Managing multi-residential apartment buildings in San Francisco is complicated. The city has a lot of very unique rent control laws and tenants have a lot of rights. Landlords have rights too, and it’s important to know what you’re doing in order to protect those rights. It’s critical that you make yourself familiar with rent control laws and other regulations that pertain to your property otherwise you will unknowingly give away some of those rights.
The rent control ordinance essentially comes down to limiting the amount you can raise a tenant’s monthly rent. You also have limitations on how you can evict tenants. This means that chances are good you will have whatever low paying rent-controlled tenants you currently have for a very long time. At Gordon Property Management, we believe there is no point in having an adversarial relationship with those tenants. It’s not their fault they are only paying $800 per month in a property that could probably earn much more. Those are the rules, and we work really hard to be fair and consistent with all our tenants.
Our property management company has implemented policies and procedures that ensure we treat all of our tenants the same way, whether they are paying that $800 per month or market rental rates. When your tenants have a maintenance request, it’s very important to fix whatever is broken right away. It doesn’t cost any more to do it today instead of next week. Maintaining a relationship with all your tenants requires you to be attentive and responsive and take care of repairs in a timely manner.
This does not mean that your tenants should get whatever they want all the time. It just means that good property management includes good working relationships. In San Francisco, we are fortunate that our vacant units are getting extremely high rents. Those tenants moving in and paying high rents are also arriving with very high expectations. One thing they expect is the ability to pay rent online. Do things electronically if you can.
San Francisco property management can be complicated. There are great rents, but you have to know what you are doing and you have to be responsive to all tenants. If you have an apartment building in San Francisco, please contact us at Gordon Property Management, and we’d be happy to help you navigate the local rental market.
