Set the rent that fills, not the rent you hope for
The most expensive mistake in a rental is an empty month. A unit priced $75 over the market to chase a number can sit for weeks, and that vacancy quietly erases the entire premium you were reaching for. The right rent is the one that draws qualified applications fast.
We price off what comparable homes actually leased for recently, weighted by how long they took to fill, not off the optimistic asking rents still sitting on the portals. Our rent calculator gives you a starting range for any Memphis address so you are negotiating from real numbers.
Screening is the whole game
The single biggest risk in a long-term rental is the wrong resident, because an eviction costs months of rent plus turn costs plus legal time. Good screening (income verification, rental history, and a consistent standard applied to everyone) is what keeps that from happening, and it is also the law to apply it evenly.
A clean, well-priced listing pulls more applicants, which means you can hold the standard instead of taking the first warm body because the unit has been empty too long. Pricing and screening are the same problem viewed from two ends.
What management costs, and what it does not
Our long-term management fee is 8% of the rent we collect. If the unit is empty, there is no rent and no fee, which keeps us pointed at the same goal you have: a filled, paying unit. When we place a new resident the fee is 50% of one month’s rent, lower than the 75 to 100% most Memphis firms charge, and a lease renewal is $195. Every fee is disclosed up front.
Vacancy and maintenance are not management deductions. They are your reserves, money you set aside and control, because you decide whether to replace a water heater now or nurse it another year. We will not bury those in a fee and call it your "net." When we show you net, it is rent minus the 8%, full stop.
Maintenance is in-house, and that matters
Most property managers mark up a subcontractor and call a vendor. We keep maintenance in-house, so the work is faster, documented with photos in your owner portal, and not padded with a middleman margin. You see every work order and every dollar from wherever you are.
Over a year of ownership, the quality and cost of maintenance is what separates a rental that compounds from one that bleeds. It is the least glamorous line item and the one that decides your real return.