Owner FAQs

Your owner's statement only reflects what was paid, and doesn't reflect the tenant's owed balance. If the tenant only paid the rent and did not pay the late fee, it is still charged to the tenant, and when they pay the rent for the next month, it will be paid first, and the tenant's rent will be short the late fee unless they pay the entire rent and balance.

We do not hold any rent payments; as soon as funds are available, we send the payment to you. As a rule of thumb, we tell you to count 5 business days after the 5th, and that is when you should see payment, unless we have contacted you to let you know your tenant is going to be paying late or have other payment arrangements.

You should see a link in your email to your owner's portal the same day that you get paid. We make it a point to make sure you have an explanation of your rent proceeds when you get paid.

Our software vendor believes that providing a link to your owner portal is only good for one use; it limits the possibility of the site being hacked. If you need a new link, just request one via email.

Yes. Our policy is that the security deposit is typically one month's rent. By Virginia Law, we must keep the security deposit in a federally insured Escrow Account until the tenant moves out and the disposition is completed.

Before signing your Management agreement with us, we completed a comparative market analysis of your property's neighborhood and recommended the rent at which we should list the property. Typically, if we list the property at or near the recommended rental price, we work to rent it as quickly as possible. It really depends on the time of the year.

Pets are not allowed without your permission. Our standard pet policy states that we do not allow animals over 40lbs. We also have a list of breeds that are not allowed as per our insurance company. Excluded breeds include Pit bulls (American Staffordshire Terrier), Akitas, Mastiffs, Chow Chows, Dobermans, German Shepherds, and Rottweilers. We also require a $450 non-refundable pet fee for the privilege of having a pet on the property. We will contact each owner directly if we have an inquiry from a prospective tenant with a larger dog. Any damage above and beyond the deposit remains the tenant's responsibility.

You are required to either change the locks or have locks rekeyed between the owner and tenants, and between tenants. However, we require the use of Quickset smart key technology locks so we can simply swap the keys between tenants for less than $5.00.

We have learned over the years that when we give marketing status to owners, they tend to get disheartened when no applications are received. Many owners think that just because a tenant comes to look at the property, they will put in their application, which is very far from the truth. We don't like to disappoint our owners with false hope. Once your property is rented, we send you a copy of the lease when it is signed, and the security deposit is collected. We complete new CMAs for a property that has been on the market for more than 30 days to ensure it is listed at the correct price, and we re-evaluate market timing.

Yes. We simply ask that you notify our team within 24 hours whether you will manage the work personally or prefer that we dispatch one of our preferred vendors. Additionally, please update us once the job is finished so we can properly resolve the service ticket.

You will be copied on the work orders going to the vendor for the maintenance request. You don’t need to do anything; just keep in mind that if the vendor can fix the problem for less than $150, they can. If the maintenance costs more than $150, we will contact you for authorization.

Emergencies include running water and physical damage to the property. If there is either physical damage or running water, we will send our vendor to make necessary repairs and stabilize the situation. Example: Water heater in the attic burst. We send a contractor over right away to turn off the water, suck up water, dry out the carpet padding, and drain the water heater (stabilizing the situation so no further damage to the property is caused).

We send out 5-day notices to each tenant who is late on the rent, even if they have made payment arrangements. This allows us to go to court and legally evict a tenant if they have not paid their rent. It is the owner’s decision if they want to accept the payment arrangement and not go to court or we go to court and get a court date.

Technically the security deposit belongs to the tenant, and once the property is returned to the rentable condition prior to the tenant renting the unit, we have to obtain all the bills and pay contractors accordingly. Anything left over after all the repair/cleaning bills are paid then gets applied to any rent that was delinquent. This process can take up to 45 days.

The Virginia Residential Landlord-Tenant Handbook states that if the tenants show up in court, the judge must give the tenants 10 days before we can file the writ of possession. (During this time, we cannot legally set foot on the property, or this will violate the writ of eviction, and we have to start all over again.) From the time the sheriff’s department receives the writ of eviction until execution of the writ, it can take anywhere from 72 hours to 2 weeks, depending on the sheriff’s backlog.