Tag Archive for: Advanced Solutions Property Management

How To Reduce Vacancy In Your Rental Property

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When landlords talk about vacancies, remember that the biggest issue in avoiding vacancy in the first place is to not lose the tenants you have in place. However, tenants don’t stay forever and when they do move out; you have a vacant property that you want to get up and running as soon as possible. One thing you can do is lower your rent to attract tenants quickly However, you also want to increase your rental income so lowering the rent is one tool you have but not the first one you want to grab. It can be used if there is an emergency or a very long vacancy and you have nothing else to do.

The most important thing you can do to reduce vacancies is to make sure the property is in good shape. We show properties all the time and you don’t want a tenant walking into a property with lights out, things broken and the place dirty. Potential tenants will make up their minds within five minutes of arriving at a property. They don’t want to be there when the place doesn’t look good. Check the outside of the house and make sure the lawn is cut and the place looks good. Inside, install new light bulbs and make sure the fridge is functioning. The floors and walls should be clean and the windows should have blinds and screens. All of the little things add up, and if the tenant doesn’t think the landlord takes care of the property, that landlord is going to have a vacancy for a while. Tenants want to feel good about living in your property.


In addition to making sure the property is clean and ready, you have to market it aggressively. There are multiple online sources you can use when advertising your place for rent. In Utah we have some specific sites we sue, and there is also Craigslist of course. You can post your property on Zillow, Trulia and others. Make sure you use as many of these sites as you can. We are careful to relist our properties as well so they can get the exposure they need to rent quickly. Sometimes, sites will have costs involved but I think the free ones can be effective too.

One thing to remember – you can avoid vacancies by ensuring you don’t lose good tenants Treat your tenants with respect and be consistent. That’s the best way to avoid vacancies in your rental properties. If you have any questions about this, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management. We’d be happy to hear from you.

Tenant Screening Methods You Need To Know

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The screening process and the background check during your lease up are obviously important. The due diligence you do on the front end as we call it is the most important part of your work as a landlord or a property manager. If you don’t take the time to do these things correctly up front, you will definitely pay for it at the back end. It is really crucial that you put the time and effort into tenant screening. This will give you a much better experience as a landlord and a better time down the road. Most of the people who come to us while managing properties on their own did not do the work up front and then they find themselves having problems with a tenant in one of their properties. Don’t skimp on the screening work.

As an owner, you should be using the state of the art background screening tools that are available to landlords and property managers. There are a lot of different companies you can use and basically with the click of a mouse you can find out everything you need to know about a potential tenant. It’s almost scary how fast we can find out what we need to know.

Make sure your tenants fill out the application completely. Stress to your applicants that it has to be 100 percent complete. No box or line can be left unanswered. You are requesting all of this information for a reason, and if information is left out, you are not going to be able to process the application.


Once you have the completed application, you can move forward with the background check. The company we use often gives us our results right away. Then, we can go through those results and get an idea of credit, criminal and background information. You always want to start with a good credit score. If it’s not perfect, that’s okay; you can meet that risk by charging a higher security deposit if necessary. You just want to know where exactly the applicant stands financially.

These are the elements we are talking about when we discuss tenant screening and lease up. Most property management companies, Advanced Solutions Property Management included, will provide lease up services as an a la carte item if you do not want to contract for full service property management. If you have issues with finding and screening a tenant, we can help you.

Please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management for more information, or if you have any questions about effective property management.

The Guide To Dealing With Late Rent and Eviction

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Late rent and eviction often go hand in hand. When rent isn’t paid, you will most likely need to enter the eviction phase. One of the most important things I tell owners is that when you are collecting rent, consistency is key. If you are not consistent and your tenants don’t know what to expect from you, you will have issues. Rent at Advanced Solutions Property Management is due on the first of every month. It’s late after the 5th and if we receive nothing, the notice to pay or quit gets posted on the 6th. After that, the tenant has three days to respond and either pay or move out. At the end of the three days, if we have had no response, we will move into the eviction process. This is our process, we follow it every time and it helps us stay consistent.

If a tenant is late, make sure that pay or quit notice gets posted on the door the very next day that you expect but do not have the rent payment. They will hopefully see the notice and realize the importance of paying rent on time. You have to train them to pay when it is due, but you cannot train them if you are not consistent yourself.

When the rent is not paid, you have to go forward with the eviction or let them continue to be late. If you need helping making that decision, here is something to consider: once a tenant has crossed the halfway point of the month and is still late with rent, 80 percent of the time they will not be able to catch up and get current on their rent. There might be a few tenants who manage to come up with the rent and then pay their rent again the following month, but statistically if you let them go, they aren’t going to be able to catch up. This is not the fun part of being a landlord. However, when you are consistent and your process is precise, it gets a little easier.

As soon as payments stop coming in, we make an effort to contact the tenants. However, if we do not hear from them and they don’t contact us, we move forward with the eviction. We will contact the lawyer we keep on retainer for these things and we let the lawyer, who is pretty efficient, handle things from there.

Remember that consistency is the most important thing you can do when collecting rent and avoiding evictions. If you have any questions on this topic, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management.