la quinta property managers

New property managers office in La Quinta/Palm Desert!

Our owners with rental homes in the Palm Desert and La Quinta area have grown, and we decided to grow with them. We now have a permanent office located at 77564 Country Club Dr Suite 109, Palm Desert CA 92211. This office will serve as as a property managers central hub for owner and tenant relations in the area. Tenants can now drop off rent at this office, as well as hand-sign leases or pick-up keys. With 25% of homes in the area renter-occupied we are excited to bring piece of mind for new owners in the area. Further, median household income is $54,000 which shows the average affordable rental in the area is between $1,400-$1,600. Source; City of La Quinta
We are also networking and building relationships with local real estate agents. The hope is to build a network where we are able to find new investment opportunities for our owners while offering a more hands on property management approach with our brand.

 

La Quinta property management and Palm desert property management demographic is eclectic compared to most areas. Many homes are rented as short-term vacation rentals to “snow birds” looking to live here during their winter months. The short-term leases demand a higher rent due to increased turn-over but offer another possibility for our owners to earn income on their home.

 

We can look at the winter months not as a slow-time but an opportunity to achieve a short-term tenant to carry us into summer.

Tenants and owners can view our informative page on services and utilities in the area as well, under areas of service. La Quinta Property Management Landing Page

This is an exciting time with Access Asset Management, we are continuing to refine our La Quinta property managers services and look forward to serving our residents and new owners. Feel free to stop by our new office and say hello!

Lake Elsinore Property Management, Orange County Property Management, Inland Empire Property Management, Riverside Property Management

The Big Bad Wolf of Property Management…EVICTIONS

Many times in meeting with new owners we are asked about evictions. Typically we respond with the numbers, indicating that the frequency of evictions with Access usually run under 1% of the entire portfolio. On average we have about 1 eviction for every 200 good tenants. Needless to say, we do not typically entertain the idea of evictions being a major threat to our owners based on sound screening practices upfront. Our first line of defense in retaining earnings is to negotiate for keys before going to court. This usually includes forfeiture of security deposit and a small fee to ensure the home can be cleaned/repaired. A negotiated “eviction” usually results in less than $1,000.00 loss to our owners, with many cases of no loss occurring. A typical eviction that goes to court may cost an owner 2 month’s rent or more plus court/attorney fees of approximately $650.00-1,100.00.

It has come to our attention recently that there are paralegals and law firms who have created an entire industry by making Landlord’s lives difficult through the eviction process, and charging exorbitant fees in the process. These entities would walk a tenant through the process while creating foggy details, legal loopholes and various means to push the eviction beyond 2 months. Just as we begin to see the light and expect to be heard by a judge and regain possession, the tenant throws a sucker punch and requests a jury trial. We are unclear why any judge would allow this as generally an eviction suit is based on the factual breach of the terms of a lease and not subject to the interpretation of the circumstances by members of a jury, but recently we saw it with our own eyes as we prepared for trial. Upon spending days putting together evidence, witness testimonies, jury instructions and maneuvering through the legal process, the landlord decided to negotiate with the tenant for 75% of their losses and regaining possession in 3 weeks via a court ordered mediator. Although not ideal, our owner expects to take minimal losses due to a negotiated payment plan. Regardless, we at Access were appalled by the entire process and began to seek means to snuff out similar issues in the future.

Upon seeking legal advice we amended our lease to read that attorney fees can’t exceed $500.00. This measure is to keep legal fees reasonable and avoid racking up judgments, sometime as much as $18,000.00, from being imposed against our clients. They would be unable to recoup more than $500.00 in legal fees and therefore it is likely the tenant would have to come out of pocket for any cost associated with hiring an attorney over that $500.00 limit.

To conclude, we do not believe this to be an epidemic by any means. Out of 9 years of professional property management this was the first instance of this we have personally been a party to. It was also a new client coming from a different management company, which the tenant attempted to use to “muddy” the waters. We still believe evictions to be a rare instance, and we plan to continue to place our emphasis on numbers we can control such as rents, vacancy and maintenance along with sound screening practices at the outset of the tenancy process. As we continue to grow we plan on implementing other measures to increase the well-being and security of all our owners. We look forward to continued growth, sound management, and a prosperous 2016!

So whether it be your property in Orange County, Riverside County, Greater Inland Empire or San Bernardino trust Access to go above and beyond. Our property managers and employees have their own personal rental investments as well, and work hard to deliver the same level of professional property management they would expect on their homes. Copywrite 2015 Access Asset Management Inc, Lake Elsinore Property Management Central.

Lake Elsinore Property Management, lake elsinore, lake elsinore property manager

Free property management, or headache property manager?

Whether you are hiring a local Lake Elsinore property management company, or using a regional professional property manager, it is important you understand the basics of how your investment can perform better based on their performance. Your rental property cap rate usually depends on these factors: Rental income, vacancy rates , maintenance, taxes and HOA. Notice how your management company has the ability to affect three key factors on your rental investment return.

Lets use some examples to show you how our property management company performance earns our owners free management. Recently at Access Asset Management Inc. we took on several owners with local Lake Elsinore rental condos. The average condo is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with approximately 1,200 sq feet. The average monthly gross rental income was $1,300-$1,350 per condo, depending on location and garage size. Upon analyzing the rents and pulling comparable data we were able to increase rents to $1,445-$1,495. An immediate increase of $145-$195 to our owners. This 10-11% increase was not unique, as many new owner acquired properties saw increase of 8-15% as well.

Second, in thinking about maintenance of your home, the industry average is to pay 7-9% in maintenance towards your home. In the case of a condo renting for $1,445 you should expect $115 in costs a month towards repairs e.g., move-outs, heating and air, water heaters, plumbing, painting, carpet replacement etc. Here at Access we strive to perform as a professional property management company, we run our numbers and find our maintenance costs to be between 4-6%. Using a 5% average we can save our owners $43 dollars a month, $516 a year!

Further, your rental home vacancy rate. An empty home is an empty wallet and we do not get paid until your home is rented. The industry average vacancy rate is 7% Source: Y-charts. With our professional rental marketing, licensed showing agents, and expert property managers we have been able to boast 5-6% vacancy rates, again performing above expectations. This means an average gross income of $260 based on the before-mentioned condos. These owners saw a gross increase of $209 just by switching to a better property management company. With our fees only at $99 a month they are netting $1,320 a year because they hired the right property manager.

Lastly we will discuss other factors to consider. First, tenant move-outs. Consider a good property manager vs a poor one. A good property manager will know your home and have sufficient evidence to charge tenants for their damages/liabilities. They will also understand what is a tenant charge and what are owner charges to keep you from unnecessary small claim court disputes. A poor property manager can easily miss carpet, paint, or other damages easily costing you thousands that you may not find until years later. Also, does your property management company have reliable vendors? Poor vendor management can cause you increased vacancy and down time and possibly higher price gouging.

Poor rental marketing is another factor to consider. Here at Access Asset Management we take professional pictures and edit them to create the perfect picture to market your home. We also have two licensed on-call showing agents who take all incoming leads for our homes. They also keep every lead in case one is rented they will show them another. When thinking about vacancy, a home rented weeks faster can earn you hundreds.

Our closing remarks ends with one key factor we are all concerned with, communication. Does your property manager communicate with you the things you want to know? Do they communicate with your tenant? For example, this past weekend we had a tenant place a work-order for a hot water-heater not working. A poor property manager would simply send a plumber and cost the owner at the minimum a service call of $45-$65. Our property manager made sure he communicated with the tenant before sending someone and found out the problem was merely a unlit pilot light, they were able to help the tenants light the pilot over the phone and save the owner a headache and money.

Here at Access Asset Management we take great pride in being a regional professional management company. We have great policies, procedures and seasoned property managers throughout the Inland Empire, Riverside County, Orange County including all cities in these areas and the cities of Lake Elsinore, Corona, Murrieta, Menifee, Temecula, Perris, Hemet, Riverside, Orange, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Ontario, Redlands, The high desert to include Palm Springs, La Quinta, Palm Desert.

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Real Property Management – Property Management Systems – A Manager vs House-sitter

Expounding from our previous blog of passive vs active management, we discuss what it means to be a property manager vs a house-sitter. Let us first mention that not all property managers wish to be more than house-sitters, this is not a derogatory term. But here at Access we hope to be more than just a house-sitter. A house-sitter will do your finances, watch over your home and complete paper-work. We want to be a real property management company, one that actually manages your portfolio and finds how to increase your return. If you are interested in a full portfolio analysis of your real property let us know today. We also work with local agents to and perform pro-forma to determine of the investment is right for you.

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We serve the inland empire, and orange county areas. To include but not limited to Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Murrieta, Wildomar, Corona, Temecula, Perris, Hemet, Riverside, Redlands, Chino Hills, Ontario, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa.