Property Management

There is no more important decision, after choosing a company to represent you, than to pick the right property management team.

In sheer terms of time, you’ll be spending a lot more time with your manager (most likely many years) than you will with your broker, and it’s vital that the company chosen have decades and thousands of man hours experience managing 1 to 4 unit investment property.

This is one area that we know inside and out – we used to manage properties for ourselves, and we’ve worked with many different firms over the years.

There is one company that has earned our loyalty as well as that of the vast majority of our clients year in and year out – April Realty Services, owned by David Allen and Amy Borowski.

April Realty doesn’t confuse the very different nature of real estate brokerage (which is fundamentally a sales function) and real estate property management (fundamentally an administrative function). Those agencies that sell property often have conflicts of interest that run deep, whereas those agencies that only manage have their incentives much more in line with their owners, which is to say a long-term relationship based on finding quality tenants, maintaining the properties carefully, and careful bookkeeping.

April Realty, with around 20 staff members, manages around 800 units, which allows them strong economies of scale and efficiencies, but is not such an overwhelming volume that they lose focus and the personal touch required for quality client service.

Their cheerful staff answers every phone call during business hours – politely, and without regard to whether the caller is an angry tenant or an out of state owner.

Further, the company only works with duplexes, single family, and fourplex properties, generally in the same areas that we recommend purchasing property. They have rigorous rental criteria and run the ship “by the book”. As personal clients of the firm, we’re continually impressed that checks seem not to bounce, expenses come in less than expected, and month after month, we’ve got a partner to help us maximize operational efficiencies which has an absolute and vital impact on our bottom line investment results.

April Realty Services checks every property they manage for code compliance, air conditioning screens/filters, working smoke and fire alarms (which they will install at current tenant move-out should they not already be there), and general property condition at least twice per year. This is usually done on a regularly scheduled visit such as a “make ready” when the tenant has moved out, or on a maintenance call (where the company’s maintenance techs are trained to report back information about any problems they see on site).

Further, the company charges a fair 7% (of monthly rents when property is occupied) property management fee, 60% of one month’s rent if a leasing agent is involved in finding a tenant to replace a vacancy, and a $50 fee for renewing the lease of an ongoing tenancy. We’ve run into companies charging significantly more that provide half the level of service.

For more information on their services, contact David Allen at 512-442-6500, and make sure to tell them you’re a new potential client that received their contact information from Castle Hill Investments.

NEXT >> Leasing