Absolutely! We carry General Liability insurance and Professional Liability insurance (also known as Errors and Omissions). Not all property managers carry E&O insurance so this is something you would want to ask when interviewing companies to assist you. To date we have never had a claim filed against our policy, but it is there to protect our clients if the need ever arose.

Sorry, but we decline such offers. Our goal is to focus on working with long term clients so we can best serve their needs.

Absolutely not! We feel the best feedback is client retention so all or our clients are free to cancel at any time by notifying us in writing. We just ask for 30 days to unwind any contracts, settle all funds and transition to the new manager.

Unlike most property management companies, we do not charge based on a percentage of rent charged to your tenants. We feel like this punishes landlords when they raise rents and makes it harder for them to manage their investments. Rather, we have 3 flat rate plans which various add-on fees which you can see HERE>

Rents are due on the 1st of each month and late after the 5th. The rental funds need to clear the tenant’s bank account and settle in our account before we can send proceeds out. We send owner funds by the 15th of the month as long as there are no unexpected issues. The ACH transfer will show up in your account 1-3 business days from when it is initiated. You will get an email letting you know the monthly transfer has been sent out and for what amount so you know when to see it in your checking account.

Tenant’s security deposits are placed in a Deposit Trust account. It is the tenant’s money and we have a fiduciary responsibility to protect it. The tenant’s security deposits represent liabilities that have to be returned or accounted for within 30 days after a tenant moves out. The investors do not have use of or access to these funds.

All late fees (initial late charge of $100 for being late plus a $25 a day until the rent has been paid in full) and NSF charges go to Leda Property Management. This is to compensate for the additional time and effort to collect the unpaid rent and for the additional clerical work generated when a check is returned NSF as listed in the management agreement we use.

You’ll have 24/7 access to an online owner portal where you can see an accounting for all income and expenses in your account at any time. There are many reports you have access to in your portal to run for your specific needs as well as copies of agreements.

After the end of the calendar year, you’ll be provided with a detailed income and expense report for each door for your CPA to easily file your tax returns. We also send out the 1099-Misc form for rental income received as required by the IRS. Your CPA will know how to calculate and enter in Depreciation Expense and add any expenses paid directly by you (e.g., Liability Insurance, Mortgages, HOA fees and Fire and Hazard Insurance Premiums, Property Taxes). Leda Property Management keeps all records for 7 years per IRS Guidelines in case of an audit or if a receipt or some other document is needed.

Yes, we require a $600 reserve balance in your account so we have funds on hand to be able to quickly pay vendors. If a repair is going to cost more than $600, then we will contact you so you are aware of what is happening and you will have an opportunity to send us additional funds to cover the expense or advise us to use the incoming rent to cover it. If there is an emergency issue we will use our best judgement to handle that as needed and those urgent items that have to be completed for the health and safety of the property or tenant we will authorize and update you as we are doing that or the next business day if it happens after hours.

We want to protect your investment and do not want to ever put it in jeopardy financially. If a tenant failed to pay their rent on time or there is a vacancy items such as the Mortgage, Taxes and HOA still need to be paid. These carry a lot of weight and liability if a payment is missed or late, so we do not handle paying these items for investors. Also, unforeseen changes such as your mortgages being sold to a new provider or payment amounts increasing due to an interest rate adjustment can happen and only you would be notified as the owner. For all these reasons you are the best person to be responsible to stay on top of and make your insurance, HOA and mortgage payments. That way you are ensured to always get the notices and be able to keep the payments on time.

Prior to listing we provide a free market analysis to ensure we are offering your property at the correct price and do the proper inspections to prepare and make ready so the property shows as best as possible. Then, we put a “For Lease” sign in the front yard (unless HOA prohibits it) and list the property specifics with multiple professional photos on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and other large real estate companies we’ve partnered with such as Zillow and Trulia. We also syndicate all of our lease listings so they will show up on all other realtor sites participating in syndication from the MLS.

After the applicant(s) have toured the property we send applicants a link to apply online. We then run a thorough background check on all applicants over 18, including a national criminal background check, employment verification, previous rental history and bankruptcy search. The applicants are contacted if we have any questions and when we are satisfied they meet our criteria they are approved for contract and then move-in. If they don’t meet our criteria, their application is declined and we give them a Federally required Fair Credit Reporting letter (which entitles them to a free credit report).

Although this is handled on a case-by-case basis and dependent on investor preference (note that not allowing pets will increase time to lease), for almost all of our properties we suggest accepting a maximum of 2 dogs and/or cats (no puppies less than 1 year old or aggressive breed dogs) with an Animal Deposit and Animal Addendum to the Lease. When tenants move out they should be obligated to pay to steam clean all carpets and de-flea the interior from their deposit. The balance of their $400-$600 per animal Deposit is refunded unless there is damage caused by the animals (holes dug in backyard, scratches on doors, etc.) A service animal or an ESA animal are not considered the same as pets and the pet restrictions would not apply to those animals.

After a tenant vacates, we do a walk through to assess the condition the unit has been left in. We look for any damages, needed repairs, condition of carpet, appearance of interior paint job and cleanliness. We prepare a punch list based on what we find and then assign vendors to take care of any needed work. Some things are mandatory (e.g., rekeying all locks). If there are any large ticket expenses (e.g., full interior paint job, new carpet installation, replace A/C) the investor will be advised on the costs. We work to quickly handle all normal tenant turnover maintenance and make ready items to get your property show ready as soon as possible. Tenants do expect to receive a clean home with walls and paint, flooring and the interior in good condition. We won’t lease a property to anyone that we would not move into ourselves. A well maintained property will attract more quality applicants.

If a tenant we place has to be evicted for non-payment of rent, then we handle the process from notifying the tenant, filing the paperwork in court and appearing if necessary. The only cost to the investor for this service is the cost of court filings. If an eviction is necessary for another reason other then non payment of rent we have several local real estate attorney’s contact info we can refer for those situations who specialize in those type of cases.

Absolutely! You would need to coordinate all repairs covered by them. We do not work directly with home warranty companies due to their long lead times, poor response times and service issues. For example, we’ve had issues with the quality of the contractors they use where it will take their vendors 2-3 tries to properly diagnose something our vetted vendors would diagnose properly on the initial visit.

Yes, and for many good reasons. We also ask that you add Leda Property Management as an “additional insured”. Most insurance companies will add a property manager as an additional insured for no additional fee. There are some insurance companies that will not do so, and in this case, we require you to switch insurers to a company who will do so. Liberty Mutual, Farmers, USAA and State Farm are all easy to work with. When you add us as an additional insured on your landlord policy, it means that any coverage you have is extended to us. It is important to note that “additional insured” and “additional interest” are not the same thing. If your insurance company adds us as an additional interest, it does not extend coverage, but simply means that we’ll receive notice when changes to the policy occur. When a property manager is hired, we take on countless different responsibilities and have frequent interactions with tenants. Typically, we do not have a financial interest in the property, but we take on the same risks as the owner. As a result, when something goes wrong, we are often the target of any resulting litigation along with the landlord. By being listed as an additional insured on the policy it ensures that we don’t have competing interests and require different representation.

Our team is available Monday-Friday 9-5 CST to set up a phone call with you or respond to an email. Emailing us a request to set up a phone call is the best way so we can properly look in to and answer your questions. Almost all emails or phone calls are responded to the same or next business day. If a question will take more time to research we will email that response and let you know when we will be able to get you the information you need. We pride ourselves on being very responsive to both investors and tenants.