The Art of Property Management

At its core, property management isn’t about plumbing and bookkeeping. A month’s lost rent outweighs a lot of maintenance and a pretty financial report is small consolation for less money in your checking account.Property management is about loyalty to your clients. It’s about managing people in a way that protects the property owner from risk and maximizing his or her net income.

Your Rent Priced Correctly

Competition is everywhere.  Next door, across the street and God forbid closer to your prospective tenant’s job.In bad times tenants will often choose the house next door to save a few dollars.  Sometimes in spite of the fact that your property offers a few extra advantages.Every day of vacancy costs you money.  It’s self defeating to lose a good tenant because your property is offered for over the market rent.   To set a correct rent, there must be knowledge of your market.  The best way to gauge your market is to do a rental survey.  So by all means...

We Do Rental Surveys

The concept is simple.   Aside from extraordinary times such as the beginning of a recession or times of shortage when the market may shift quickly, the great majority of landlords are asking the most in rent that people are willing to pay.  To demand more from people than they would have to give to your competition would result in them going your competition.  And just like the law, ignorance is no excuse. Even if a bit of luck drops occurs and a prospective tenant is found who is impulsive enough and unaware of the market enough to agree to over the market rent, the chances are great that this person will move in a few months after realizing his or her mistake.We ask neighboring property owners what rent they are getting for their property and apply that knowledge for your benefit.

Your property prepared for showing

First impressions are crucial.  We make sure your property makes a positive statement by tending to the details as if we were looking at them through the eyes of the prospective tenant.  Cleanliness, appropriate landscaping, paint and more. The reward for your property standing out favorably from the competition is that people will hand you the most money possible every month.

Marketing your property effectively

The days when classified ads in the daily newspaper were enough are over.A managing owner will likely lack the advantage of being able to tap into a network of real estate agents and landlords passing their better tenants back and forth (people needing a larger home etc.) as referrals.Golden State has that advantage and much more.   A professional looking sign (Never those cheesy looking little red on black “for rent” signs.  The message they send is not good) is just the start. We go out of our way to comprehensively and cost effectively utilize the internet.As you know, good tenants tend to have jobs.  Their shopping time is limited and that often leads to fast decision making without visiting many properties.   We make ourselves available to show your property evenings, weekends, odd hours or whenever else is necessary to accommodate your prospective tenants. 

Knowing your prospective tenant

There are professional deadbeats.  They are the predators and managing landlords are their natural prey (remember the Michael Keaton movie “Pacific Heights”.These people understand human vulnerability.  They know their rights under the law and somehow they have the capacity to convincingly blame the harm they do on their landlord.  Even in court.If someone just Loves your property and offers a handful of cash – We look that gift horse in the mouth.We do credit checks.  We do background checks.  And we Exercise our instincts about people. In short - We are Careful.

Knowledgeable Negotiation

The sad fact is that no one cares about our overhead.  Least of all someone who looks at us as the rich landlords and property managers.We Know the habitability code and keep our rental survey front and center in our hearts and minds.

Objectivity

More often than not, of our clients called us because their property was in distress.Maybe their house was vacant for over 30 days.  Maybe a few mistakes were made in pricing or marketing and the vacancy was more like 60-90 days.  With the mortgage payment coming due Again.That always seems to be the time when that person who just LOVES their property would show up with a big handful of cash.   Best of all, he or she never seemed to mind what rent was demanded (it wasn’t like they were ever going to pay it beyond the first month or so anyway).Those are tough moments and everyone if fallible.We have a responsibility to step back and take a deep breath at such times.  We review the market and perform our due diligence in background checking the prospective tenant before calling our client with our recommendationKnowing who to trust before the pipes break and the water is flowingUnethical people take advantage.  Especially if you happen to be too far away to have a sense of the true situation.We remember Murphy’s Law.  And we have a list of trustworthy vendors for every contingency that might come up.Keeping an eye on and in your rental propertyIgnorance may be bliss, but it can be a very expensive luxury.  Managing landlords indulge at their own peril.We drive by your property at least twice a year.  Inspect the interior at least once annually.  We’re nice about it.  But we do it.

Accessibility

Emergencies  are bad.  Not dealing with them in a timely manner can be much worse.We’re talking about more than just additional damage.  We don’t want your tenant stumbling on “Honest’ Ned the plumber on the internet and calling him over to work on a nonessential during “Golden Time”.  You could be obligated to reimburse that expense.We stay on top of routine maintenance and It doesn’t matter an emergency call comes in at 3AM.  We address the problem in a timely manner.

Accounting must not be neglected

It lacks scientific corroboration, but it sure seems like everything bad happens at or after 5PM, on Friday or during the weekend.  We want vendors to respond when you really need them (water flowing, food spoiling in the refrigerator), to that end we make sure they are paid on time.Avoiding late penalties and fees are good things.  Taking advantage of the tax advantages of investment property is even better.   Our financial reports are complete and timely. Just make sure your tax accountant is dependable and you will be able to rest easy.