Frequently Asked Questions

Owner
Portal

Are you licensed?

Yes, we are licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission. Our license number is 9000694.

What type of properties do you manage?

We manage single family homes, multi-family projects, and our team has experience managing office and industrial properties.

Are there properties that you will not manage?

We will not manage in areas where we would not feel comfortable sending our property management staff to at midnight.

What is your fee to lease my home?

Your total cost is one month of rent. Your home will be immediately marketed on the Houston MLS meaning that every agent in Houston has the ability to show your property, and allows us to get your home leased even faster.

What is your monthly management fee?

We have two plans, a basic plan and a plus plan that are both flat monthly fees that you only pay when the property is occupied. You can see more detail here [link]

We also provide you with a No Charge Tenant Guarantee

What is included in your management fee?

The month management fee covers the collection of the rent, the coordination of maintenance and repairs, dealing with tenant delinquencies or disputes, accounting for and distributing the rents received, the production of monthly, statements, the preparation of year end reports & tax documents, and being available to give you advice that you may seek. You can see more details here [link]

What is Included in your No Charge Tenant Guarantee?

If we are paid to lease and manage your property, and if a tenant does not financially fulfill their lease during the initial 10 month period, we will replace your tenant at NO Charge. Under our PLUS plan, we will also pay the court cost for the eviction, do the eviction legwork, and represent you in JP court at no NO CHARGE. We can do this because we do a great job of screening the tenants in the first place. Nearly 98% of the tenants we place successfully complete their leases. We stand behind our services, and work to ensure your property is prosperous.

Why do you have some negative reviews?

We also have a huge number of positive reviews from our property owners and tenants. Unfortunately, yelp tends to put these in the non-recommended section (they say it’s because our owners don’t fit the Yelper profile). We suggest that you click on the non-recommended reviews (this is where they stick the reviews of people that don’t fit their profile), and also check out our google+ reviews.

First, we do our best to make everyone happy, and we focus intently on customer service. We do this by providing the ability for tenants to request maintenance 24 hours per day through the tenant portal and through our emergency line. Then we follow an automated task list that keeps tenants and owners in the loop as to the progress of the service request, ensuring clear communication to both the owner and tenant regarding any service request.

In addition to the move in, 45 day inspection, and 60 day inspection prior to move out, we have recently replaced the paper inventory and condition form with a detailed digital image tenant self-inspection that requires the tenant to perform their own move in inspection prior to placing furniture in the home using our step by step software (in addition to the one we perform) which should eliminate all security deposit disputes.

We also have a duty to enforce the lease agreement, which means that if a dog pees on the carpet, we have to replace the carpet, and charge the tenant. Also, if a tenant causes a stoppage in the sewer system, we have to charge them. The tenant is also responsible to make the home available to show during the last 60 days of the lease. We do our best to work with the tenant’s schedule, but the home does need to be available to be shown, and re-leased to minimize vacancies.

There are times that the people do not like to follow the contracts to which they have agreed, or do not believe that they should be responsible for damage that they cause. We believe that you will find that this is where any negative reviews originate. We don’t like to get negative reviews, but we have to do the job the owner hired us to do.

How often do you do Property Inspections?

We perform 3 TO 4 lease inspections during the term of a typical lease. The tenant will also use our software to perform their own move in inspection. We also conduct random drive by inspections, as we are often in the areas.

Detailed Move in Inspection: This is a comprehensive condition inspection. We are checking the condition of the property, and documenting the condition at the time prior to the tenant occupying the property. This is not a de

Tenant Move in Inspection: Same as the move in inspection, but completed by the tenant.

Periodic Inspections: - conducted as a general condition inspection to make sure the home has not been turned into something that it should not have.

Move Out Inspection: A final comprehensive condition inspection following the same process as the move in inspection. We use this inspection to compare against the move in inspection for the purpose of accounting for security deposits.

What is not included in the inspections?

Our inspections are meant to check for items that are visible to the eye, and are specifically looking for damage that existed prior to the tenant occupying the property and comparing that to any damage that may exist after the tenant vacates the property. This includes walls, windows, window covering smoke detectors, flooring, HVAC filters, light bulbs, items attached to roof (satellite dishes), roof gutters where visible, and overall cleanliness of the property.
We are not checking mechanical functionality of items such as the HVAC, water heaters, etc. that would not be obvious.

How do you screen your tenants?

We do a multi-level screening of the tenants. The tenants will initially fill out an application online, and provide a copy of their driver’s license and most recent 2 paycheck stubs (or tax returns for self-employed). We will run a credit check, criminal background check, sex offender database check, and a terrorism watch list check. We will not accept anyone who has an eviction on their record, or anyone with a felony conviction, unless specifically allowed by the owner. Bankruptcies must be discharged and any previous broken leases must be paid in full, and rental history re-established. , The tenant’s credit and income requirements can be found here. The tenant’s income and credit score will determine the amount of security deposit that is required. Our general philosophy is to get a market deposit (1 month of rent) for creditworthy tenants, and for those who have had difficulties in the past allow them to pay a substantially increased deposit (up to 3 months of rent), so that they have every incentive to keep the property in good shape and to fulfill their lease obligations.

Can I meet the tenants prior to your approval?

Due to fair housing laws, we do not let landlords meet the tenants prior to approval. You may however ask us to adjust the credit and income requirements for your specific property, but the standards must apply to each person who applies for the property.

Can I contact the tenants?

You should not have direct contact the tenants. We have a great process that keeps our owners in the loop, and allows you to make decisions while maximizing your return. We are very effective at getting tenants to pay on time, because we take the sob story factor out of the equation. We simply tell tenants who want out of late fees that we can’t because of fair housing laws. The only way we can make sure that we don’t get sued is to treat everyone the same, which is to go by the lease. We do have a few written exceptions that apply everyone. We don’t want you to get calls asking you to waive late fees. Also, when tenants get the owner’s contact information they will often bypass our service request process and go directly to you. We would strongly prefer that you allow our proven systems to work, and relax knowing that you will be in the loop, while we handle the issues.

How do owners get paid?

The tenant will pay online. Once the tenant pays, it takes 4 business days for verified funds (rent checks that don’t bounce) to hit our account. We then pay you the next business day, and your payment will hit your bank account the morning after we process the payment. We start processing payments on the 5th of the month, and do so each business day until the 10th. By the 10th nearly all payments are processed. If your tenant paid late or bounced a check, we will pay you as soon as we receive the payment from the tenant.

How do I see my payments?

You will receive an e-mail notification when your tenant pays the rent, and an e-mail letting you know that we have processed your monthly payment along with a statement. We send out 2 statements per month; one when we send your monthly payment and another shortly after the close of the month. We cut the month off on the 24th of the month, because rent charges will post on or about the 25th or the month, and tenants will begin paying rent. We have found that running on a calendar month can be confusing when people paid the previous month on the 30th, but the current month shows no income.

What happens to the security deposit?

Texas law requires that the security deposit be held in trust. As a licensed broker, we hold the security deposit in a security deposit trust account. It is only permitted to be used for charges against the tenant’s account. Within 30 days of the tenant moving out and providing a written forwarding address, we must return an itemized list of any deductions along with any remaining balance to the tenant.

How do you handle maintenance request?

Emergencies are called into the office and answered 24 hours a day. The lease requires that non-emergency service request are done through the tenant portal. As an owner, you are copied on the service request and receive a copy of the exact same service request at the same time that we do. If the issue does not affect the comfort of the tenant, and will not damage the property, will schedule the service request to be completed as soon as possible, but not sooner than 24 hours, so that property owners can have time to review the issue and to give us their input if they would like. If we do not receive your input, we will proceed with addressing the service request so long as the total cost does not exceed $250.00. We set this limit, because the vast majority of the service request that we do are less than $250.00, and we do not want you as an owner to incur additional trip charges if you were not available to discuss and approve a repair in real time. If we anticipate that an item will be more than $250.00, we will do our best to coordinate with you and the vendor so that we can reach you for approval while the vendor is at the property, or ask that you allow us to spend a higher amount if you will not be available.

Can I choose my own vendors?

We do allow home owners to specify their own vendor, but this must be in your owner portal with the full contact information.

Should I give my contact information to the tenants?

What type of insurance do you maintain?

We maintain a $2 Million General Liability Policy

What type of insurance should I maintain?

You need to maintain a $300,000 Liability Policy naming us as an additional insured