Management FAQs

No, there is no charge for a vacant property.

Yes, there are additional costs when an eviction is necessary. Please know that there are many additional steps taken to avoid the eviction but there are instances where it is simply unavoidable. There is a flat fee of $500 that will cover all eviction costs. There are cities where a moving company and/or storage is required and that incurs an additional fee.

There will be a monthly management fee of 10% gross monthly rent per unit. We do not charge a management fee for empty units.

Weekly. We send owners statements every Friday so that you have up to date information for each property that we manage. It shows you all the income and expense transactions on your account.

When send weekly vacancy reports for any units you may have empty. This information includes a monthly rent estimate for the area, number of calls received, website leads, number of showings applications received, the number of approved and denied applications, time of vacancy and our recommendations, if any, for the property. We provided notices if a deposit is received and also send a copy of the completed lease. If an eviction is necessary we send notifications. We also provide free estimates for any work that needs to be completed in a vacant property.

They are marketed on all the popular sites such as Apartments.com, Zumper.com, Craigslist, HotPads, Lovely and 14 other sites. We also post on Facebook and use the MLS (multiple listing service - a source for realtors). For those properties who also allow section-8 we market on Go-Section8.com. We use yard signs specifically printed to direct traffic to our direct line or website where the prospective tenants can gather as much information as possible. We also use Tenant Turner to allow scheduling of tenants and applying online seamless. We also hire virtual assistants that help us call every guest card we receive and to schedule showings.

No, you are not required to accept a voucher from any housing provider. Although, we do work extensively with our local agencies, and have built a rapport with each of them, which allows us to help fill vacancies with at least a portion of the rent being guaranteed by that agency.

That depends on what condition the property is in when we receive it. If the unit is rent ready we will immediately post the property. It will be available on our website immediately. It may take 24-48 hours for it to post to our partner website which unfortunately we have no control over. If there is misinformation posted on those websites it is the way the partner company imports their data. We cannot correct the misinformation and our only option is to unmarket the property to all websites and that does not even guarantee that they will pull the marketing from their website.

Nothing! There is zero upfront cost for you to market your property. We do charge the first month’s rent as a placement fee after we have found a tenant and a lease is signed.

While there is no set time frame we can provide renting a unit depends on several important factors. The rent amount, the time of year and the location all have an impact on how fast or slow a unit may rent. We place your property on the market immediately once the unit is rent ready.

We send a weekly vacancy detail report, completed by the showing agents, that provides information such as how many phone calls, showings and applications were received for each vacant unit.

We use tools that allow us to look at the size of the home, the number of bedrooms, the area and multiple other features in addition to comparable rents in the same rental market to keep your property competitive and to determine an accurate rental analysis.

We require extensive information including their name, date of birth and social security numbers so that we can screen every applicant 18 years and older. The screening includes a credit check, criminal background and rental history. We also verify their income and require an additional deposit or co-signer if their reports show a concern from a potentially good tenant.

We handle all application screening, tenant placement, marketing, showings, leasing, phone calls, emails, text messages, tenant paperwork, rent collection, maintenance requests, recurring work orders, city inspections, section 8 inspections, government paperwork, accounts receivable, accounts payable, bill pay, owner distributions, fair housing guidelines, tax reporting, state mandated requirements and more!

There are several services that are not included in the management fee. Eviction costs, maintenance fees, permits/rental registration and the upgrade for handling your utility billing if you choose that option.

We pay out weekly, every Friday. If you choose to get your rent using direct deposit, which we strongly recommend, you can expect your rent at the beginning of the following week. If you use the mail service we cannot guarantee when your check will reach you. There are times that checks are lost in the mail and we are required to do a stop payment which will incur a $35 fee that the owner is required to cover. You then have to wait for the next pay cycle for the check to be released as we cannot make payments outside of our weekly pay schedule.

Yes, we hold a broker’s license which is required by the State of Ohio. Each showing agent is also a licensed agent as well as anyone who may sign the lease.

While we do have an answering service for after-hours maintenance emergencies, the office is open from 10am - 5pm Monday through Friday. We are closed to the public on Wednesdays, but are typically available by email, aside from any training that may occur.

We do provide direct deposits to an account of your choice. At this time we are unable to split payments between accounts so all proceeds must be deposited into one account.

Yes, once the lease is signed by both the tenant and our agent, a copy will be sent to you for your records.

We do! This is one benefit to being a full service brokerage in real estate we have access to the MLS as well as having a network of people that spans the globe.

When a new tenant moves into a property they must open a tenant portal in order to sign their lease. In this tenant portal they also have the option to set up auto pay for rent or pay, for free, using their checking account. They can, for a fee, pay by credit card. There are also pay slips they can use to pay rent at an Ace Check Cashing or 7/11. We also accept money orders that are made out to Sandstone Realty and mailed or delivered to the office.

We only sign 1 year leases for private pay tenants as we have found it difficult, if not impossible, to find applicants that want to commit for more than 1 year. We do try to sign a 2 year lease for any tenants that are on a section 8 (subsidized) housing program.

This depends on the market and the property. If we are in a competitive market we like to run $199.00 security deposit specials. This is of course only for tenants that qualify for the special price. Otherwise, we charge the same as the first month’s rent.

Immediately. Once you are able to complete the necessary paperwork giving us permission to manage on your behalf, we start the same day. We upload your information into our software and reach out to your tenants (if rented) and provide our contact information.

We manage single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, quadruplexes, multi-family and commercial property.

We provide an owners statement every Friday so you can closely monitor how your property is operating. We provide a 12 month cash flow and year long owner's statement per property at the end of the year along with your 1099.

We get asked this question often and want to be as transparent about this topic as possible. While we understand this is your investment, and we do not take that fact lightly, if we were to try to contact every owner for every issue that arose we would spend all of our time trying to communicate with the owner instead of handling the issue directly. While we do wish we were able to communicate every detail we are unable to do so.