1. What services do you offer, and what fees do you charge?
Property Management and Marketing Only
Contact Louise Beck Properties at 919-401-9300. We will be happy to answer any questions and furnish you with the paperwork necessary to start the management process.
All properties that we manage must be covered by liability insurance. Contact your insurance agent to discuss the costs associated with this insurance.
Rent is collected from tenants at the beginning of each month. At the end of every month, we will send you a detailed report of any activity in your account. A check for the rent collected, minus our management fee and any other expenses, will accompany the report. We also have an option for bank deposit!
The security deposit is given to us by the tenant to hold during the term of the lease. As such, it is their money and is to be returned to them when they satisfactorily complete the terms of their lease agreement. We are required by law to hold the security deposit in a special trust account. The account bears interest, which we keep.
It is simply not practical to attempt to compute the monthly interest owed to each individual tenant on their security deposit. With hundreds of tenants, this is an administrative impossibility.
Owner’s Funds are a one-time, lump-sum payment used to pay any expenses incurred until your property is rented. In other words, it is your money and will only be used to pay for costs directly associated with your property while vacant, such as utilities, touch-up cleaning, maintenance, etc. If your property is currently rented when we begin management, we do not request Owner’s Funds.
This $250 fee covers the expenses associated with setting up your account and performing the initial assessment and marketing of your property. These activities vary depending on whether the property is currently rented, but include a thorough property work-up, photos, Multiple Listing Service input, inclusion on several websites, and advertising in a variety of media.
You should expect to have the following expenses when the property is vacant: utilities, necessary maintenance, yard maintenance, and touch-up cleaning prior to tenant move-in.
You should expect to have the following expenses when the property is rented: management fee, necessary maintenance or repairs, improvements at your request, gutter cleaning, and shrub trimming. Lawn maintenance may be an expense if you do not expect the tenants to mow the grass.
The property should be advertised for rent at least 60 days prior to its availability date. Most renters are looking for property one or two months before they’re ready to move in. If your property is suitable for undergraduate students we recommend marketing in January before the upcoming academic year. Students typically sign leases for May or August in January, February, and March of the year.
We do our best to get each and every property available for rent as soon as possible. Factors that affect our speed include the overall condition of the property, time of year, and whether or not all the information needed has been provided to us.
The management agreement stipulates that we have discretionary control over the handling of minor repairs and expenses. For any major repairs, we will contact you for approval prior to beginning the necessary work. The only exception to this policy is an emergency that requires us to act quickly to protect the property from sudden and severe damage.
We respond promptly to emergency situations. For less urgent issues, we prefer to use a service person that is already familiar with your property. While this may cause a slight delay in fixing the problem while scheduling issues are worked through, it benefits your property in the long run. We have good working relationships with a variety of reliable and experienced service providers. Because we use them on a regular basis, they are loyal to us and may often be less expensive to use than large companies.
These days, many tenants have pets that they treat as members of the family, and they expect to find housing that will accommodate them. Your home will have a better chance of renting if you allow pets. A policy that works well for us is to advise tenants that the owner must approve all pets prior to move-in, and that no new puppies are allowed under any circumstances. We also charge a non-refundable pet fee which is paid directly to you. Those tenants willing to pay the fee are typically responsible pet owners. If you decide to prohibit pets in your unit, keep in mind that you may be reducing your tenant pool by as much as 50%.
As your agent, we sign the lease. You do not have to sign the lease agreement.
While the property is vacant, we put the utilities in our name. When the property is rented, we then turn off the utilities in our name so that the new tenant can put them into their name and become responsible for payment.
Even if you or the last tenant left the property clean, if a house sits vacant for several weeks or months, dust and dirt build up. In most cases, properties need a touch-up cleaning before a tenant moves in.
Yes you can. We encourage you to prohibit smoking in your property, and it is not a deterrent to renting it. Most smokers are used to being told to smoke outside only. Smoking in a home can do far more damage than a pet.
Once the rent is late, we send a letter notifying the tenant of the late fee and request immediate payment. If the payment is not made by the middle of the month, we begin court proceedings to recover the amount owed. All associated court costs are included in the total amount owed by the tenant when court papers are filed. Although the entire amount is not recovered 100% of the time, we do our best to recover as much of the cost.
When a tenant moves out, we hold their security deposit until we can perform a thorough move-out inspection. If damage has occurred or they haven’t paid rent, their security deposit may be used to pay for the repairs or lost rent. If the rent owed or cost of repairs exceeds the security deposit, we have two options: we can begin legal proceedings to collect the rent/damages owed, or we can turn the account over to a collection agency within 30 days. We cannot do both. The collection agency charges a percentage (currently 28%) of monies collected, and you will receive the balance (less our management fee if rent is recovered).
