At Alarca Realty, we have three different tiers of service and pricing. Every property management arrangement is one of delegation. You need to figure out what exactly you want the property manager to do. If you want them to manage everything from soup to nuts, you’ll pay more than what you will pay if you retain some of the responsibilities. You might want inspections every quarter, inspections once a year, or no inspections at all. This factors into pricing. I encourage potential clients to think of this like a hotel room. I was looking in the Charlotte area for a room on a particular night, and the prices ranged from $46 a night for the Econolodge to $789 for the Ritz Carlton. Both offer hotel rooms for the same night, but you’ll expect more from the Ritz than the Econolodge. And, you’ll probably get a better night’s sleep.

How Much is Property Management in Charlotte, NC?

Property managers are caring for one of your largest assets. The situation puts you at risk for lawsuits, fair housing violations, code violations, and other things that can influence the amount and quality of sleep you get every night. So, look at the services a manager can provide. Unlike hotel rooms, property management services fall into a pretty narrow band. Prices in our area are generally between 8 and 12 percent of one month’s rent for the standard monthly management fee. Most firms in our area charge a leasing fee of 50 to 100 percent of the first month’s rent. This covers the cost of finding a quality tenant, marketing your home, and placing that tenant.

Property Management Charlotte, NC

Within that band, look at any additional fees that you may have to pay. Is there an extra charge for inspections, and are you getting a full report with videos and pictures or just a checklist? Ask about whether you will have to pay utilities when a home is vacant, or if there’s a connection fee. Know whether the maintenance costs are marked up, if there are lease renewal fees, vacant property management fees, or eviction fees. Sometimes you’ll be charged for move in and move out videos. You might find there’s a separate advertising fee in addition to the leasing fee. There are account set up and termination fees. All kinds of costs can be extra, so determine what you’re really getting. In our management agreement, we include a list of fees that are not customary, but if you need one of those services, we will provide it for you and charge the appropriate fee. It’s an option for our owners.

Saving Money in the Long Term

Does it ever make sense to pay more? If all the fees are the same but it’s 7 percent of your rent versus 8 percent of the rent, it might seem natural to go with the lower price. But, sometimes the more expensive property manager will save you money in other areas. For example, if one property manager uses a vendor who costs $150 per visit, and another has a vendor who charges $65 to show up, you’ll save money every time there’s a repair. Tenant retention is also paramount. If one manager has a tenant staying three or four years versus tenant turnover every year, the frequent turnovers will cost you. The biggest cost for a property investor is vacancy and turnover. Those expenses are much higher than management fees.

Make an educated decision that includes more than price. If you have questions about Charlotte property management, please contact us at Alarca Realty.

Location 

Price

Rental Criteria 

Property Condition

Choosing the a Charlotte Property Manager 

5 Best Property Management Companies in Charlotte, NC 

Property Management Charlotte NC: Repairs and Tenants 

Apartment Investing: Prioritizing for High ROI

Communication

It is so important that you’re on the same page with your property manager regarding communication. Some managers will contact you for everything and some will contact you for nothing. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle, but it’s important that you are up front with your expectations and you understand under what circumstances the property manager will contact you. Once this is established, if the manager isn’t living up to what was promised, you have every right to be upset. Talk to your manager and make sure they understand you’re unhappy before terminating the agreement.

Transparency

If your property manager spends $3,000 making your home ready between tenants and you don’t know what exactly was done or why it took so long, you might want to make a change. This should never occur. Property managers have a fiduciary duty to you and you should always understand what they’re spending money on and why it’s necessary. Best practice is to give you an up-front quote for a turnover job so you know what’s being spent. You’ll be able to see line items on carpet cleaning, paint, getting items out of the home, etc. You should approve any job before money is spent. Then, after the work is complete, you should have access to receipts so you know and understand every expense.

Accessibility

We hear complaints about clients emailing a property manager and waiting three or four days for a response, or getting voicemail every time they call. You want someone who can answer your questions and help you with any issues you’re having. A same day response is the best practice and at a minimum, you should hear back within one business day. If it’s an emergency, you’ll want to be able to reach someone right away.

When the relationship with your property manager becomes more adversarial than hospitable, it’s time to look around for something else. You want a property manager to take stress away from you, and if you’re worrying more about the property manager than your property, you aren’t getting your money’s worth.

If you have any questions or you need help terminating an agreement, contact us at Alarca Realty and Property Management, and we’d be happy to help you.

We routinely receive calls from self-managing landlords who are having problems evicting tenants. Typically, this is because tenants know more about the process than the landlord. Professional tenants will always prefer to rent from an individual homeowner instead of a professional property manager because they know the individual homeowner has other things going on and won’t be able to drop everything and go to court to file eviction paperwork or document everything the way it needs to be done. Do your background checks before you rent to any tenant.

Improper Filing of Notices

The number one reason that landlords lose evictions is because they are not filling out the required notices or paperwork properly. In North Carolina, you have to provide a 10 Day Notice to your tenant before an eviction is filed unless your lease waives this notice. Many leases available on the Internet do not have this clause included, but a professionally written lease will have a clause that waives the notice requirement. When you are required to provide notice, it has to be in a specific format with specific wording or the case will be thrown out.

Documentation

We also see a number of evictions dismissed just because the landlord doesn’t have the proper documentation. When you show up in court, have copies of all the notices you’ve provided, copies of correspondence to and from the tenant, receipts for repair work, a copy of your lease and your ledger which shows payment history. In court, the Magistrate will want to see all those things. Make sure the ledger is easily readable and very clear. Cases have been thrown out because the ledger was difficult to read and the Magistrate couldn’t see that the tenant paid some months but not others.

Property Condition

Probably the most frustrating scenario for a landlord is when they do everything properly and then the tenant shows up with a complaint that is either true or made up, and the landlord doesn’t have any documentation or way to prove otherwise. We have seen cases thrown out because a tenant claims there is no smoke alarm in the home, and the landlord is certain that a smoke detector was there before the tenant moved in, but cannot prove it. Tenants have had evictions thrown out after making claims of mold. Make sure you have documentation related to the condition of the property. If there are any maintenance or repair requests, have copies of those and proof that you’ve dealt with them.

How to Win an Eviction

First, make sure you’re obeying all the laws. If you’re breaking a law knowingly or unknowingly, it’s likely your case will get thrown out. For example, you cannot charge late fees in excess of state law, you cannot charge NSF fees in excess of the law and you cannot change the locks on the property. Second, hire a reputable eviction attorney. Eviction attorneys will be well worth the money. You could also hire a property management company to manage the home through this process.

These scenarios get very complicated, and each one is unique. Make sure you’re taking care of them the right way. If you have any questions at all, or you need help with an eviction, please contact us at Alarca Realty and Property Management.

Introduction to NARPM

This organization is the professional, educational and ethical leader for the residential property management industry. NARPM is an association of real estate professionals who understand first-hand the problems and challenges of managing single family rental properties. The property managers who belong to NARPM must adhere to professional standards and a strict code of ethics. It’s similar to the relationship that the Realtor Association has with real estate agents.

Educational Opportunities

There are numerous educational opportunities and networking events hosted by NARPM. Property managers have the opportunity to learn from experts. This is important to you because being a member indicates that your property manager is serious about providing you with high quality service and liability protection. If your property manager is not a member of NARPM, you should wonder why. With over 50 active members in the Charlotte chapter alone and over 5,000 members in the United States, it’s easy to find a property manager who is a member.

Access to Best Practices

The increased educational opportunities include access to processes, systems and best practices. This helps NARPM members manage your properties more efficiently, professionally and economically. NARPM has dozens of courses focused specifically on the property management industry.

Vendor Relationships

Many vendors choose to be affiliated with NARPM. They provide the best services for members and sometimes they offer discounts as well. You’re getting world class service with the best possible pricing available. Charlotte has vendors affiliated with NARPM in every sector, from disaster recovery to attorneys to companies that clean your house between tenants.

Check out NARPM.org if you’d like more information about the organization, or contact us at Alarca Realty and Property Management, and we’d be happy to tell you more.

In Charlotte, we also have properties where the values are floored by rent. This means the price of the home is not going to drop below what the investment can cashflow. Home prices to rent are very favorable. Investors need to look at the ratio of what it costs to buy and how much it will rent for. There are plenty of neighborhoods where that ratio creates a perfect cashflow opportunity for investors. You can look in Uptown Charlotte, Clanton Park and Revolution Park for smart investments. In areas like NoDa, prices go up a bit but those properties are seeing a lot of appreciation in value.

When we look at an investment property for our clients, we are looking for at least a 10 percent return. That means on a $100,000 house, we want our clients to bring in at least $10,000 per year in rent. Earning $12,000 would be even better. On a $50,000 house, you’d want to charge at least $500 per month in rent, and we like to see that go up a bit higher. There are other costs to remember. For example, as you move down in price, our research indicates that you have to factor in higher turnover costs and more frequent turnovers.

Investors often say they don’t want to deal with tenants. You don’t have to. Hire a property manager, and let a professional deal with the tenants. As long as you understand the expectations and the philosophy of your property management company, you can view your investment like a stock.

Sometimes, we’ll help investors get tenant-occupied homes. These are often long term tenants, and you can find good deals. There are lots of lower priced homes still available on the market because the hedge funds are looking for newer homes built after 1990. They want homes in subdivisions that are two stories with garages and several bathrooms. With investor neighborhoods, you really want three bedrooms and one bath, maybe a solid brick home build in the 1960s. That will get you a good tenant, a great cashflow opportunity and a huge return on your investment. If you have any questions, please contact us at Alarca Property Management, and we’d be happy to talk to you.

Most landlords have a grace period in place. At Alarca Property Management, rent is due on the 1st of every month and we consider it late on the 6th. If we still don’t receive the rent, we file eviction on the 11th. We have found that this provides our tenants with a consistent message. They know what is expected and it’s fair to everyone. The 11th is a good balance between enforcing rent payment and allowing tenants to get caught up if they have a financial problem one month.

You need to go to the courthouse, fill out the necessary paperwork and pay the fees. You can also get an attorney to do this for you. Once filed, the court sets a date for trial. The sheriff will deliver a notice to your tenant and either post it on the property or leave it for them. Usually, your court date is about two weeks later. This means that when we file on the 11th, our court date is usually around the 25th. At court, you have to have the proper documentation, particularly your lease. If it’s a cut and dry issue of the tenant not paying rent, you’ll probably win your case.

Assuming you do win, the tenant then has 10 days to file an appeal. This is North Carolina law and it means you can’t lock them out right away. Wait out the 10 days and then file a write of possession with the Sheriff’s Department. This is where the sheriff will meet you at the house to change the locks and make sure the tenants have left. It usually takes a few days for the sheriff to schedule this, so you’ll be into the following month before you can physically get the tenants out. Walk through house with the sheriff and document anything that is left behind. You can’t remove the belongings a tenant may have left behind. The tenant has seven more days to remove their belongings. Once the seven days pass, you can remove whatever is left behind.

A tenant can file suit against you if you don’t follow this whole process carefully. You don’t want to lose a potentially large amount of money because you threw away a tenant’s personal items before the deadline passed. Wait the required number of days and if you’re not sure how the process works, talk to an attorney or a property manager.

We would be happy to answer any of your questions. Please contact us at Alarca Property Management.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to cashflow on a property that is over $200,000. The rent ratio simply isn’t there. As you move down in purchase price, your rent comes more in line with your mortgage payment. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you only owe $100,000 on a $300,000 house, so your rental income simply needs to cover that. Consider what kind of cashflow you could get if you sold that $300,000 house and spread the cash around on several different properties. You’d be in better financial shape.

Another thing to remember is that the lower the price of the property, the higher the turnover tends to be. That means additional turnover costs. The sweet spot for investors is really finding a property that brings in $1,000 to $1,500 per month. You can find properties in that price range, and you’ll get good tenants. As long as you are buying the lower priced properties correctly, they will cashflow very well. Look for a neighborhood with a higher number of owner occupants. You’ll find the area is more stable, tenants tend to stay longer, and there is a lower rate of evictions and turnovers.

Great neighborhoods to invest in are within five miles of Uptown Charlotte. This includes Revolution Park, Clanton Park and NoDa. If you can find properties in that area, you’ll be in good shape. It also doesn’t hurt to move towards the Plaza-Midwood area and Shamrock. These are great neighborhoods where you can find homes for under $80,000. I ran a search recently and within a five mile radius of uptown Charlotte, 179 homes under $80,000 popped up. There are plenty of opportunities to get a good value.

Mooresville, which is about 25 miles north of Charlotte near Lake Norman, is a community that’s really up and coming. You’ll find the properties are higher priced than Charlotte, but the homes are good values with great price appreciation potential.

Hedge funds are focused on buying newer construction and larger properties. When the bubble burst a few years ago, many people were unable to make payments and ended up in foreclosure. You don’t want to buy too many foreclosures, but there are good neighborhoods that might have a foreclosure available for an excellent price.

North of Charlotte in Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius, you can find homes in the $100,000 to $150,000 price range. If you want a condo or a high rise, Uptown Charlotte is the place to look. Ballantyne is also a great area and has one of the highest search rates in the country. It’s a great corporate area. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Manage your risk and spread out your investments. If you have any questions, or you need help finding an investment property, please contact us at Alarca Property Management.

Often, new investors will call us when they are getting ready to close on a home because they want to rent it out and have Alarca Property Management manage the property. We are happy to do it, of course, but we encourage folks to call us ahead of time. Before you even start looking at properties, get in touch with us so we can provide valuable information on the area you are thinking about buying in. We can also help you understand how much rent to expect, what kind of turnover to expect and those kinds of things.

A real estate sales agent can help you negotiate a deal, but a property manager will help you understand how the home will perform on the rental market. For example a sales agent may tell you the home you are considering will rent for $1,000 per month, but after our analysis we find that nothing in the area has rented for over $900 per month. It’s good to know how much rental income you can count on before you buy the property.

A property manager can also help in terms of repairs or upgrades. We can take a look at the property before you buy it and give you an idea of how much renovations will cost to make the home rent ready. Sales agents will suggest retail pricing, but we can do it significantly cheaper with our volume pricing.

When you have a property manager advising you from the beginning, it creates a buy-in and accountability with your purchase decision. If I tell you the property will rent for $900, I have to be prepared to list that home for $900 and find a great tenant willing to pay that rent.

Property managers can point you towards good neighborhoods and away from bad neighborhoods. Some places look great on paper but the rental market is a lot different from the sales market. You want to buy in a place that attracts renters.

We can certainly help you on upgrades. We once knew a client who overpaid on a foreclosure and then went a little over the top on renovations. He installed stainless steel appliances but then had to worry about those appliances getting stolen when the property was vacant. It sat on the market for a long time, and he didn’t get the return he was hoping for. We’ll tell you what renovations are appropriate and what renters will care about.

As always, we welcome your questions on investment properties and how to buy them. Please contact us at Alarca Property Management.

There is a lot to think about when you’re relocating. Sometimes, people will call me six months ahead of time to talk about what needs to be done, so I thought I’d walk you through the process. The first rule is – worry about your new house first. We always tell our clients to focus on finding a new home, wherever you happen to be moving. Getting your current home ready for the rental market will be much easier than finding that new home. A good property manager will be able to take care of everything for you when it comes to your current home. We can have your house packed and ready to move with very little notice. So, always worry about your new home first.

Get a rental analysis done so you know what your house will rent for. You also need to know what it will take to get the home rent ready. We provide a three-page checklist for our property owners. It includes all the things you would expect, like check the walls to see if new paint is needed, make sure the light bulbs work and clean the carpets. You can handle taking care of all these things yourself, you can have us handle all of it or we can share the responsibility. There are some things we want to do on our own, like changing the locks. This keeps your property protected and your tenants protected. We also do all the battery changes on smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. After everything else is done, you’ll need to spend a little money on those costs.

When should you show the home? Whenever you are comfortable with people seeing it. If you don’t want the pressure of having to keep the home clean all the time and you don’t want strangers coming through and looking at your belongings, wait until you are all moved out. It is much easier to show a vacant home because tenants can visualize how their belongings will fit. Our vacant homes rent quicker than our occupied homes. We understand that you want to minimize the vacancy period, so we can start showing immediately if you want. There’s no need to show more than 6 weeks ahead of time.

On average, we take about 28 days to rent a house. That means you can expect a month or two of vacancy, so plan for that. Your property manager should walk you through this entire process. If you need help, or you have any questions, please contact us at Alarca Property Management.

One of the most important questions you have to ask is whether you can afford to sell your home. That depends on how much equity you have built up. If you’re in a negative equity situation or it’s very tight, you might not be able to sell your home in a traditional way. You would have to look at a short sale or a foreclosure or a deed in lieu. Those options come with significant impacts to your credit and your tax situation. Talk to professional tax planners and financial advisors before you go down that road.

If you do have equity, you need to figure out your home’s value for the future. Has your property reached its maximum potential, or will the home increase in value over the next five years? In Charlotte, a lot of hedge funds have bought a lot of properties because they think the real estate in this market is 20 to 30 percent undervalued. They expect the peak to come in five to seven years, and they want to capture that profit.

There are costs involved in renting out your home as well. Getting it rent ready will take some work and some money. You’ll need to make repairs, clean the carpets, repaint the walls and update the landscaping. Figure out how much that will cost. You’ll also need to budget for the expense of finding a tenant and screening that tenant. Managing the property comes with costs, and you need to have emergency funds in place. You can’t count on the tenant paying rent on time every month and you can’t count on getting through a lease period without needing to spend any money on repairs. You hope it happens, but it probably won’t, so reserves are important. We suggest to our clients that they have six months of reserves on hand when they rent a property.

Let’s say you do rent the home. One big piece of advice is not to rent that place to friends or family and try to manage it yourself. This causes problems. We have seen a lot of situations where tenants fall 10 or 12 months behind on rent and it’s hard to evict a friend or family member. If you decide to hire a property manager and rent in the open market, plan for how long it will take to get the home rented. At Alarca Property Management, we typically get a house rented within 28 days or less. Figure out how much time you can dedicate to that process.

Many people ask if they should start showing the home before they move out. That depends on your appetite for disruption. If you can handle having people walk through the house while you’re packing and moving, fine. However, showing a vacant house is always easier.

We’ve only scratched the surface of how to choose between renting and selling your home. If you have any questions or you’d like to discuss this further, please contact us at Alarca Property Management.

You might be wondering why it makes sense to invest with your IRA. It diversifies your entire retirement portfolio. Instead of investing only in stocks and bonds, you can get some real estate and other assets included. It also protects you against bankruptcy. If you buy your property through your IRA and you have a financial disaster down the road, that investment property is safe when it’s in your IRA.

There are definitely tax benefits to consider. When you buy an investment property with a self directed IRA, you can defer taxes or even pay zero taxes when you buy through a Roth IRA.

So, once you find a financial institution all you have to do is fund the account. This requires some paperwork and you can designate whether it’s a rollover from another IRA or a 401K. You can also fund it over time. There are a few options that your financial advisor will help you with; just make sure you follow the IRS guidelines. When you buy a property, you need a purchase contract which is bought in the name of the IRA. There is a specific form needed. It will take a few days to approve contract and provide funding. All funding has to come directly to the IRA and the rent proceeds must go back into IRA. This means that when rent is collected, the money is not sent to you. It’s sent to your financial institution. You cannot manage your own property when you own it through a self directed IRA. The IRS requires a property manager to be the custodian of that rental.

Your property manager handles the rest of it. Many people ask me if borrowing is possible, and it is. You can take loans, but the loan has to be nonrecourse financing and it has to be in the name of your IRA. If you have half the money you need in your IRA, you may be able to borrow the other half to fund your purchase.

Please contact us at Alarca Property Management for any questions on how to get started with a self directed IRA.

Let’s start by looking at a vacant home. Most landlords have other jobs, so marketing the property is not a priority and it’s hard to show the place when the potential tenants are available. A national survey revealed that it takes a landlord 60 days to get a home rented. Property managers can get a tenant in place in 30 days or less. Our average at Alarca Property Management is 28 days. The money you would have spent on a property management fee is lost anyway when you do it yourself because there is an extra month that you have a vacancy.

What if the tenant stops paying rent? When you are managing the property on your own, you will probably not go down to the courthouse immediately to evict. Most landlords don’t want to deal with evictions. Property managers will have a procedure in place and they will file immediately so the tenant knows they are serious. During an eviction situation, a property manager can save you four or five months of rent. We often take properties over from people who have tried to manage themselves, and sometimes tenants are behind in the rent 10 months or more. One client of ours had been renting to her best friend of 20 years. She was six months behind before the landlord decided to do something about it. A professional property manager will act swiftly.

Professional tenants are people who prey on the do-it-yourself property manager. They know you don’t know the rules and they know you can’t be there 100 percent of the time. They know the system better than you do. They can play the system and set themselves up in your house for free without paying rent. We got a call recently from an out of state landlord who went to court to evict a tenant and the tenant claimed there were no smoke detectors in the property. When the judge asked the landlord if this was true, he didn’t know. Property managers always know because we take detailed inspection reports and document the condition of the property with photos and videos. Tenants can drag out court cases for months if you are not prepared.

Maybe your tenant is perfect and paying rent on time. There is bound to be a maintenance request at some point, and you’ll have to decide how to handle it. It might be tempting to send a friend over to fix whatever is broken. However, that friend probably doesn’t have liability coverage. When the work isn’t done by a licensed contractor, you can run into legal and financial problems. someone could get hurt, the work could cause damage and then you’re in a lot of trouble. Protect yourself. A property manager has access to reliable, affordable licensed repairmen.

These are just a few examples of how a property manager can save you money. The most important question you have to answer is: what is your time worth? If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact us at Alarca Property Management.