We’ve captured some of our favorite questions and put it together here. If you have other questions you would like answered, feel free to ask one of our staff members.
Maybe you have just inherited a property and don’t have the experience or you have a profession that keeps you busy with no time. Maybe you are relocating or finally retiring. Perhaps you just don’t want to get caught up in the daily hustle and bustle of managing a property and its tenants. Whether you are a first-time home buyer, property investor or an experienced apartment owner, Potomac can assist you with all your real estate needs. We have great success in making sure that properties are leased to qualified residents and that they are properly maintained. Potomac approaches property management as an income-generating business. We are not doing our job if we do not keep your expenses low and your income high. To do this Potomac maintains a high standard of reliability and accountability, and gives owners the true peace of mind that comes with knowing that their property is in the best hands possible.
As soon as you property is ready, it will be marketed on our Multiple Listing Service (MLS). In addition, we leverage the internet to gain maximum exposure for your listing. Rather than just list in in the local real estate listing service, we also nationally syndicate your listing to the most trafficked real estate websites on the internet. We are in frequent contact with many real estate agents in the area. We have proprietary marketing methods that separate us from the next management company.
YES! We will make a recommendation of the potential residents and send the lease out to all parties to sign.
Once we collect all rents, we process the payments and apply them to your account. We deposit funds electronically into your bank account. You may have an option to receive checks in the mail.
We hold the security deposit in a separate Escrow account. When your resident vacates, we will provide all required accounting of the resident's security deposit within the time legally allotted. If there are damages they will be deducted from the security deposit. We are allowed by law to charge the resident's deposit for unpaid rent, damages above normal wear and tear, and cleaning. This is considered an important time in the management cycle, and we will protect your interests.
Tenants are urged to use the portal to put in their requests. This is very important as you the owner and us get the notification in real time. After we receive a repair request, the we make a judgment call to ensure this isn’t something the tenant can fix themselves (ex: unclog the disposal with chemicals, tightening loose door knobs) before your money is spent on a service call. After determining that it is a legitimate problem, we normally will contact the owner, especially if the repair will be more than $300, to get approval. We will then send the appropriate service vendor to make the repair.
That’s what you hired us! We become responsible for your property 24 hours a day. There is always a staff member on call to quickly address emergencies. Most emergencies are prioritized and often can wait to the next day.
Here at Potomac we often continue to use qualified vendors with high level of integrity and reliability. Our long-term relationships with vendors have positioned us well to attain premium services at competitive prices. While we are happy to use our own vendors, one important benefit of Potomac management is that we listen to our clients. Just let us know if you would like to nominate your favorite vendor to be added to our vendor list.
Potential residents go through a rigorous approval process from the outset that protects your property from being rented to irresponsible people. During the lease term, we may get an opportunity to access the property for maintenance related reasons and will use that opportunity to take a look. If we are fortunate enough not to have any repairs or maintenance at your property over an extended period of time, we will be doing a renewal walk-through to ensure there aren’t any unreported problems.
Potomac Management Group has very firm and simple rent collection policy. Rent is due the 1 st of every month. If rent has not been received from a resident by the 1 st of the month, the rent is considered late and is subject to late fee. We do our best to work with residents to keep units occupied, however failure to pay rent before the 10 th of the month will be followed by suits and eviction proceeding. Potomac works with a highly experienced eviction attorney to regain possession of the unit. Our attorneys are highly experienced and reasonable in cost.
Just like you wouldn’t drive without car insurance or go without health insurance. Similarly, as a landlord, you must have insurance policy naming “POTOMAC MANAGEMENT GROUP” as an additional insured. If you don’t have insurance in place, Potomac can provide you the names of several agents to contact and obtain proper coverage.
You will get a monthly owner statement showing the rent received and the monthly expenses incurred. Owners can access their financials directly through Owners Portal. At the end of the year, we will provide a Year End Statement as well as a 1099 for your taxes.
Yes! We have a team of local expertise who know the DC & Northern Virginia market very well. Our passion is to guide our clients through the process of buying or selling your next home. This mindset has humbled us to be in the mix of real estate service providers driven by passion and success.
Being the owners of multiple properties ourselves, we understand the importance of hiring the right property manager. We take care of our clients investments as if it is ours. To do this Potomac maintains a high standard of reliability and accountability, and gives owners the true peace of mind that comes with knowing that their property is in the best hands possible.