Property Management Made Simple.
  • Salt Lake City

HomeRiver Group® Utah Management Services

COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR RENTAL PROPERTY

Tenant Screening

Perhaps the single most important job of your property manager is finding the right renter for your property. At HomeRiver Group® Utah, we believe everything starts with a fantastic tenant. Unfortunately, many property managers skimp on screening and rely on nothing more than their gut. This strategy can have catastrophic repercussions for your home.

Don't leave your property's health up to chance. Instead, let our team focus on finding qualified renters who will treat your home well, pay their rent on time, and ultimately, leave your home in great shape.

Our screening process includes:

COMPREHENSIVE IDENTITY AND BACKGROUND CHECKS

When we receive a rental application, our first step is reviewing the would-be tenant's identity and history. We perform photo id verification on every applicant over 18, and perform an extensive national and state background check. This background check looks at criminal history and ensures applicants are not sex offenders or on terrorist watch lists.

FINANCIAL VERIFICATION AND QUALIFICATION

Every tenant must meet specific income requirements to be considered for a HomeRiver Group® Utah home. During our screening process, we pull credit reports and verify payment history, look at current account statuses and judgement history, and contact employers to confirm current income information.

RENTAL HISTORY REVIEW

A tenant's past behavior says a lot about how they'll treat your rental property. We confirm rental history for every applicant, check for evictions, and follow up with past landlords for more information. Specifically, we look for payment history details, the state the property was previously left in, and any nuisance complaints filed.

Of course, it's important to closely adhere to the Fair Housing Act, which legally protects tenants against discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, or familial status. Our team adheres to these guidelines fastidiously, while using the other information gathered to make an informed decision on whether or not a renter poses a potential risk.

Property Inspections

It's only natural to worry about the condition of your rental home, but our comprehensive inspection program provides unbeatable peace of mind. Our intensive tenant screening process eliminates many of the damage issues bad tenants create, but we take protecting your investment a step further with routine visits to the home. Over the course of our inspections, we work to identify potential lease violations or damages and take steps to address such problems accordingly.

Learn more about our inspections process:

WE SCHEDULE INSPECTIONS TWICE A YEAR

We conduct an in-person inspection of your rental property twice each year, once in the spring and once in the fall. Our vendors work with the tenants to find a convenient time for the visit. These inspections cost $25 to $55, based on the needs of the property. Speak to one of our property managers to learn more.

If you're interested, we can also complete a full inspection report, complete with photos, upon request. This additional service allows you to gain a clear picture of any problems in the home. If we identify damage, tenants will have three days to resolve the problem or we will schedule a visit from a contractor to take care of the issue.

OUR TEAM REGULARLY PERFORMS "DRIVE BY" INSPECTIONS

On top of our twice annual visits, we also perform regular drive-by inspections of your rental property. Our property managers do this to make sure that the home's exterior remains in good condition and to verify that nothing seems amiss. Should we encounter a problem during one of these casual inspections, we'll schedule a more thorough review with the tenant as quickly as possible.

NEED MORE INSIGHT? SCHEDULE ANOTHER VISIT

In most cases, two inspections each year are more than sufficient. If you have particular concerns about your home, however, we can always work with you to schedule additional visits. If anything goes wrong over the course of the tenancy, we'll also proactively schedule an inspection, simply to ascertain that all is well. These visits may occur when a tenant doesn't pay their rent on time or doesn't respond to communication from our offices. We're constantly working to protect your investment and identify problems before they spiral out of control.

Property Marketing & Advertising

Unlike some property managers that slap up a quick classified ad and call it a day, we don't wait for your rental home to rent itself. Instead, we deploy a number of marketing tools to find the right renter as quickly as possible. The vast majority of clients working with HomeRiver Group® Utah see their vacancy rates decrease. We aim to find a renter for the property in under 30 days.

Remember, we don't make any money on your rental property while it sits vacant. Some property firms charge upfront leasing or setup fees, but you won't pay us a cent until we find someone for the home.

DISCOVER OUR THREE-PRONGED APPROACH

Our approach to property marketing is quite simple. We take three important factors into consideration, guaranteeing the best results for your home:

  • PRICE
  • The right price can make or break your property. We use comparable homes rented recently in our market to make the right pricing decision. We aim to price the home attractively to find tenants quickly, but also work to protect your cash flow and get you the highest rent possible.

  • PRESENTATION
  • We've helped countless property owners to market their homes, and we know what modern renters are seeking. Our team makes recommendations for improving the appeal of your property, and we use feedback from showings to make changes as necessary. Don't go into this fight alone; take the real estate pros with you.

  • PROMOTION
  • Finally, it's impossible to understate the importance of successful promotion. Our team invests wisely in a number of different marketing tools; digital listings, print ads, yard signs, and our unique referral program all help drive traffic to your property. Not only do we publicize vacancies on our website, but we also syndicate across many of the web's most popular real estate destinations, including Zillow, Trulia, and Craigslist.

Maintenance Management

There are no two ways about it: every rental home requires ongoing maintenance service. From plumbing mishaps to electrical issues, appliance failure, and HVAC problems, residential homes encounter all sorts of problems. Responding to these issues quickly keeps tenants satisfied and protects the health of your investment. Unfortunately, many rental homeowners feel overwhelmed by the time and energy maintenance requires of them. This is just one of the many arenas where our talented team at HomeRiver Group® Utah shines.

Discover our approach to ongoing rental property maintenance:

WE ACCEPT DIGITAL MAINTENANCE REQUESTS

In our ever-changing world, tenants want to have the option to quickly contact us when problems arise. Our digital account portals make it easy for our customers to request maintenance assistance. With just a few simple clicks, tenants can fill out the request form, and one of our managers will start working on it momentarily.

Not only is this option convenient for tenants, but it helps us stay efficient and cut the time it takes to respond to maintenance problems. This in turn keeps tenant satisfaction high, reducing turnover rates and maintaining your profitability.

OUR TRUSTED VENDORS KEEP YOUR PROPERTY HEALTHY

Once we receive a repair request, we make contact with one of our trusted vendors. Over the course of our long history, we've built ongoing partnerships with a number of trusted local repairmen and service providers. These contractors ensure the work meets local housing codes and provide the high level of service your tenant demands.

FINANCIAL CONCERNS? WE COORDINATE WITH YOU

We understand that cash flow is an ongoing concern for many real estate investors and property owners, which is why we offer safeguards to keep you protected. Some of our clients want to be notified whenever a maintenance problem occurs, whereas others prefer to approve large repairs only.

Regardless of your unique needs, we'll work with our team to come up with a strategy that fits your home. Furthermore, we receive volume discounts and negotiate priority pricing with our vendor network—these are savings we pass along to you, further protecting your bottom line.

Rent Collection & Payment

As property investors ourselves, we understand the importance of protecting your cash flow. When tenants pay late, it can create a domino effect, causing numerous problems and headaches. For this reason, we enforce very strict collection rules. All payments are due on the first of the month, and 48-hour notice of legal action is served on the 6th.

After collecting your rent payment, we work quickly to disburse your earnings. Learn more about how our collection process works:

WE COLLECT RENT PAYMENTS

HomeRiver Group® Utah tenants have multiple options for paying their rent each month, including digital payments via our account portal. In just a few simple clicks, it's easy for anyone to set up recurring payments. Of course, payments can also be made by check or in person at our offices. If we haven't received a payment by the cut-off date, we will notify the tenant of impending legal action. Assuming no payment is made, a 3-day legal notice will be served, before we proceed with an eviction.

We make no apologies for our strict payment rules. In most cases, if a tenant is allowed to fall a month behind, the pattern will continue indefinitely. We avoid this problem by nipping issues in the bud as soon as they occur, protecting your investment.

YOUR EARNINGS ARRIVE ON TIME

Our accounting team works quickly to process incoming rent payments and resolve outstanding balances on your account. Many of our landlords are located out-of-state, making direct deposit a convenient option for monthly earnings. We can also work out an alternative for those with specific needs.

REVIEW YOUR ACCOUNT AROUND THE CLOCK

Want to keep tabs on your property? In addition to portals for our tenants, we also offer online account access for homeowners. Simply log in to the portal to view a summary of your account, take a look at current statements, or request additional documentation for your property. We also generate regular reports and create yearend tax documents to simplify your reporting obligations.

Eviction Protection

Evictions are no fun, plain and simple. At BMG Rentals, we believe the best approach to evictions is to make certain they never become necessary. We do this by carefully screening every application we receive and only choosing highly qualified tenants for your home. It's in large part thanks to this approach that we've been able to maintain an eviction rate of less than 1%.

Of course, sometimes the worst does come to pass, and we need to help you remove a bad tenant from your property and get the home back on the market. Discover how our eviction process works:

WE IMMEDIATELY DEAL WITH TENANT PROBLEMS

Rent is due on the first of the month and tenants are required to keep their homes in great condition. If a renter doesn't respect either of these rules, we take the necessary measures to rectify the problem. Frequent inspections are designed to identify red flags that could result in an eviction, and late tenants receive follow up calls and legal notices if they don't pay their rent.

We don't let problems spiral massively out of control. Instead, we deal with issues upfront to minimize the headache and potential financial losses associated with a problem tenant.

OUR TEAM HANDLES THE EVICTION PROCESS

We're almost always able to find an amicable solution with our tenants, but if things go completely sideways, your property manager will take care of starting the eviction. We work with an attorney to serve legal notice of impending eviction. We'll also handle everything associated with the turnover, with move-out instructions provided to the tenant.

We aim to get bad tenants out of a home within 30 days. If damages occurred, we'll make deductions from the security deposit as necessary. Any additional costs will be turned over to collections. We understand that extenuating circumstances sometimes occur, but we don't allow any tenant to become a charity case. Instead, BMG focuses on keeping you profitable and making up the loss.

GREAT NEW TENANTS FILL YOUR VACANCY

If we determine that an eviction has become necessary, we'll begin handling the marketing alongside the eviction process. We want to get someone in the home as quickly as possible, which will help ensure you don't lose more money with a vacant home. If we need to repair damages after the departure of the evicted tenant, we will work quickly to set our vendors in action and restore your home to rent-ready condition.