Property Management FAQs

The tenant gives all information about their pet: type, breed, rabies shots, and color. They are charged a nonrefundable $350 fee, per pet. This protects both Rob Brooks Realty and property owners. We want to make sure the risk profile is analyzed and that we have all the information on that specific pet.

As of 2024, the average vacancy is less than a month. This varies from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Pet fee ($350), one month's rent, and security deposit.

We meet with the owner and look at the property to ensure it's a good candidate for property management. (Is the property up to a certain level of maintenance? What does ongoing maintenance look like?) Once we come to an agreement with the owner, we get it on the market quickly.

We have bonded and insured contractors and vendors to help protect the property owner. These contractors and vendors must have several key traits:

• Maintain a good track record with Rob Brooks Realty
• Demonstrate honesty in past work
• Workmanship has been high quality
• Prices charged are fair market

Good vendors are difficult to find, and we have a shortage of good workers in our area. Our maintenance is completed by independent contractors. None of the maintenance staff is employed directly by Rob Brooks Realty, in an effort to keep things above board.

We started in 2008 and our first clients used our property management services.

As of this writing, we manage over 90 properties. This number fluctuates. We've been on a growing trend since 2008.

We've done zero billboard advertising. Most of our business just comes from people talking about us, leading to word-of-mouth referrals.

Some owners are "accidental" landlords. Maybe they are moving out of the area, but want to keep their current home as an investment property. The majority of our clients are military members. We also have several investors who keep their property under management with us. Most of our clients, however, are first-time landlords.

Our lease policy states that tenants pay on the first business day of every month. As soon as the money comes in, it takes a little time to clear our accounts (to verify the money has been received). We have a track record of where the owners are paid by the seventh day of the month.

We communicate at least once a month. We deliver the outside inspection photo, confirm the money has been sent to your account, etc. A monthly report is also available in the owner portal we provide, which includes a breakdown of income and expenses.

When things like the water heater break down, we get urgent calls at the craziest hours, including at night and early in the morning. It's our job to calm down the tenant and provide a solution. Michael Gregg does a great job of working with the tenants in this area (sometimes, we are even able to troubleshoot issues over the phone to prevent an unnecessary maintenance call).
When an appliance needs to be replaced, we will help you select a good option that fits the budget and reliability necessary for a rental property.

Our team even filmed a video on our process for maintaining a property. Check it out here →

We have a spending limit of $350 for repairs. If a maintenance request is below $350, we won't contact you and we will take care of the issue (this is done to speed up the process and prevent a vendor return call and additional fees).
We pay vendors immediately. The best vendors tend to gravitate toward those who pay them the fastest.

Bottom line: the tenants are staying in your property. We want to be on good terms as much as possible and want them to "like", respect, and appreciate us. Sometimes we need to speak hard truths to this tenant, including holding a hard and fast rule on on-time payment.

Due to markets, this can change quite a bit. Rent prices are set based on what the market can currently hold for the specific neighborhood. We contact the tenant and the owner about 4-5 weeks in advance and ensure there is interest on both sides to renew the lease and explain the process. We send over a one-page form with the terms of the lease renewal agreement, which is then signed by all parties. There are no lease renewal fees.

When deposits come in, they are held in a non-interest-bearing account, separate from all other company monies. This cannot be touched by the landlord, tenant, or property management until the lease ends. We take a look at the inspection report and see if there are damages. Our hope is to get the entire deposit back to the tenant because they kept excellent care of the property, but sometimes this is not possible and the owner is given part or all of the deposit.

Everyone has heard nightmare stories when it comes to evictions, but we have been very fortunate. We've only had two evictions since we started in 2008. We attribute this to our thorough vetting process and God's grace.
Evictions are paid for by Rob Brooks Realty. We have attorneys and we take care of this cost.

Every year, we provide a report of income and expenses. This makes it easy for you or your accountant to transfer the information to the appropriate IRS form.

We take pictures of all of the appliance numbers before a tenant moves in. This allows us to have insight into whether it makes more sense to repair or replace a unit, based on the model number, cost of parts, year built, etc.  When a repair is done, these appliance numbers on hand can sometimes save an owner money because a repairman knows what parts to put in his truck before going there.

It's helpful to ask the following: 

• How long have you been in business? 
• What experience does the team have? 
• How many property managers do you employ for the portfolio size? (Looking at the ratio) Having a larger number of managers for properties helps significantly with customer service, faster returned phone calls, and better owner relations. 
• How do you (the property management company) set up the owner for success? 
• What do you charge?
• What extra fees do you have for writing leases? Renewals? Evictions? Inspections? 
• How do you screen tenants? 
• How do you maintain the property?
• What communication systems will you have with me as owner?
• How often do you do inspections?
• How many evictions have you had or do you have each year?
• How do you advertise the properties?
• How long do you expect my property will be vacant?