new landlord faqs

• Q: How long will it take to rent my property?

  A: This is probably the most common question that I get asked by new owners. The answer to this is that it depends. Generally speaking it takes Sleep Sound around 4 weeks to get a property rented. We give owners two independent rent analyses and then let them set rent using our advice.

  It is important to remember, however, that Sleep Sound does not control the market. Single Family Housing has very incomplete data (especially in Oregon) and that means what we do is not an exact science. We reach out to you on a weekly basis to let you know what is going on with the property. If traffic has been very low this is likely a correlation to price, and we may ask you to consider dropping. We are generally conservative with the bottom end of our estimates and have a very high success rate in estimating actual rent.

• Q: Can I be involved in the Screening Process?

  A: Sleep Sound removes owners from the screening process, largely to protect them from their own knowledge gaps on laws and protocol. Many people want to have a say in who lives in their house, understandably so. But whether its a fear of having a group of college age tenants or the desire to have a family live in the home, owners can be putting themselves at risk of being subjective.

  Sleep Sound sets its screening criteria as high as legally possible, and by doing this we prevent a lot of potential evictions or defaults before they even happen. If a person or group passes the criteria then they should be afforded the opportunity to rent from our portfolio and within our office we strongly believe that.

  We have owners write a welcome letter introducing tenants to them and the neighborhood. We have found that this humanizes owners and helps build the mutual respect and is a good way for owners to talk with tenants.

• Q: What do you screen for?

  A: As mentioned above, Sleep Sound will screen for everything that we legally can. This consists of

  • Federal, Oregon State, Multi-state, and County Background checks
  • Verifiable Employment
  • Confirmation that household is making 3-times monthly rent
  • Credit Score and Credit Report checks
  • Contact of Landlords over previous 5-years
  • National Sex-Offender Registration and other databases

• Q: Do you require tenants to have renters insurance?

  A: Yes, unless exempt by law, renters are required to have liability insurance of $100,000 for apartments and $300,000 for condos, townhouses and single family houses.

• Q: How does maintenance work?

  A: We use a software called Property Meld which allows tenants to be in direct contact with a Sleep Sound Technician when something breaks. The technician, depending on what the break is, will attempt to guide the tenant through a fix.

  If this works then great! The tenant has been educated, the owners has saved expense, and the problem is solved. If the tenant was not able to solve the problem then Sleep Sound will send out a technician. Our technicians bill at a rate of $65/hr, which is highly competitive for Portland, and are more time efficient then the average technician as they know your property and its history.

  If a project is of a larger scale, or something that may require a permit, then we will vend out to someone on our preferred vendor list. We do not upcharge on maintenance or maintenance coordination so owners benefit from the same bulk savings and time priority that Sleep Sound does.

  If you have any additional questions about maintenance please reach out!

• Q: Should I allow Pets?

  A: Pets are one of landlords largest fears, and rightfully so... They can cause a ton of damage if the pet is not properly trained or taken care of.

  But within the Portland market, 70% of renters have pets.

  This is a massive chunk of the renter supply to bar from moving into your property and you could end up getting less rent, and sitting on the market longer. Depending on whether or not the other properties on the market in your area are allowing pets, this could add up to a lot of missed income.

  Tenants with pets will still be responsible for damage caused by their pet, and Sleep Sound has a good track record of recovering damage costs when they occur.

  We are happy to advertise your property as no pets, but we are increasingly seeing Single-Family Homes that go this house sitting significantly longer. We believe owners should be aware of this before making that their decision.

• Q: What does Sleep sound collect for a security deposit?

  A: Sleep Sound will take a months rent as security deposit. Depending on what comes back on the credit report we will adjust this number up. If a tenant has 3-4 negative inquiries on their credit report then we will raise the security deposit 50%. This means if your property rents for $2000, the tenant will put $3000 down as security deposit. At 6 negative inquiries we would take 100% additional deposit. However 6 negative inquiries is where we draw our hardline. Anything beyond that and the tenant would fail our screening.

• Q: What types of properties do you manage?

  A: Sleep Sound Property Management, Inc. manages residential and commercial properties

  Residential properties are are defined as single family houses, townhomes, condominiums, and plexes with 4 units or less.

  Commercial properties include apartment buildings, office, retail and mixed use.

• Q: How do you handle maintenance requests?

  A: Tenants submit work orders through a software called “Property Meld”. Once we have received work orders our technicians try to help tenants troubleshoot virtually. If this works great, we educated the tenant and saved you some money. If not then we send technicians out to the property to do the work. If the work is over $500 we consult you on what approach to take (unless told otherwise). Most work our technicians should be able to complete, anything requiring a full permit we go to our preferred vendors for. Those work orders are at cost and we do not upcharge on any maintenance coordination. Not only that but our technicians bill at a rate of $65/hr which is highly competitive for technician work in Portland.

• Q: When do I get paid?

  A: You get paid anytime between the 15th-20th of the month. Rent payment needs to clear the bank and once it does we submit the payment to you. Generally speaking you receive rent on the 15th but bank holidays and weekends may affect this

• Q: How much can I rent my property for?

  A: It depends on everything from bedrooms/bathrooms/size to neighborhood/time of year/supply of comparables. In Oregon we have no RMLS for property management, meaning most of our data tracking is either in-house, or extrapolated from the average price per sqft of apartments. When I do estimations I pull from everything above as well as comparables on Zillow, Trulia, and Craigslist. Call us to find out more!

• Q: What should I do if a tenant contacts me?

  A: Refer them to us. You hire us to do a job and tenants contacting you as an authority both breaks our authority and puts unnecessary work on your end. This policy is important to us in both ways.

• Q: Do you work with my home warranty?

  A: We will, though we will charge a coordination fee of $55 per interaction. This is not to punish you to but to cover our additional cost in working with these companies. We have found, we plenty of experience, that warranty companies are slow, generally do halfway or cheap jobs, and never respond to us. For those reasons we generally discourage clients who value response time and quality from working with them.

• Q: What sort of regular reports do you provide?

  A: We provide monthly and annual reports, walkthrough reports every six months, and well as report of price and service for any repairs over $250 dollars.

• Q: Can I visit my property or drive by?

  A: Per Oregon Law you can actually end up owing your tenant 1-month free rent if you do this. If you want us to schedule a walkthrough and send over the report we would be happy to do so. We want you to feel comfortable with the state of the home but ask that you let us monitor.

• Q: What If I have a Contractor I Like, Can Sleep Sound Use Them?

  A: As long as they have a CCB license we should be open to it. We value our reputation and want to make sure anyone we work with reflects our values. Your vendor would just have to be open to going through our vendor onboarding process

• Q: How Does Sleep Sound use cheap contractors?

  A: Generally speaking we go middle of the line. We preach good work that will hold and client communication that results in a good experience for all parties. Generally speaking the low cost contractors will not provide this to the same level. At the same time we are not going to be loose with your money. Keeping this in mind, mid-level is what makes the most sense for us. Let your property manager know if you have a contractor you have a relationship with that you would like to bring on.

• Q: How do you make sure my property is cared for and not destroyed?

  A: We are very strong when it comes to documenting and monitoring property. Before a property comes on the market we make sure that we have documented the functionality, this makes referencing the condition at the end of a tenancy easier and more concrete.

  We then take a large amount of photos of the interior and then have the tenant sign off on the condition.

  Then we place a highly qualified tenant who statistically should cause less damage.

  After this we schedule a walkthrough where we take pictures 2-month into tenancy. After this walkthrough we schedule a walkthrough every 6-months.

  Upon move out we go through final accounting and try to recover any damage in excess of normal wear and tear.

• Q: What should I know before I rent my home in Portland, Oregon?

  A: Truth be told, if you hire us there is not a ton you will need to know. The most important right now if the Oregon Relocation Act which takes away the owner tool of “no-cause evictions” as well as puts limits on rent raising. The major implication is that once someone is in the home it can be much harder to get them out.

  There are a good amount of exemptions and we do not have enough space to cover them all here. Please call the office to have a conversation about how this could affect your plans.

• Q: Will Sleep Sound Find me a Good Tenant?

  A: 99% of the time we will, as only 1% of our portfolio faces evictions each year. This question is subjective but to us a “good tenant” is someone who is safe, pay bills on time, maintains your property, and owns mistakes they make up to. We usually find these people but nothing is a guarantee, and I can’t promise you that you will not get someone who is good on paper but bad in the home.

  However I can promise that if that does occur that we will have your back.