Condo Property Management in San Jose

Condo Property Management in San Jose

Condo property management is a property management service specializing in condominiums. Condominiums typically have more space, privacy, and are more costly than ordinary apartment units, requiring more attention and care. Before searching for condo property management, its important for condominium owners to check with their HOA (homeowner association) to ask about any potential limits with renting their unit. Some Condo HOAs prohibit condo owners from renting out their unit, or only allow them to rent after owning the unit for a certain period of time.

What’s the cost of Condo Property Management in San Jose?

The cost of condo property management in San Jose is between 8% to 12%, depending on the property manager, their qualifications, skill level, and any bonus services they may provide. Property-type can also play a role in determining management costs. For example, for apartment property management, it can cost as little as 7% if they offer a complex with 100+ units due to the volume and workload provided.

What are the responsibilities of a condo property manager?

Condos are well-maintained and generally more secure compared to traditional apartments, which helps establish a certain reputation and quality of life for those dwelling condos. When looking for a condo property manager, it’s important to find someone who understands that, and will quickly handle any issues the tenant may experience. The responsibilities of a condo property manager are marketing the property, property-preparation, screening and background-checking applicants, collecting rent, handling tenant requests, and staying in communication with tenants.

Do those responsibilities of a condo property manager from the responsibilities of a general property manager?

In some ways, most property managers hold the same responsibilities across the board. However, depending on the property type, costs and responsibilities may differ. For example, single-family homes typically require more responsibility and care due to often having a larger physical-lot than condos. Single-family homes need landscaping, roofing, and many other things a condo might not need. Because condominiums are part of a larger building that takes care of those necessities, condos often demand less work to keep tenants happy. For these reasons, it’s possible to ask for fairer rates when hiring a condo property manager.

What skills should I look for when hiring a condo property manager in San Jose?

1. People Skills

Property-management is 90% people-skills. When managing a property, a property manager is often checking up on tenants, scheduling repairs, and collecting rent. It’s important for a property manager to understand how to effectively communicate with tenants, empathize with any issues they might have, and find real solutions in a timely manner.

2. Organization

An organized person is a more efficient person. In most cases, property managers manage multiple properties simultaneously. If a manager is not organized, some tenants can accidentally get swept under the rug as they tend to another tenant, causing the initial tenant a great deal of frustration. To prevent this from occurring, it’s vital for a property manager to be organized and understand how to use a calendar to schedule the necessities of all tenants in a clear and actionable way. That way, they can work down the list and meet the needs of all tenants.

3. 24/7 Availability

Similar to firefighters, policemen, and plumbers, property managers must be available 24/7. Emergencies are a part of our field, and in any profession where emergencies are imminent, a professional must readily be available. At any moment, an electrical outage can occur, a pipe can burst, or a tree can fall onto a fence, which will require swift action.

4. Responsiveness

Over the years, I’ve heard of horror-stories of property managers not responding to tenants in a timely manner. Some had their phone on silent while others simply didn’t respond due to negligence. When a manager doesn’t answer calls and messages, a small issue can compile into a larger issue given the time to grow. Responsiveness is vital and the backbone of most of these qualities a property manager should possess.

5. Quality Vendors

Something often overlooked is a property manager’s contact-list. A property manager is only as good as the people they can contact for repairs. We pride ourselves in having a fortified contact-list of professional, reliable, and affordable vendors to get the jobs done right. We have plumbers, painters, landscapers, and more, ready to showing up whenever necessary.

Do you provide condo property management in San Jose?

Yes, here at Zapien Real Estate, we provide condo property management in San Jose. We often offer special deals to help owners save in property management costs and fees.

What’s the process of hiring you as my condo property manager?

1. Contact Us

Firstly, you must contact us through our website or call to request the service you’re interested in.

2. Initial Consultation Meeting

After, we will meet in person and have our initial consultation. Here, we will learn about each other to see if we’re a good fit, and most importantly, ask you what your goals are with your property.

3. Fill Out Paperwork

If we decide we will be a good fit for each other, we will proceed to filling out the paperwork for our property management agreement and discuss the details.

4. Property Preparation and Repairs

Before any marketing is done, we will prepare the property and perform any repairs that might be necessary. This is the step to make the property rent-ready. If you do not have the funds for necessary repairs, we can often cover the repairs and will be reimbursed by you later. This way, you can cover any repairs and essentially get a loan interest-free as a thank you from us.

5. Marketing Strategy

After the property is rent-ready, we will think about the best marketing approach. Marketing is essential to finding the most qualified tenants and get your desired asking price. Platforms we often use to market properties are Zillow, Redfin, HotPads, our own private contact-list, and more.

6. List Property

We will then take pictures, professionally edit them, and list the property across all platforms we work with. Pictures tell most of the story. Surprisingly, a property can earn more by simply taking higher-quality pictures, as opposed to using poor images for the same exact property.

7. Property Showings

At this stage, many people have responded to our listings and are interested in viewing the property. We will take care of scheduling, contacting, and showing the property to all those who are interested and handle everything for you.

8. Applications

Here, we collect all applications and prepare them for screening.

9. Tenant Selection

In order to select the best renter, we conduct screenings, background-checks, rental-history checks, and credit checks. We then select the tenant that best meets out criteria.

10. Lease Write-up & Signing

During this step, we write the lease and collect all signatures. Ordinarily, we use an online platform called DocuSign to distribute, sign, collect, and store leases.

11. Move-In Inspection

We then conduct a move-in inspection with the tenant and document the property’s condition for the record. Prior to the tenant moving in, it’s important for the property’s condition to be documented to assess possible damages when moving out.

12. Rent Collection

Then, we’ll set up the tenant in our rent-collection software and prepare them. We’ll also answer any questions they might have on how to use it. The software is pretty straight forward.

13. Ongoing Management

Finally, the tenant happily moves in, the owner is pleased with the vetted tenant, and we continue to manage the property and collect rent. We will also ensure the renter is up to date with any renter’s insurance and leases as time goes on, and routinely provide reports to the property owners.