Property Management Orange County with Don Deering, Lion Properties
Property Management is something that owners like to think that they can do themselves. They know the property. A lot of our clients lived in the property before they moved out. They were smart enough to hang on to them when they moved on or were forced to because of downtown in the market. But we do a better job than the actual owner does. The biggest thing probably is that owners get involved with the tenants and they never raise rent. Sometimes we pick up a property where they’ve been managing it themselves for many years and find that it’s five hundred dollars a month under rent.
That’s our biggest thing. We pulse the market because of our size we manage over five hundred properties now. We pretty well have houses somewhere where we’re picking up a client and we know what the rental value of that market is. We collect rents, we pay all the invoices and mortgages, taxes. We make deposits, either to the owner themselves or we’ll make a deposit in the bank of their choice. A lot of our clients are out of state, so we do their banking for them as well. The rare times that it comes up we will appear in court for them for an eviction. Out of five hundred properties we only had 2 last year. And we find tenants. That’s probably our biggest strength is doing a proper screening job. Owners again make the big mistake of, if they size them up and like the looks of them and they like their story, a lot of them don’t even run credit they just let them move in and that’s when their problems start.
We do extensive background checks. We do what we call a triple check. Check if they have a bankruptcy if its been discharged in the past that’s OK we’ll rent to them. If it’s going on now we won’t. Cause they’ll just make their rent payments part of the bankruptcy filing and we never see a check again. And the other thing we check is have they ever been evicted. We won’t rent to anyone that’s been evicted. This company has grown a lot since the 18 years I’ve been in Business Growth Innovators. Sheila and I were part of the Huntington beach group and she came over before I did and said you got to join this group. It’s been very supportive just like Jen Carsick said and I appreciate that. We are I think the best at what we do in Orange County. And we do it for the lowest price. Our fee is 5% and most of the companies charge anywhere from 6 to 10%. Bruce likes to recount the story when I first spoke about our service being free and in a lot of sense that’s true.
If you go to raise rent generally that figure somewhere between 5 and 10% depending on what the rental value is. So if our fee is only 5% our fee to the owner just became free. So it’s a cost free service. A good tip for us is any horror story. Somebody is relating how they have a bad tenant. Somewhat like what Don just referred to. That’s a great tip for us. Usually it’s a case they can’t get someone out and they won’t pay. We have the ability to do that and to do it in a short period of time. Get the house fixed up and get it on the market so at least they’re getting income again.
Do you have a fee for finding tenants or is that just part of the service?
It’s part of the service. How about eviction going to court if necessary. Is that part of the service fee? If you have to actually go to eviction we have to get an attorney involved and the owner does pay for the attorney. OK thanks for your attention and keep me in mind and have a good weekend.
Property Manager Orang County – Don Deering of Lion Property Management
Don Deering – Lions Properties
714-378-1480
10101 Talbert #212
17155 Newhope Street, Suite A
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
lionproperties.com
deardon@lionproperties.com
Don’s Google Places page: Lion Property Management Orange County