I'm New ( and Persistent) -- Please Help on Property Management

We are in Payson, and manage almost 100 properties. They have gone to that level from 30some 5 years ago, when we started our own office. We get the most business from: our signs on the rentals, our ad in the paper, word of mouth from other agents and from present and past tenants, and a BIGGIE- our web site. We are the only company in Payson whci puts our rentals online, we also have our applications (emailable or downloadable) and general information. This is HUGE. Even people in our small town use the web site rather than come in. 

I've tried rentals.com with little response- same for craig's list. I don't bother with either anymore.

Reputation is EVERYTHING, so make sure you are doing everything right.

Hi Dave, you might want to join and post to the following Activerain groups

• Property Management
• Property Management Referrals & References
• Landlord Issues
• Real Estate Law

My daughter Kat has a profile on Activerain, she's in the Property Management program at Virginia Tech and she may be able to give you some info. She's interned with MSC in Charlottesville and Roseland in Boston. I would do a search for groups on AR that relate to Property Management and ask some of the property managers who are members. Good Luck!

I only do property management for Investors who purchase rental properties through me.  So I am no expert on the subject but I think your list is complete.  The only think that you may want to add is investor groups in your area.  If they conduct meetings you could offer to speak and have all of your materials available.  Here in California investors are buying properties and then renting them out.   Good Luck to you  Dave.

Dave - I've started 2 PM firms from scratch.....

Get a professional website through HomeRentals.net

Decide the type and location of rental property you want to specialize in managing * geo location and type

Get professional PM software....PROMAS is easy to use and not very expensive

Start with DIRECT MAIL to unsold homes that are vacant in the area you want to manage.  I send out 3-panel brochure with Rent Now * Sell Later

 *REAL ESTATE * Rent Now * Sell Later * Local housing market stalled? Consider becoming a temporary landlord.  By Pat Mertz Esswein *From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, February 2007

I add brief outline of my services and fees at the end and attach copy of homes in the area I manage.  I make sure my contact information is readily viewable as well as my blog.

I put ADDRESS SERVICES REQUESTED under my return address so that I get new contact information and I send them a complimentary copy of my quarterly newsletter.

Forget the newspaper - too expensive.  Add your RENTAL website to signs * don't mix sales and rentals on the same sign and start posting rental listings on Craigslist ASAP...daily if possible.  You will get BEAUCOUP biz from those postings!!!

MOre importantly than direct mail is direct mail with substance. Our clients are getting smarter, so a teaser ad just doesn't cut it.

We use targeted postcard marketing with the folliwng rules:

1. Offer something concrete. We say "Full Service Property Management for Just $75 / Month with NO markup on Repairs.

2. Offer something of value. Visit our website at www.investorschoicepm.com for a free rental housing survey and get our informative report "Landlord Q&A- What You Should Be Asking".

3. Target the farm. We target absentee landlords would investment property is in a zip code we manage, built after 1980 so it is not too old, and the sale closed within the last 12 months so they are newer investors that bought at the right time.

We are always happy to help, so emails and calls are welcome. ICPM manages 100 homes in the Northern CA area.

Good luck.