Residential Property Management in San Jose

Residential Property Management in San Jose

Residential property management in San Jose is highly demanded service as rents continue to climb. More and more home owners are trying to take advantage of this opportunity and rent out their home for some extra cashflow. However, finding the right property manager is vital in ensuring a smooth and successful venture.

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

The average cost of residential property management in San Jose is between 8% to 12%. Different factors play a role in determining the exact cost of property management such as the company you select, their experience, skill level, and property type. For example, a property management company might be willing to charge less for owners with an apartment complex of 100+ units compared to a single family house due to the extra volume of work providing a greater chance of making money.

What are some responsibilities of a residential property manager?

The responsibilities of a residential property manager are vast.

First, an experienced property manager must prepare the unit to get it rent-ready. This means they help schedule repairs and upgrades to the property. The manager also oversee the progress until the property is ready to house a tenant.

Second, they list the property by taking images and marketing it on online platforms where spectators will see the unit’s availability.

Third, they collect applications, show viewings, screen and background check tenants, select the best candidate, write the lease, and move them in.

Lastly, a property manager will continue ongoing management, which means they will provide the tenant 24/7 support for anything. A responsible property manager must be available 24/7 because emergencies can arise such as a water leak. The property manager will also routinely provide the owners reports, collect rent, handle possible evictions, and increase rent to match the market’s prices.

Do the responsibilities of a residential property manager differ from the responsibilities of a commercial property manager?

Yes, the responsibilities of a residential property manager differ greatly from the responsibilities of a commercial property manager. For instance, residential properties house people, while commercial properties house businesses. This means that residential leases are much shorter (about 1 year on average) compared to commercial leases (3 to 5 yers on average).

In addition to the difference in lease duration, commercial property managers must be aware of certain business regulations, whereas residential property managers don’t. Residential property managers focus more on building close relationships with tenants because it’s where they will be living, whereas commercial property managers focus more on working with businesses.

Residential property managers also have a financial responsibility to help owners earn the most with their properties. It’s their responsibility to compare prices in the rental market, raise rents to match the modern prices, and ensure owners maximize their revenue.

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

1. Communication and People Skills

When hiring a residential property manager, it’s important to ensure they’re great dealing with people. They must be experienced dealing with upset tenants and understand how to improve their situation. They must be empathetic and find real solutions to tenants’ issues.

2. Scheduling Repairs

In most case, a property manager oversees many properties and must know how to schedule repairs for many people at once. If a property manager is not organized, the needs of a single tenant can easily be forgotten, and their issue can compound. A responsible property manager must be familiar with taking notes, setting reminders in their phone, and organizing many tasks in a centralized platform to ensure the needs of all tenants are met.

3. 24/7 Availability

Due to emergencies often occurring in this field, property manager must always be available. At any moment, a tenant can lock themselves out, a pipe can burst, or an electrical outage can occur, and a property manager must be ready to help solve the issue. They’re always on the clock.

4. Responsiveness

A simple yet overlooked virtue is responsiveness. As simple as it might sound, answering all phone calls and replying to all messages is the backbone of operations. Responding in a timely manner can be the difference between a water leak just starting and an overflowing bathroom.

5. Reputable Professionals

A property manager is only as good as the tradesmen he schedules to perform repairs. If they’re not professional, your property will not receive the quality work it deserves. A property manager must have a contact-list of trustworthy, reputable, and seasoned tradesmen ready to work at a moment’s notice. Here at Zapien Real Estate, we have our own seasoned list of professionals for any future repairs and to help you save on costs.

Do you provide residential property management in San Jose?

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

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

1. Contact Us

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

2. Initial Consultation Meeting

Afterwards, we will meet in person to have our initial consultation. Here, we will learn about each other to see if we’re a good fit, and most importantly, we’ll learn 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.