Today we are talking about how a property manager should be handling your finances for your rental property. The law and proper procedure say that every property manager should keep a brokerage trust account. This will keep the money separate; your money will not mingle with what is in the brokerage account. At any time, the amount of money you have available for your client and the amount of money reflected on the bank statement should be the same. The Department of Real Estate instructs property managers to balance that account to the penny, and that is what every good property manager and broker does.

You want your property manager to properly collect rent and disperse your income. In today’s market, there is no reason to hold on to the rent for a very long time before dispersing it. At Aborn Properties, we try to get the money that is collected dispersed within three business days. As a landlord, you also want to make sure you get a monthly report of every penny that is spent on your property as well as every penny that is earned.

A good property manager will have a modern financial system in place to manage your finances. At Aborn Properties, we have ACH so we can deposit directly into your bank account. No checks are needed. We find this works best for our landlords because there is no delay in the mail and checks cannot get lost in the mail. Everything goes directly into your account. We also have our tenants pay their rent electronically. In fact, we do not accept personal checks as payment. We want to get that money moved quickly from the tenant to our landlords, so we eliminate the delays that can occur when checks are written and deposited. Everything should be electronic now.

If you have any questions about how you can expect your money to be handled when you hire a property manager, please contact us at Aborn Properties. We would be happy to talk more about it.