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Between marketing vacancies, screening applicants, collecting rent, and coordinating middle-of-the-night maintenance calls, self-management is entirely possible, and many owners choose this path. While DIY management will save on upfront fees, partnering with a professional property manager brings value in many different areas. Through proven operational systems, local real estate market expertise, and rigorous risk protection, a property manager’s sucesss is is strongly correlated not with what they can do, but what they can prevent. Through protecting your asset, minimizing vacancies, and reducing costs through negotiated rates with vendors, chosing the path of self-management can end up being a lot more costly.   1. Marketing, Property Preparation & Local Pricing Expertise   Hyper-Local Market Pricing: Utilizing deep local expertise, real-time MLS data, and comparative market analysis to price your property accurately, balancing maximum rental income with minimal vacancy time. Quick Property Turnovers: Coordinating multiple vendors alongside their in-house maintenance team is a skill and property managers have processes in place to get these units ready to be rented fast. Reduce Turnover Costs: Property Managers often have their own in-house Maintenance team that is billed at a much lower hourly rate, with much lower minimums per call. In addition to their discounted maintenance teams, they often have negotiated rates and no job minimums with local vendors. Aggressive Marketing: Property Manager’s don’t just market your property on one market place like Zillow, they syndicate their listing to multiple platforms. At ECR Property Management, your property appears on over 20 different websites. 2. Tenant Screening & Selection   Rigorous Background Verification & Technology: Property Managers have seen it all, and have the technology in place to avoid placing the wrong tenant. With comprehensive multi-point screening covering credit history, criminal background checks, eviction records, reference checks, income verification, and employment, reducing the risk of placing the wrong tenant due to fraud. Legal Compliance & Fair Housing: Strict adherence to federal, state, and local Fair Housing laws to ensure selection criteria are applied uniformly, protecting owners from discrimination lawsuits. 3. Lease Execution & Legal Protection   Ironclad Lease Agreements: Professionally drafted, locally compliant lease contracts that protect the owner’s interests, cover specific property quirks, and include robust default terms. Deposit & Financial Compliance: Proper handling, trust-account management, and legal accounting of security deposits in accordance with MN state law. Onboarding & Expectation Setting: Professional move-in orientation detailing maintenance responsibilities, payment portals, and community rules to set a positive tone from day one. Property Condition Documentation: Holding tenants responsible for damages during their tenancy starts with having the processes in place to properly document the condition of the property at move-in. 4. Rent Collection & Financial Accounting   Streamlined Online Portals: 24/7 tenant payment portals that encourage prompt digital rent payments and drastically reduce late-pay rates. Enforced Collections: Systematic and immediate follow-ups on delinquent payments, coupled with standardized late-fee enforcement, legal notices when necessary, and the experience of processing evictions. Transparent Reporting & Tax Prep: Detailed monthly income/expense statements and year-end summaries accessible via digital owner portals, making tax preparation seamless. 5. Asset Protection, Systems & Maintenance   Systematized Asset Protection: Robust operational systems such as standardized digital maintenance workflows, automated vendor dispatching, and structured property audits 24/7 Emergency Maintenance: Round-the-clock availability for midnight plumbing emergencies or HVAC failures, shielding owners from middle-of-the-night disruption and protecting the physical structure from extensive damage. Preventative Maintenance Frameworks: Proactive, scheduled upkeep frameworks (including seasonal winterization, gutter cleaning, and recurring filter changes) that catch small issues before they snowball into expensive capital repairs. Property Condition & Documentation: Detailed documentation and processes in place to lawfully and fairly hold tenants responsible for damage to the property during their lease. 6. Tenant Relations & Retention   Professional Buffer: Acting as the neutral third-party buffer between owner and tenant to handle complaints, negotiations, and delicate conversations. Higher Renewal Rates: Proactive lease renewal strategies, routine check-ins, and responsive customer service that keep high-quality tenants happy and reduce costly turnover. 7. Legal Compliance & Risk Mitigation   Regulatory Expertise: Deep, up-to-date knowledge of local landlord-tenant laws, municipal rental licensing requirements (such as local housing inspections), and safety codes. Smooth Eviction Management: Expert navigation of the legal eviction process from notice to writ of restitution, minimizing legal delays and financial exposure. Define Boundries: Property managers clearly define from the beginning the division of responsibilities by specifying exactly what falls under owner/management scope (e.g., structural repairs, major system maintenance, and building code compliance) versus tenant duties (lawn care, gutter cleaning, snow removal) etc. This protects the owner from liability while creating a more positive tenant experience. Property Management with an owner mindset Managing Your Rental Like We Manage Ours As property owners ourselves, we understand the misaligned incentives that can exist between property owners and property managers. So we built this business around making sure it’s in our best interest, to do what’s in yours. Google rating 5.0 Free Rental Analysis Ready for a quote that actually fits your property? Fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.  Contact Us

When a property owner sees a tenant placement fee, it can be easy to think, “How much work can it really be to find a tenant?” From the outside, the process can appear simple: advertise the property, show it to a few people, choose an applicant and sign a lease. It’s not simply showing it to a couple of prospective tenants and then sending a lease to sign. In reality, placing a tenant involves a series of separate steps, many of which happen behind the scenes and add up quickly. The following breaks down what typically happens from the moment a management agreement is signed through the day the new tenant receives the keys, and the time it takes a Property Manager to fill your property. 1. Onboarding a new Property and new Owner Before anything can be done to list the property, The first step is getting the property and owner properly set up. Executing a management agreement Gathering ownership and contact information, property details, insurance information, keys and access instructions, and utility information, all of which are unique to reach property Documenting all the documents that were gathered into their property management software like Buildium, Yardi, or Appfolio When the property manager is responsible for the intake, tracking, document review, and follow-up this adds a significant amount of time. All complicated by the fact that each property and owner is unique. There are very few standards in real estate. Typical property-manager time: approximately 6-8 hours. 2. Perform a Market Analysis Before putting a rental on the market, the manager needs to determine what the property should actually rent for.  A proper analysis considers comparable properties, location, bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, condition, amenities, parking, pet policies, current inventory, days on market and whether competing.  Typical property-manager time: approximately 1-1.5 hours. 3. Coordinate Make-Ready Repairs This can vary drastically by each property. The manager has to inspect the property, create a punch list, determine which items are necessary versus optional, obtain estimates, communicate the recommendations to the owner, obtain approval, schedule vendors, coordinate the order of the work and perform a final quality-control inspection. While the property manager isn’t the one doing the work, managing all these moving parts is a time-consuming process, even for the most seasoned property managers. Once the work is completed, the manager still needs to do a final inspection and document the repairs. Finally, after everything is good to go, the manager needs to complete the proper accounting of these repairs and get vendors paid. Current industry benchmarks generally put a standard make-ready at roughly 3–7 calendar days, with properties needing more extensive work done can take a while. Typical property-manager time: approximately 2-4 hours. 4. Photograph and Listing the Rental Property To get the property ready to list there is a new things that need to happen. When onboarding a new client, they often don’t have access to photos, so this needs to be done.  A manager to travel out to the property and take photos can expect to spend 1-2 hours. If the manager decides to edit these photos, this can add additional time. Once the photos are taken then it’s time to list the property. Next is listing the property. Every property needs a description, photographs, availability dates, lease terms, pet and utility policies, application requirements. This could add another 1-2 hours of time for the manager. Typical property-manager time: approximately 2-4 hours. 5. Manage Leads and Prospective Tenants Once the property is advertised, the manager’s job changes from preparing the property to managing a pipeline of potential tenants. This means monitoring inquiries from rental websites, email and phone, answering questions, providing information about rent and requirements, pre-qualifying prospects, and answering questions. To maximize exposure for the property, this process is often managed across multiple websites like Zillow & Redfin Typical property-manager time: approximately 1-3 hours. Although high lead volume of leads can make this substantially higher. 6. Schedule and Perform Showings Every showing requires more than the few minutes spent walking through the property. In fact, the actual showing of the property is the quickest part, with the average showing taking 10-15 minutes. But when you start to add up all the other activities that account for the total time it adds up quick But there are a lot more activities associated with just walking the property. Coordinating and confirming a mutally convenient time to show the property + .5 hour Travel time and waiting at the property + 1 hour Following up and additional questions + .5 hour On average, a home will have 3-4 showings before a lease is signed. This doesn’t factor in the time spent by leasing agents in the event of a tenant no show. Typical property-manager time: approximately 2-8 hours. 7. Screen Prospective Tenants Tenant screening is one of the areas where the manager’s work carries a significant amount of responsibility, while also opening up the liability of risk if laws aren’t followed like Fair Housing & FCRA. Once an applicant submits an application, the manager may need to review the application for completeness, verify income and employment, review rental history, order and evaluate credit and background reports, verify identity, contact references where appropriate and apply the property’s written qualification criteria consistently. With some managers being more manual while others more automated. Typical property-manager time: approximately 15 minutes-2 hours   8. Execute the Lease Agreement Once an applicant has been approved, the property manager still has to turn the approval into a signed lease. This generally means preparing the lease, entering the correct tenant names, rent amount, security deposit, lease dates, utility responsibilities, pet terms and other property-specific provisions, attaching required addenda and disclosures, reviewing the document for accuracy, sending it for signature, tracking outstanding signatures and confirming receipt of the required move-in funds. A standardized lease makes this process more efficient, but it does not eliminate the need to check that the agreement accurately reflects the specific property and tenancy. Typical property-manager

Ever considered managing your property yourself vs hiring a property management company? For the DIY-er property owner looking to manage their own rental property, and wondering where to start, this guide will give you the basic understanding oh how to rent our your house in Minneapolis. In this article we’ll guide you through how to perform a market analysis to accurately price your property, what steps you need to take to get your property ready to rent, how to execute a lease, and what the day to day management looks like, and provide some additional tips so you can set yourself up for success. Step 1: Confirm Your Property Is Eligible to Be Rented Before doing anything, verify that your property can legally be rented. Zoning: Nearly all single-family homes are eligible to be rented within Minneapolis. But if you are looking at Short Term/AirBNB Style of rental, Minneapolis law limits one of these type of rentals per owner. HOA rules: This is the most frequent reason homeowners are not able to convert their property to a rental. Some HOA’s prohibit rentals in their community. To make sure you’re eligible to rent, reach out to your Association Manager or review the HOA’s bylaws Now that you’ve confirmed you’re able to rent out your property, lets detail what you need to know. Step 2: Obtain a Minneapolis Rental License Before renting out your property, it’s important to get the correct licensing in place. Minneapolis requires all rentals have a rental license. Apply for a license through the City of Minneapolis Regulatory Services Department. You can access the form here. A temporary license is issued after applying. Schedule the property inspection & complete all the updates/repairs the Inspector identifies Renew your license annually by March 1st. If you complete the city-hosted workshop for Rental Property Owners, you are eligible to save $250 on the conversion fee for a new rental license. Step 3: Prepare the Property for Rent Getting ready to rent out your property is important for a few reasons. First – the condition of the property directly effects the marketability of the property. Properties in better condition with more modern updates can charge more. Secondly, your setting a benchmark on what the expectation on how the property needs to look when it’s vacated the Tenant. And finally, everyone deserves a clean, well-maintained property they can call home. To get your property ready, consider: Deep clean –  the property thoroughly – rugs, walls, appliances, bathrooms fixtures, appliances, baseboards and windows. Make necessary repairs – everything should be in working condition when tenants move in Cosmetic updates – like painting may be necessary if there is significant ware & tare. Each situation is unique, and each process around getting a property “rent-ready” is different. But a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself what your expectations would be as a Tenant moving into a new property. Step 4: Determine Rent Price and other Rental Requirements Now that you’ve gotten your property ready to rent, it’s time to crunch some numbers. Understand your fixed costs – while financial goals may differ between owners & investors, where one wants a certain ROI, while another just wants to cover costs because they are moving out of town for a bit but plan on moving back. It’s important to set the groundwork by calculating your Principal, Interest, Tax, & Insurance. Additionally budget for maintenance & vacancies. Determine what the Tenant is responsible for – decide who is paying water, sewer, electric, gas, trash, internet, lawn care, snow removal, etc. Complete a Market Analysis – compare your property to similar properties on Zillow’s “Rent Zestimate”. It’s a great starting point to point. Understand the market trends– Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs tend to be seasonal. Busy during the summer months, and slow during winter. By marketing your property during the summer months you’re typically able to fill vacancies quicker and charge a higher rent. *Source Housing Links Rental Anaylsis  When determining the price, don’t overlook the cost of vacancies. If you’re charging a premium compared to similar properties, it will take longer to rent. Step 5: Create a Strong Rental Listing As renters shift rental evaluation online, it’s critical to create a strong listing to help reduce turnover and vacancies and for you to maximize your rental potential. High-quality photos – take photos in well lit rooms and position the photos so they tell a story. Tenants should be able to understand the floor plan just by looking at photos Consider Video – Photos are great, but if done right videos can be even better. Consider creating a “walk-through” video of the property. List Property Details – like square feet, bedroom and bathroom count, heating/AC type, parking, pets, and other amenities. Lease Terms – detail what lease terms you’re offering, who is covering what utilities Tenant / screening criteria -3x income, credit score, criminal background etc Monthly rent – what is the total rent amount and highlight any other fees Contact Details – how to contact you with questions and ways to schedule a tour. Showing and marketing your property is extremely time consuming, so the more information you provide, the better time spent when it comes to asking questions and doing walk-throughs. Step 6: Screen Tenants Thoroughly and Fairly Tenant screening is one of the most important steps when renting out your house in Minneapolis, and also the riskiest. Not understanding Fair Housing and local laws is the easiest way to put yourself at risk of a lawsuit. Minneapolis approved screening criteria – Minneapolis you are going to follow. Either Inclusive Screening Criteria or the Individual Assesment Option. National Laws – familiarize yourself with and clearly understand Fair Housing and FCRA Rules Establish Background Criteria – what are your minimum requirements for income, credit, background, etc. Make sure the criteria you set is fairly applied to every applicant. Now that you’ve got the groundwork in place, it’s time to perform a background check. Determine How you’ll Perform the Background –  decide on whether you want to do it yourself, outsource

Understanding the Basics of Property Managers Fees If you own a residential property in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul metro area and are looking to hire a Property Manager to rent it out for the first time, the first question is often “How much does Property Management cost?”. But if you’ve ever hired a Property Manager before, you know the number they quoted you at the start looks nothing like what appears on your year-end statement.  So before deciding if hiring a company to manage your rental property makes sense, it’s important to understand the total cost. In this article we’ll calculate the true total cost of hiring a Property Manager by breaking down all the different types of fees they charge, , what those fees cover, and the average price range for those fees. The Different Types of Fees Property Managers Charge The Property Management industry in the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Metro has largely adopted the same pricing model. Which can be described and categorized as the Management Fees (base) & Add-on Fees (ancillary). Category of Fees Management Fees (base)  – these are the fees that are often marketed to you, like the Tenant Placement Fee & Monthly Management Fee Add-on Fees (ancillary) – these are the fees that are less discussed like maintenance surcharges, lease renewal fee, eviction handling, and property inspections.  To help you understand the total cost of Property Management, let’s break down the different fees in each category. Common Fees: The Universal Property Management Fees Nearly every Property Manager in the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Metro will have these two Base Fees as a part of their pricing. Univerval Property Management Fees Tenant Placement Fee Monthly Management Fee Let’s detail what these cover and break down the typical pricing range. Tenant Placement Fees What this fee covers: marketing, photos, communicating with prospective tenants, scheduling and completing showings, answering questions, completing background checks, and executing a lease. Some companies offer Tenant Placement as a standalone offering.  Monthly Management Fee What this fee covers: What’s covered in this fee can vary drastically by each Property Management Company. It’s safe to assume, the lower the monthly Management Fee, the less they’ll cover. But for the typical Property Manager, this fee covers the basic day-to-day operations of the property like collecting rent and communicating with the Tenant.  Add-on & Ancillary Fees and Surcharges: The Hidden Profit Killers Ancillary Fees are the most important type of fee to consider when calculating the cost of Property Management and are often overlooked by owners because they are less predictable. Here are the most common types of extra fees Property Managers charge owners in addition to the Management Fee. Maintenance Markup Fees & Surcharges Fee Overview: This fee is added on top of the vendors invoice. For a $1,0000 repair, you can expect to pay an additional $100-$200 in fees to the Management Company to compensate them for their time in coordinating the repair with the vendor, and communicating with the Tenant.  Lease Renewal Fees Fee Overview: If the Tenant decided to renew the lease, the Property Manager would charge this fee. This fee covers analyzing current market rents, tenant communication, negotiations, and executing a lease new lease. Administrative Onboarding Fee Fee Overview: Often a one-time upfront fee charged the the Property Manager when onboarding a new client or property. This fee covers the administrative legwork it takes to onboard a new property for activities such as document verification, notifying tenants about management changes, and uploading property and owner information into their system. Eviction Handling Fees Fee Overview: In the event an eviction is necessary, this fee is billed to the owner to cover the Property Managers time during the eviction process. This does not include additional attorney or court filing fees. Property Inspection Fee Fee Overview: Most Management Companies don’t include inspections of the property during the Tenant’s stay. If you want a mid-lease inspection to be completed, they will charge this fee to go out and inspect the property. Less Common Property Management Fees & Surcharges In addition to the fees we just covered, these fees are adopted at a less often but still very common in Single Family Residential Property Management. Administrative Fee A general monthly surcharge for basic office overhead and document storage. Technology Fee A monthly cost for access to online portals and digital reporting software. Material Markup A surcharge added to the cost of basic supplies like paint, filters, or light bulbs. Document Fee Typically covers specialized reporting, such as the Certificate of Rent Paid (CRP) in Minnesota, and monthly statements. Pet Administrative Fee A fee charged to manage the additional risks and inspections required for households with animals. Vacancy Fee A type of fee charged to manage vacant properties. Implicit vs Explicit Costs : What You Pay in Fees vs. What it Actually Costs You Lost revenue and avoidable expenses have an equal impact to your profitability as fees paid to the Property Manager. So, if you’re only calculating the fees to determine the total cost of hiring a Property Manager, then you’re missing half the equation. The Two Types of Costs Explicit Costs – direct fees that show on your monthly statement Implicit Costs – in your year-end profit gap  Before running some numbers, let’s further expand on what Explicit and Implicit costs are. Explicit Costs: “The Visible” Fees on Your Monthly Ledger Explicit costs are direct expenses, most often associated with the fees charged by the property manager Examples of Explicit Costs:  Monthly Management Fees: ongoing day-to-day management of the property Tenant Placement Fees: charged to you to find and place a Tenant Maintenance Surcharges: added to vendor invoices Eviction Fee: charged to the owner in the event an eviction is necessary These fees are typically more transparent and often easier to predict. Implicit Costs: The “Invisible” Profit Killers Impacting Your NOI Implicit costs often don’t show up on your statement as a fee, but as increased cost or loss revenue. Examples of Implicit Costs: 

Application Fraud is Growing, Fast Property managers across the country are reporting a sharp increase in fraudulent rental applications. Snappt’s 2024 report found that nearly 6.4% of applications contained some form of income-related fraud in the form of falsified pay stubs, fake employment records, or manipulated bank statements. Image Source What’s causing the increase? Three forces have converged at once: Cost of living crisis putting financial pressure on renters Widely available AI tools that make document forgery accessible to anyone Social platforms like TikTok and Instagram where step-by-step guides on creating fake documents spread freely The result is a surge in convincing fraudulent documents that are harder than ever to spot. Types of Fraud Landlords are Seeing property managers and landlords surveyed, these are the most commonly reported fraud types and how frequently each has been encountere Falsified income documents 0% Misrepresented Application Info 0% Identity Theft 0% Fraudulent Payments 0% What’s concerning is these are crude and lazy forgeries. Many of these documents can include realistic metadata, correct formating from major payroll platforms, and even fake company websites. The Financial Impact 24% of evictions filed over the last 3 years have been tried to fraudulent $4.3M in bad debt written off by the 75 landlords surveyed over a 3 ear period What you can do about it A mindset shift needs to happen. Documents alone can no longer be treated as a source of truth. Protecting yourself and reducing your risk means a combination of fighting technology with technology, and leaning in to the human review. Start by adding an employment verification disclosure to your lease This is an explicit authorization from the tenant for you to confirm wages and employment directly with the employer.   Still require pay stubs, but treat them as one signal — not proof. Verify the employer independently by looking them up yourself and calling directly, not using contact info from the applicant.    Use bank account verification tools like Plaid or Payscore These require applicants to log into their actual bank account, producing a read-only report you can review. Many screening providers like RentPrep have this built in.   Train your staff on what legitimate documents look like. Familiarity with major payroll provider formats and local bank statement layouts makes inconsistencies easier to catch.   Inspect PDF metadata. A legitimate bank statement typically has a “Created” date matching the statement period. If the Author or Producer field shows software like Photoshop or Canva, that’s a serious red flag.   Use document scanning tools like Snappt or Docuverus, which detect invisible pixel alterations and editing layers in uploaded files.   Cross-reference documents. Do pay dates and deposit amounts in the bank statement actually line up with what’s on the pay stub? Discrepancies are often a giveaway.     Final Thoughts Tenant application fraud isn’t going away. If anything, it will continue to increase as AI tools become more sophisticated and accessible. Reducing risk is one of the most important parts about being a landlord, so staying ahead of these trends is critical. If all this seems to daunting, and you’re looking to rent out your single family home or multi-family residential property in the Minneapolis & Saint Paul metro area, consider reaching out. We offer tenant placement services only, and on-going property management solutions and our team & technology are equipped to identify application fraud.           Get In Touch