If you enjoy your sanity, then yes, a property manager is right for you. Joking aside, “Rental and Leasing Services” ranks #5 in industries with the highest employee turnover… and there’s a reason for that.

We’re not trying to scare you, but throughout the management of a property (marketing, showings, tenant screening, utilities, rent collection, complaints, city rental certification, damage assessments, repairs, emergencies, paperwork, pets, and police to name a few), it takes a good deal of time, tools and a competent team of vendors to maximize the property potential. There’s nothing more frustrating than spinning your wheels and actually losing more money than if you’d hired a professional in the first place.

Our goal is for you to be as uninvolved as you want to be, while being as informed as you can be. In any decision needing your involvement, you’ll be contacted with a proposed plan of action – then you give us thumbs up or thumbs down.

Ultimately the pricing is up to you, but we’ll do a market analysis and tell you what we’d list it for if we owned it.

1. Professional photos (included in the cost of placement fee)
2. Market property across the web. If anyone is trying to find a property in your area, they can’t miss it.
3. Showings are conducted by self-access lockboxes (Rently system). This opens up availability 7 days/week, 8 am-8 pm, and gets property leased fast.
4. Tenant screening which entails an extensive study of the prospective resident. Criminal background, detailed credit analysis, employment verification, and landlord references are the big ones.
5. A security deposit equal to one month’s rent is required to hold the property for up to 30 days.
6. Upon move-in, we confirm applicable utilities are in the tenant’s name, and all i’s are dotted and t’s crossed with the paperwork.

SHIFT processes disbursements on the 10th of each month, for the rent collected that month (ex: January rent is disbursed Jan 10th). You’ll also receive a statement showing every penny in and out.

Your 1099 and a Schedule E showing all itemized income & expenses. 

We will only contact you for approval on repairs exceeding $400; however, you are automatically notified real-time when any maintenance request is received, and we’re happy to communicate if you have any questions or insight into the issue.

Within the city of Grand Rapids (and several surrounding municipalities), you’ll need to have your rental pass a certification process.

• A certification inspection must be conducted if the property was recently sold, or if the existing certification is expiring (you can find a list of certified properties & their expiration date HERE).
• Shift will schedule this inspection, and it will be attended by a veteran contractor partnered with Shift to ensure nothing is “lost in translation” from the inspector to the contractor doing the work.
• At this inspection, verbal orders are received for everything the city requires to bring the property into compliance. This is a diverse list, ranging from window pins and smoke detectors, to chimney liners & roof replacements.
• At this juncture, we are given 10-14 days to repair deficiencies found. Sometimes there are repairs demanded which cannot be completed due to the seasons (winter), in which case they are deferred to a time in the spring.
• Once the re-inspection is done and satisfied, you’ll receive a 4-6 year certification.
• SHIFT charges $100 for coordinating this process (+additional $50/unit on multi-families), and the city has a certification fee of $270+ depending on the number of units.

We have a 24/7 emergency line and extensive network of subs to handle any emergency. In the event expenses are covered by insurance, we coordinate with your agent to make a claim and produce bids for restoration when applicable.

2013

We try to stay within a 30-minute drive from downtown Grand Rapids but are willing to consider properties a bit further out depending on the quality.