Houston Multifamily Property Management

• Financing  for landlord major repairs 
• Landlord Insurance Program for Ashoka Lion property management clients. 
• Property Tax Dispute Program with fees lower than other property tax dispute program (35% of tax savings versus 50% at many other consultants for our property management clients

Our Houston property management teams vacant property marketing efforts include:

• Market on the local MLS- our Houston property management teams put the home on the local MLS where it syndicates to several sites 
• Market on Ashoka Lion website: In addition, our property management team also markets our properties available for rent on our website, and our listing syndicates to several rental classified sites. 
• Market listing on Social Media:  In addition to placing rental listing on the MLS,  our Houston property management marketing team will post on social media sites like the Ashoka Lion Facebook page.  We also market on Facebook marketplace our  rental lsiting.
• Direct Marketing to Active Real Estat Agents who do leasing: Our Houston proprrty management team also host a Facebook group for Houston real estate agents who lease homes to promote our rental listing to real estate agents who work in the leasing area of real estate. 

Our Houston multifamily managers understand that our owners expect our Houston rental property management division to help owners find quality tenants and keep the occupancy up for the owner. 

Since 2006, Ashoka Lion has screened tenants for our vacant properties. Over time, our property management teams have realized the need for a strong tenant screening program. Our screening efforts grow and evolves over time as there are increasing incidences of fraudulent applications  across the industry and that our Houston property managers have received over the years. Our Houston property management firm has built a screening program that has 20 steps, and our tenant screening programs goes beyond just running screening reports.  

Our 20 step tenant screening efforts include:

1) Request copies of 2 months paycheck stubs

2) Request copy of current lease

3) Request copy of a identification

4) Compare address on identification to application

5) Compare address on paycheck stubs to address provided in the application

6) Compare address provided by tenant on application to last reported address on credit reports

7)  Compare landlord contact information to lease

8) Verify ownership information for private landlords or contact information for apartment complexes

9) Compare Landlord Contact informaton on application to lease if provided

10) Search public records for criminal, aliases, liens or judgements

11) Verify Current Employment by Contacting Employer

12) Verify Current landlord and prior landlord

by doing landlord information verification

13) Scan Credit Reports for deliquency related to prior utility bills and prior residences 

14) Review if tenant's prior landlords reported payment disputes 

15) Review eviction reports obtained from our property management software

16) Review Criminal reports from screening reports obtained from our property management software

17) Google current employer to confirm address, business name, and other information are accurate and not fraudulently being submitted

18) Verify deposits for self employed, direct deposits for employees by using a bank deposit verification program

19) Manually verify income equals 3x rent as take home pay, check for inaccuracies on submitted paycheck stubs

20) Compare ID address to paycheck stubs, application, and credit reported addresses to determine if there is any discrepencies for resident history

Ashoka Lion Houston has developed a robust tenant compliance program to help weed out tenants who may not take care of the property and also insure with our current tenants that they work to protecting the home.   Our property management company in Houston has developed several programs for our multifamily tenants that includes: 

• Tenant must maintain renters insurance : our property management team follow up with tenants to get updated insurance forms.
• DIY Maintenance Library to encourage tenants to handle minor repairs..

Our multifamily property management team will handle coordinating repairs with vendors to help owners avoid tenant calls on weekends or holiday.  Our voice of IP systems are routed to multiple members of our team in Houston to insure a emergency call is routed to a  Houston property management team member to handle the call.

Our Standard Collection Policy: Tenants are required to pay the rent on the 1st. However, tenants do face difficult times then we have to work with tenants to make payments. This includes text and email.  

Tenant on-time rental payments are being reported to the credit bureaus:  Our property management company is reporting tenant on time rental payments to the credit bureaus to encourage tenants to make their payments on time to help build credit.  Our property management team believes our tenant credit builder will provide positive reinforcement to encourage ont time payments. 

Tenant installment payment loan provider: Tenants can on months where there payment not come in on th 3rd to avoid late payments take an installment loan from a provider to pay rent that  are multifamily team is partnering with (Get Flex). Landlords get paid on the 3rd, but tenants are given flexible terms to repay the provider.  It saves tenants from late fees and collection calls. 

Collection Effort Post Eviction: If a tenant fails to pay and is evicted, then we have collection firm that will pursue collections. If they collect, then they take a percentage of collection. 

Ashoka Lion's property management teams in Houston and Dallas have built excellent bookkeeping and reporting tools for owners. 

1) Tax compliance  for 1099 : Our property management company will provide 1099 for vendors who services the properties. and our property management team  provides a 1099 misc for owner for gross rents collected as per IRS reporting requirements. .

2)  Monthly Reporting Package:  Our property managers provide monthly reporting packages with copies of invoices attached to the monthly reports for landlords to review every month.

3) Monthly Financial Reporting Analysis: Our property management staff will review the reports to discuss your account and review things that happened that month or are pending. 

4) Periodic Reporting from Property Managers: Our Houston property managers to consolidate communication will send a report to owner usually every 2 weeks (on a weekly basis if possible) to discuss key issues. and recap pending items. 

Our Houston property management team perform various property inspections or review and our property managers can share those reports with landlords:

• move in property assessment
• move out property assessment
• Vacant property visits every 2 weeks 

Our Multifamily Property Management company in Houston performs a very thorough tenant move in process: 

• Tenant provide proof of utilties turned on
• Tenants provide proof of renters insurance
• Properties are rekeyed to meet Texas property code requirement
• Move In Photo assessment reports of property condition are taken
• Tenants are required to do a orientation prior to move in where our managers go over the lease and basic information regarding expectations.

Our property management company in Houston works hard to retain good tenants. To help encourage tenants to stay at properties, our property managers have developed a extensive series of benefits for our current tenant who reside at Ashoka Lion properties:

• Online Payment Platform with free ACH
• Tenant property management app available for IOS or Android to help report issues and keep copies of lease and other documents
• Easy to obtain renter's insurance with Roost Insurance from their resident portal
• Tenant Credit Builder program for tenants to pay rent on time (enrollment and additional fees do apply)
• Tenant  Installment Loan for Rent: Tenants can avoid late fees for a monthly fee of $20 and sign up to have their rent paid by a installment loan provider on the 3rd to our property management team and they can avoid late fees and collection efforts with flexible payment terms from the provider. 
• Contactless Move In and Repair Coordination: Tenants who are moving in after 2020 were allowed to use a lockbox. This would give tenant freedom to move in at their convenience and  if a repair happens they can use the lockbox to coordinate with vendors. 
• Free Tenant Utility Concierge: Tenants are provided a utility concierge to help turn on utilities and other services for free by our firm to make their move in process smoother. 

Ashoka Lion property management diligently works to have tenants sign renewals. The idea being it creates a sense of predictability. In addition, the stability for tenants and owners gives tenants chance to update their renters insurance, self guided inspection, maintenance requirement reviews, etc.

Our goal is to renew our commitment to our owners to have high quality tenants for their homes. 

Update: During this uncertain period during COVID 19, our Houston property managers have suspended lease renewal but we are currently evaluating to renewing tenants who are compliant and have solid rental history in 2021. For other tenants we will encourage tenants to keep up with tenant compliance and avoid month to month rate increase. Our multifamily property management firm has decided with the uncertain economic times and legal difficulties of removing tenants during the COVID 19 pandemic that  to protect our landlords that we will be extending our renewals on a limited basis and we will fully reevaluating the policy on June 30, 2021, which is the current date for when the moratorium is set to expire. 

Tenants who move out of our homes will be instructed in advance of the things that need to be done to successfully have their security deposit returned. Our Houston property managers have detailed tenant move out process aimed at making the process smoother for our tenants, property managers, and our landlords. 

• Proper Notice will be required
• Forwarding Address will need to be required
• Compare move in and  any other assessments in advance to compare to the move out inspection.
• Tenant will surrender key with our contactless key return policy.
• A thorough photo assessment of the property will be done that involves 60 to 150 pictures per report. 
• Property managers will review inspections deduct damages from the security deposit. 
• Deposit will be refunded if damages are below the cost of repair or were within our expectations of "normal wear and tear"