1.  What types of properties do you manage?

We understand that different investors invest in different types of properties. Therefore, we have different property managers and account executives specializing in different divisions to handle the different types of properties and territories so that you and your property get the personal attention for efficient management. You will be assigned to a specific account executive who is teamed up with the management team that is trained and knowledgeable about the types of property you own. Our different divisions allow us to provide property owners with the personal attention yet allow you access to a broad spectrum of managers who are equipped to manage different types of properties.

We have different managers in different TPM divisions who currently manage:

• Commercial Properties (strip centers, retail, office, mix-use, industrial)
• Apartment Complexes (all sizes; with and without on-site managers)
• Mobile Home Parks (Manufactured Housing Communities, Mobile Home Parks, Trailer Parks)
• Owner Associations (commercial owner associations, homeowner associations, condo associations)
• Residential Income (single family homes, duplexes, fourplexes, condos)
• Hospitality Properties (Hotels and service related properties)

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2.  What services do you provide?

Depending on the type of property and Management Program you choose our services include but are not limited to:

• Rental Market Analysis
• Advertising and Marketing
• Rent Collections
• Tenant Screening
• Eviction and Legal Services
• Preparation of Vacancies
• Vacancy Showing
• Maintenance Services
• Monthly Accounting
• Bill Payment
• Financial Reports
• 24-Hour Emergency Maintenance Services

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3.  How do you handle maintenance calls?

Tenants may call, write, or e-mail us with their repair requests.  Our maintenance department will furnish a work order and make a note of the problem in our property file so we will have a maintenance history of your property.  We also have a record of the dollar limits for repairs set by mutual agreement and will contact you if the amount is over the pre-set amount. 

We may be able to assist some tenants by walking them through a procedure over the phone or we can send one of our vendors out to assess the problem and give us a repair estimate.

If the cost is over the pre-set amount we will call you for approval.  Unless it is an emergency we try our best to give you notice prior to any work being performed. 
Please be sure that your property displays our distinctive “Professionally Managed By: Titan Property Management” sign with our toll-free number and website so that tenants can contact us with any maintenance issues.  The sign is also a great way for anyone to contact us to report any suspicious activities or emergency issues.  This is a complimentary service so if your property does not currently have one, please ask your manager to install one at your property.

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4.  How is your 24-hour Maintenance Service for tenants set up?

We have a dedicated maintenance 24-Hour Hotline to handle emergency calls from tenants late at night, during weekends, and holidays. The tenant can call the local office or our toll free number to page one of our on-call staff. 

We will speak with the tenant to assess the situation and determine the appropriate course of action.  Many times we may be able to handle the situation over the phone or we will send one of our maintenance people out to resolve the issue.

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5.  Can TPM help me if my property is currently occupied by a tenant?

Yes.  Titan can continue to service the existing lease until the end of the term or sign the current tenant onto our lease.  In cases where the tenant is behind in rent payment or not satisfying the terms of the lease, Titan can take the necessary steps to get them to bring their rents current and satisfy the terms of the lease or we can start the eviction if payment cannot be collected. Interestingly enough, we’ve found that bringing TPM as an independent property management firm on board will suddenly get tenants who are behind to pay up or move -- because they know that a professional management company will follow through on all collection issues.

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6.  Why would a property owner hire an offsite, independent Property Management Company if there is already an on-site manager?

Investors may be great at acquiring investment properties but may not have the time, expertise or resources to manage their investments properly, or may be out-of-town investors. Often times, this may lead to reduced cash flow due to an oversight or mismanagement of the current on-site management staff. TPM’s goal is to increase efficiency through accountability.

For investors who are unavailable to train their on-site managers, audit their books, or develop a management plan, TPM offers these services. Many investors hire TPM to:

Listen and identify investors’ goals and objectives. Each investor is unique and we want to find out what goals and expectations you have for the investment property.

Research and analyze. We will work with your existing on-site managers and off-site personnel to understand and analyze the current physical condition of the property, financial reports, market position in comparison to the competition and operational infrastructure of the property so we can make our professional recommendations.
  
Monitor, implement, and manage. From our analysis we will work closely with the investor to develop and implement a strategic management plan that is tailored to meet the objectives that are unique to each property. We will closely monitor the progress and report back to the investors.

TPM’s management approach is not to be intrusive but take the time to understand the current management systems in place before making any recommendations to improve the current system. Sometimes, the existing manager is doing a great job and only needs minor guidance and support from TPM to increase efficiency. Or our research may reveal many discrepancies that may lead us to recommend retraining of the current on-site management staff or even replacement of current on-site management. With TPM’s management team on board, investors will experience an increase in productivity from their on-site managers which leads to an increase in cash flow.

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7.  How are Rental Rates Determined?

We continuously monitor the market and conduct objective Rental Surveys for current rental rates.

We understand that every owner wants to get top dollars for their properties. But there is a risk to overpricing your property so that it sits vacant for a long time. Inexperienced property managers may tell owners what they want to hear, but this often leads to an unhappy owner due to an extended vacancy. Overpricing of properties by agents is also sometimes done in order to get a listing.

According to our experience, rental rates are determined by market demands, not by property managers or owners. Utilizing our updated rental survey and research, we will recommend a fair market value for your property in order to attract qualified tenants who will take good care of your property. If you think your property is unique or better than the competing vacancies, you can price it higher than what the average property is renting for to test the market and see what the response is like. If the market agrees with your pricing and your property is rented quickly—great! If your property gets very little interest or does not rent out within a week or two, we recommend you lower the rent, because a vacant property is an expensive liability. 

We recommend that you price your property competitively to rent it out quickly — not to make our jobs easier — but it will actually save you money. For example: If market rent is $1,000 and you are asking for $1100 (just $100 extra) this can cause your property to sit vacant for an extra month or even longer. This means that you just lost $1,000 of rent for that month. If you get a tenant a month later to rent for $1,100 like you wanted, it would take 10 months of renting it out at $1100 to make up the $1,000 you lost for the 1 month it was vacant.

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8. What are your procedures and recommendations to prepare a property for prospective tenants?

After price, an important factor that prospective tenants look at is the condition of the property.  First impression is extremely important, so be sure that your property is in “Spic and Span” condition. Walls should appear clean and freshly painted; carpets should be clean, free of odor, tears, or loose areas. All appliances should be clean and in good working condition. Extra attention needs to be paid to bathrooms and kitchen areas. Blinds should be cleaned or replaced with new ones. Front and back yards should be landscaped and well maintained. 

Titan Property Management is a full-service company and will provide supervision and inspections to ensure that you are getting the most out of your renovation budget and your property is rent-ready at the highest possible rent. During the time when your property is vacant for showing to prospective tenants please make sure you have regular house cleaning at least every two weeks to ensure that the bathrooms are clean and the property is free of dust and debris.

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9.  How much funding do you require in reserve and what is it used for?

Depending on the size and type of property, all accounts are required to maintain a reserve amount. This reserve amount is placed in a trust account and is used to cover any charges or unexpected maintenance bills that may arise when there is no rent or not enough rent to cover those charges. The reserve amount normally starts at $300.

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10.  Can Titan Property Management pay my bills?

Titan can pay bills associated with your property including maintenance bills, utilities, property taxes, insurance and mortgages. There may be an additional charge to pay mortgages. After we receive rents from the tenants, we pay your mortgage and utility bills before we pay the other bills.  The remaining balance will be sent as proceed checks to the owners.

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11.  How are tenants’ security deposits handled?

Titan Property Management holds each tenant’s security deposits in a trust account until the tenant moves out and the deposit is paid back to tenant or applied to rent, cleaning, or repairs that the tenant is responsible for.

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12.  What liabilities should I look out for as a landlord and what can I do to protect myself?

As a property owner, you are potentially liable for known and unknown conditions at the property. With a competent insurance agent, your fire/liability insurance policy will adequately cover you in most cases. Your agent can recommend the appropriate insurance limit for your situation. TPM’s management agreement with owners includes an indemnity clause, which you will find in most other management companies, that places basic liability for all acts on the property owner. Insurance companies are aware of this and most will willingly name the property manager as either additional insured or name the manager as an interested party to the policy at no extra cost. As a property investor, it is prudent to take the necessary steps to make sure you and the property management company you hire are both protected — just in case a lawsuit arises.  Keeping an open line of communication and acting promptly and professionally will minimize the probability of a lawsuit.

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13.  Who will be my point of contact if I have questions or concerns?

A specific account executive and property manager who are specialists in a specific territory and specific property type will be assigned to you. You can make an appointment to meet with them to discuss your account at any time. You will also have the opportunity to request a meeting with a supervisor if the situation arises where you feel you need to speak with someone else concerning your property’s management.

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14.  How quickly do you contact me when my property comes vacant?

We will send you a letter or email once we receive the 30-Day Notice to Vacate. This is to inform you of the Move-Out date and the projected rent for the property. We will then schedule an appointment to complete our Pre-Move-Out Inspection and assess if the property is ready for marketing. When the property is vacated, we will complete our Move-Out Inspection to determine what needs to be done to make it ready for marketing. We will then contact you with our repair list (if any), including the projected costs which may be deducted from the tenant’s security deposit. You will have the opportunity to see your property once the tenant moves out and complete any repairs yourself if you prefer.

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15.  When do you start advertising your vacancies?

We start our marketing process at the time we receive a 30-Day Notice by listing your property on our website under the Coming Soon section of our rental listing. If your property is NOT rent-ready, we will advise you to wait until the property is vacated and the necessary repairs are made before you spend any money on other advertising (local newspaper, Rent Clicks, etc.). We try to move new tenants in quickly after the old tenant leaves. However, according to our experience new tenants don’t move in until 2 weeks after the prior tenants are scheduled to vacate due to unexpected situations.

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16.  How do you advertise for prospective tenants?

Depending on which program you choose, we can have your property posted on our website; place our distinctive “For Rent” lawn sign giving prospective tenants who drive by our contact number and access to our website to view the details of the properties online. Approximately 1 out of 4 applicants come to us from our distinctive “For Rent” sign at the property. We can also advertise in local newspapers and online rental databases which will give you the needed exposure to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. One of the advantages of advertising with Titan Property Management is that we have annual contracts with the newspapers and online rental databases for volume discounts. This will save you a lot more than if you advertised yourself.

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17.  How do you screen prospective tenants?

We require a detailed written application from each adult and photo identification. We process the application by completing a rental and employment/income verification. We don’t just accept what’s written on the application, our staff is trained to personally call the employer to ask for written verification of employment and income. Our staff is also trained to personally call past landlords to verify tenant history information on the application. In addition to that, we will order credit and eviction reports to give us an accurate accounting of the tenant's financial capabilities, payment history, and eviction history. 

In order to protect our owners, we make sure that everything on the application is verified before we accept the tenant. A common problem we see is that owners may get too busy to do reference checks and personally call for verification of income or tenancy and will get tempted to rent to someone with marginal qualifications that will not take care of the property and will cost the owners a lot more in the end. This is not to say that our guidelines are so strict that we will scare all the tenants away; just the bad ones who don’t belong in your property. 

Surprisingly, the strict guidelines allow us to focus our time on qualified prospective tenants and rent the property out much quicker than dealing with unqualified prospects that can’t seem to get their act together.

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18.  Who pays for the application fee to process the prospective tenants?

The prospective tenant pays for the application fee.

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19.  Do you do periodic inspections on my property?

As a complimentary service, TPM will conduct periodic exterior inspections on your property when a tenant is currently occupying the property. When it is vacant, we will usually show your property to prospective tenants 2-3 times per week. As an optional service you may order Titan’s Preventive Maintenance Inspection (PMI) annually. This highly recommended service gives us the opportunity to inspect the exterior and interior of your property. Titan’s PMI usually takes about 1-2 hours and we will provide you with written reports and pictures of the inside and outside of your property.  We will also provide you a list of recommended repairs for the properties. An annual inspection is highly recommended because it will allow you to catch and repair small preventive maintenance issues before they become major costly repairs that could cost you thousands.

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20.  Who pays for the maintenance and repairs for my property?

Our maintenance crew is trained to identify problems caused by normal wear and tear (the owner pays) versus damage caused by tenant abuse or neglect (the tenant pays).

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21.  What happens if you have to evict my tenant?

There are occasions (very few), where we will have to initiate eviction proceedings. All of our evictions are handled through a California licensed attorney specializing in tenant/landlord law. There are many nightmare stories about evictions taking up to several months before the owner can regain possession of their property. Be assured this is usually not the case. Most of our evictions are "uncontested," meaning the tenant does not file an answer with the court and possession is obtained in approximately four weeks. If a tenant does file an answer with the court, a hearing date will be set, and the tenant essentially has "bought themselves” two more weeks of possession. In most cases the eviction process does not take more than 4-6 weeks from initialization.

Stringent tenant screening on your behalf keeps evictions to a minimum with our company.  You as the owner will be responsible for the cost of the attorney, which is approximately $700 for the entire eviction unless you enroll in TPM’s Eviction Protection Plan (EPP).

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22.  What is Titan’s Eviction Protection Plan (EPP)?

This is an optional service offered to owners to back up our claim that we perform our due diligence to pick good tenants for your property. Titan’s Eviction Protection Plan (EPP) is only $10 a month per unit. Should an eviction occur, the plan will cover the costs to serve the 3-Day Notice, Summons and Complaint, all filing fees and all attorney fees. The program does not cover the cost of a jury trial, but most evictions RARELY involve a jury. If Titan Property Management is placing a new tenant in your property and you choose to participate in Titan’s Eviction Protection Plan, your eviction coverage goes into effect immediately.

If you have an existing resident and you sign up for the eviction coverage, the plan goes into effect after six months of management fees have been paid. This is a great service that will provide you peace of mind for as little as $10 per month per unit to avoid costly legal expenses in excess of $700. If you enroll in Titan’s EPP for $10/month/unit, it will take 70 months or 5 years and 10 months to make up the cost of just 1 eviction. So if you perform 1 eviction in the next 5 years and 9 months, you will be saving yourself money. Please ask your property manager about enrolling in Titan’s EPP for peace of mind.

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23.  Will I receive monthly statements?

Yes. Not only will you receive computerized monthly statements, but you will receive a statement detailing activity at your property. You will also receive copies of all bills and invoices paid on your account. You also can view your account online with your own personal account.

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24.  When can I expect my report and check to be sent to me every month?

We disburse owner’s funds along with a detailed report by the 10th of every month. If you would like, we can deposit your check directly into your bank account and forward your report to you. The only reason you would not receive funds at this time would be if your tenant has failed to pay rent. We will contact you and let you know of the pending status of your tenant’s payment. Owners of larger multi-unit properties may receive multiple reports during the month as lagging rents are collected and accounted for.

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25.  Why should I use Titan Property Management vs. other management companies?

Titan Property Management is a full-service property management company that is able to handle all your property management needs. Our concept of incorporating different management divisions for different types of properties in the same company is unique in the industry. We understand that some investors invest in a specific type of property and some investors may have a portfolio with different types of properties. Therefore, Titan Property Management has teamed up with experienced and knowledgeable property managers who specialize in different types of properties and territories. This allows property owners to come to one place for all their management needs and still get the personal attention that they deserve. 

Titan Property Management is the first management company to allow employees the opportunity to become partner and own a share of the portfolio they manage so they take personal responsibility and pride in providing excellent service. Property owners will not only get a specific manager dedicated to manage your property, you will have access to a team of managers with a wide range of expertise and experience willing and ready to be at your service so you don’t have to go anywhere else.

At TPM, our only business is providing excellent property management services to relieve owners of the day-to-day details so you can relax and tend to more important business. TPM’s dedication to only property management allows us to focus on taking care of your property and not be distracted by the sales market. With our experienced management team, we can provide great services at very competitive prices so you don’t need to shop around.

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