trying to rent out my house, need to find reputable property management company (Raleigh: real estate)

[TigerXJ]

This is not an advertisement.

Like the title says, I'm trying to rent out my townhome in Chapel Hill. From my experience looking for rentals in the town we are moving to, I don't have a lot of trust of these property management companies. A quick google search brings up a bunch of companies with terrible reviews and a few "planted" reviews.

I'm not looking to find a company that will allow tenants to destroy my house, then take their security deposit, and not repair anything.

That said, does anyone have any recommendations on a good company? I'm looking for the renter's side or the owner's side.

For what its worth, this would be geared more towards professional school/grad students or young families/professionals, not college kids.

Thanks!
TigerXJ

[polarbear3]

I would appreciate this information as well. I have a house in Chapel Hill that has been on the market and hasn't sold. I want to look into renting it out and would prefer to use a property management company, but have seen many bad reviews. Any recommendations? Thanks!

[RDUBiker]

From everything I've seen and read, "reputable" and "property management" are oxymorons. I manage mine myself, but it's not something everyone wants to do. I wish you good luck in your search. It's going to be a hard thing to find IMO.

[wyheel]

You might check with established and reputable real estate companies. Some of them do rentals too. At least they have some sort of track record.

We are giving our Brentwood Raleigh home 6 months, then I will be asking the same question, sigh.

[RDUBiker]

The big questions for people who use companies like this is not whether you've had problems or not, but if you did, how were they handled, how much did you pay for repairs or damages, etc.?

That's where the true measure of a rental management company will show itself. If everything goes smoothly, we don't know as much as if something goes wrong with the tenant or property somehow.

I advise anyone trying to find a company or individual to trust with your precious asset to do a thorough amount of research and speak to various clients, both new and old, and ask specifically about how issues like that are handled when they come up. If you want someone to simply collect a rental check and take 8-10% off the top, I'm sure there are lots of choices, but what will that person or company do when the tenant doesn't pay, or the roof leaks, or the neighbors call with complaints, or the city sends a notice of violation for the lawn being too tall, etc.?

[peperoberto]

Our neighborhood has had some pretty good luck with Apple Realty being a property manager. They seem to take care of trouble tenants when contacted. They also seem to keep an eye on their properties.

They're based in Durham, though, so I don't know if the same treatment would happen in CH.