Holiday Hours
We will be closed on Monday, October 14th for the Columbus/Indigenous People’s holiday and will resume normal business hours on the following business day. With the holiday season on the horizon there will be closures each month for the rest of the year in an effort to give everyone here at Stone Oak more time off with their families and friends. Our holiday closing schedule is available on our website.
What Does A Landlord Have To Repair and Maintain?
When talking to our clients about maintenance requests we often get the question of whether a repair is required or not. This is not a straightforward answer since laws vary on every level of government. There are some general guidelines that steer our decisions and recommendations to clients, and sometimes it stings financially. In general, there is “The Implied Warranty of Habitability” that applies to all rental properties. It’s a good thing to be familiar with as a rental property owner, and the linked article gives a good overview.
Summer 2024 Market Update
In our August post we provided a market update, and we’re gearing up to give another update of market conditions in October. In the meantime we want to share a recent article titled As rents across the country go up, Austin prices continue to fall and a second that discusses renting being cheaper than buying in some markets.
Election Season
While we here at Stone Oak don’t discuss politics, we do strongly encourage everyone to take part in the process by educating yourself and voting in every election. This year is a presidential election with a lot of down ballot elections that are important. If you haven’t already, please register to vote ahead of the Monday, October 7th registration deadline for the November election. Also, recent voter roll purges in Texas make the necessity of checking your registration important ahead of each election.
Interested in Selling or Buying More Property?
We want to remind our clients that we are a fully licensed brokerage, and all of the property managers are licensed to practice real estate in Texas. If you want to sell your managed property, or are interested in buying more investment properties please let your property manager know! We can help you, and as an existing client we will work with you on the commissions to save you money versus using a third party agent.
Liability Insurance Policy and Landlord Protection Program
On June 5, 2024, we sent out an email to all of our clients with some general updates and about changes to how we handle the liability insurance requirement of the management agreement, and the Optional Assurances program that many of you are participating in. If you missed the email please take a moment to read it, and if you didn’t receive it let us know so we can send it to you again.
We continue to work through processing these changes and will follow up over the next several weeks. These emails will have important information so please keep an eye out for that correspondence.
Corporate Transparency Act
In 2021, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) that went into effect on January 1, 2024. This new law may apply to some of our clients, so we want to help spread awareness. If you own your investment(s), or anything else, in an entity such as an LLC or Corp, you may need to file information with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN). There is a summary of this new law available on the FINCEN brochure and additional information and resources on their website.
There are exemptions to this law, but it is strongly recommended that you speak to your legal advisor or accountant to discuss the requirements and compliance deadlines. There are many articles that have been published after the law’s passing, and quite a few since the end of 2023. More information can be found on this legalzoom.com article, using the official links above, or doing a search for the CTA to start your learning journey.
Data Breaches and Scams
In our last few posts we’ve covered several data breaches, and it seems every day a new one is being announced publicly or by mail to affected parties. In the context of being a client of Stone Oak we want to continue reminding our clients about these breaches because a lot of this data can be used in social engineering and phishing attacks, which could involve your data being used by someone who poses as your property manager or other contact as part of a scam. We see these attempts internally as scammers send us email posing as fellow employees or managers of Stone Oak.
That being said, we want to remind you that we will never call you to ask to confirm or provide your bank info, social security number, or other personal information on the phone or by email. We will also never ask you to pay for anything with gift cards, cryptocurrency, etc. All of our emails will come from our domain, www.stoneoakmgmt.com, or through our software as a long string of letters/numbers from the domain @stoneoak.mailer.appfolio.us. Our property management software includes a texting service that will not match our office number, but if you try to call that number it will go directly to our main office phone line.
Here is some helpful information about Caller ID Spoofing, and other common scams. Also the US Federal Bureau of Investigations resources about common scams are good to be aware of.
Please stay vigilant, maintain a healthy amount of skepticism, and contact us directly with the number on our website or our direct emails if anything looks questionable.
Thank you for being a client of Stone Oak Property Management. Please don't hesitate to contact your property manager should you need anything at this time.
Reminders:
Maintenance Approval Process Changes
In addition to the info below about funding repairs we want to notify all owners that we are modifying our escalation process when we can’t reach our clients in order to make sure we are complying with property code requirements. In bonafide emergencies we are acting within our authority to mitigate damages, however after it has been contained or in non-emergency situations we reach out to our clients for work authorization that is required above the limit set in the management agreement. In those cases we now have a strict process going into effect that will have a time-based escalation if we cannot reach you. The time frame will be that if we can’t reach you by the 3rd day from when we first reached out we will then reach out to your emergency contact who can aid us in getting authorization or contacting you. If you’d like to update your emergency contact we have on file please contact your property manager. Keep in mind that this contact should be someone outside of your immediate household who you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you cannot be reached by them or us.
Funding Make-Readies & Maintenance for Your Property
Please note that it is Stone Oak's policy that the owner has reserve funding on hand with Stone Oak to help us commence work faster when it comes to make-readies and maintenance on your property. Stone Oak cannot perform maintenance without first receiving authorization and funding, which can slow down the turn-around times of our vendors and their availability in this market. This can also potentially create a negative experience that tenants will remember when it comes time to renew, and we always want to avoid turning over the tenants. Any time we request authorization for work on your property, the best practice is to immediately fund your account when you provide written authorization to move forward. This is as simple as going into your owner portal and using ACH for a free transfer, or if you prefer a credit card the processor charges a fee as part of the transaction.
Keep in mind that tenant charges on your account are not considered an offset to this amount as we keep a strict accounting system for both our and our client's benefits. Any tenant chargeable items will be posted to their account, and once they are paid it is immediately credited to your account. If you have any questions about this reserve amount held with Stone Oak please contact your property manager.
HOA Compliance Notices
Did you know your HOA can send important notices and compliance letters directly to Stone Oak to enforce? Yes! We can take care of that for you! Please be sure to provide your HOA with Stone Oaks direct contact information so we can ensure timely delivery of notices.
Please contact your PM for more information.
