We specialize in residential rental homes in the Chapel Hill, Durham, Cary, Apex, Raleigh, Holly Springs, and the Triangle area of North Carolina. We have properties in all of these cities and more.
Property Management - What We Do As A Team
Service Overview
Who We Are: A dedicated group of property managers and leasing professionals dedicated to 1) maximizing your rental income, 2) minimizing your rental cost 3) proper tenant management, 4) and preservation & protection of your property. We have been in business in the Triangle area for over 20 years and pride ourselves on the fact that we build and maintain lasting relationships with our clients. We currently operate our services in Wake, Orange, Chatham, and Durham Counties. To date, we manage over 150 residential homes and several complexes in the Triangle. We have a proven track record of success and excellence.
Phoenix Property Management offers an additional service for landlords who wish to manage their own property, but need help in finding a tenant. We offer a Landlord Assistance Program under which we can screen potential tenants and give you our professional opinion about prospects for your rental property. Ask anyone in our office for details.
Our properties are primarily single family homes and town homes offered at a wide range of prices from $850 up to $3,500. A selected number of our homes are targeted towards corporate rentals. Some are for short term (12 months) and others may be for several years. Most of our leases are for a minimum of one year, but at the request of the owner we may reduce the lease lengths. Most of our homes come equipped with typical common appliances (refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, washer & dryer). Some have access to pool and tennis facilities where there are neighborhood associations and covenants. Some permit pets; if so, there is a reasonable pet fee and deposit. None of our homes permit smoking, very few will allow smoking on premises.
Most of our rental homes are located in the heart of the Triangle area with easy access to major employers (IBM, GlaxoSmithKliens, Cisco, RTI International, Quintiles, Fidelity Investments, US Environment Protection Agency, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) in Research Triangle Park , Duke University and it's Medical Centers, North Carolina Centennial Campus, UNC Hospital and the University, and NC State University. Visit our Relocation Information link for more information about some of the great amenities our area has to offer.
Our Full Property Management Service Fees:
COMMITMENT FEE: $300. A one-time, non-refundable fee that covers the cost to list and market your property (includes researching to assess optimum rental price for your home, sending our agents to take photos for marketing and for our inventory, planning and scheduling any maintenance needed to get your home ready to rent, and marketing your rental)
FINDERS FEE: Ranges from ½ month rent to 1 full month’s rent depending on the type of service, property, and location of property.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT FEE: 8% - 10%. Depends on how fast we rent the property. We collect no fee until the rent is received
Our Landlord Assistance Program - For owners who only want assistance securing a tenant:
Commitment Fee and 1 month's rent Finders Fee apply
Phoenix does all the marketing work for your property to find the tenant
We screen applicants to find the best tenant for your property (background checks, credit checks, in-person interview)
Provide a standard lease and have the tenant come to our office to sign
| Screening and Acquiring a Qualified Tenant |
Quality homes attract quality tenants. Many of our past tenants are owners themselves. They are usually professionals making a move into the area due to job changes. Many are in the high tech industry working in RTP, as nurses or doctors, faculty members or professors at the Triangle universities, or graduate students. Some are local moves due to job advancements, new additions to the family, or needing a larger place, while others are relocating to the area for work or family. These tenants understand and respect the home they live in. A complementary role to acquiring good tenants involves skill in matching them with the right rental property. Our agents have many years of practice.
Phoenix uses an online applicaiton as the preliminary step in screening potential tenants. With the information we collect from the application, we conduct a thorough screening of the applicant by looking at their credit score, employment history, rental history if applicable, and references. We search criminal and eviction records as well. Once we feel we have collected all the information we need to make an informed decision, we make a recommendation to the homeowner either approving or disapproving the applicant. If an applicant is approved, the next step is to write the lease, which is accompanied by the Phoenix Maintenance Addendum detailing proper care and use of the rental home during the tenant's stay. Leases are prepared and executed based on NC Real Estate Commission guidelines and rules. We have done this for over 20 years.
Please contact our office (919.544.2922) or email us
| Pricing & Positioning Your Home |
Determining the rental value for your home is both a science and an art. While we can determine what other similar rentals have commanded in the recent past, we also balance our projected rental price to market dynamics. Our goal is to price your home at the optimum price point the market can bear with the highest quality tenant we can acquire in a timely manner. These metrics (price, quality tenants, timeliness) are a must if we (you) are to achieve your return on investment in the long run.
In rentals, pricing your home depends on a number of elements 1) availability 2) supply 3) condition 4) location 5) unique attributes - in that order. For a more detailed look at these components, read our article Positioning Your Home. School is an example of an unique attribute. Renters are less concerned about the schools - much less than if they were to buy the house.
We have found that the date of availability of the house is quite important to most renters. The reason is simple: most tenants are moving because they have to. For example, their lease is ending some time soon therefore, they MUST move on or before their lease end date. There usually is little room for flexibility.
Inventory supply in any given area effects everyone. Most amateur landlords leverage price to get their home rented. While this certainly can work, it comes at a risk. We try very hard not to compete on price alone. Location of the property, the condition of the property, and the timeliness of our service (having agents available to show a property on short notice) are all important factors in attracting a qualified tenant. Having a qualified is critically important, as are the terms of the lease. We have encountered many times when a client rents a home from Phoenix at $1,395 while an identical vacant home two houses down is listed for $1,100, so pricing is not as exact or as predictable as you might assume.
Renters love nice homes. They like "good" looking ones - first impressions (appearance of the home) are everything. So keeping the house clean and fresh, having nice kitchen cabinets, shampooed carpets, a new stove or refrigerator, ceiling fans, a well maintained lawn, and other little things go a long way.
Location is surprisingly less important to renters than to buyers. When most potential tenants contact us about a house, they have already looked at the area and have "accepted" it. So selling the area is secondary to what is "in that house". That being said, never underestimate the impact of the surrounding area.
Lastly, unique attributes can sometimes secure a tenant for the house. For example, a client chose a town home over a standalone house because the office room on the first floor was separated from the rest of the house. To this client, this was the feature she did not want to live without. Another example is a client needing a house with a nice, large fenced-in yard. This particular tenant had to have it because he had a golden retriever and having a happy pet is the most important thing in his life, so the house comes in second.
Our market analysis of your rental home takes all these elements - availability, condition, neighborhood, the available rentals (supply), location, and the unique property into consideration. These factors come together to affect your rental price. We will provide you with our recommendation, and together, we can achieve the best rental price for your home.
We no longer require a visit to each property as we have in the past. The sheer volume of information available today from our inventory, local MLS, City records, Real Estate websites, and Google maps enables us to do a lot of the leg work from our office. We do come to your home before we list it to inspect, take our own measurements, pictures, and to prepare the home for rental.
Please contact our office (919.544.2922) or email us
A large portion of our tenants find us through referrals from long-time relationships developed with local real estate agents, insurance agents, contractors, and merchants. Aside from referrals, our rental inquiries come through many online and print advertising channels. We pride ourselves in the variety and quality of venues we utilize when marketing your home. Part of your initial commitment fee goes towards advertising your home through multiple channels - we use everything from our local MLS service to Craigslist to get your home in front of potential renters.
Here are a few of those venues we openly share with you and our competitors. While the list is quite long, we are always in search of new and better approaches as the market evolves. Feel free to drop us a note if you know you have a winner:
Our specific targeted rental home websites:
Phoenix Property website
Triangleplace.com - only advertises homes in the Triangle area.
Triangle Multiple Listing Service - all of our properties are listed in this service, which reaches thousands of local and regional real estate agents.
Newspaper Advertising - News & Observer, Cary News, Durham Herald, Chapel Hill News, Daily Tarheel, NCSU Technician, and other local papers.
Other local and national websites - Raleighrent.com, Caryrent.com, Durhamrent.com, Apexrents.com, ChapelHillrent.com, Rentclick.com, RTPLinks.com on and on.
Local institutions, colleges, campus bulletins and forums at UNC, Duke, NCSU.
Our office networks - office traffics, leads, contacts.
Rental list sharing with other property management offices in the area.
Contacts with local Relocation Specialists and offices. Area real estate agents and relocation specialists rely on Phoenix Property Management as a source for their clients' rental needs. Phoenix Rentals is a recognizable brand. Local folks, such as area real estate agents and general contractors, know Phoenix is the place to go to for quality residential rental homes. This is what keeps our phones busy.
Local Newspaper Advertising
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Below is an additional list of National Websites that Phoenix utlilizes to maximize exposure for our clients:
Please contact our office (919.544.2922) or email us
| The Daily Management - Caring for your Investment |
Managing a property once the tenant has moved in entails two broad areas: ensuring that the tenant is taking good care of the home, and performing timely & preventive repairs.
To ensure that the tenant(s) are performing above their responsibility, we conduct periodic scheduled inspections of all properties, as well as frequent unannounced drive-by inspections. The purpose of inspections is not only to manage the tenant, but also to ensure that needed repairs are addressed and required maintenance is performed on a regular basis. We advise property owners of required repairs and/or improvements as necessary.
When a new tenant moves in, we conduct a move-in inspection to document the state of the property and take pictures for our records. The same procedure is repeated at move-out, and notes about the condition of the property and pictures are compared to the move-in inspection records to ensure that the tenant has left the property is in as good as - if not better - condition than it was in when they moved in.
We offer 24 hour service to our tenants in the case of maintenance emergencies. For any non-emergency maintenance issue, we have tenants submit an online maintenance request so that we have a record of all service requests for each of our properties. We have our own in-house maintenance team that can often diagnose and address any problems that arise, and we have several preferred contractors we can recommend for repairs that require expert attention. This level of service not only ensures proper care of your home, but helps us build a rapport and trust with tenants.
Please contact our office (919.544.2922) or email us
Having reliable tenants is good starting point, but that does not prevent the house from needing ocassional maintenance and repairs. If it is a normal home, it will need attention from time to time. We seek to resolve an issue before it becomes a problem. This means sometimes going ahead of the problem and informing you (the owner) of the possible issue. With this vital information in hand, we believe a sound decision can be made.
In the landlord business, no news is not necessarily good news for us. Look at your own primary home and see the number of issues you might encounter in a year. Wouldn't you expect something similar in a rental? That is why we conduct regular inspections of our rental properties to catch issues as they arise rather than assuming there are no problems. When there are few or no problems with the house, you should count it a blessing, we certainly do. At Phoenix, we expect things to break, toilets to leak, gutters to need cleaning, water heaters to go bad... we don't hope they won't happen - but we plan for them.
Here is how we plan ahead to minimize your cost and address repairs correctly and expeditiously.
- We have the office staff, the handyman crew, access to contractors, and skilled supervisors to ensure that what is needed is done - done right and at the right cost.
- We will let you know of any repairs our staff inspects prior to sending a repairman to the home. We will advise you, the owner, of any major repairs before starting the work.
- We make a distinction between handyman work and contractor work, and we use them according to what the job requires. This cuts cost.
- We make extensive use of digital pictures in our inspections and repairs. Sometimes, a picture explains more than a million words. All of our staff carries a camera whenever they inspect a home. We also ask the repairmen and contactors to take pictures of their repairs to assist us, and so that you can see what is being done.
- We advise on improvements that we think will add value to your property and your rental price.
- In addition to our normal drive-by and inside inspection, every repair is another opportunity for my staff to double inspect the property.
- We supervise all repairs and improvements.
- We expect a discount from market price from our repairman and/or contractors. We have used them and continually monitor the market price. We expect honest opinions and quality work from our contractors.
- We initiate and follow-through on any insurance claims for damage and can work with your home warranty company as well.
- Our possible communication venues are phone, email, instant messenger, Skype, forms, anything you deem necessary.
The contactors we use are those we have come to trust and know they do reliable work. We have built this trust from many years of interactions with them. This is crucial particularly in the HVAC and plumbing fields.
We do more than just manage the repairs of your property. We care for it as if it is our private residence. Most of our homes are in as good as or better condition than its neighbors - outside and inside. This is a good testimony for us and speaks on the owner's behalf. View our portfolio. We work very hard at prevention in comparison to waiting and hoping things won't fall apart. At times, we may decline to manage a property if we view that the owner's philosophy conflicts with ours.
Please contact our office (919.544.2922) or email us
| Monthly Statements & Proceeds |
We use Yardi Property Management & Financial software to manage our properties. Yardi is a national software development house whose software is adopted by small, medium and large management companies. Yardi tracks each account by owner, units, tenants, lease terms, and the rental cycle process from contract to move-in to move-out. Using this data, we are able to offer our owners an online account where they can log-in at any time to see a detailed statement of all funds relating to their property. Below are examples of some of the things we provide to owners on a monthly basis:
- Timely rent collection & disbursement to owner
- Provide owners online monthly cash-flow statement & and direct deposit to owner's account
- Payment of mortgage, utilities bills, HOA fees, insurance, etc. as requested by the property owner out of owner's proceeds (if requested by owner)
- Manage the move-in and move-out process
- Schedule & Coordinate repairs
- Conduct regular property inspections
- Year-end 1099 tax statement.
Our mission is to protect and enhance the value of the owner's investment
