Potential Owner FAQs

We are a full-service property management company, meaning that we do everything.

Everything on the leasing side — which includes photography, listing the property using our specialized listing syndication platform, scheduling tours, talking with prospects, screening applications, drafting and securing the lease, moving the tenant in, move-in/move-out/mid-lease inspections, all the day-to-day stuff.

Vetting, approving, denying work orders, repair and maintenance requests, general inquiries, collecting rent, delinquencies, evictions — everything on the leasing side. Everything day-to-day.

You simply sit back and receive a direct deposit on the 10th with your net income for that month.

For our management fees, there are three different fees that you're going to pay, and you'll see that we have three different pricing plans: Core, Plus, and Whole Nine Yards. The service that you receive is identical regardless of which of those three plans you choose.

You should note that Core is only available for multi-unit buildings. So if you have a fourplex or an eightplex, it's available — but it's not available for other property types.

The management fee is the monthly amount that we will deduct from rent for managing that property for the month. It's a flat rate, and it begins on the day that the first tenant moves in. It does not begin on the day you sign an agreement with us.

The leasing fee is a one-time fee that's charged when we successfully lease the property to a new tenant. We charge that as a percentage of one month's rent, and we take it as a one-time fee from their first month's rent.

The third fee is the lease renewal fee. This is charged when the tenant has completed their lease and wants to stay and sign a new lease. That’s when we’ll charge a fee to draft, negotiate, and secure a new lease with them.

The only other fee that you're going to pay is a small fee for us to prepare and file your 1099-MISC form every January. At the time of recording this video, it's about $9.99, which you pay once a year.

Other than that, it's just maintenance and repairs as needed, billed at cost.

Once your property is vacant, empty of all items, professionally cleaned, in good repair, and ready to go—ready to show—that's what we call rent-ready.

We list the property using a specialized rental syndication platform called Tenant Turner, which integrates with cellular-enabled electronic lockboxes. These allow prospects to register by taking a photo of their driver’s license, which is screened by AI. As long as everything looks kosher, they’re able to visit the property at their convenience—on demand, seven days a week, between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.—to complete a self-tour.

This is widely preferred by today’s renters and generates many, many more tours than the old-school method of coordinating showings with a human agent. That’s a big benefit to our owners.

Obviously, this is not a cheap platform, but the benefit is huge: it results in significantly quicker leasing of the property.

So again, for a property to be rent-ready, it must be:

• Vacant
• Empty of all personal items
• Professionally cleaned
• In good repair
• Ready to list

Once it meets those criteria, we list it. The system then syndicates the listing to all major rental sites in the United States, including Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, Homes.com, and Apartments.com.

Renters prefer to see a property that is empty and vacant. It allows them to do self-tours and removes the awkwardness and psychological discomfort of walking through a property that someone is actively living in. Renters really don’t want to do that in this day and age.

Now, we do have the ability—while you, the owner, are still living in the property prior to your departure—to list and show the property with agents. If, for some reason, the vacancy period between your departure and the first tenant’s move-in is of particular importance to you, we can list the property 30 to 45 days prior to your move-out.

There is some additional expense involved with this option. We charge per tour, and at the time of this recording, that’s around $50 per tour. That rate may increase over time with inflation.

Our leasing fee is intentionally low and does not account for agents traveling to your property repeatedly. We typically set a tour limit, usually around 10 to 12 tours, so it's not an open-ended cost—but there is a bit more expenditure with this approach.

Of course, there’s also the added hassle of you needing to keep the property in show-ready condition while you're in the process of packing, moving, and preparing to vacate.

This method will almost always result in significantly fewer tours, because today’s renters overwhelmingly prefer vacant, self-tour-ready homes over walking through one that’s still occupied.

But again, we do offer this option. Talk to your property manager if it’s something you’d like to consider.

For maintenance and repairs, the first thing that's going to happen is the PM (Property Manager) is going to vet the issue for validity and make sure that it is a legitimate concern that needs to be resolved. It's not just an inconsequential cosmetic issue, but something that truly needs to be addressed.

They’re then going to determine whose responsibility it is. Our lease delineates some reasonable, fair maintenance and repair responsibilities that fall on the tenant’s plate—things like consumables (batteries, filters), and clogs. Most clogs are a tenant responsibility.

However, if they determine that the maintenance or repair is the owner’s responsibility, and we believe we can resolve it for less than $500, they’re going to go ahead and take care of it and get it hired out.

We use a network of third-party vendors that are unaffiliated with us. We do not receive kickbacks. We do not upcharge maintenance—everything is billed at cost.

Inside your owner portal, you'll see interactive financial statements with all income and expenses. For instance, if we had to send a handyman over and it cost $200, you'll see an invoice for $200 attached. That way, you have full transparency and confidence that everything is being billed at cost.

So again, if we believe we can resolve it for less than $500, we’re going to take care of it without bugging you. We’re not going to be calling or emailing you. If it’s going to cost more than that, you’ll be notified about what’s happening.

For example, you might receive a voicemail that says:
“Hey, the water heater ruptured. We’re having to replace it on Thursday. It’s going to cost about X dollars. Let me know if you have any questions.”

Some bigger-ticket items or more complex issues may require some back and forth—a discussion about options or multiple bids. And if you’re already having a conversation with your PM about one of these larger items, and you have a preferred vendor—like an HVAC company or a plumber you’ve worked with before and believe will give you a better deal—then certainly we can use them.

But in general, we’re going to use our vendors. For instance, all that stuff under $500 that we’re not talking to you about—we wouldn’t be able to use specialized vendors for those. We’re going to follow our processes.

However, you will be informed when there's anything larger coming down the line.

Again, those larger expenses are just billed against rent. We're not sending you an invoice to pay. We pay the vendor, and the cost is then deducted from your rent. You receive the net income on the following owner distribution, which is sent on the 10th of every month.

You're going to receive your rent funds every month on the 10th via direct deposit.

You'll also receive a payment confirmation email that shows the amount you’re being paid, along with a separate email containing a PDF copy of the statement that corresponds to the amount you just received.

You can always access your financials through your owner portal, but we also go ahead and send you a PDF copy each month for convenience.

Now, most banks have a two-business-day clearing period. That means if we send the funds on the 10th, they likely won’t appear in your account on the 10th itself, but rather two business days later.

Moving forward is easy—just let us know that you'd like to sign an agreement, and we'll send over our management agreement for electronic signature.

You'll fill it out and sign it right on your computer.

Our agreement is at-will, meaning you can sign it today and cancel it tomorrow—you're locked into absolutely nothing.

Once you sign the agreement, the system will notify us that the document has been completed, and we'll reach out right away with the next steps.

Absolutely. Our agreement is at-will, meaning there is no term contract and no notice period required for cancellation.

So, if you’re not happy with how things are going—or if your circumstances change—you can let us know you're canceling. That can be via phone, text, email, or whatever method you prefer.

Your agreement will be canceled immediately, or as soon as you'd like it to be, and we'll assist you in transferring the property back to self-management or to a different manager of your choice.

We screen tenants by purchasing multiple reports on each applicant.

We purchase a national credit report that not only shows the credit score, but also details all of their current debt and the timeliness of payments on all credit accounts they've ever had.

We also purchase a national criminal background check and a national tenant-landlord court record check, so we know if the applicant has ever been evicted or has had eviction complaints filed against them.

Additionally, we conduct income verification, and the reports include some miscellaneous checks as well—such as a sex offender registry check and red flag indicators for fraud. For example, if a Social Security number doesn’t match other identifying information, that may be flagged as suspicious.

Whole PM is one of the only companies I’m aware of—and potentially the only one in the state of Colorado—that offers monetary guarantees for tenants. We provide guarantees against:

• Pet damage
• Eviction costs

This means that we pay for those things, not you.

It's our way of putting our money where our mouth is when we say we conduct thorough tenant screening.

You can rest easy knowing that Whole PM conducts thorough tenant screening and provides protections you won’t find anywhere else—including a rent guarantee, property damage guarantee, and eviction cost guarantee. You have multiple layers of protection, starting with the way our lease is written.

That lease reflects many lessons learned over the years, making it a very comprehensive and well-written document.

We always collect a security deposit, typically equal to one month’s rent—though it can be more if a pet is present. And then, on top of that, you have our monetary guarantees.

Of course, an inevitable part of being a rental property owner is that you can never fully eliminate the risk of property damage—it’s simply not possible, and we all understand that. But when you work with Whole PM, you gain additional layers of protection, along with a highly experienced team that’s skilled in tenant selection, tenant management, and property management overall.

Lawn care and snow removal are the tenant’s responsibility, and this is clearly outlined in our lease so that expectations are well defined.

Tenants are responsible for:

• Mowing
• Trimming
• Keeping the property free of debris and weeds
• Maintaining overall curb appeal

If the property is located in an HOA with standards for lawn appearance, meeting those standards is also the tenant's responsibility. This is stated in the lease, and tenants are required to ensure the lawn complies with all HOA criteria. If a fine is issued by the HOA for non-compliance, it is passed along to the tenant.

Snow removal works the same way—unless the property is part of an HOA where lawn care and snow removal are included. If that’s the case, it will be clearly stated in your management agreement, and naturally, the tenant would not be responsible for those tasks.

Security deposit funds are also applicable to lawn care. If a tenant moves out and the lawn or exterior of the property is not in acceptable condition, we will use their security deposit to restore the property to its original state—looking clean, well-maintained, and ready to show and re-market.

Absolutely—about half of our properties are in HOAs, so we're very experienced in working with them. It's very common, and we’re well-versed in managing within HOA guidelines.

A good practice is to let your HOA know that Whole Property Management is now managing your property or unit. That way, they can send any notices of violations directly to us, and we can follow up directly with the tenant.

If any fines are issued due to a failure to meet HOA rules, those fines are passed along to the tenant. This is clearly outlined in our lease in detail.

You only need a rental license if your property is located within the City and County of Denver.

If you don’t have the license at the time you sign up, you’ll indicate that in your management agreement; there’s a specific question that asks about it. If you don’t have one, we’ll obtain it for you. Rental licenses in Denver are valid for four years.

Now, there's a possibility—if your property is a condo in an HOA that restricts rentals—that you may need to apply with your HOA for permission to rent out the unit. That’s not very common, but if you’re part of a townhome or condo HOA, it’s a good idea to check with them in advance.

If a tenant doesn’t pay rent, we take care of the entire escalation process, including the posting of demands and the eviction process, if needed.

We follow a structured schedule that includes:

1. Issuing reminders
2. Applying late fees
3. Posting a formal 10-day demand (which is the first step in a formal eviction process)

Now, if you’re on the Plus or Whole Nine Yards plan, and we do need to proceed with an actual eviction:

We not only handle the process, but we also cover the costs up to $5,000. It's very rare that an eviction would exceed that amount.

Additionally, if you’re on the Whole Nine Yards plan, you also receive rent protection—meaning you’ll still receive your rent payments, and Whole PM will manage the resolution with the tenant behind the scenes.

So again, we handle everything related to delinquency, including all notices, escalations, filings, and, if necessary, a full, court-ordered eviction.

Yes, we do. In fact, we have our corporate attorney handle all evictions to ensure that everything is perfectly executed and legally sound, with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

If you’re on the Plus or Whole Nine Yards pricing plan, not only do we manage the eviction process, but we also pay for it up to $5,000 per lease period. A typical lease is 12 months, so you get that same protection every year.

A typical eviction proceeding is very unlikely to exceed that amount, which means that we handle it, and we pay for it, so you don’t have to worry.

It’s easy to think of property management as a luxury—and, truthfully, it is nice not to have to deal with tenants directly.

With Whole PM, the owner and tenant remain anonymous to one another. That means you receive no calls, no texts—nothing. We take care of everything, and that convenience alone is worth a lot.

However, this is an investment for you. So the real deciding factor shouldn't be convenience alone… It should be:

• Which route will produce the better ROI at the end of the year?
• Will you make more money by self-managing the property or by having Whole PM manage it?

In my experience, the number of owners who actually earn more by self-managing is smaller than most people think. I’d estimate that only about 20% of landlords truly come out ahead financially by managing the property themselves.

That’s because it’s easy to lose money in ways you may not anticipate, and successful self-management usually requires:

• Being local (so you can show the property yourself)
• Having handyman skills (so you can avoid getting invoiced for maintenance work)

If you can't do those things, it’s tough to come out ahead.

Here’s how Whole PM can often make you more money than self-managing:

• We can rent the property faster using tools most owners don’t have access to
• We use Tenant Turner, a professional leasing platform with cellular-enabled lockboxes, allowing for self-tours—a feature highly preferred by tenants
• Self-tours result in far more showings, compared to a scenario where prospects have to call and coordinate a time to meet you
• Many prospective renters don’t want to meet strangers at a property. It's awkward. Tours feel rushed. Some people—especially women—are uncomfortable doing so.
• We also market listings more effectively: Your listing goes on all major rental websites, not just Zillow or Facebook
• We use professional photos, which drive better engagement
• We’re available to answer questions, negotiate leases, and finalize deals quickly

So—if you’re an owner who is local, skilled at photography, knows how to market listings, has the time to post on a dozen or more sites, and can handle tours and handyman work on demand, you may come out ahead by self-managing.

But if you’re not that person, chances are high that you’ll actually lose money trying to self-manage your property.

If you’re currently self-managing your property and it’s already tenant-occupied—no problem.

We onboard tenant-occupied properties from self-managers all the time, and it’s a very easy process.

Here’s how it works:

• The existing lease will remain in place.
• We will honor and manage the lease terms exactly as written.
• There’s no need for the tenant to sign a Whole PM lease, and they would not be legally required to do so since they’re already under an executed lease agreement.

Simple onboarding process:

1. Fill out our management agreement
2. Send us:
   • A copy of the current lease
   • The tenant’s contact information
   • The security deposit check

Once we have that, we will:

• Reach out to the tenant to introduce ourselves.
• Make sure they’ve received their invite to the tenant portal, which is very user-friendly
• Let them know that Whole PM is now their point of contact
• Instruct them to direct all maintenance requests and questions to us, not the owner
• Show them how and where to pay their rent

After that, we’ll begin delivering your rent via direct deposit on the 10th of every month.

Here’s what’s required from you:

1. Sign our management agreement
2. Notify your current property management company that you’re terminating your agreement and that the property (or properties) will be transferring to Whole Property Management

That’s it—we’ll handle the rest.

Once you give notice, we’ll work directly with your outgoing property manager to collect everything we need, including lease documents, tenant contact information, security deposit checks, any keys, garage remotes, or other access items.

From there, we’ll set everything up in our system, introduce ourselves to the tenant as the new property manager, ensure the tenant knows how to use their new tenant portal and understands that we are now their main point of contact

Bottom line:

Once you sign the agreement and send the termination notice, everything else is on our plate. There’s nothing else needed from you.

In general, no—owners are not notified about every maintenance item. However, there are exceptions.
Whole PM operates using a $500 notification threshold. This means that if we identify an issue as a legitimate owner responsibility and believe it can be resolved for less than $500, we will take care of it directly using our network of trusted vendors. These vendors are unaffiliated with us; we receive no kickbacks, and all work is billed at cost without any markup.

If we expect a repair or maintenance item to cost more than $500, you will be notified about the issue and the plan to resolve it. For example, if a furnace goes out and cannot be repaired—or if repairing it is not financially sensible—we will inform you before proceeding with a replacement. In cases like this, there may be multiple estimates and a discussion about options before a decision is made.

If you have a preferred vendor, such as a family member or someone you trust who can complete the work at a lower cost, we are happy to use them. Just let us know.

We follow consistent internal processes to maintain efficiency. Not involving owners in minor or routine maintenance tasks helps us stay organized, prevents things from slipping through the cracks, and allows us to keep management fees low.

Now that's a good question.

There are several things that differentiate Whole PM from other property management companies in the Denver metro area.

First is our size. We're in the “Goldilocks zone”—not too big, not too small. We're large enough to invest in top-tier platforms, software, and equipment that help us manage your property more effectively. For tenants, this means a modern, convenient resident portal where they can set up autopay, pay by EFT or credit card, and submit maintenance requests. Our maintenance system even uses generative AI to respond instantly—24/7, 365 days a year—with troubleshooting tips and guidance when a request is submitted. These tools help us lease your property faster, keep tenants happy, and reduce turnover.

At the same time, we’re small enough that your business matters to us. When you work with companies that manage thousands of units—some over 4,000—your property can become just another number. That kind of scale often leads to bandwidth issues, slower response times, and things falling through the cracks.

Second, our $5,000 guarantees—which we’ve mentioned in another video—show we put our money where our mouth is. We stand behind our tenant screening and property care, giving you financial protection against rent default, property damage, and eviction costs.

Third, we use a portfolio-based system. That means properties are grouped into small portfolios with a single, dedicated manager overseeing everything. That person handles leasing, maintenance, day-to-day questions—everything. So you only ever have to talk to one person who knows your property inside and out. Contrast that with the departmental model, where you're bounced around between separate people for leasing, accounting, and maintenance. Departmental systems are cheaper for companies and easier to scale, but they offer a worse experience for both tenants and owners.

Our agreement is also completely at-will. There’s no fixed term, no notice period, and no cancellation fees. You can cancel anytime, for any reason—just tell us, and it’s done.

Lastly, we bill all maintenance and repair work at cost. Unlike many competitors, we don’t mark up vendor invoices with coordination fees or use in-house maintenance staff for a profit. Coordination fees usually add 5–10% to every invoice, and in-house maintenance creates a hidden margin: they charge you one rate but pay the technician a lower one. Both models create a financial incentive for property managers to approve more repairs than necessary. We don’t do that. We only work with trusted, unaffiliated third-party vendors and pass along the exact cost—no markup, no conflict of interest.