Frequently Asked Questions

What type of rental properties do you manage?
We manage single family homes, condos, apartment buildings, mixed use buildings, strip malls, office buildings and home owners’ associations.

 What areas do you handle?
Our Property Management service area is Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, Lake and McHenry Counties.

What Property Management experience and credentials do you offer?
FSP currently manages over 150 properties throughout the Chicago land. Our Agent’s are highly trained well rounded real estate professionals, many with various licenses that understand the unique needs for property owners in today’s market.

Why should I hire you as my Property Management company?
Our experienced staff believes in a hands-on, personal, team approach to property management. We recognize individual requirements of each property and we tailor the management program to meet those special needs. Through our experienced and result driven approach and a never-ending aim for capital improvements, we continue to provide outstanding value and service to all properties that we manage and strive to maintain the comfort, beauty, and safety of each community we serve.

How much will my house rent for?
Rental Amounts are dictated by the demand in your market. Real Estate values and rental ranges are based off supply and demand. So if your property is in a desired area, subdivision or school district, values and rental amounts will be reflective of the market. FSP agents will work closely with all property owners to strategically price out properties to ensure a quick placement.
The most important thing to know is that the rental market is indifferent to your mortgage payment amount. The rental market does not care that you might have a negative cash flow, and will punish with extended vacancy owners who overprice their rental homes. When you hire us as your property manager, we will look at the rental market in your particular area, survey the competing homes, and make sure your home is priced so that it will be viewed favorably against the competition.

What will you do to rent my house?
We give it maximum exposure while it is for rent and we carefully scrutinize all interested parties. 

FOR RENT SIGNS w/ CALL CAPTURE - Posted at the property with our website and phone number clearly displayed. Prospective renters can find out very easily - even at 7PM on a Saturday - the price and size of your property and when it will be ready for move-in. Every call that is made into our 800 number is recorded and sent out to the agent immediately, so that they can promptly follow up with interested parties whether they leave a message or not.

MLS - Your rental property data is entered in the Multiple Listing Service giving access to over 8,000 other Realtors and Renters. 

COSTAR- The #1 commercial Real estate information Company- Costar’s  offers customers convenient online access to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information--space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, properties for sale, property information for clients’ web sites, industry professional directory, analytic information, data integration, property advertising and industry news--throughout the United States

INTERNET LISTINGS – All homes are aggressively marketing though many online vehicles. The rental sites in which we partner with spider to several hundred other websites, ensuring maximum exposure for your rental.

LEASING LOCATORS - We make all of our listings available to the many Lease Locator companies in Chicago. These non-Realtor companies specialize in helping tenants find apartments, duplexes and homes for rent in Chicago 

WORD OF MOUTH / REFERRALS - Current and past tenants, friends of our tenants, and referrals from other agents that we network with. 

CORRECT PRICING - This is imperative to the success of finding placement asap. If a property is overpriced it will result in long hold over times and high debt servicing. FSP agents will work with you to make sure you are competitive with what the market is offering.
THOROUGH PREPARATION - Even the best located and well priced rental homes will not lease quickly if a potential tenant walks into a property and it’s not up to showing standards. Part of our job as your property manager will be to make sure your rental is presented in a clean and attractive condition so that it will attract a good tenant.

What, specifically, do you do to qualify a tenant after they have applied to rent my house?
This is one of the most important aspects of hiring a property management company to find a Tenant. All applicants go through a credit check, background check, employment verification and references verified prior to any placement. In general, we look at an applicant's past behavior and assume their future behavior will be the same. An applicant must demonstrate a history of being a good, responsible tenant or homeowner as well as meeting credit standards. Property Owners will be involved throughout this whole process and will have to give final approval before any tenant is placed.

LANDLORD REFERENCES - We personally talk to past landlords and ask detailed, open ended questions about the applicant's past performance.

CREDIT REPORT – All three credit bureaus are pulled; Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. 

BACKGROUND CHECK- Background checks are pulled on all potential applicants. Background checks are important for a number of reasons, such as if you live directly across from a school, it would be illegal to have a sex offender for a tenant.

DRIVER LICENSE VERIFICATION - We make a copy of the applicant's driver’s license or state ID. This tells us not only if the addresses given on the application are consistent but also when and what the last driver’s license activity was, such as a renewal or change of address. This is important because if someone says they have been living at a certain address for the past three years, but then we see they renewed their driver’s license a year ago at a different address, a red flag goes up and we often find in that situation that the applicant is trying to conceal bad rental history.

EMPLOYMENT/INCOME - We contact the employer to verify length of employment, status, and income. An applicant needs to earn at least 3 times the monthly rent in gross income to qualify for rental and we will want to see a copy of their pay stub.

OTHER FACTORS - Many of our managed properties are subject to Home Owner Association restrictions such as no boats or trailers, and limits on the type and number of vehicles. An otherwise qualified applicant may be unable to lease a property if, for instance, they own a boat and want to park it in the driveway. We make sure issues like that are covered up front to avoid surprises after move-in.  

How do you make sure the tenant is taking good care of my home while renting?
There are several ways in which we will make sure your home is being taken care of. First, careful tenant selection from the outset protects your property from being rented to irresponsible people. During the lease term, we may have occasion to enter the property for repair or maintenance reasons and will use that opportunity to have a look. If we are fortunate enough not to have any repairs or maintenance at your property over an extended period of time, your property manager will schedule a preventative maintenance walk-through to make sure the air filter is being changed, that the smoke alarms have batteries and that there are no unreported problems at the property.

What do you do if they are not taking care of my property as they should, or you discover unauthorized pets?
Your property manager gives the tenant an opportunity to correct the situation and usually they will. If a problem persists, we will make a decision based on that specific situation. 

What happens if the tenant does not pay their rent?
We give tenants up until the 5th of the month to get their payment into the office. If by the 5th we haven’t received payment or a phone call, we then post a 5 day notice and place a phone call. If we have not received any payments or communication by the 10th of the month then a representative from FSP knocks on their door.  If we are still unable to reach to the tenant, then we will then post an eviction notice. Whether or not we eventually have to proceed with a formal eviction depends on the specific circumstances. It is always financially better for all involved if a solution can be worked out. If the tenant has experienced a one-time event which is causing them a financial hardship, and we have had no previous problems with them, it is better for you and the tenant if we give them a chance to catch up - if there is reason to believe they can do so. If the tenant has demonstrated an ongoing pattern of late payments, broken promises about payments and/or evasiveness, we know from experience that eviction is the best course of action.

Each case is unique and the property manager will work with you to make a decision based what is best for you and your home in the long run. That said, we always proceed with the legal notices required for eviction regardless of any other factors. We will simply postpone the actual filing of the eviction if the tenant is showing favorable effort toward resolution. 

How informed will I be about what happens with my property?
You will be absolutely informed at all times what is going on with your property. We have taken steps to optimize efforts for property owners to always have a handle on how their property is doing as well as the tenant. An Owner Portal is available on our website for property owners to log on and view activity on the property. Owners can even view any maintenance requests that tenant submits, detailed accounting and up to the minute updates of any activity going on with property.

How do you handle maintenance requests?
Tenants have a Tenant Portal in which they can log in online to their account to request non-emergency maintenance requests. They can also call into the office and our receptionist will take the request and submit to our in house maintenance department.

If the maintenance request is any emergency we have a 24/7 emergency maintenance line in English and Spanish. A call is placed to our maintenance director and a team member will be out to the property asap to cure the problem. A checklist is given out to all tenants to explain what qualifies as an emergency.

Do you use the cheapest maintenance people you can find?
We have an in house Maintenance department that quickly responds to all maintenance requests. Any repairs under $200 the repairs will be made on the spot, if it is above $200 then we seek out a number of bids from our vendor list to present to you. Once we have received direction on how you would like for us to cure the problem, we will then hire the vendor to fix. It is very important that property owners be responsive to our calls to them in which we are discussing any maintenance issues. Legally you have to fix the problem in appropriate amount of time governed by Illinois law.

Do you hold some of my money for repairs? How much?
A $200 per unit reserve is set up for your account. The purpose of this reserve is so that we always have funds to pay for any maintenance issues that may arise.  

How do I know your property manager won’t spend my money on large repairs without my approval?
It is outlined in our management contract that we will seek your approval for any repairs $200 and above.

What if I want you to use my plumber, A/C company, etc.?
We already have a stable of very qualified and reasonably priced vendors that we have used for many years. If you would like to nominate a service company to be added to our vendor list, they can contact us and we will interview them and let them know what documentation and references we need, what our invoicing and payment policy is, etc. We cannot guaranty however that your favorite company will be sent on all service calls to your home. Our concern is always to resolve repair problems in the most efficient way possible with the best available vendor at the time. We can't keep track of a pre-established roster of vendors assigned to certain properties - it would be a cumbersome and inefficient property management system and would not achieve the best service to the tenant and your investment property.

Our professional reputation as property managers, both with tenants and owners, is largely, if not almost entirely, determined by the effectiveness with which we handle maintenance. We follow a practice that is most likely to insure the best possible response and resolution to maintenance and repair problems for your property.

When do you mail the owner's checks and statements?
Owner’s checks are mailed out on or after the 15th of each month but no later than the 17th for that month's activity. Most months, you will have your check and statement in hand by the 17th.

What will I receive with my monthly statement?
The monthly statement showing all income and expenses for the accounting period and the original receipts for any repairs. We don't mark up repair invoices and we send you the original copy so you'll see what was done.

What is an Owner Portal?
An owner portal is a secure link into your account. After you have signed a management contract with Field Street Properties, you will be given the secured link and directions on how to enter your account to retrieve information such as, rents collected, work orders for repairs and maintenance and your statement. You may also make payments within the owner portal for repairs greater than $200.

What is a tenant portal?
A tenant portal is a secure link for the tenant to access their account, request non-emergency maintenance and repairs, and make rental payments.

How much is your monthly property management fee?
Managements fees range from 8-12% per month.

How much is the leasing fee?
The leasing commission is the first month’s rent, which can be broken up into a two month installment.

Who holds the tenant's security deposit?
All security deposits must be held in our deposit trust account. 

How much security deposit do you charge the tenant?
As a general rule of thumb we usually get around 70% of one month's rent for deposit, rounded up to the nearest hundred. This is what will be asked for by most property owners and property.

Are you a licensed Real Estate Broker?
Yes, we are a licensed brokerage in which is governed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

How soon can you start managing my home?
After we receive a signed contract, copy of keys, copy of any existing leases and tenant contact information we can begin immediately.