Tag Archive for: property manager Salt Lake City

Relocating Out of Salt Lake City – Should You Rent or Sell Your Home?

Today we’re talking about whether you should rent your home out or try to sell it. This is an age-old question that often comes up when someone is moving out of town or not having any success with the sales market.

Building Wealth

One thing I always tell people who want to build wealth is that it’s never a good idea to sell your property. To increase the value of your assets, it’s a better strategy to buy and keep your property. Selling is only the best option when you need to generate cash flow. If you need money quickly, selling the property is a good way to access that cash. However, if your priority is to create long term wealth, hold onto that property and rent it out. You’ll be able to pay your mortgage while you earn rental income and the home will continue to gain value over time.

Property Management

A lot of homeowners don’t want to deal with renters, and if that’s the only reason you don’t want to rent out your property, you have other options. Talk to a professional property manager who can take care of the property on your behalf.

Property managers work with a lot of people who move out of town but want to keep their homes. Renting is a good idea in this case, and a property manager can be the local point of contact while you’re out of the city, the state or even the country. It’s never a good idea to try to manage your own property when you aren’t in the area. There will be maintenance issues that come up, and if the rent doesn’t come in, you’re going to have to take action immediately. That’s hard to do when you’re not local. Your expenses will grow if your house becomes inhabitable or your tenants stop paying rent. Hiring a property manager is a lot cheaper.

If you’re still not sure about whether it’s a good idea to sell or rent your home, contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we’d be happy to help you make your decision.

How a Property Manager Protects Your Investment

As property managers, we do a few specific things to every rental home we manage in order to protect that asset. Today, we’re sharing some of those tips so you’ll know how your property manager is protecting your investment.

Move In Inspection

One thing we always tell our owners is that the most important thing you can do is an initial walk through. Every single time you lease a property, conduct a walk through inspection and use a form that documents the condition of the property. That way, you can hold the tenant accountable to keeping the property in that condition. Do this inspection with the tenant so you both have the opportunity to note anything that needs attention. Then, you’ll have the written documentation as evidence and they will understand their responsibility.

Drive by Inspections

We enforce the lease by conducting monthly drive bys of the property. When we pass by the property, we’re looking for strange things that catch our attention. Maybe there are too many cars in the driveway or tin foil in the windows. If everything looks fine, we don’t have to worry about it. But if we see a problem, we promptly enter the property. Your property manager will post a 24 hour notice, and then go in and check things out. Usually we find there is nothing to worry about, but it’s better to act on any problems right away if we do find them.

Internal Inspections

Not every property management company will do an internal inspection of the property, but we offer an annual inspection every spring or fall. At this point, we go in and do a 40-point inspection of the property. What we’re really looking for is evidence that the tenant is treating the property well. We also look for damage or anything that needs a repair or replacement. It’s a good time to check for leaks or wear and tear. Our presence in the property once a year keeps tenants from treating your asset poorly.

Move Out Inspection

At the end of a lease, we do an exit walk through. We use the same form we used at move in and then we’ll make any necessary deductions from the security deposit based on the condition of the property. Usually, we deduct for things such as not cleaning the carpet or taking care of the external areas of the home. This is how we hold tenants accountable.

If you have any questions about how property managers can protect your investment property, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we’d be glad to tell you more.

How to Handle Security Deposits in Your Rental Property

There is a new law in 2014 that affects how landlords are required to handle security deposits in Utah, so you’ll want to forget everything you knew before and focus on what is currently required. Now, you have 30 days to send the security deposit back to your tenant. If they aren’t getting the security deposit back, you’ll need to send a letter explaining that. The deposit or the letter has to go to the last known address. In the past, you had to wait for the tenant to provide you with a forwarding address, but now you cannot wait.

When your tenants move out without giving you a forwarding address, the last known address you’ll be sending the deposit to is probably the address of your property or unit, where they had been living. You might send it and get it returned to you and if that happens, just file it until you do get a forwarding address.

There are essentially three types of letters you can send and your tenant will get one of these three. The first type of letter is one that says ‘congratulations, you’re getting your whole security deposit back.’ You’ll include the check with that letter. The second type of letter will say ‘congratulations, you’re getting most of your security deposit back, but there was some damage to the property, and this is what we kept.’ The third type of letter will explain that the charges for damage exceeded the amount of the security deposit and you’ll be pursuing legal action to recover the rest of what is owed.


When the tenants don’t receive their deposit back, the tenants have to send you notification in writing. This is also a change. They have to give you a forwarding address and let you know they are requesting their security deposit. Once they notify you, get that deposit back right away. In the state of Utah, you will be penalized for not getting that deposit back to them. You’ll need to refund their full deposit plus a $100 fee. Also, if they take you to court and win, you’ll be responsible for their legal costs. That’s not something you want to deal with, so send back that deposit in a timely manner.

The changes in laws regarding security deposits can be hard to keep up with. If you have any questions or need any help, please contact us today.

How to Spot and Avoid Craigslist And Classifieds Scams


There are nefarious and shady things that can happen when you advertise your rental property online. Of course there are really only two ways to advertise these days; with a sign in front of your property or online. Obviously, advertising online is going to give you a larger return on your investment.

Here is what’s happening: third parties are taking your ad and changing it so the contact info is their contact info, asking tenants to pay them a deposit and then promising send keys to the property in the mail. You and I would probably not fall for something like that, but a lot of people are in fact taking that bait. It costs you a prospective tenant because you aren’t the one getting the deposit.

The best way to avoid these scams is by putting watermarks on your photos. That way, a third party or a scam artist cannot take your photos and use them for their own advertising. At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we have a watermark with our website splashed across the middle of our photos. It’s not so dark that you can’t see the picture, but it will deter anyone from stealing our photos and using our properties to lure people into sending them money.

There is not much else you can do to avoid these scams. It’s important to know that they are out there and to protect yourself against these scams that are allowing dishonest people to collect deposits from people who think they are renting your property.

If you have any questions about these scams, or need help in protecting yourself and your property, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we will do whatever we can to help you out.

Who Should Pay for Utilities in My Rental Home?

Determining who pays for utilities in your Salt Lake City rental home is something you need to decide at the beginning of the relationship you have with your tenant. It’s a contractual issue and something that must be included in your lease. There are a couple of different ways to think about who should pay for utilities.

If you talk to city or conservation groups, they will tell you that 100 percent of the utilities should be charged to the tenant exclusively. That is because they will use less of a resource if they have to pay for that resource. You can include utility payments in the rental payment, or keep the utilities out of the rent and make it a separate charge the tenants pay.

At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we recommend keeping utilities out of the rent. You don’t want to combine them because you don’t want to give tenants a reason to think that your rent is inflated. Here’s an example: if a potential tenant is driving down the street and he looks at two units that are similar and one includes utilities but the other one doesn’t, he’ll look at the one that does not include utilities first. The unit that includes utilities might actually be a better deal, but the tenant isn’t going to read the fine print. The tenant is looking only at the base rental price.

We recommend that you have a base rental price for the unit that you advertise. The tenant can then compare that to other rents. Then, have the utility charges included later. In our leases, we require the tenant to pay for all utilities. You can have a utility fee if you’d rather, but however you workout the utility payments, make sure there is a base rental price from which you are working. The utilities should always be added later.

If you have any questions about how to handle the utilities in your rental home, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we’ll do what we can to help you out.

Dealing with Abandonment in Your Rental Property


Abandonment occurs when your tenants abruptly leave the property, usually because they are not paying rent. There are two different types of abandonment, and in today’s blog we are going to explain them and tell you how to handle each type of abandonment.

1 Day Abandonment

When the tenant leaves without making a rent payment and takes all their stuff with them, it’s a 1 day abandonment and it’s easy to manage. You will show up at the property after one day and enter with your key, as your lease should stipulate is acceptable. Before going in, call out that the owner is checking for occupancy. When you get no response and you’re able to see that the place is empty, you’ll know the tenant has abandoned the home. Rent might be past due, but at least your tenant is gone. You can immediately take possession of the property, clean it up and turn it around. You’ll move on quickly.

15 Day Abandonment

When a tenant is late with rent, you post a 3 Day Notice to Pay or Quit. After those days pass, you go over to the property to check out occupancy because the tenants have not paid and they have not contacted you. You want to see if they are still there before you continue with your legal action. After knocking and getting no response, you can enter with your key and stick your head in the door to see if anyone is there. When there are no visible signs that the tenant has been in the property recently, but their stuff is still there, you’ll have to do a 15 Day Abandonment. Look for signs that they are not living there anymore. There might be rotting food in the fridge. After 15 days, you need to go to the property and post an Abandoned Premise form on the door. This gives the tenants 24 hours to get their stuff that’s still in there. When the 24 hours pass and the belongings are still there, you can move it out. You’ll have to store it for the number of days required by Utah law, but you will have an empty property and you can take possession.

If you have any questions about how to handle abandonment in your rental home, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we’ll be happy to help you.