Reply to New Landlord-to-be of DC Condo -Please Help a Novice Out

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "New Landlord-to-be of DC Condo -Please Help a Novice Out"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]We paid our property manager 8% of the monthly rent + 75% of the first month's rent. When hiring a management company, keep in mind that the prices they quote you initially tend to be negotiable. (i.e. if they quote you higher than 8%; 75%, see if you can get them down.)

I do not have a recommendation for a property management company; ours was pretty bad (I will not say who they are, but I would recommend avoiding a company located on T street near Dupont.) They overcharged us for various repairs and raised the rent for our tenants without telling us (!).

For what it's worth, you do not need to hire a management company to rent out an apartment, though it may make things easier if you are overseas. You need a "DC agent", which simply means someone that DC can send mail to (or a summons to) if need be. After several years of agonizing over our crappy management company, we ended our contract with them and signed up a DC-based relative as our agent.

As for the inspection, ours was pretty smooth. If you DO hire a management company, they a can offer advice on what you will need to do to pass it. (i.e. fire extinguisher; cut offs on electrical sockets in the kitchen.)

I have no advice regarding leases as our management company did that for us. But if you do it yourself, definitely check credit.

Good luck!!![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics