Property Owners' Frequently Asked Questions

If we have not addressed your questions here, please call us at (505) 205-1581 or, if you'd prefer, e-mail us your questions and we will respond promptly.

For more detailed information about the property management services offered by Advantage Pointe Properties, please click here to go to the "Management Services" page.

Frequently Asked Questions of Property Owners, in no particular order, are:

1. What fees are charged by Advantage Pointe Properties?
   
   
2. What needs to be done to prepare a rental home for rent?
   
   
3. How is the amount of monthly rent determined?
   
   
4. How does Advantage Pointe Properties market their rental homes?
   
   
5. How long does it take to rent a rental property?
   
   
6. How and when are rents and security deposits collected?
   
   
7. What happens when rent is not paid on time?
   
   
8. When are funds due the owner from collected rents disbursed?
   
   
9. How are emergency maintenance requests handled?
   
   
10. How are normal maintenance and repairs handled?
    
    
11. What happens if the tenant leaves before the end of the lease?
    
    
12. May I list my property a being for sale and for rent simultaneously?
    
    
13. May I list my property as being for sale even when it is rented?
    
    
14. What is the meaning of "Advantage Pointe?"

1. What fees are charged by Advantage Pointe Properties?
   
   Advantage Pointe Properties has but three basic fees. In addition to these fees, the owner is responsible for the mortgage payment, if any, property taxes, insurance, basic homeowner associate dues, if any, the maintenance of the rental property, and for maintaining a minimum amount (owner's reserve) in the owner's account of $400.
   
   The basic fees charged by Advantage Pointe Properties are:
   
   
   • One-time start-up fee of $150 plus New Mexico gross receipts tax (GRT);
   • 9% commission plus GRT on collected rents; and
   • A monthly Internet advertising fee of $39 when the rental property is vacant.
   
   Start-up Fee: The start-up fee covers the cost inspecting the rental property, coordinating any work that needs to be done to make the property rent ready, taking photos for advertising and setting up the Internet ads. If the rental property is tenant occupied with a balance of six months or more remaining on the lease at the time the property comes under Advantage Pointe Properties management, the start-up fee will be waived.
   
   Commission: The commission is charged only when rent is collected. If the rent is not being collected, Advantage Pointe Properties does not earn a commission. In addition, the commission rate is guaranteed for as long as the rental property is under the management of Advantage Pointe Properties. It may go down, but it will never go up.
   
   Advertising Fee: The $39 monthly Internet advertising fee covers the owner's portion of the cost of advertising a vacant or soon to be available rental home on Rentals.com^®,. In addition to Rentals.com^®, Advantage Pointe Properties advertises vacant and soon to be available rental properties on 15+ websites at no additional cost. Advantage Pointe Properties covers the additional $20 monthly advertising fee for listing the rental property as a 'Featured Listing' on Rentals.com^®.
   
   Owner Reserve: The owner reserve is an amount held by Advantage Pointe Properties in the owner's account to cover incidental expenses such as advertising and maintenance. The reserve amount belongs to the owner and is replenished, as necessary, from in-coming rent or, if need be, by the owner. The reserve requirement applies only to the first two properties belonging to the same owner(s). The reserve requirement is waived for the third and subsequent properties belonging to the same owner(s) and coming under management by Advantage Pointe Properties.
   
   Advantage Pointe: Our goal is to minimize owner expenses while providing property management services that are second to none. For a detailed explanation of our services, please go to the "Management Services" page on our website.
   
   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


2. What needs to be done to prepare a rental home for rent?
   
   The condition of the rental home can make all the difference in the amount of rent that can be obtained for the property and the length of time it is on the market. Our goal is to obtain the highest rent possible while minimizing the time it takes to place a tenant.

   The rental property should be in the best possible condition. It should be clean and appealing both inside and out.

   If the home does not look like you cared for it, the prospective tenant probably won’t care for it either.
   
   Some things to be aware of:

   • Painted surfaces should be clean and free of blemishes;
   • Flooring should be clean with particular attention to carpets, which should be professionally cleaned;
   • Any and all appliances should be clean and in good working condition;
   • Windows should be clean, operate easily, have screens, as necessary;
   • Blinds and drapes should be clean and in good condition with any hardware in good working condition;
   • Landscaping should be well tended and the yard picked up; and
   • Driveways and walkways should be in good condition and with as few stains as possible.

   Advantage Pointe Properties will perform a detailed inspection of the rental property and have a discussion with the owner regarding issues that need to be addressed before putting the home on the market.
   
   Advantage Pointe: Our goal is to maintain the rental home in marketable condition thereby maintaining or improving its market value whether for sale or for rent. It is, of course, to the owner's advantage to do so.
   

   We hold our homes to a high standard and hope that you do, as well.
   
   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


3. How is the amount of monthly rent determined?
   
   As with nearly everything having to do with real estate, the value of a home is dependent upon its location. The exact same home in a sub-division on the west side of Albuquerque, for instance, may well rent for $200-$400 less than its counterpart on the east side. By the same token, however, the selling price of these homes will differ proportionately.

   To determine the approximate rental value of your property, we take several factors into consideration:

   1. Location and competition;
   2. Square footage of the home (includes heated living areas only);
   3. Number of bedrooms (master bedrooms on the main level of multi-story homes are a plus);
   4. Number of bathrooms and type, i.e., full bath, three-quarter bath (shower only) or half bath (no tub or shower);
   5. Number of garage spaces (oversize garages and those with 3 or more garage spaces are a plus); and
   6. Landscaping (low maintenance landscaping with native plants and shrubbery is a plus).

   There are other factors to be considered, too, such as:

   1. Does the rental home have fireplaces and, if so, how many and where are they located;
   2. Is the home cooled by an evaportive cooler or by refrigerated air;
   3. Are appliances furnished or available on request;
   4. Does the home have any patios, decks or balconies and, if so, are they covered or uncovered; and
   5. Does the home have views.
   
   In addition, the time of year the home is available must be considered. Homes that are available for rent during the months of May, June and July usually command higher rents and rent more quickly than homes that are available during the months of November, December and January. During the months in between, of course, rental activity is either on the increase or decrease.

   Advantage Pointe: To position the rental home for availability during May, June or July, Advantage Pointe Properties attempts to negotiate lease terms with expiration dates falling at the end of April, May or June. Having the home available, when available, during one of these months is a definite advantage to the owner of the rental property.

   Of course, our primary goal is to avoid vacancies by retaining tenants.

   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


4. How does Advantage Pointe Properties market their rental homes?

   Advantage Pointe Properties advertises all available and soon to be available rental homes on 15+ websites, including our own.

   Statistically, over 70% of all research is conducted on the Internet. So, when prospective tenants are looking for a rental home, the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of their using the Internet to do so.

   We do not advertise homes renting for $900 per month or more in newspapers. We, simply, have not found it cost effective to do so and, after all, it is our owners' advertising dollars we're looking out for.

   Advantage Pointe: Advantage Pointe Properties optimizes its website for Internet search engines so that, when prospective tenants are looking for a new rental home, they will find yours!

   Also, by advertising "soon to be available" homes, it is often the case that a new tenant will be moving into the home within days of the current tenant moving out.

   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


5. How long does it take to rent a rental property?
   
   Generally speaking, it will take 6 to 10 showings of a rental home to attract the first application for tenancy. The "Law of Attraction" usually results in receiving subsequent applications for tenancy, if needed, in fewer showings.

   However, aside from the rent being asked for the rental property and its overall condition, there is little else that can be done to improve the chances of renting the home quickly.

   Obviously, we cannot relocate the home and it is not likely that adding more bedrooms, bathrooms or garage spaces would be cost effective. Therefore, keeping the property as attractive as possible and adjusting the asking rent are the only options available for attracting tenants quickly.

   Advantage Pointe: Advantage Pointe Properties provides its owners with weekly status updates of their vacant rental properties. The property manager receives a copy of the status report and, if necessary, will contact the owner to discuss other marketing strategies that may result in renting the home in less time.

   Also, with scheduled weekly inspections of all vacant properties, the property manager will quickly be aware of and address any other issues that may be having a negative impact on the home's marketability.
   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


6. How and when are rents and security deposits collected?
   
   First of all, all rents coming due after the move-in date are due and payable, in full, on the first day of every month.

   When a tenant takes possession of a rental home on any day other than the first day of a month, Advantage Pointe Properties collects the prorated amount of rent due (calculated on a 365 day calendar year) for that month. In addition, if the move-in date is on the 20th of the month or later, Advantage Pointe Properties collects the full rent amount due for the following month.
   
   Seven days before rent is due, tenants are mailed or e-mailed, if they have an e-mail address, a statement of their account and a friendly reminder that rent is due on the first. If mailed, a SASE is included for the submission of rent.
   
   Rents may be paid electronically, by mail or in person.

   Security deposits are collected in an amount equal to one month's rent. A pet deposit of $250 per pet is collected when necessary.

   Advantage Pointe: Advantage Pointe Properties collects all rents for the period, security deposits and pet deposits, in their entirety, before we hand over the keys to the rental home.

   Note that, by law, total deposits may not exceed one month's rent for rental agreements of less than 12 months in duration. In addition, interest at passbook savings account rates or as required by law must be paid on the total deposits, if, for a rental agreement having a duration of 12 or more months, the total deposits exceed one month's rent.

   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


7. What happens when rent is not paid on time?
   
   All rents due after the move-in date are due and payable, in full, on the first day of every month.

   If rent has not been paid by the close of business on the 3rd day of the month, the tenant is assessed a late fee of 10% of the gross amount of rent due and sent a demand notice to pay rent or surrender the property.

   When collected, 50% of all late fees assessed the tenant are credited to the owner's account.

   When rent remains unpaid after the 3rd of the month, the property manager will mail and, if possible, e-mail to the tenant a 3 Day Notice to Pay Rent or Surrender the Property. In addition, the property manager will attempt to make phone contact with the tenant and, should that attempt be unsuccessful, the property manager will post a copy of the demand notice on the front door of the property.

   If the tenant has not paid rent by the deadline noted in the demand notice, Advantage Pointe Properties will take legal action to evict the tenant, whether or not the tenant has made payment arrangements acceptable to the owner and Advantage Pointe Properties. The cost of such action (approximately $100) is paid from the owner's account, but charged to the tenant's account. As a court hearing is rarely scheduled any sooner than 10 to 15 days after such action is taken, the tenant has more than sufficient time to pay the rent.

   An Advantage Pointe Properties property manager will represent the owner at the court hearing and, if rent is not paid at the hearing or acceptable arrangements are not made to do so, the property manager will ask the court to grant a Writ of Restitution. The writ is usually effective within 3 to 7 days of the date of the hearing.

   If on the effective date of the writ, the rent still remains unpaid or the tenant has not voluntarily surrendered the property, the property manager will engage the services of the county sheriff to evict the tenant.

   Advantage Pointe Properties informs and consults with the owner at every step of the eviction process.
   
   Advantage Pointe: Advantage Pointe Properties takes rent collection seriously. If you are not paid, we are not paid.

   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


8. When are funds due the owner from collected rents disbursed?
   
   By law, Advantage Pointe Properties cannot send funds due the owner from collected rents until sufficient funds are available in the owner's account to do so. Therefore, we must allow seven calendar days for deposit of rent checks to clear the appropriate financial institutions. To do otherwise would risk a negative balance in the owner's account and being in violation of the law.

   Note that the timing of the deposit of a rent check will impact the date on which an owner's funds are sent.

   For example, if the rent is paid late in the afternoon on Friday and Friday happens to be the 3rd of the month, the deposit will not be made until the following Monday, which would be the 6th of the month. Allowing seven calendar days from the date of deposit for the rent check to clear all appropriate financial institutions means that the owner's disbursement would not be processed until Tuesday the 14th of the month.

   On the other hand, if rent is paid on a Monday morning and that happens to the the 1st of the month, the rent check will be deposited that day and the owner's disbursement will be processed on Tuesday the 9th of the month.

   Other factors that may impact the processing of the owner's disbursement are unexpected office closings and holidays, which may delay the processing of disbursements, and tenants who pay their rent before the 1st of the month, which will result in processing owner disbursements sooner than might otherwise be expected.
   

   Advantage Pointe: Advantage Pointe Properties uses a state-of-the-art, web-based property management application. All owners having Internet access and an e-mail address are provided access to this application through an owner specific Internet portal.

   Via this portal, owners will know when rent was paid and, based on the above waiting period, have a reasonably good idea of when to expect their funds.

   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


9. How are emergency maintenance requests handled?
   
   Advantage Pointe Properties maintains a 24 Hour Emergency Maintenance Hot Line.

   Advantage Pointe: Our owners never receive maintenance calls from tenants at 2 o'clock in the morning.

   Additionally, as our primary telephone number rings through to the hot line number after hours, your neighbors can easily report an emergency at the property, as well.  
   
   [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
   


10. How are normal maintenance and repairs handled?
    
    Though a tenant may call Advantage Pointe Properties with a maintenance or repair request, we require that any and all such requests be submitted in writing, as well. This requirement protects the owner, the tenant and Advantage Pointe Properties should any maintenance or repair request not be addressed in a timely manner.

    The tenant may fax, mail, e-mail or personally deliver any maintenance or repair request. However, due to timing issues, we strongly discourage the mailing of these requests.
    
    Advantage Pointe: Except in the case of an Emergency, the owner will be consulted prior to the authorization by Advantage Pointe Properties of any maintenance or repair work order having an estimated cost in excess of $150 or when the total of all maintenance and repair costs over the past 30 days for any one property is over $150.

    Advantage Pointe: If an owner has two or more properties under Advantage Pointe Properties management, the owner will be consulted when the total of all maintenance and repair costs over the past 30 days exceeds $250.

    In the case of an emergency repair, the owner will be notified as soon after the work was authorized as possible.
    
    Advantage Pointe: Advantage Pointe Properties maintains a relationship with a wide variety of vendors providing maintenance and repair services. These vendors are selected based on their quality of work, competitive pricing, timeliness of response and willingness to stand behind their work. As a result, Advantage Pointe Properties has the ability to assign work orders in a timely and cost efficient manner.

    Advantage Pointe: When possible and more expedient or less costly to do so than to engage the services of one of our vendors, Advantage Pointe Properties personnel will address the maintenance or repair issue.
    [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
    


11. What happens if the tenant leaves before the end of the lease?
    
    Though not a common occurrence, tenants, occasionally and for any number of reasons, will break their lease.

    With one exception, when a tenant breaks their lease, Advantage Pointe Properties will hold them responsible for the payment of rent, utilities and grounds maintenance until the earlier of the following occurrences:

    1. Two months from the end of the rental period through which rent was last paid; or
    2. The rental property is re-rented; or
    3. The normal expiration date of the tenant's lease.

    In addition, the tenant will be charged an early termination fee of $500 and held responsible for any out-of-cycle expenses such as advertising and the re-keying of the property.

    Though Advantage Pointe Properties must make a reasonable attempt to re-rent the property at the monthly rent being paid by the out-going tenant, in the event the rental property is re-rented before one of the above deadlines and at a monthly rent less than that being paid by the out-going tenant, the out-going tenant will be held responsible for the difference in rent through what would have been the expiration date of their lease.
    
    If the tenant is subject to the "Servicemembers Civil Relief Act" (Military Clause), they may, without penalty, terminate their rental agreement effective the last day of the rental period following the rental period in which the notice to vacate was given. The service member must have been involuntarily deployed or re-deployed to a duty station outside a fifty (50) radius of the location of the rental property.
    
    Note that, to legally hold the tenant responsible for any of the above, the property must remain on the market as being available for rent.
    
    Advantage Pointe: While losing a tenant is never an advantage, Advantage Pointe Properties will credit the owner's account with 50% of the early termination fee when collected.
    
    [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
    


12. May I list my property as being for sale and for rent simultaneously?
    
    Yes, you may have your property available for purchase and for rent at the same time. It is simply a matter of whichever happens first.
    
    However, if a tenant is placed in the home, Advantage Pointe Properties requires that any signage and agent lock boxes be removed from the property prior to possession of the home by the tenant.
    
    We recommend that you continue marketing the property as being for sale, but suggest the listing type be changed to "Income Property."
    
    Advantage Pointe: The main objective of Advantage Pointe Properties is to provide our clients with services that are second to none. The manner in which we provide our services will always be in line with the primary objectives of our clients.
    
    [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
    


13. May I list my property as being for sale even when it is rented?
    
    Yes, you may list your property as being for sale even when it is rented.
    
    However, Advantage Pointe Properties does not allow the placement of any signage to that affect or agent lock boxes on the property while it is occupied by a tennant.
    
    We recommend, when a tenant occupied home is listed as being for sale, the listing type be "Income Property."
    
    When listing a tenant occupied property as being for sale, the home may not be shown to prospective buyers without, first, providing the tenant with a written 24 Hour Notice of Intent to Enter. It is important to note that the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act of the State of New Mexico has no allowance for the waiver of this requirement by anyone, including the tenant.
    
    Also, under the laws of the State of New Mexico, the tenant has rights to the property through the expiration date of the rental agreement. Therefore, if the home is sold while a rental agreement is in-force, the tenant must be allowed to remain in the property for the duration of the rental agreement or the owner or buyer will need to negotiate a buy-out of the rental agreement.
    
    Advantage Pointe: The main objective of Advantage Pointe Properties is to provide our clients with services that are second to none. The manner in which we provide our services will always be in line with the primary objectives of our clients.
    
    [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]
    


14. What is the meaning of "Advantage Pointe?"
    
    "Advantage Point" is a term used in the sport of tennis.

    As you may know, tennis is a sport made up of games, sets and matches. To win a set, a player must win a certain number of games. Winning a certain number of sets results in winning the tennis match.

    When playing a tennis game, players are said to be at 'Deuce' when tied at 40 points. The player winning the next point is said to be at 'Advantage Point' and winning the next point will result in winning the game.

    As you may well imagine, in the "game" of real estate, sellers, buyers, rental property owners and prospective tenants often find themselves at 'Deuce.'
    
    The property management services offered by Advantage Pointe Properties puts our clients and customers at "Advantage Point(e)" and, working together, we will win the game!

    Advantage Pointe: We're all winners!

    [ Top of Owner FAQ's ]

All rights reserved © 2009-2010 - Advantage Pointe Properties

Richard L. Small, Qualifying Broker/Owner

Leticia Mendoza, Associate Broker