Features of our Property Management Services

Affordable "Performance Based" Fee Structure
We offer different fee structures from which you can choose based on your budget and desires.  Our fees are based on performance. The more income we generate for you the better we are compensated. If you are not getting paid then we are not getting paid either. Back to Top

Direct Deposit/Automatic Debiting
At your option we can send your net rental income by check or "direct deposit" it into your bank account. There is no additional charge for either option. Tenant's can also make payments electronically and automatically. Back to Top

Professional Property Managers
We want to make the "management" experience painless. Your property manager is your personal service representative to coordinate all of the information about your property. These experienced professionals can make better recommendations to you so that more problems can be avoided. While the manager's job often requires them to be out of the office, each manager has their own personal assistant that is in the office each day during office hours. If you have a question related to your property, whether related to bookkeeping, maintenance, leasing, or anything else, just contact your property manager, or their assistant, and they will take care of it. Back to Top

Fully Insured
General Liability ($1,000.000.00)  |  Professional Liability (E & O) ($1,000,000)
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If your property manager makes a mistake that costs you a lot of money, does that manager have the capability of reimbursing you? The court may give you a "judgment" against your manager but what would keep the manager from declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying the claim? Most of our competitors do not carry Errors & Omissions insurance. Our insurance policy offers up to $1,000,000.00 of protection. Back to Top

Worker's Compensation
Every person that performs work on a property managed by Excalibur is required to be covered by worker's compensation insurance. In this way if someone were to get injured on the property it doesn't become a "liability" claim subject to "pain & suffering" and so many other issues which can become costly. Back to Top

Detailed background checks on Applicants
"How do you check the tenant's background/references"?
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Available 24 Hours to handle emergencies
Excalibur's  managers and maintenance technicians are on an "on-call" rotation to respond to emergencies 24 hours a day. Back to Top

Full Service Office open Monday - Friday
You, or your tenants, can meet with us face to face five days a week. Many of our competitors operate from their homes and are not available for meetings except at the property or some other neutral location. Back to Top

Detailed Monthly Reporting & Annual Summaries
We provide a detailed accounting of all income and expenses monthly. We also provide a year end summary with your Form 1099 to help with your tax return. We can print an mail your statements or we can email it to you. Back to Top

Effective Marketing and Leasing Program
Our marketing manager specializes in marketing all properties currently available for rent to better coordinate all advertising, promotion, and showing efforts. This includes extensive promotion on several national web sites plus our own web site with property descriptions and digital photos. We can also use newspaper advertising, when necessary. Back to Top

We have several leasing agents which makes it possible to show your property at almost any time. Our voicemail system and web page enable prospective tenants to find out all about your property, including directions to drive by, 24 hours a day. They can choose to have an agent call to set up a showing appointment and the agent on call is paged by the system. Back to Top

Maintenance
We maintain relationships with several contractors that provide us with priority handling and often charge us at discounted rates due to the amount of business we represent. This enables us to get repair work done more quickly from vendors that will stand behind their work.
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Request Information
We want to answer all of your questions promptly and completely. We have a package of information which can be sent to you in a matter of moments. It includes several items including our management agreement and a copy of the lease form we use. Just complete and send us the form below and the package will be emailed to you immediately. Back to Top

How long will it take to rent my property?
We will recommend a rental rate and terms that we think will attract a qualified tenant within 30 days. Market conditions vary and we can't make any guarantees as to when we will get a qualified applicant. Some properties lease immediately. Others take longer. We will provide you with updates as we get feedback from the market so that we can modify the price or terms if necessary. Back to Top

How do you determine the rental rate?
We manage several hundred rental homes. We also have access to listing information on many more units through the multiple listing service and internet. After inspecting your home we can make recommendations to you on items that might enhance your homes value. Once we know your home and your goals we can use our knowledge of the current market situation to recommend a rental rate. It's your property- we recommend and you decide. Back to Top

How will you advertise/market my property?
Almost all of our applicants tell us they found the house on the internet. Excalibur posts properties on several national web sites in addition to our own site. We also use signs and newspaper ads to promote properties we manage. We analyze each property based on its own unique circumstances to design a specific marketing plan which promotes your property under the most favorable conditions. Back to Top

How do you check the applicant's credit/reference history?
One of the most important aspects of making your experience as a Landlord rewarding is placing the right tenant in your property. While no one can discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, or familial status we can discriminate on the basis of credit and rental history.

Once we have an application generated from our marketing efforts we conduct a detailed background check on the applicants. We want to make sure we avoid the applicants that know how to hide their previous bad credit and landlord history. Some applicants can be very deceptive, even to the point of having friends or family members pose as former landlords or employers so that the information sounds good to the landlord conducting the background check.

To reduce the possibility of being deceived by an applicant Excalibur uses a multi-tiered background check to cross-reference each applicant. Our background checks consist of:

Our agents will ask to see a picture ID to confirm that the person on whom we are about to run the background check is the same person that will reside in the property. Some applicants will use another person's name and social security number so that you won't see their true credit.

We are on-line with CBI/Equifax and pull an original credit report on the individual. We compare the addresses from the credit bureau with the addresses on the application. We examine their credit history carefully to look for other payment problems.

We send the information through a company called National Tenant Network, which has a database of Magistrate's Court filings in major cities. They scan their database to see if the applicant has had dispossessory warrants filed against them, which often don't show up on a credit report.

We will contact their employer to confirm their source of income. To ensure that we are talking to the correct party we will cross reference using the telephone book to ensure that the company does exist, that the applicant and "supervisor" really do work there, and that the "supervisor" can validate the applicant's employment. Some applicant's have had us call a co-worker who would validate a higher income than that which the applicant actually earns.

The most important indication of the applicant's qualifications is often the landlord reference. Verifying residency with another professional property manager is normally simple, straight forward, and accurate. However, most residents of single-family homes lease directly from the property's owner. After contacting the individual listed on the application and asking a series of questions regarding the applicant's rental history, we try to verify that we are talking to the legitimate landlord.

We have the ability to check property ownership based on county property tax records. When the landlord is an individual we try to cross check the tax records to ensure we are talking to the actual owner. On several occasions we have caught applicants trying to deceive us by giving us a name and telephone number of their "landlord" who was actually a friend or acquaintance. When we reached the actual owner and got the correct information their application was denied.   

A thorough background check is crucial to avoid costly mistakes with your property. A bad tenant can be a very expensive ordeal due to lost rent; extra time spent having to deal with them, and damage to the property. While no background check can eliminate the risk of a problem tenant, our thorough examination of their rental history can significantly reduce your risk. Back to Top

How much do you charge to lease my home?
Generally we charge a fee equal to one month's rent to place a tenant for a one year lease term. We call this a "Procurement Fee". We offer discounts for owners that have multiple properties. These discounts are quoted on a case by case basis. Our procurement fee comes with a 12 month prorated warranty. If the tenant does not stay for the full term of the lease then we will refund part of the procurement fee based on the ratio of the number of months of rent not paid by the tenant during the term. For example, if your tenant paid the rent for 9 months and then moved out, you would receive a 25% refund of the procurement fee charged based on the 3 months (3/12 equals 25%) that they did not pay rent during the remainder of the lease term. This warranty is described in more detail in our management agreement.
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Who collects the rent? When do I get paid?
The tenant makes all payments to Excalibur. The security deposits are maintained in one escrow account. All rents and other payments are deposited into a separate escrow account. We will deduct our management fee and any other expenses that have been authorized and we send the balance to you. We send out statements on the 9th of each month (or the next business day thereafter). We also do statements on the 23rd for clients that choose to have us charge a reduced management fee. We can mail you a check with the statement or we can deposit the money directly into your bank account for you (direct deposit). Back to Top

What happens if the tenant doesn't pay the rent?
In our lease form we give the tenant a 5 day grace period to pay the rent on time. On the 6th we tell the computer to post late fees for any tenants that have not paid yet. Then "Demand Letters" are generated and mailed. Under Georgia law we must first notify the tenant that they are in default on the lease and the Landlord must "demand possession" of the property before a dispossessory warrant can be requested from the court. We send these demand letters out on the 6th. We will try to contact the tenant and find out why the rent hasn't been paid. 

If we still haven't received the rent by the middle of the month, depending on the particular circumstances with each tenant, we start filing warrants. As necessary we will go to court, arrange to get the "writ of possession" from the court and, if necessary, meet the sheriff at the property with a "put out" crew to remove the tenant and their things from the property. Why the tenant can't pay the rent is not really relevant. What ever their circumstances, they do not become your own personal charity case. We can help tenants with legitimate problems find help from different charitable organizations. But we are retained by you to protect your interests.  If the tenant can't pay the rent we need to find a new tenant that can. Back to Top

What happens if the tenant has a maintenance problem
The tenant contacts us to report all maintenance problems. We can be reached any time of the day or night including holidays. Our property managers rotate being "on call" so that someone can always be available to handle emergencies. Upon receiving an "emergency maintenance" message our voicemail system will page the manager on call so that we can get the emergency under control.

In the management agreement you set a "repair limit" which tells us when, based on the estimated cost of the repair, you want to be involved in handling a maintenance problem. For non-emergencies, we will contact you first or we will handle the repair on your behalf depending on the repair limit you set. You can choose a dollar limit of zero or some higher figure at your option. Please note that this repair limit is based on non-emergency repairs. We will handle emergencies immediately, based on our judgment and experience, to protect your property from suffering any further damage. Back to Top

How much do you charge to manage my property?
Generally speaking we charge  8%, 7%, or 6% of the amount we collect from the tenant as our management fee. There is no minimum monthly fee.  If you don't get paid - we don't get paid!   For owners that choose to have their statements sent out on the 9th of the month AND they want the statement mailed by U.S. Post, the management fee is 8%. By choosing to have your statements and net rental proceeds sent to you at the end of each month (around the 23rd) instead of on the 9th of each month we will reduce your fee by 1%. If you choose to have your statements sent via email then we will reduce your fee by an additional 1%. Back to Top

Can I sell the property to the tenant?
Yes! If you (we) sell the property to a tenant that Excalibur placed, our management agreement sets out that you will pay Excalibur 3.5% of the purchase price. After all, Excalibur brought you the "buyer". We will help prepare the contracts, arrange financing, and coordinate all of the tasks required to successfully close the sale. Back to Top

Can I sell the property to someone else if the tenant can't buy it?
Yes! Many leases include a clause that allows the tenant to terminate the lease early in exchange for paying certain penalties. Our lease form also has a clause that allows the owner to terminate the lease early. If you need to sell your property, and the tenant is not willing or able to buy it, we would try to get the tenant on a month to month basis so you can sell the property and only be required to give the tenant a 30 day notice to vacate.

If you can't wait until the lease term expires then the clause described above still gives you the option to sell the property even though the lease hasn't expired. Our management agreement places no limit on you selling the property to someone other than the tenant. You can sell it yourself, list it for sale with another broker, or list it for sale with Excalibur. Yes we also sell property (Excalibur Realty, LLC). As a matter of fact we have a great deal of experience selling property that is occupied by tenants. 

Does retaining a management company mean I won't have any problems with my property?
NO! If you own rental property then over a period of time you will have problems of one sort or another. Whether the problems are related to maintaining the property or dealing with the tenant there will be problems that need to be resolved. Retaining Excalibur to manage your property will eliminate some but not all potential problems. Our experience will help reduce the number of problems related to rental property. Those problems that can't be avoided must be solved. Our expertise will help reduce the aggravation and potentially higher expenses related to solving these problems. We can't keep all bad things from happening but we can handle solving the problem for you so that you don't have to handle it yourself. Back to Top

Over 20 years. We started as a sole proprietorship in January of 1985. We became a corporation in 1988.  As we took over another company in 1996, for tax purposes, we became an LLC. But the owner and managing broker has always been Mike Nelson.

View some of the remarks made by our clients and tenants about their experiences with Excalibur.Back to Top

Does retaining a management company mean I won't have any problems with my property?
NO! If you own rental property then over a period of time you will have problems of one sort or another. Whether the problems are related to maintaining the property or dealing with the tenant there will be problems that need to be resolved. Retaining Excalibur to manage your property will eliminate some but not all potential problems.

Our experience will help reduce the number of problems related to rental property. Those problems that can't be avoided must be solved. Our expertise will help reduce the aggravation and potentially higher expenses related to solving these problems. We can't keep all bad things from happening but we can handle solving the problem for you so that you don't have to handle it yourself. 

How long have you been in business?
Over 20 years. We started as a sole proprietorship in January of 1985. We became a corporation in 1988. As we took over another company in 1996, for tax purposes, we became an LLC. But the owner and managing broker has always been Mike Nelson.

Do you have any references?
View some of the remarks made by our clients and tenants about their experiences with Excalibur. Click here