HOW TO HIRE THE RIGHT PROPERTY MANAGER

Hiring someone to take responsibility to care for and overseeing the management of your investment rental property is a major decision. Getting the right property manager is essential for both your financial bottom line as well as your peace of mind. Choosing the wrong property manager can cost you tens of thousands of dollars and not all property managers are equal in knowledge and experience. 

While you are going through the process of selecting a property manager, keep the following points in mind:

  • All property management companies in California are required to be supervised by a licensed real estate broker in California. Your goal is to find a property manager who is also a licensed real estate broker.
  • Ask the broker about his or her specialty. Make sure it is property management and nothing else.
  • Ask the broker how long he or she has been managing properties from that office. Your goal is to find out how long has that individual or that independent office has been in the property management business in your area and how familiar they are with local laws. You can easily find that out by contacting the CA Department of Real Estate. See link below.
  • Ask the broker for the number of tenancies he or she has independently assisted from the local office, rather than the nationwide combined number listed from a national franchise. What you are trying to determine here is the experience of the broker who is running the office at a certain location.
  • Ask the broker for the amount of trusted local contractors on their vendor list used for assisting owners with repairs and maintenance. Visit them at their offices to verify and examine the list.
  • Ask the broker for a breakdown of all fees. Most property managers in our service area charge between 5% to 10% of the monthly rent to manage your rental properties.

It is difficult to tell when you are a new landlord seeking to find an experienced real estate broker specializing in property management. Hopefully, these quick tips shall facilitate and assist you to investigate and select the right property manager for your rental property. We are here to answer all of your questions about our property management services. Please call us at (510) 487-2583.

A WORD OF WARNING

Many property management companies are not actually operated by a broker. Many companies are hiring a broker of record and pay a fee to use a broker license to run the company. This practice is notorious and is very common with national property management franchises. Also, keep in mind that not all property managers are brokers. In our service area, we noticed a couple national property management franchises which were opened recently but claimed that they have been in business for 25 to 35 years. This is misleading. They are actually advertising how long their national corporate offices have been in business and not the local independent office. Visit this link at https://www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp to examine how long the sales agent or broker has been managing properties. The department website lists the year and the name of all the real estate businesses they have affiliated with since they were licensed in California.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES & PRICING

What Our Owners Say…

Good people, great customer services, takes care of my property and tenants as their own. For all the wonderful professional services I have received; I am going to be with Affordable Property Management  for a very long time."

Ellen H.

Affordable has been managed our properties for over 15 years. We are very happy with the service they provided. They are professional, responsive and trustworthy. They screen the tenants for us, fix things for us and always pay on time.

Joanna C.

All repairs or concerns from the tenants were acted upon immediately, with the health and safety of the tenants always in the forefront. When any repairs were needed, the contractors you provided were fast and reliable, with costs and our best interest in mind.

Bill M.

Thank you for your support over the years. With your professional help I can consider early retirement. Eventually I will need to move back in my rental. Thank you for your professional support over the years I’ve been truly blessed by your company.

Alex C.

They were diligent in responding to applicants that had applied to rent my property. Management was great at consulting me on my options. This would be property management that I would recommend.

Melissa W.

APM could not be better. I use 3 other property management companies in other areas, none of them are half as good as APM.

Beverly F.

I used APM for the first time and I was very impressed with the level of service they provided. The staff are friendly and professional. I highly recommend them.

Ahmad H.

I’ve had a rental agreement with APM for over 10 years. The staff handled any problems I had with a professional manner. I would recommend, and HAVE recommended APM to anyone who is looking for rental property.

John S.