Owner FAQs

Virginia law requires any owner with more than a 10% ownership interest in more than 4 rental properties to accept housing vouchers. Any owner with 4 or less is not required to accept Housing Choice Vouchers (formerly Section 8)

Yes. In Virginia, property managers are required to hold a Real Estate license if they discuss pricing, show houses or negotiate leases.

Yes, we prefer to process owner proceeds electronically via ACH Deposit. This ensures you receive your funds as quickly as possible.

You do not need to sign the Lease agreement, we will take care of that on your behalf. All documents associated with your property will be uploaded to your portal and shared with you.

Yes, we are licensed Realtors and Brokers in Virginia. We can assist with all of your real estate needs.

We guarantee if the tenant pays their rent on time your deposit will be processed by the 10th of each month.

Rent is due on the 1st of each month with a 4-day grace period. We prefer electronic payments through the resident’s online portal; however, checks by mail are welcome. We do NOT accept cash. All payments must be received by 5 pm on the 5th of each month to avoid any late charges.

We typically do an initial term of 1 year but we can do up to 2 years if desired. We typically do not recommend signing leases over two years as you will be limited on any changes including rent increases to the contract for the term of the agreement.

While a property is vacant, you are welcome to do whatever make-ready work you would like to do on your property. When a tenant is living in the property, we do need to screen who is accessing the property for the protection of the tenant-residents. Therefore we will use our pre-screened and pre-approved vendors. If you have a favorite vendor please give us their contact information – we are always looking to add new high quality vendors to our group!

We perform an annual mid-lease property inspection. The purpose of this inspection is to ensure the property is being well cared for, there are no lease violations, and to look for potential deferred maintenance issues before they become a problem.

Although you do NOT have to accept pets in your rental, over 70% of all tenants come with pets. That means that if you choose NOT to accept pets, you are reducing your prospective inquiries by 70%. We do recommend our owner-clients allow pets, and we provide our owner-clients with a $1,000 damage guarantee.

No. We assure you that we prioritize minimizing the risk of having a low-quality tenant. Our thorough applicant screening process has successfully assessed over 10,000 applicants, enabling us to identify the essential qualities of high-quality tenants. Furthermore, we strictly adhere to all fair housing rules and regulations.

GEM Realty Group holds all tenant security deposits in our security deposit escrow account. This is done to comply with Virginia State security deposit and escrow accounting rules and regulations as determined by the Virginia Real Estate Board.

No. Some property management companies offer only limited services for discounted pricing; some firms are designed for owners who like to be very involved in the day-to-day management of their homes; and some firms (like GEM Realty Group) are full service firms designed to handle ALL aspects of the property management experience.

No. Our property management agreement is designed to give our owner-clients maximum flexibility (it provides an option to terminate w/ 30 notice and NO termination fees or penalties). It is also designed to allow us to serve our owner-clients with a consistent, high-quality, full-service management experience every time.

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Your management company, GEM Realty has partnered with Obligo, qualified renters can skip paying a security deposit at move-in and live deposit-free. Alternatively, qualified mid-lease residents can live deposit-free and apply their previously paid security deposit to rent.

Obligo charges renters a fee for our service (a small percentage of their security requirement), allowing them to keep their cash to invest, save, or spend!

Residents extend a billing authorization to Obligo via one or more payment methods, allowing you to charge them up to the security amount for damages, cleaning or missed rent.

If you submit a charge at move-out, our platform will initiate your ACH payment immediately and then collect the owed amount from your resident.

For property managers, Obligo powers a better resident experience, streamlines operations, and helps you comply with security deposit regulations.

Additionally, we can collect traditional cash deposits and other move-in payments electronically. Contact GEM Realty to find out more about these options.

With a traditional deposit, residents pay a large sum in advance, before there’s any actual reason for charging such an amount. With Obligo, they only pay for damages or missed rent if you submit a charge at move-out.

It’s similar to a traditional deposit in that:

It gives residents an incentive to take good care of their rental unit because they’re still accountable if there are damages or missed rent charges.

It preserves your ability to get cash immediately, as soon as a charge is submitted, as if you had a traditional cash deposit.

It preserves resident rights to dispute charges directly with you or via small claims court.

Deposit-free properties are quicker to lease, easier to manage, and more attractive to residents. You will save hours on administrative tasks, and your residents will appreciate keeping the cash to invest, save, travel, or spend as they please.