Two locations to serve the Central Texas and Northern Virginia regions:

Georgetown, TX | 512-942-0024           Arlington, VA | 703-776-9223

 

Mars Hill Realty was a great help in managing my property [in Round Rock], they helped negotiate a plan with a difficult tenant to avoid eviction and [negotiated] a renewal and I have not had a problem since.  I would recommend Edward for all your property needs, he did wonders for me.

Bill C., Senior Field Engineer needing property management in Round Rock, Texas

     As a professional management company, we want to reduce your exposure to lawsuits and evictions that can occur through under-developed management practices. Because we manage many homes, our systems have developed very quickly and we know what practices work best to reduce your risk.  However, every management company in Round Rock, Georgetown, or the greater Austin area will tell you that they are the best.  How can you really tell?  How do you maximize your chances of finding a tenant who will take care of your property?  How can you know that the screening process being used is really effective?  

     You've worked hard to purchase your investment home and you should be able to find good answers to these very legitimate questions. As an investor myself, with 10% of all the company revenues coming from my own properties, I have a very personal interest to make sure that we have the proper systems in place.

Here is the first question you can ask your Property Manager:

1.  What is your eviction rate?

     After all that is done to screen the tenant, no matter how many fancy records are checked, proprietary ratios are calculated, and money that is paid, it all boils down to the results.  If a company ends up evicting 5 out of every 100 property leases, you have a 5% eviction rate.  That may sound good to most property management companies, but that is too high for us.  We have had just ONE single family home eviction in our company history, which is less than a 1% eviction rate.

     How do we do it?  Well, it starts with the idea that evictions cost the property owner both time and money and is a negative event.  If this is a negative event for the owner, it should be a negative event for the property management company as well.  This may sound crazy, but there are some property management companies that actually MAKE money for doing an eviction!  During an eviction that we help you with, the only costs that you incur are the necessary fees that we pay on your behalf such as court costs.  The time we spend at court or the time we spend driving to the tenant's home to post notices are all considered part of our management services and do not cost you anything extra.  The reason we have such a low eviction rate is because we have just as much incentive as you do to avoid an eviction, because it costs us in lost productivity and it simply isn't worth it.

     We also have a very thorough due diligence process we undergo with every prospective tenant.  Although we don't do medical check-ups, our process includes a few "in-house" methods that most companies and individual owners don't even think about.  Sometimes, the findings from these methods could mean the difference between approval or disapproval.

     If a property management company doesn't know what their eviction rate is, run...don't walk, out through the nearest exit!  You can't know that you are doing an adequate job placing tenants if you don't even measure the results.

I have been a realtor in the Austin area for approx. 27 years and owned a property management company in Austin for several years. It is important  for a management business to protect your investment and do everything possible to get qualified tenants at your property...so many seem to be only after the rents and then your property is forgotten. Ed and his company seem to follow a business model which creates success for you and your investment and promotes maintenance for future appreciation. I’ve recommended several past clients to Ed and to my knowledge they are very satisfied.

- Rita Snyder, Realtor with Keller Williams

     I'm sure you may have heard of the saying “Go Big or Go Home.”  However, we feel going BIG can sometimes means sticking with small. Sure, if you want the traditional management company that's managing several hundred properties, owns big maintenance trucks and is an eviction producing machine, we may not be the company for you. There are a lot of these big traditional companies that will manage anything that has a roof on it and they charge very little, making their profit from a large portfolio. The client is often not remembered by their name, but by a property address , and no effort is invested into reducing the eviction ratio, because when evictions are done in bulk, it's cheaper and more profitable for the big companies.

     However, if you want a smaller, locally-owned company that knows you by name, has strong values and specializes in single-family homes, we may be a good fit.  We have stopped accepting multi-family properties, that can take up to 90% of a property management company's resources and only provide 10% of the revenues. By focusing on single family homes, we can re-invest our profits into our company and all of our owners benefit equally. By marketing higher-end properties, we attract a more financially qualified pool of renters that can reduce your risk of an eviction occurance.

     We don't want to be naive and think that all great companies are small.  After all, we want to grow our portfolio too!  A sign of growth means that people actually are liking what we do.  So, a second important question to ask a property management company is:

2.  What is your property to staff ratio?

     We have a small property-to-staff ratio that most traditional companies cannot offer. Most parents will agree that a small teacher-to-student ratio contributes to receiving high quality education. We believe in this concept and have built a strong team consisting of a Property Manager, Service Manager, Comptroller, Office Manager, three Leasing Specialists and a Maintenance team to oversee our portfolio.  Our goal is to maintain a ratio of less than 25 properties for every staff member, or 25:1. This is rarely seen in the property management industry and results in better communication, more specialization in specific skillsets and a better experience for both the owner and tenant.   

     OK, just one last question we'll arm you with as you search for a high quality property management company.  According to the National Association of Realtors, the Internet is one of the top ways that consumers find their next home.  Therefore, curb appeal is now longer how your home looks from the actual curb, but from a prospect's computer screen!  If you leave a great first impression on the Internet and you are priced accurately, chances are your home will be visited more often and leased out quickly.  However, if you short change the consumer experience by being stingy in how many photos you showcase or use poor amateur photography, you will sabotage your leasing efforts.  Here's the third and final question:

3.  How do you market my home?

     We use professional photography to differentiate your home from the myriad of other rentals competing for that tenant.  We then syndicate your home to the top real estate websites and market it 365 days out of the year on our own property management website.  No other company that we know of does this.  This gives us an opportunity to secure a renter months before the existing tenant's lease is over, reducing vacancies and increasing the profit on your investment.

Edward Lui and his staff at Mars Hill Realty have managed my property in Georgetown for going on 3+ years. They have always been very keen to my interests and I would highly recommend them for any property management issues.  

Lindy & Monica Cannon, Bastrop, TX - needing property management in Georgetown, Texas

Committed to Quality and not just Growth

     We've always believed in being faithful to the things we have before going after anything new. If we can't satisfy our current clients, we have no business going after new ones. In order to maintain the quality of service we provide to our current owners, we are limiting the amount of new properties we accept on a monthly basis to just 20 properties. We simply will not accept more than 20 properties over a 30 day period because we want to do a good job transitioning your home and properly communicating with your tenant so they are familiar with their new management team. We are committed first and foremost to our existing clients. Any properties over our limit will have to be transitioned in over the next 30 day cycle.

     We recently had a client, Pamela, who felt she was trapped by her current property management company because they had a contract to lease out her home and she had several months left. I suggested to her that she simply ask that company if she could try somebody different and they agreed. She felt so relieved and said, “I felt like the shackles finally came off!” 

     It's unusual for a property management company to offer a guarantee in this industry given the expense and resources that must be invested before fees are earned. However, I am so confident that you will be 100% satisfied with Mars Hill Property Management, that I will give you the ability to cancel our management contract at any time. You won't have to feel “shackled” ever again!

Please contact me and let's arrange a meeting or phone conference where I can personally explain how our property management systems can benefit you, reduce your costs and frustration and increase your cash flow. There's no obligation, of course, and certainly no pressure, but, together, we just may figure out the perfect situation for your home.

Edward Lui and his staff have been extraordinary to work with. Edward's team has managed my investment property in Georgetown for over two years. They've helped me find great tenants. I do not live in the area so I am most pleased with the simplicity of their systems & processes. All leases can be signed online through DocuSign. All rents are received promptly through direct deposit. All debits and credits are tracked immaculately and provided in a year-end report which makes my tax accountant happy. Overall, I'm very pleased with the services provided by everyone at Mars Hill. 

- Norma P., Georgetown, Texas

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Edward Lui was very professional and prompt. He had my house leased within two weeks after signing a contract. This is after my house was bound for 3 months in a contract with another property management company in Georgetown, Texas who was doing nothing to get my house leased.

- Pam C., Oklahoma

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