Realtor Nia Reczek has experience on both sides of the residential rental market, having help both homeowners and potential renters find the perfect place to live. As the owner of Clearview Property Management, she serves clients throughout the North Carolina area. In this piece, she explains what homeowners can expect when they get their rental home back from their tenant.
When a homeowner comes to us and asks us to rent their property, we handle everything. And when I say everything, that includes everything from move in day to move out day—we really do take care of it all.
When a tenant is moving out because hi lease has ended, that is usually pretty standard. After the person has actually moved out of the residence, we will have a walkthrough and look at every single thing in the home. It is during that time when we will determine whether anything needs to be repaired. And if the thing that needs to be repaired was caused by the tenant, then we will take the cost of the repair out of that tenant’s security deposit and have it fixed.
At the same time, we will let the homeowner know about anything else that has come up, as well, including repairs that were not caused by the tenant and were instead just due to normal wear and tear with age. So we’ll say, “You know, you have some wood rot starting around the garage, so let’s get that taken care of.”
It is usually helpful to get these maintenance issues fixed while no tenant is on the property, since it is going to be more bothersome to try and get a repairman in there while a tenant is in residence. That way we don’t have to call any tenants and make sure they are around before we come over. We can just fix the issues right then and there. And at the same time, it is nice to give the homeowner a chance to take care of these kinds of things before they spread and become a big issue that is going to be a lot more costly to fix.
Another benefit of working with a company like ours is that we have on-staff maintenance people who can take care of those repairs and fixes at inexpensive prices, less than what the property owner could hire a general contractor to do those things for.
Now, if everything has checked out and it looks good, we will return the security deposit to the tenant at that time. Since we maintain the security deposit the entire time, there is no burden on the home’s owner to learn the necessary laws and requirements.
Legally, we have to keep any security deposit in a trust in North Carolina. We do not collect interest off of that money, though, because in North Carolina it is illegal to collect interest off of a trust account. So I have thousands and thousands of dollars sitting in accounts that the bank is drawing interest on, but I get no benefit from, nor does the homeowner. But it is once again a benefit to the investor, as well, because we really do handle everything for him so they don’t have to worry about learning the laws about holding security deposits and things like that.
In other situations, though, the tenant’s exit from the property may not be that great and easy. If an eviction is necessary — which can be the case for any number of reasons — then we will handle all of that for the property owner as well.
The fees to file for the eviction will come out of the tenant’s security deposit, and just so people know it is a $95 fee to get someone evicted. As the property management company, we will be the ones to go to court and to do all of those things to get the tenant out of the residence.
Once the judge allows us possession of the home, that gives the tenant 10 days to get out. If he or she has not moved out by the 10-day limit, then we will file a writ. And that is basically just a way of us saying, “You have got to get out.” Then from there, the sheriff will come and get the tenant out of the residence.
When you compare all of that to trying to handle this type of stuff on your own as the owner of a property, it is incomparable. From the time when the homeowner gives us the keys to his residence and says, “Rent my home,” we handle everything else. All they have to worry about is getting their check in the mail, and they don’t even have to worry about that really because we also use direct deposit to put it right into their account for them each month.
