Strawberry Property Management Las Vegas is a full service property management company for residential rental homes around the Las Vegas metro area, including single family houses, townhouses, and condos. Our dedicated team of experienced property managers use technology to manage rentals with the most efficiency. We are paperless, responsive, and effective.
Table of contents
Rental Advertising
The first step is often advertising your property for rent. Our property management services include all of these things for each property:
- A full set of high quality marketing photos
- 3D dollhouse 360° virtual tour
- Interior floorplans
- Syndication to dozens of popular rental websites
- MLS placement with high referral rate
- Social media paid boosts
- Electronic lockboxes so property can be shown every day
We also use technology to allow pre-qualified renters access to homes on their own schedule. All of this helps us get your property in front of the most possible renters. Very few agents or property managers in Las Vegas use 360° virtual tours, but we have been doing so since 2019. This provides a covid-safe viewing method, in addition to attracting more potential out of state renters.
Tenant Screening
Tenant screening is one of the most crucial steps in the property management process. We take it very seriously. Aside from national credit, criminal, eviction and sex offender registry checks, we also use a secure electronic income verification system. In the past couple years we have seen a drastic rise in fake income documents and fake work references.Our process uses a secure third party system that connects directly to banks, to verify an applicant’s deposit history. This helps us to select renters who are actually receiving the income stated on their applications. This is critical to help avoid a costly non-payment eviction. Find out more details about how we screen tenants.
Pets
According to The Humane Society, about 2/3 of US households have at least one pet. We recommend accepting pets to maximize your chances of finding the most qualified tenants at the best possible price. Not allowing pets, cuts your potential renter pool down to about 1/3. We use a screening service to verify all pets and assistance animals, as part of tenant screening. In addition, we collect increased security deposits and increased rent for tenants with pets. Renters with pets may stay longer, reducing turnover cost, because it’s harder for them to find homes to rent.
Documentation
Documentation is another critical part of property management services. We have set up systems to help us document everything. Most of our operations are performed in writing. All of our business phone calls and texts are recorded. Our property management software attaches call and text records to tenant, owner, or vendor files.
Leasing / Tenant Placement
Some local landlords may not need full service property management. We also provide Leasing Only / Tenant Placement service. This includes all of the rental advertising and tenant screening services that we provide to our management clients. We provide a legally compliant lease with some of our own “additional terms” developed over the years. Once we have secured a qualified tenant and collected all monies, we move in the tenant and let the owner take over.
Rent Collection
Convenient rent payment options are important. Strawberry Property Management services include FREE online payments for tenants, plus a bill pay option to allow tenants to pay their rent in cash at many convenient locations. Payment center locations include Walmart stores, Smith’s grocery stores, ACE Cash Express, and many others. Furthermore, we have set up a series of automatic reminders via text and email. If a tenant is late, we post the Pay or Quit notice on the 5th day of the month. We consistently enjoy 97-98% on-time rent payments.
Credit Reporting
Starting early 2022, we will report all tenant rent payment patterns to credit bureaus. Most property managers can only report on-time rent payments, IF the tenant elects that option. However, we will report ALL rent payments, without the need for tenants to opt-in. This will include on-time, late, missed payments, and even unpaid debt. This will help attract more responsible renters who care about their credit. It will encourage existing tenants to make sure to pay on time. Finally, it can help us further weed out applicants with less than perfect rent payment habits.
Property Checks – “inspections”
We perform a property walk through near the end of every lease, before offering a renewal to the tenant. We also perform spot checks as needed. In addition, our trusted repair vendors notify us if there is an issue to address while they are working on-site. Through experience, we have learned that tenants will hide things they don’t want us to see if we schedule frequent “inspections”. Instead, we keep tabs on properties by driving by occasionally, and teaching repair techs to report signs of trouble. Major tenant damages are very rare in properties we have managed on an ongoing basis.
Lease Renewals
Properly renewing leases is another important part of our property management services. There are several steps in this process, including:
- Checking with owners to verify they plan to continue holding the property as a rental
- Running rental comps to determine the best price point for rent increase
- Assessing property condition, then if satisfactory, we offer tenants a new lease
- Getting a new lease signed with our most up-to-date lease terms
- Updating documents as needed
- Updating recurring charges to reflect rent increases
- Attaching the newly signed lease to Owner Portal for easy access by our investor clients
Accounting
Every client gets 24/7 access to an Owner Portal, where you can download monthly statements, copies of vendor invoices, leases and more. In addition, you can run some financial reports inside the portal, whenever you like. Each month, we generate a detailed Owner Statement and upload it to the Portal. The statement includes all income and expenses for that month, plus the amount of Security Deposit held. The Owner Distribution line shows how much money we’re depositing to your bank account that month. See an example Owner Statement. All repair bills will have a matching vendor invoice in the Portal.
We use “Full Month Accounting” in our full service property management process. This meansyou get paid by the FIRST of each month (not in the middle), and accounting is simplified. We do not hold reserve funds. Instead, we pay every penny owed to you each month. We pay by direct deposit at the end of the month, after all expenses are deducted. Expenses may include HOA dues, utility bills, and any repair bills paid. Additionally, we provide a yearly Profit and Loss statement and a 1099. This helps make tax time easier for you.
Security Deposits
Currently, we may charge up to 3 times the rental amount as Security Deposit. We hold all tenant deposits in our Trust Account, which is monitored by the Nevada Real Estate Division. According to Nevada state law, we must disburse the deposit within 30 days of official move out. If the tenant incurred any cleaning or repair expense, we deduct that from the deposit refund, and credit it to the property owner. We provide a written statement to tenants for their deposit disposition within the 30 day deadline. Any expenses paid by the tenant’s deposit are shown on the owner’s monthly statement.
Locks and Keys
With full service property management, we change locks when we onboard a new property, and between every tenant. We use Landlord Locks hardware and key system. As a result, we can change locks between tenants at no cost to you! Your only expense is the hardware installation (parts and labor). This saves you money in the long run, because you don’t have to pay for lock changes at every turnover. It also saves us time – we can rekey a lock in about 30 seconds at the move out property check. If we are only providing Leasing Service for you, we will not change locks unless you request and pay for it.
Repairs and Maintenance
As a property management company, we do not do any repairs in-house. We feel that would be a conflict of interest. For any needed repairs up to $500, we will get it fixed and include the bill on the monthly owner statement. Our property management software automatically emails owners when a new bill is added. This means there are no surprises. We use licensed and insured repair vendors. We do not deal with the $50 solo “handymen”. Our duty is to get functional problems fixed in a timely manner. We have a long list of trusted vendors who provide good service at reasonable prices. We have tried many vendors, and drop those who don’t pass muster.
Regarding updates or upgrades, we do not do “unnecessary” work without owner approval. If a tenant requests a cosmetic update, we simply say no. However, if your property needs new paint of flooring at turnover, we will recommend that. We will work with you to keep your property in good shape to maximize rent value, while avoiding unneeded upgrades.
If you choose to use a Home Warranty, we will only deal with Old Republic. This is the only home warranty company in Nevada that provides acceptable repair service. However, you are free to use another warranty company, but you may have to deal with their problems. Notably, some repairs will not be covered by any home warranty policy. When that happens, we will get one of our trusted vendors to do the repair.
Section 8
We are happy to work with Section 8 for rentals. Typically, Section 8 renters stay in a home longer than self-pay renters. This can greatly reduce turnover cost and increase profit for investors. If your property is available for voucher recipients, or you would like to enroll your property in the program, please let us know. Furthermore, certain jurisdictions may require all properties be available to Section 8 voucher renters. If you own property in such a jurisdiction and a qualified applicant applies with a voucher, we will rent to them.
HOA Violations
Occasionally, a tenant will violate some HOA rule. We handle all HOA violations as part of our full service property management. When we receive violation notice, we contact the tenant and advise them to correct the issue. If they do not correct it within our deadline, we will send a trusted vendor as needed, to take care of it. After that, we charge that cost to the tenant and require them to pay in full with their next rent payment. Finally, we notify the HOA for verification.
Legal Compliance
In a nutshell, we keep up with legal changes so you don’t have to. Our property management services keep you in compliance with Nevada statute 118A.260, which requires a 24/7 emergency contact living in the same county or within 60 miles of the rental property. State and local laws change frequently. Nevada passed 2 new landlord-tenant laws in 2021.For example, AB486 affects the way non-paying tenants can be handled. Additionally, they extended the notice period for rent increases from 45 days to 60 days. We stay abreast of such changes to protect you from legal problems.
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