Pricing
Two management plans and a placement-only option for homes in San Ramon and the Tri-Valley. No setup, renewal or advertising fees.
Renting from us? This page is about what owners pay. Your own charges and payment history are in the Tenant Portal; everything else for tenants is on For Tenants.
For owners with a good tenant already in place.
$225 a month minimum
Included
For owners holding the home a year or more.
$225 a month minimum · 12-month agreement
Included
For owners who manage the home themselves.
Per placement · about 12.5% of the first year's rent
Included
Management fees are a percentage of the monthly rent, with a $225 monthly minimum. Investor's included leasing comes with a 12-month management agreement. On both management plans, managing any single project over $1,000, including major repairs, is 10% of the project cost.
What your rental really takes
Here's what a $4,000/month home takes in the year you need a new tenant, priced the way you'd pay for it piece by piece. All of it is in our Investor plan's 8.9% management fee: $356 a month, leasing included.
About 94 hours a year, more than two work weeks, at $90 /hr. Owner survey
Pricing, photos, listings, showings, screening and move-in. On its own, we charge 1.5 months' rent for this.
Nearly half of small landlords charge below market, by 16% on average. Decker, 2020
A readiness plan for the home, a rental market analysis priced from local comps, and a lease reviewed for California's rules.
Example based on a $4,000/month home in a year with one tenant turnover and one $3,000 improvement project, with owner time valued at $90/hour. Industry figures are estimates; your results will vary.
Shopping around?
Most managers add a leasing fee of half a month's rent or more on top of the monthly percentage, then onboarding, renewal and advertising fees. Our Investor plan is one fee, and finding your tenant is in it.
Costed for a $4,000/month home in a year with one new tenant and one $3,000 project. A plus sign marks fees we couldn't put a number on (repair markups, renewal fees). Rates come from each company's published pricing and may have changed.
One fee. No surprises.
The add-ons are where a 7% fee turns into a 12% year. Here is what a typical local manager bills separately, and what we do instead.
Other than Core's flat placement fee, the one thing we charge for beyond the fee is managing a larger project, usually an improvement that raises the rent. We plan it, price the rent lift before you spend, and run the work, for 10% of the project. What you're paying for is our read on what tenants here will pay more for.
| Fee | Swenson | Typical manager |
|---|
Typical amounts from published fee guides and local managers' published rates. See sources below.
The fine print
A short list. We'd rather you read it here than find it on a statement.
If the percentage comes to less than $225 a month, the fee is $225. On Core that means rent under about $2,850; on Investor, under about $2,530.
It's a percentage of the home's market rent, so it doesn't stop when the home is empty. That's the stretch when the leasing work happens: turnover, pricing, photos, showings and screening.
Leasing is included because we'll be managing the home for at least a year. Core's placement fee is $695, flat, per new tenant.
Any single project over $1,000, including a major repair such as a water heater or a roof. We scope it, get the bids and run the work. Repairs under $1,000 are billed at the vendor's invoice, with no markup.
Applicants pay their own screening fee, at the amount California allows. Tenants pay renter's insurance, required by our leases.
90-day guarantee
If you decide in the first 90 days that we're not the right fit, tell us. After a short offboarding call, we refund up to $750 of the management fees you've paid.
Applies to management fees only.
Questions owners ask
If yours isn't here, call. You'll get a straight answer.
Investor if you'll need a tenant placed in the next year or so. Core if a good tenant is already in place and likely to stay.
The difference between the plans is 1% of rent, $40 a month on a $4,000 home. Core's $695 placement fee is about a year and a half of that difference. Not sure? Call and we'll run it for your home.
Yes. The fee is a percentage of the home's market rent, and it runs whether or not a tenant is in place. Vacancy is the busiest stretch of the year for us: turnover, pricing, photos, showings, screening and move-in. On Investor that leasing work is included; on Core it's the $695 placement fee on top.
It applies to any single project over $1,000, including major repairs such as a water heater, a sewer line or a roof. We scope the work, get the bids and manage it through to a finished job, for 10% of the project cost.
Most of the time it's an improvement that raises the rent, and we price the rent lift before you spend.
No. Vendor invoices are passed through at cost. Repairs up to $500 are handled without a call to you, so small things get fixed fast; above that, we call first. See how pre-approval works.
Nothing up front. There's no setup or onboarding fee. The rental readiness plan and the rental market analysis, $550 if bought on their own, are included when we manage the home.
Yes. Tenant placement only is 1.5 months' rent: the market analysis and pricing, photos, listings, showings, screening, lease signing and move-in. From there, you manage the home.
Tell us. In the first 90 days the guarantee applies: after an offboarding call, we refund up to $750 of management fees. After that, the management agreement sets the notice period. We'd rather part on good terms than keep an owner who'd be happier elsewhere.
DRE #01857486
9110 Alcosta Blvd Suite H470 San Ramon, CA 94583
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