer other Realtors high lease referrals through the MLS at no cost to you, which produces more showings and in turn reduces our vacancy times. |