Owner FAQs

We specialize in single family, Multi family, condos, duplexes and apartments throughout Orange County.

Our Property Management service area is throughout Orange County and Surrounding LA area.

Orange County Property Management offers you the level of experience and expertise you should seek from any property management company you hire. See the Property Management page, if you haven’t already, for a complete introduction to our property manager and professional team.

Our team consists of: Property Managers, Licensed real estate broker, administrative staff and a core group of highly qualified vendors, Licensed by the state of California.

You should hire us only if you think we are the best match for your property management needs. Frankly, we are not a perfect fit for every property owner and it would be arrogant and wrong for us to simply proclaim “we are the best, hire us!” We may be the best property manager for some owners and properties but not for others.

That is why this FAQ page exists so that you can learn about us and and the guiding principles the property manager will employ in the management of your property.

Turning over your rental property to the care of an unknown property manager can be an emotional and frightening experience. Talk to other property managers before hiring one, and ask questions. You want to be able to trust your property manager so that you won’t be worrying about your home. The more research and information you gather, the better you will feel about your final decision. Of course, we’d love the chance to earn your trust and manage your property.

Orange County Property Management has a business development manager that will come out to your property to evaluate how much your property should rent for and what needs to be done to get the desired rent.

We will give it maximum exposure while it is for rent and we carefully scrutinize all interested parties.

FOR RENT SIGNS – Posted at the property with our website and phone number clearly displayed. Prospective renters can find out very easily – even at 7PM on a Saturday – the price and size of your property and when it will be ready for move-in.

INTERNET LISTINGS – Our available homes for rent in the Property Rental Management area are posted online complete with photos, maps and property details for the convenience of those searching for a new home.

WORD OF MOUTH / REFERRALS – Current and past tenants, friends of our tenants, referrals from other agents that we network with.

CORRECT PRICING – Even the best and nicest homes will not lease quickly if overpriced. We make sure your rental home is priced according to current market conditions.

THOROUGH PREPARATION – Even the best located and well priced rental homes will not lease quickly if the rental home is not in top showing condition. Homes for rent must show well and have an attractive “curb appeal” or they may sit empty for extended periods. Part of our job as property managers is to make sure your rental home is presented in a clean and attractive condition so that it will attract a good tenant.

This is the most important aspect of the successful management of rental property. We typically do application processing in-house. We don’t send the application to a third party for processing, as do most other property management companies. In general, we look at an applicant’s past behavior and assume their future behavior will be the same. An applicant must demonstrate a history of being a good, responsible tenant or homeowner as well as meeting credit standards. At Property Rental Management our standards are high, No one screens their tenants as well as our property management team.

LANDLORD REFERENCES – We personally talk to past landlords and ask detailed, open-ended questions about the applicant’s past performance.

CREDIT REPORT – Our property manager and leasing agent has a direct connection with the Credit Agency reporting service. We obtain a credit report that tells us the applicant’s current and past performance toward meeting their financial obligations. It also tells us their monthly debt, credit score, and shows their previous addresses (which we compare to addresses listed on the application). An applicant must meet established credit standards.

EMPLOYMENT/INCOME – We contact the employer to verify length of employment, status, and income. An applicant needs to earn at least 3 times the monthly rent in gross income to qualify for rental and we will want to see a copy of their pay stub.

PETS – We don’t generally permit animals/pets into managed properties unless you allow us to do so, however, 75% of renters have pets according to apartments.com. When we make the decision to accept an applicant with pets, we minimize your risk by limiting the breed, age, number and size of the pets. We also use a special pet addendum for your protection. We are careful in selecting tenants who wish to bring pets with them.

OTHER FACTORS – Many of our managed properties are subject to Home Owner Association restrictions such as no boats or trailers, and limits on the type and number of vehicles. An otherwise qualified applicant may be unable to lease a property if, for instance, they own a boat and want to park it in the driveway. We make sure issues like that are covered up front to avoid surprises after move-in.

There are several ways your property manager has to know this. Above all, careful tenant selection from the outset protects your property from being rented to irresponsible people. During the lease term, we may have occasion to enter the property for repair or maintenance reasons and will use that opportunity to have a look. If we are fortunate enough not to have any repairs or maintenance at your property over an extended period of time, your property manager will schedule a preventative maintenance walk-through to make sure the air filter is being changed, that the smoke alarms have batteries and that there are no unreported problems at the property.

Your property manager gives the tenant an opportunity to correct the situation and usually they will. If a problem persists, we will make a decision based on that specific situation.

Absent any special considerations unique to you or your property, our rule of thumb is this: If something may cause a potential interruption in your ordinary cash flow, we will let you know about it right away. Other than that, the saying “NO NEWS is GOOD NEWS” is most appropriate. Non-emergency items will be communicated along with your monthly statements and, of course, we encourage you to contact the property manager anytime you have a question or wish to discuss something.

We know some owners desire a level of involvement that our property management system is not designed to accommodate. We try our best to make sure you are a good match for our style of property management. Part of that process is this Question and Answer page so you can obtain a sense of how we think and how we will manage your investment property.

If you are a worrisome property owner or someone who desires a high degree of personal involvement with the property or who needs constant communication from the property manager, such as a phone call before any repairs are completed, we are not a good match for your needs. The property owners who appreciate us the most are those who truly want everything handled for them turnkey and don’t want to be bothered unless something important is happening. That is the type of property management service we offer.

We encourage tenants to submit maintenance requests through their tenant portal, but they can also submit their maintenance requests via email, fax, our website and of course in person. After we receive a repair request, the property manager may contact the tenant and ask them questions, which will help us, determine the exact nature of the problem before sending a service technician. We also make sure it is not something the tenant can fix themselves (ex: reset button on the disposal, tripped breaker) before your money is spent on a service call. After determining that it is a legitimate problem, we will send the appropriate service vendor to make the repair.

We tell our tenants that we are able to handle most repair requests within 1 to 3 working days, and in fact are usually able to do so. Comfort items such as Air conditioning, no hot water or heat, receive highest priority and are usually attended to the same or next business day.

If you would like to nominate a service company to be added to our vendor list, they can contact us and we will interview them and let them know what documentation and references we need, what our invoicing and payment policy is, etc. We cannot guaranty however that your favorite company will be sent on all service calls to your home. Our concern is always to resolve repair problems in the most efficient way possible with the best available vendor at the time. Property managers can’t keep track of a pre-established roster of vendors assigned to certain properties – it would be a cumbersome and inefficient property management system and would not achieve the best service to the tenant and your investment property.

Our professional reputation as property managers, both with tenants and owners, is largely, if not almost entirely, determined by the effectiveness with which we handle maintenance. We follow a practice that is most likely to insure the best possible response and resolution to maintenance and repair problems for your property.

Statements are published and/or mailed out after the 10th of the month.

Rent is due on the 1st of the month. Once rent is received in our office, our accounting department will pay your management fee and deduct any bills from your rent, such as: HOA, mortgage, gardener, maintenance, etc. The remainder of the rent is your “owner draw”, we do owner draws on or after the 10th of each month but no later than the 15th for that month’s activity. We will process owner draws and send it to you electronically if you have signed up for ACH payment form. If not, then a check will be mailed to you. Most months, you will have your check and statement in hand by the 15th.

The monthly statement showing all income and expenses for the accounting period and the original receipts for any repairs. We don’t mark up repair invoices and we send you the original copy so you’ll see what was done.

As a general rule of thumb we usually get one month’s rent for deposit, this is what most property owners and property managers will ask for.

Our In-house real estate team is licensed by the state of California.

We can start the process immediately. We will start by obtaining some information about you and your property and helping you decide if we are a good fit for your needs.