Tag Archive for: rental management

4 Signs You Should Fire Your Current Property Management Company


Our topic today is identifying reasons that you might want to consider changing your property manager. Before we get into details, it’s important to understand that it’s not a good idea to change property managers as soon as you have a minor issue. A lot of times, better communication is all that’s needed. If you can figure out the problem you’re having, it makes more sense to stay with your current property manager who knows the house and its history. However, there are certain things that might make you think it’s time for a change.

1. Property Manager Communication Problems

If you call your property manager and you don’t hear back that same day, or it takes them a few days to respond to an email, that’s a problem. You want real time answers and assistance and you don’t want to be left waiting for help. Your property manager should have emergency numbers in case there is something an owner needs right away. Usually, the questions we get are accounting related or pertaining to something that may be going on at the property. However, we believe that those questions also require a prompt response.

2. Property Maintenance Delays

When you have a tenant who keeps putting in a lot of work requests and there is no action on the part of the property manager, that’s another big problem and a good time to re-think your property management company. Most owners don’t talk directly to tenants, but when you have information that a property management company isn’t paying attention to problems, act on it. Those delays will only lead to larger damage and bigger costs down the road.

3. Lack of Transparency

Charges that show up on your account that are unexplained should also be a cause for concern. Property management billing issues should be explained in detail, and if costs are getting tacked on and you’re not sure why, your property manager owes you an explanation. Understanding what you are getting billed for is extremely important.

4. Technology

If your property management company isn’t using modern accounting techniques, you may want to switch companies. Back in the day, it was perfectly acceptable to use the shoe box full of receipts system. However today, everything is done online. At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we have the latest and greatest accounting software and it helps with collecting rent, managing reconciliations and dispersing payments to our owners right away. We can account for every dollar that is spent, and there is never a question about how your money is being handled. If your property management company needs an upgrade, start looking elsewhere.

If you have any questions about property management in Salt Lake City, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we would be happy to share more information.

Tenant Screening Methods You Need To Know

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.

Rental Inspections and Tenant Accountability

The Guide To Dealing With Late Rent and Eviction

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.