Management Fees and Services

We pride ourselves on managing safe, well-maintained homes that attract quality renters. We personally oversee residential, single family homes, duplexes, fourplexes, apartment complexes and manufactured home communities.

We are competitive with our prices!

Turnover and vacancy are the biggest expenses for property owners. Most companies benefit from your loss, but we have set up our pricing to be affordable and owner-friendly. We make money when your property makes money. We are motivated to find the perfect, long-term tenants, for your home.

Our Screening Process

Screening tenants is the most important service a property manager provides. A problem tenant can be costly with time and money.  No background check can wholly eliminate risk. We have designed an extensive screening process that will substantially lower the possibility of problems with future tenants. As soon as a potential tenant completes the application, we perform the following:

  • National and state background check
  • Confirmation of rental history
  • Credit report check, including score and full payment history
  • Review of any accounts in collections or judgments filed
  • Verification of photo ID  (on applicants over 18)
  • Check for past evictions
  • Sex offender, terrorist, and criminal check
  • Contact current employer for income verification or
  • Procure copies of tax return and current bank statement if self-employed
  • Contact previous landlords about payment history, property conditions, and nuisance issues

It is illegal to discriminate based on ethnicity, religion, gender, age, or familial status. Although it is absolutely acceptable to turn down applicants for poor credit or rental history.

We require:

  • Tenants to provide at least two years of verifiable rental history or proof of home ownership.
  • Good credit.
  • Verifiable income at least 3 times the monthly rent.
  • We call the applicant’s current/previous landlords and ask about the applicant’s payment history, whether there were bounced checks, late payments, unauthorized roommates, pets, noise, damage, etc.
  • If the former landlord is a private home owner (instead of an apartment manager), we pull the County tax record to verify that the person listed as the landlord is in fact the owner of the former rental property.

For acceptable applicants, the screening process will be short and they will be approved. For other applicants, red flags might appear during your screening process, in which case we will look further. An applicant may qualify based on income and rental history, but have poor credit. If we think the applicant is a reasonable risk, we will offer them approval with additional security deposit equal to at least one month’s rent.

We are very thorough with our screening process and will never let an urgency to rent diminish our screening requirements.

Our Goals

At DJW, property management is 100% our main focus. We believe you should focus on you, and we will focus on your rental home. A property manager manages your rental home, not  assists you in managing it yourself.   It is our goal for owners to have long-term tenants who will pay their rent on time, help care for the properties, and be good neighbors.

If you are a tenant or resident, our goal is to provide you with a clean, well-maintained living space. We will respond to your maintenance requests within 48 business hours. We will develop a long-term relationship and have a successful tenancy.

For tradesmen and vendors, we will pay quickly at a competitive rate, with the target on doing it right the first time. The property will remain available with the least amount of intrusion to the resident and the least inconvenience for the tradesman.

We believe the owner and the tenant should be satisfied. All of our daily procedures are focused toward the following goals:

  • To reduce the Owners risk as a Landlord
  • To maintain the integrity of the property
  • To maintain the cash flow
  • To increase value of the property

We Guarantee

Guaranteed Rent Payments – DJW guarantees that a tenant that we place in your property will pay their rent, every month, or you don’t pay for our management services for that month.

Guaranteed Lease Performance – if a tenant that we place in your property breaks their lease, for any reason, then we will re-rent your home to new tenants for free.

We Work Hard to Rent your Property

We perform a market analysis to homes similar to yours to determine the rental rate. First we will determine a starting value. Then we add or subtract based on the time of year, competition from other available rentals in the surrounding area, the condition of the property and other market factors.

We continue to make adjustments as needed. We track the number of calls, showing and applicants who have reviewed the listings. We focus on renting the property quickly but at a good market price. If your property is listed at a high price, then it will take longer to rent, in which case the extra rent you were trying to get was lost in the time the property was vacant. Some owners want to increase the rent to cover their mortgage, although your mortgage payment has little to do with the rental market.

Our system is set up to make your renting experience as cost effective as possible in current market conditions. We do not want to waste time with an empty rental.

If a property is not rented within 30 days it is usually due to rent, show ability, or marketing. In order for us to rent our your property we go over these details:

Rent: We will review comparable properties in the current market and recommend a rental price based on that information. We will continue to track the number of calls, showings, and applications, and adjust the price as needed.

Show ability: We will make recommendations based on our experience as well as feedback from showings. There is a chance the property will need improvements such as cleaning or repairs that will aid presentation. We will gladly discuss these items with you.

Marketing:  Not only do we  use internet sites, including our own top-ranked website, but we also use local media, a tenant-referral program, and yard signs. Most of our new owners have noticed a decline in vacancies, which increased their bottom line.

We believe it’s a good idea to price your rental property at a competitive current value.

A tenant shaking hands with his new landlordHow We Achieve Low-Vacancy Rates

The market is best in the Spring and Summer, the rents are higher and homes spend less time vacant. We target leases to end during this time. For Homeowners who eventually plan on selling their property, a lease expiration date during this time will allow them the opportunity to asses the market and put their house up for sale.

When good tenants renew their leases, owners save time and money.

The Online Owner

Property owners are able to see all activity pertaining to their property 24/7 with a personal login and password. Statements, maintenance requests, work orders, lease information, and expected rent are available to each owner.

Detailed Property Inspections

Regular inspections are important to identifying potential problems. Routine maintenance can save you money. Our property inspection program consists of:

  • Routine drive-by inspections
  • Full inspection before and after each tenant
  • Inspection if tenant fails to pay rent or respond to communications
  • Additional inspections as needed or upon request

Tenants are given three days following inspection to repair any damages found, including lawn care and other exterior maintenance issues.
If they do not comply, we will line up the repair and bill the tenant.

How Will You Get Paid?

We are confident that we can find a method of getting paid that will work for you.

We collect payments from the tenant. Every month you will receive a statement that accounts for all payments and expenses on your property. All rents and other payments are deposited into a trust account. We will deduct our management fee and other expenses that have been approved and send the balance to you. We post statements and process payments every month.  Payments are sent to owners by direct deposit and statements are sent by e-mail.

Collecting Rent

We strictly enforce the lease agreements. That includes late fees, pet policy, unauthorized occupants, vehicle limits, lease term, and all other stipulations and conditions. If we become aware of a violation, we will quickly issue a violation notice. If the tenant does not fix the violation, we will then take further action. We are firm with collecting rent!

What happens when a tenant doesn’t pay rent?

Rent is due on the 1st of each month with a grace period until the 5th. If rent is not received by then, we adhere to the following procedure:

  1. On the 6th we inform the tenant that legal action will be taken within 48 hours
  2. If the tenant does not respond or pay within 48 hours of notice, tenants are served a “three-day-pay-or-quit” notice, prepared by an attorney (the majority of tenants pay following receipt of this notice)
  3. If no response or payment is received within three days of this notice, a court date is scheduled within 12 days, at which time they are evicted*
  4. Tenant is given detailed move-out instructions. This includes consequences of leaving property in less than satisfactory condition
  5. Any unpaid charges not covered by security deposit will be pursued through a professional collection agency

*We have designed a firm collection system. If a tenant falls behind in rent by more than one month is rarely able to get caught up. We can help tenants with legitimate problems or special circumstances find assistance from various organizations, but if they cannot pay rent, we will find a tenant who can.

Turnover Process and How we Protect your Property

When tenants move out they are required to give us a written 45-day notice prior to moving out. When we receive this notice the tenant is given Move-Out Instructions on how to leave the property in the condition as when they came. Tenant security deposits are held in a trust account until the tenant moves out.

When the tenant moves out, we do a total property inspection.The deposit is used to cover any damages or cleaning that is needed to return the property to its rent-ready condition. We return the remaining deposit money to the tenant with a full accounting of what was performed.  We love when we can return a full deposit to the tenants, that means the property is ready to be rented again.

Pets

Allowing pets is your decision. We have found that over 40 percent of renters don’t have pets and 60 percent do. If you choose not to allow pets, it may take longer to rent the property. Although, by not allowing pets, you lower the chance of damages.

If you decide to allow pets, we recommend that you set a limit of two pets and set a weight restriction based on your property size. Another recommendation is to add a $400 pet deposit per pet. Our inspection process always includes a careful search for pet damage and smell. Generally speaking, good, clean people have good, clean pets.

*It should be noted that if a tenant has proper documentation for a companion animal as allowed in the Fair Housing Act then we are obligated to allow these animals. The tenant is still responsible for any damages caused by the animal.

In Every Lease, For Every Property, We Write a “No Smoking” Policy

Maintenance that is Owner Approved

Do I get to approve maintenance? Yes.

We have a maintenance approval amount that can be adjusted. The stand amount is $250, meaning if the repair is going to be under $250 then we will take care of the issue and you will see it documented on your statement. If the repair is over $250, then we will contact you to discuss the options and get approval.

Our vendors are trained to look for warranties when possible. We are able to negotiate better prices and services because of our volume and experience. Sometimes we do not know the cost to repair an item until it is diagnosed. When this happens, we will contact you with details and estimated costs.

Per the lease agreement, tenants are instructed to report all non-emergency repair requests through our Tenant Portal. We work hard to respond to and complete most ordinary repair requests within three to five business days.

Repairs and property condition issues seem to be the biggest problem between landlords and tenants. A property manager coordinates between the tenant and the owner. Remember, a happy tenant is likely to renew the lease, and it is to your advantage that they enjoy a well-maintained home in which everything functions properly.

Communicating with the tenant over the phone can solve the problem for an easy fix. For example, a tripped breaker or an inoperable garbage disposal can often be fixed with a simple reset.  Because of our construction background, we offer a more professional level of troubleshooting, diagnosis, and repair than many other property management companies.

My brother works in construction. Will you use him to perform repairs?

No, we only use our qualified vendors. We are not able for liability reasons to use your friends or relatives to perform work on your home unless they are in fact licensed vendors (see below).

Will you use my neighbor Plumber, A/C Company, etc.?

We are happy to invite them to join our vendor list if they are qualified and insured. However we can’t promise that a specific vendor will be dispatched to your home for certain repairs.

Why are repairs so important?

When repairs re handled, the property managements reputation is affected. Tenants will judge us by almost no other measure. We entrust vendors we know and have a relationship with for the reputations of property management company and the relationship with your tenant. When repairs are needed, we will send out trusted vendors with whom the relationship and communication is already established.

Do You Want to Maximize the Marketing Efforts?

On average, an owner experiences a loss of approximately $250 each week their property is vacant. To reduce vacancy rates and keep advertising costs low,we use software that allows us to advertise vacant units on over 15 high-traffic rental websites. With the premium marketing plan we are able to leverage our volume and pass the savings on to our owners.

Code of Ethics

https://www.narpm.org/about/ethics/code-of-ethics.htm