Rent payment methods differ from agency to agency. Some managers collect rent from tenants via personal checks and pay owners via checks as well. Some agencies utilize electronic payments for either or both transactions. Lindsay Leasing - Rent Payment Lindsay Leasing collects rent via electronic payments and pays you via electronic deposit ensuring you get funded in the least amount of time. On average you can expect to receive funds in your bank account within 4-5 business days after rent is paid. Snail Mail and Paper Checks When tenants mail rent payment checks, you can expect to wait up to two weeks or more to receive your money. First, the management company has to receive, deposit, and have cleared funds before issuing you a check. Check runs occur twice monthly, usually on the 10th, 15th or 20th. If a particular rental payment has not been deposited with cleared funds when check runs occur, you may have to wait until the following check run. Once the check is mailed to you it may be another week before the check arrives. Then you have to take it to the bank, deposit it, and wait for cleared funds. This whole process gets very drawn out if you live outside the United States or are traveling extensively. Electronic Deposit Lindsay Leasing utilizes electronic banking. This ensures that you get paid in a timely manner month in and month out. We are not waiting for checks to be mailed, deposited, and cleared. Nor are you waiting for checks to be printed, mailed, deposited, and cleared. Depending on the time the rent is due (1st or 15th) your monthly proceeds will be electronically deposited directly to your bank account each month within 4-5 business days after the rent is paid. Our payment processing systems send you an email every month informing you when your payment was processed and when the funds will be deposited. It's kind of like having a personal assistant working behind the scenes for you.

A lease agreement is the single most important document to protect your real estate investment. A lease agreement defines the terms and conditions and spells out important rights and duties for both the landlord and tenant as required by the most recent Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act . Professional property managers generally use a lease agreement prepared by a real estate attorney who maintains the language. Alternatively, you can download a lease off the internet, use the lease agreement provided by the Florida Bar , or Realtors may us the Florida Realtors Association lease agreement. Lease Agreements - Lindsay Leasing Lindsay Leasing uses a lease agreement prepared by an attorney specializing in landlord/tenant law practices. There is a small fee charged by the attorney and our firm for the preparation of this lease. The lease is strictly enforced, including late fees, pet policy, unauthorized occupants, vehicle limits, home owner association rules, lease term, and all other terms and conditions of the lease agreement. The lease also includes a mold addendum and a pet addendum if a pet is allowed. If we become aware of a lease violation, the tenant promptly receives a violation notice and is required to cure the violation to avoid further action. Most importantly, an attorney-prepared lease followed up with proper notifications puts you in a better position should anything go wrong. If nothing goes wrong consider the attorney-prepared lease a small cost of doing business.

Tenant screening can be done in-house or outsourced with a background and credit check company. Outsourcing tenant screening to a third party provides consistency across an office with many agents, while an in-house screening may provide additional details. Lindsay Leasing - Tenant Screening Lindsay Leasing conducts tenant screening in-house. We gain first hand knowledge by communicating directly with landlords and employers. In-house tenant screening provides you with an advantage as to whether or not an applicant is a good or bad risk. We also have direct access to all background and credit information versus a summary report. Because we pull credit reports directly, our office must take and pass a periodic Fair Credit Reporting Act exam to ensure we understand and follow appropriate regulations. When reviewing the information we are looking for many facets to determine if the applicant is qualified. Rental History We call the applicant’s current/previous landlords and ask about the applicant’s payment history, whether there were bounced checks, late payments, unauthorized roommates, pets, noise, damage, etc. If the former landlord is a private homeowner (instead of a professional property manager), we may pull County tax records to verify that the person listed as the landlord is in fact the owner. We may also run a MLS search on the tenant’s former addresses to see if there were any MLS sales or rental activity that contradicts the rental time frame listed on the application. These two additional cross-checks can screen out applicants providing inaccurate information. ID Verification To verify an applicant's identity, the information provided by the applicant is compared to several data sources. We use a product called ID Verify together with these databases as part of an ID verification and scoring algorithm. The Social Security Administration’s Death Master File is checked, SSN Validation is performed, the applicant's address is validated, and the applicant is checked against the OFAC WatchList. This ID verification product also produces a score that ranges from 400 to 800. The closer the score is to 400, the more likely the risk of fraud. Employment Verification As part of our tenant screening process, we contact the employer to verify employment and/or ask the applicant for a recent check stub. If the applicant is self-employed we request other documentation to satisfy proof of income. We recommend that income be at least three times the monthly rent to qualify. Criminal Background, Eviction and Terrorist Database Search We perform a criminal background check on each applicant as well as an eviction history search and federal terrorist database search. Most good applicants will sail through the tenant screening process and be approved. Otherwise, the tenant screening process may reveal “red flags” which we look into further. Commonly, an applicant may qualify based on income and rental history, but have poor credit. In some instances, if the applicant is a reasonable risk the additional security deposit equal to at least one month’s rent is required to take the property off the market. In all instances we are very thorough with our tenant screening and will never let an urgency to rent diminish our screening requirements. Declined Rental Applications After concluding our tenant screening, occasionally an applicant is declined for credit, income, or other background reasons. As licensed Florida real estate agents, we follow all governmental regulations as it pertains to tenant screening. The Federal Fair Housing Law prohibits us from discriminating against applicants because of their race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. More information can be found at HUD.GOV . Applicants who are denied for credit reasons receive a denial letter from Lindsay Leasing. More information about consumer rights can be found here Fair Reporting Act (FCRA) . More information about consumer credit reporting can be found at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) website as well.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"][fusion_text] Rental rates are determined by many factors. A rental rate analysis begins by gathering current listings and historical listing data. Homes that are active on the market, as well as those leased within the last year all play into your rental property's rent price. This data can be collected from multiple sources but typically Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is the most accurate as it shows both the asking and leased price. Lindsay Leasing - Rental Rates Lindsay Leasing will provide a Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) providing price per square foot, days on market, asking price, leased price and more. Each time your home comes up for rent, we will perform a market analysis to determine how much homes similar to yours have been renting for recently. Once we determine a starting value, we add or subtract based on the time of year, competition from other available rental homes near yours, the condition of the property (older vs. newer carpet, age of appliances, floor plan, etc.), and other relevant market factors. As a general rule, we believe it’s a good idea set your rental rate at market value and rent quickly. Savvy tenants conduct research or utilize a Realtor to help price rentals so they are armed with actual rental rates. They know if a property is priced above or below market. Vacancy is your worst enemy and we work hard to prevent excess vacancy loss. Vacancies can occur before a lease or in-between leases if a renewal rate forces the existing tenant to move. It is much more cost-effective to keep an existing tenant than find a new one due to commissions and vacancy between tenants. When establishing rental rates we recommend pricing at market. When setting a rental rate above market you should calculate your upside and downside scenario to determine if it makes good business sense. The potential upside is the difference in rent between market and asking. For example, if market rent is $1200 and you decide to price at $1300, then the potential upside is $1200 ($100 x 12 months). If a property rents at the higher price in the same amount of time it would have rented at market price you'd earn $1200 extra. For the downside, if a property eventually leases at market rate, which is what happens most often, it will cost you approximately $40 per day for every day the property sits had it been listed at market rate. This is in addition to utilities that you pay until a tenant moves-in.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

FAQs Archive - Sarasota Property Management

Property Repairs and Maintenance

By Terri Lindsay|2024-01-27T22:32:41+00:00March 18th, 2015|Repairs and Management|

Property repairs and maintenance can be handled by personnel working for the [...]

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Listing Cancellation Policy

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00March 18th, 2015|

Listing cancellation policies vary among property management firms. Some charge between $100 to $500 [...]

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Property Management Billing

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00March 18th, 2015|

Property management billing systems differ from agency to agency. Some managers send a [...]

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Rent Payment

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 27th, 2015|

Rent payment methods differ from agency to agency. Some managers collect rent from [...]

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Lease Agreement

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 27th, 2015|Lease Agreement|

A lease agreement is the single most important document to protect your real [...]

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Tenant Screening

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 21st, 2015|Screening|

Tenant screening can be done in-house or outsourced with a background and credit [...]

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Average Time to Rent a Property

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 21st, 2015|Marketing|

The average time to rent a property depends on many factors including the [...]

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Marketing Rental Property

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 21st, 2015|Marketing|

Generally all managers advertise homes for rent via internet advertising and Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

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Rental Rates

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 21st, 2015|Marketing|

Rental rates are determined by many factors. A rental rate analysis begins by [...]

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Professional Property Management

By Terri Lindsay|2017-05-23T13:44:03+00:00February 12th, 2015|Property Management|

Professional property management is a service for rental property owners who do not [...]

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