Frequently Asked Questions

YES! In accordance to State of Michigan laws, anyone who provides Property Management Services must be licensed under a Real Estate Brokerage in Michigan.  It's important to find a Licensed property manager, as they have to adhere to all Continued Education courses and laws pertaining to Real Estate, HUD Housing, Fair Housing and Legal obligations. 

Getting started with us is pretty simple. Once we receive a signed property management agreement and access to your property, we will get to work assessing next steps. Whether it is establishing contact with current occupants, or a vacant property we take the necessary steps to inspect and assess the property and then give you our recommendations. We want to develop a plan that works best for you and maximize the potential for your investment. Our team is aware that time is money and works diligently to move the process along as quickly as possible.  

Send us a message by Contacting Us or giving us a call at 810-373-2311

We currently service Flint and all other cities in and around Genesee County, the Saginaw/Bay Region, and all of Metro Detroit.

We manage commercial and residential properties. Our residential properties range from single-family homes, condos & townhomes as well as multi-family buildings. We also do HOA Association management.

We want to make sure your property hits the market as soon as we can. We list properties as “Coming Soon” to garner interest and have potential applicants lined up to view the property as soon as it is available. Our goal is to have your property rented within the first 30-45 days and our leasing team works diligently to surpass that goal any chance they can!

Interested applicants are able to apply for your property 24/7 by clicking on the property on our available properties list on MIForRent.com.  

Our application process involves:

• Nationwide credit & background check

• Income & Employment Verification

• Rental / Eviction history

Once all information has been received we look at all the aspects of the application for finding the right tenant for your property.  When an applicant is approved, the applicant must then place a monetary hold on the property. They are provided with a list of the needed items to be able to move into the property, such as security deposit, move in rental amount & utility confirmations.  An executed lease is completed prior to move-in and keys for the property are given when all required items are completed. 

There are a few things to take in consideration when deciding if you need a professional property management company to help you with your property or properties.

• If you have a general lack of knowledge or experience when it comes to managing a property.

• You have general concerns about the time commitment involved with marketing, maintaining and all around management of a property.

• Possible logistical issues that could get in the way of you efficiently managing your property. If you live out of state, or even out of the general area of your property, time and distance become a consideration in whether or not you can be an effective manager of your property.

Property ownership has great potential for income. One large potential expense is time. Preparing a property for rent, marketing and finding a qualified tenant, repairs and maintenance, all takes time. Many real estate investors also have full time careers and personal lives leaving very little time for anything else. Having a professional property management company helps to alleviate the time commitment involved with ownership.

Often, an owner will run into a situation that will result in large losses of time and money and they may not know how to move forward. Property management professionals can help you be aware of next steps, current fair housing policies and Landlord / Tenant laws, options on how to possibly recoup costs, while also working towards the most efficient and cost effective way to move forward. 

One benefit is that property management fees are deductible. The team will also prepare your financials to make sure you are more than ready come tax time.  Also, there is no need to have to prepare 1099s for any contractors that do work for you on your property.

Property management companies usually have online processes in place for an owner to keep up to date with their property portfolio 24/7.  Property management companies normally have after hour maintenance available for emergency calls and agreements with service companies for emergency services as well. 

Calculating rental rates is a very fluid process. The market is constantly changing so we work hard to stay up to date on market trends. We take into consideration several factors when recommending a rental rate.

• Location of the home

• Comparable listings & rentals in the area

• Features of the home (i.e. bedroom number, basement, garages, property size, upgrades)

• Current value and condition of the home

• Owner’s financial investment in the property to date

We will give you our recommendation on projected rental rates as well as any recommendations for the property that may result in a higher rental rate. We want to give you the full picture of the rental potential of the home, including the range we feel the final rental amount will fall and then work with you on deciding next steps. It is important to choose a rental rate that will attract qualified applicants so that we can get the property listed as soon as possible. The cost of maintaining a vacant property can affect the expected return on investment once the property is rented. Once the rental rate has been determined, we will move quickly to get your house on the market and find a qualified tenant for your property.

The most important thing a property owner can do is to communicate. While we manage your property, we do not do it alone. We communicate with you through every step of the process to make sure you are aware of what stage of the process we are in. We are able to do this in a very accessible and timely manner through our property management system that allows for us to email and text directly to you for questions or concerns. The less delays we encounter in the process, the sooner we can get your property rented and earn you income.

Our main focus is to get your property rented. We preview your property on our company website to attract applicants so they will be pre-approved and ready to view the property as soon as it is available. We find this helps to greatly reduce the time a property is vacant. We have a reputation for quick turnaround on our properties and we want to keep that reputation. We will list properties on our website which uploads our properties to other well known real estate sites. We also share the listings out through our social media sites as well. We work to get as much visibility of our available properties in the local community as possible.8

Prior to listing your property, we will review lease terms and address any special provisions (i.e. pets or no pets on premises) you require. Once we have a prospective tenant we guide them through the entire move in process and review the lease with them in detail. As your property management company, we are able to do all of this on your behalf, including signing the lease. We will communicate with you once your property is leased and answer any questions or concerns you may have. Our standard lease is detailed and thorough and reviewed by our attorney to follow Michigan tenant/landlord guidelines.

Tenants have options when it comes to paying their rent. They are able to pay their rent online, in person at our office, or at our drop box after hours. It is common for tenants to pay rent late, but a late payment does not always mean an eviction. Evictions are not the standard, but we prepare for the worst by making sure we follow all necessary procedures to be prepared if we do need to move to eviction. Once the due date has passed, our staff reaches out to the tenant to get an update on the past due rent. We also mail a State of Michigan DC100a - Demand for Possession for Non Payment of Rent. This form is required if we do need to move on to the eviction process. This form gives the tenant 7 days in which to pay and/or reach out to us to communicate with us in regards to their rent. We document all communication with the tenant and do our best to work with them to help keep them as current on their rent as possible. We do have resources we can refer them to if they may need some assistance. Our goal is to assist in keeping them in the property and paying rent. But we do not want them to get so far behind that there is no chance for them to catch up. While we may have to file on tenants the vast majority of them end up paying their rent, costs and remain in the home without a recurrence.

We are dedicated to keeping expenses to a minimum and focus on getting our owners the highest return on their investments as possible. We have relationships with local vendors to keep costs low and our team has worked diligently to keep administration fees at a minimum. While we work tirelessly to keep costs low, expenses for the properties do fall to the responsibility of the property owner. Most often, we cover the cost of expenses and are then reimbursed out of the owner's income account with us. We seldom have to reach out to an owner with a request for extra funds for an expense up front.

While we want to keep expenses low for our property owner’s, using the cheapest contractors does not guarantee quality. We have spent several years establishing solid relationships with many contractors and vendors in the community. Through these partnerships we are able to provide quality work at affordable prices while prioritizing our owner’s bottom line. We are always looking at ways to improve our administration and service processes to lower costs and reduce delays. We pride ourselves in focusing on making our owners as successful as possible.

Tenants have the ability to call in maintenance requests or submit them online through our resident portal. We quickly follow up with the tenant and schedule a time to go out and inspect the issue. We have maintenance staff that are able to quickly repair minor issues on the property or to assess if we need to reach out to one of our vendors for additional services. We take care of emergent maintenance issues immediately so they will not lead to further problems that could potentially increase costs or further damage to the property down the road.  For large repairs we do reach out to the owner before we proceed to discuss options. We focus on maintaining the property and keep tenants safe while working as hard as possible to keep the owner’s costs down. While some repairs are unavoidable, we do take steps to keep elective repairs to a minimum and communicate those concerns with you.

There are many things to consider when it comes to selling your income property. While your property may be successful as a rental property, that does not always result as potential sales returns.  It is important to look at where your property falls comparably with other properties in the area. If your property matches the condition of the other properties in the area that are getting high sale prices, then selling could be a profitable option for you. A “rent ready” property does not always translate into “sale ready” property. If homes in the area have had upgrades that were not a consideration for your property to be rent ready, that may affect the price you could get for your property.

Another consideration would be if the property is occupied. If it is, this could be a desirable investment for a different real estate investor. A property that could potentially start earning the new owner income from the start can be an attractive benefit to that buyer. It is important to look at if the property could earn a better sales price as an owner-occupied property or an investment property.  

It’s important to take into consideration how much you have invested in the property and how much income you have earned in the property and see if the property could be a better return on your investment over a longer period of time as a rental or if it is more beneficial financially to sell it.