The 16 Questions
- How many residences do you manage?
- How many evictions have you performed in the past 5 years?
- Do you specialize in a geographic location or a certain type of property?
- How many people work for your management company?
- If you combined all the years of property management experience for everyone in your company, how many years would that be?
- How many of your employees have a real estate license?
- Do you hire leasing agents that are compensated for each property they rent?
- How many property management related educational classes or seminars have you attended in the past year?
- How many applicants do you turn down for every one you accept?
- How long is your management contract with owners?
- What was your vacancy rate last year?
- What day of the month do you typically mail a check to your owners?
- How many times have you been to court regarding deductions from a tenant's security deposit and what were the results?
- Are you a member of NARPM?
- What is your system for inspecting rentals?
- What are your management fees and what costs are included?
When you ask this question, some property managers will begin to brag about their eviction expertise - look out! An expert in tenant selection is of more value to you than an expert in eviction procedures. Divide the answer to this question by the number of properties managed (answer to question #1) and then divide again by 5 (years) to get the annual eviction rate. This percentage tells you volumes about the tenant screening skills of the property management company you are interviewing. The lower the percentage the better. If the result is 3% or less, you are probably dealing with a competent property manager. If the result is over 3%, you may want to terminate the interview at this point and seek a better management company.