Switching property managers: the checklist
Changing property managers is a lot like changing banks: the decision takes a minute and the logistics take a month. Most of the pain comes from things nobody wrote down. Here's the list we'd want in your hands before you give notice — whether you're moving to us or to anyone else.
Before you give notice
- Read your current agreement's termination clause. How much notice is required, whether there's an early-termination fee, and what the fee actually is. (Ours is published on this site: 10% of the rent collected from the tenant through the end of the lease term — and you can read the whole schedule before you sign anything.)
- Check the lease end dates. A switch mid-lease is fine, but you'll want to know whether a renewal or a move-out is coming during the handoff.
- Get the new manager's fee schedule in writing. All of it, including setup, inspections, and any maintenance markup. If they won't put it in front of you, that's an answer too.
What to collect from your current manager
Ask for these in the notice letter itself, so there's a record of the request:
- Signed leases and any addendums, for every unit.
- Tenant ledgers — rent paid, balances owed, late-fee history.
- Security deposit balances, and written confirmation of how and when they'll be transferred. This is the one that goes wrong most often; the deposit belongs to the tenant, and it has to arrive at the new manager with an accounting.
- Tenant contact information and copies of the screening file, if your agreement allows it.
- Maintenance history — work orders, invoices, and anything under warranty.
- Inspection reports, especially the move-in condition report for the current tenant. Without it, a move-out dispute is your word against theirs.
- Keys, garage remotes, and codes — a count of what exists and what's being handed over.
- Owner statements for the year to date, and a final statement after close-out. You'll need them for taxes, and you may receive 1099s from both managers for the same year.
Things that live outside the manager's office
- Utilities. Which accounts are in whose name, especially for anything the manager keeps on during vacancies.
- Insurance. Your landlord policy may list the old manager as an additional insured. Update it.
- Vendors. If a contractor has been the one who knows where the shutoff valve is, get their name.
- Portal access. Download what you want from the old owner portal before your access is turned off. Statements and invoices tend to disappear with the login.
Timing the handoff
Aim to switch effective the first of a month, with the old manager collecting that month's rent one last time or the new one collecting it for the first time — not both. Give the tenant a single, clear letter (ideally signed by both managers) telling them where rent goes, where maintenance requests go, and from what date. Tenants don't mind a change in management. They mind finding out about it from a bounced payment.
What we do on our end
When an owner moves to us, there's no setup fee, and onboarding is the property manager's job, not yours: we request the records above from your previous manager, reconcile the deposit accounting, and send the tenant letter. You review, you sign, and you watch it happen in your Owner Portal. That's the whole point of publishing our pricing — the decision should take a minute, and the logistics shouldn't be yours to carry.