In this video, Mendell Gosnell, CPM of Centurion Real Estate Management, walks real‑estate investors through the company’s Property Management Interview Worksheet – a checklist of questions investors should ask any property‑management firm to compare services on an apples‑to‑apples basis. He explains why fee structures (management, leasing, vacancy‑fill, lease‑renewal) matter and why paying a higher fee can yield better returns through proactive tenant service. He details Centurion’s service footprint in the Mid‑Willamette Valley, the breadth of property types they manage (single‑family, small plexes, multifamily, commercial, RV parks, self‑storage), and their 60‑person, department‑focused staff (leasing, finance, maintenance, onboarding, underwriting, rent collection, etc.). The discussion covers the advantages of in‑house, licensed maintenance versus subcontracted vendors, the company’s vendor network, spending limits, contract flexibility (30‑day cancellation, no long‑term lock‑ins), and the availability of separate brokerage services. He also outlines financial reporting practices (monthly owner statements, year‑end 1099s, reserves), advertising strengths, and the five pillars of Centurion’s property‑management philosophy: rent units, collect rent, take care of the property, take care of the client, and take care of the resident. Finally, he lists professional affiliations (NARPM, IRUM, local rental housing and real‑estate groups) and invites viewers to ask further questions in the comments.
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Hi, my name is Mendell Gosnell with Centurion Real Estate Management, and today I'd like to talk to you about our property management company interview worksheet, a document that sometimes we give out to real estate investors who are shopping around for a new property manager. Just want to inform them of some of the great questions that we think you should be asking us and other property management companies so you can compare apples to apples. Not all property management companies are built the same way or have the same processes, certainly not the same people. I think the people are what make the biggest difference in a property management company. And also just the fees. I think that one of the unfortunate things is like the number one question that someone asks when they call, and I understand it, is, you know, what do you charge? What's your cost? And That's super important, but, you know, as an investor myself, I would rather pay more to get a better return, more money in my pocket. And we just know that an adequate fee structure in property management is essential to driving results on the property. To take care of the client, to take care of the property takes resources. Certainly wanna actually compare what is the rate, what's the PM fee, other fees that are charged. For instance, what do you charge for filling a vacancy? What's your leasing fee or your lease-up fee? Next would be the lease renewal fee. Comparing apples to apples, how much do they charge to renew that lease? And again, lease renewal fee is actually a really important one. I'll just kind of pause and interject a little bit. Sometimes we get some pushback from owners of like, well, why is that? The tenant's already in place. I don't see why I should pay for a lease renewal for just some paperwork. And again, being in the industry for 20 years now, I know it's more than just doing a little bit of paperwork. The reality is, is the leasing fee is actually— you actually begin to earn the leasing fee, the lease renewal fee, the moment the tenant moves in. And even before that whole process that great customer service and interaction and building the trust and that relationship with the tenant and then taking care of them for the entire year in your rental property. How we respond, how we answer calls, do we answer our calls? Do we get back to them? Is it nice, friendly person getting back to them and then taking their repair request and getting that acted on in a timely manner to their satisfaction? Is really what makes the difference between whether they're gonna renew their lease or not. And when that's one of the biggest expenses for a property owner, whether they have vacancy and turnover costs, it's a small amount to pay for a company that's being very proactive in making sure that good tenants stay in your property for a long time. Very important company information to compare when you're shopping around for different property management companies. Another one might be, you know, what kind of properties do they manage and what are their service areas? Is it pretty small? Is it really spread out? There can be pros and cons with either of those scenarios. With Centurion, we manage over 2,000 properties, primarily just in the Mid-Willamette Valley, and we have branch offices in Salem, in Corvallis, and in Eugene, but we serve areas all around there. They're real close to us. We know those areas really well, like Woodburn, Albany, Lebanon, Dallas, Monmouth, Independence, Rickreall, Jefferson, Stayton, Silverton, Brownsville, Sweet Home, Harrisburg, Monroe, all of those areas like Mill City, Sublimity, Stayton, McMinnville, Sheridan, Lewisburg, and all the areas in between. We have a lot of employees working for our company to make the magic happen on a day-to-day basis. We have about 60, and we are departmental focused. And so we have like a leasing team, a finance team, maintenance department, and everybody is able to have really deep knowledge in those areas. And able to do a really good job when they're able to niche down specifically in that, that department. We have teams that work specifically on onboarding, that work on the accounting, again, maintenance, leasing, people who specialize on the applications and underwriting tenants, and people who help with rent collection, lease renewals, and all of those different things that require— are required on the day-to-day management of the property and taking care of the tenants. So some of the specific, um, properties that we manage— we manage single-family homes, small plexes, multi-family apartment complexes, and commercial. We manage some RV and trailer parks. We manage some self-storage facilities. So basically, we like to say we can manage just about anything, any property. It's the, the owners that are the clients that can be a little bit more challenging to manage for. But how long have we been in business? So Centurion's been in business for over 20 years, and a lot of our staff have been with us for the bulk of that time. So we have really low turnover as compared to the industry. We have a real deep bench of talent and knowledge. And then we are associated with a lot of professional organizations, which is really important. It helps us stay current with the industry trends and laws and legislative changes. So NARPM and IRUM and the Salem Rental Housing Association, the Multifamily Northwest, and then the Salem Chamber of Commerce and Real Estate Investors Associations, the Oregon Rental Housing Association, the National Association of Realtors, Oregon Home Builders Association, and then some of the, the, the local associations and industry associations as well. "Can you terminate your management agreement early if things aren't working out?" That's a big question. So there are some management agreements or management companies that will wanna lock you into a long-term contract. We just have a 30-day cancellation notice. Some may have a 60-day notice, but there's no long-term contracts. And then, "Does the company do sales and brokerage?" Yeah, we actually do. Secondary kind of focus for us, um, or I should say there's different people that focus on it. The property management with Centurion Real Estate Management is all we do. The brokerage side is handled by Centurion Real Estate Services, and so you can find more on the website at centurion-res.com if you're interested in our brokerage services. Does the company have their own licensed in-house maintenance? We do. We think that that's a big opportunity to keep costs low and respond quickly and with people who are familiar with the property, familiar with the tenants, and familiar with landlord-tenant law to limit liability for you. Not every vendor out there is completely familiar, and they're not always working on your schedule. And so having an in-house maintenance is really valuable. And we are licensed, bonded, and general contractors as well. Is a big advantage that we think we bring to the table as well. You'll want to check on the different types of repairs that they can handle. There's some companies that do just a very narrow— they don't do anything, everything's subbed out. They'll say that they want to avoid any conflicts of interest, which there can be. But when you're subbing everything out to the outside vendors, you're really at the mercy of their schedule, their timetable, which is challenging for the tenants. And a lot of times we believe that it's a little bit more costly to do that. And not just the cost of the hourly rate, but the cost of not getting to the tenants in a timely manner can really drive up the long-term costs of your property and the efficiency there. And let's see. Yep, we do take care of the tenants and enforce the rules and the regulations on the tenants. Do you have outside contractors? Of course, yeah. So we have a really good network of outside contractors or vendors, as we call them. And a lot of them have been working with us for, uh, years and years. Um, but we're always on the lookout for great upcoming vendors as well. We always try to have about 3 primary, uh, vendors that we're working with. The next is, do we have, um, spending limits? Of course, every contract is required to have a spending limit. In there. That's going to be kind of property and owner specific and subject to change over time, but definitely you'll want to evaluate the limits that any property management company or property management agreement has. Can you do work on your own property? Yeah, it's your property, you can do it. We generally try to be very flexible in coordinating with owners It does get a little bit more challenging when the tenant's there, and then we want to make sure that we're abiding by the laws. And so if it's something that needs to be permitted or have a licensed contractor do, then we want to make sure that we're abiding by the rules and the regulations. The statements is a real big one. So when are the owner statements sent out? Those are sent out towards the end of the month along with owner distributions. We use some really good software to coordinate all of that. And then we also do year-end statements and we handle all of the 1099s for our owners, for all of the vendors that we use. We do pay the property bills as well for our clients. And then we do have a reserve. Pretty much everybody is going to have a set reserve, that's going to be property dependent as well and can change based on a number of factors. And then how we advertise, you know, we do a phenomenal job. I think our team is some of the best in the business at advertising, creating good ads and doing it just blazingly fast because we have 5 things that we really focus on as a property management company. The first 2 are rent units and collect rent, and then we want to take care of the property. Take care of the clients, and then we want to take care of the customers, which is the residents. And so that's kind of our 5 pillars of property management here at Centurion. And that's kind of just kind of a high-level overview of some of the questions that you might ask us. I think I covered most of them, but also if you're going to compare us to another company out there, um, you know, these are some of the things to, to take a look on— look at. And you maybe have some other questions as well, drop those down in the comments below. But we Hope you enjoyed watching. Thanks. Have a great day.
