Rental Property Management FAQ for Minnesota Owners

Freedom charges a flat $125 a month per home, no matter what the rent is.

When we place a new tenant, the leasing fee is 50% of one month's rent ($995 minimum). A lease renewal, including a detailed inspection with photos, is $400. There is no markup on repair invoices.

Most owners spend about $1,000 to $1,300 getting a single-family home rent ready, before any repairs.

Plan on about 1.2% of the home's value per year, or around $3,600 for a $300,000 home.

That covers routine repairs and capital items. Townhomes usually run less and older homes a little more.

A turnover generally runs 1 to 1.5 times the monthly rent in maintenance, plus the leasing fee to place the next tenant.

Every turnover includes re-keying, professional cleaning, refreshing normal wear-and-tear items, and fixing things the last tenant never reported. Utilities during the vacancy are yours too. That's why keeping a good tenant with a fair renewal usually beats chasing top-dollar rent.

Yes, special trips you request are billed at the trip charge and hourly rate in your management agreement.

Examples include meeting an appraiser, contractor, HOA manager or city inspector, checking for hail damage, or picking up mail. The annual inspection with a photo report is part of the lease renewal fee, not an extra trip.

No. Vendor invoices are passed to you at cost, and every charge appears on your monthly owner statement.

Our full fee schedule is published on our pricing page. Some companies offer a free handyman or a below-market management fee and make it back with maintenance markups or contracts that require you to sell through their agents.

You can, since anyone working under a Minnesota real estate broker can manage rentals, but part-time managers tend to struggle when something goes wrong.

Most agents focus on sales commissions, not the roughly $125 a month a rental pays. The trouble usually shows up later: a home that sits vacant for three months, a tenant who falls three months behind, or a tenant who pays $1 to stall an eviction. Handling those well takes knowledge of Minnesota's tenant-friendly laws and processes built for volume.

The home has to be clean, repaired, empty of your belongings, and have utilities on before we list it.

• Walls clean or freshly painted, with no obvious touch-up spots
• Carpets professionally cleaned, or replaced if worn or damaged
• Personal property removed, such as a lawn mower (or we can remove it)
• Working windows and doors, with at least two keys for each lock
• Blinds in bedrooms and bathrooms
• Working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
• Appliances, fixtures and mechanical systems clean and working
• A city rental license, if your city requires one

No. We start marketing only once the home is rent ready, because we often rent homes in a few days.

Signing a lease for a specific move-in date while work is unfinished leads to rushed, expensive fixes and an unhappy tenant from day one. Prospects also have little vision for what an unfinished home will become, and rarely come back for a second look.

We often rent homes within a few days of listing, using 24/7 self-showings and listings on 15 or more rental sites.

Your listing goes to Zillow, Apartments.com, Rent.com, Realtor.com and more, and we answer new leads within a minute. Vacant homes get a keypad lock so qualified prospects can tour at any hour. Each one must verify a driver's license and pass a qualification questionnaire first, and a cloud camera records every visit. Occupied homes are always shown in person.

The market sets the rent based on what else is available, not what the home costs you to own.

We talk through rent with you at the start and again before every renewal. If our number and yours are more than a few hundred dollars apart, we may not take the home on, since listing above market just extends the vacancy. If the numbers don't work as a rental, we can help you sell instead.

After the initial term, the agreement continues and can be canceled anytime with proper written notice.

We don't make you re-sign every year. We may ask you to refresh your owner paperwork about every five years, and it's online. If our pricing changes, it's generally in January, and we notify you in writing first.

Yes. The setup fee is $125 when a tenant is in place, and we take over the lease, deposit, keys and move-in records.

We prefer to hold the security deposit, since we become responsible for it, but we can let you keep an inherited tenant's deposit if needed. Leases signed before we arrive may need updating at renewal.

No. We offer full-service management only, not one-time tenant placement.

Our pricing isn't much more than what other companies charge to place a tenant, and summer is our busiest season serving the owners we manage full time.

No. We don't manage furnished homes, because very few long-term renters want furniture or will pay more for it.

Tracking used furniture, charging tenants for damage, and figuring depreciation adds cost without adding rent. We recommend selling the furniture before you rent the home.

Sometimes, for an additional fee, because the inspections and housing office paperwork take much more time.

Contact us about your property and we'll talk through whether it's a fit.

No. Those guarantees usually require letting the company set a below-market rent to draw a crowd.

Our goal is to get you the best return, which means pricing the home right and marketing it hard, not giving away rent to hit a deadline.

Applicants need combined income of at least 3 times the rent, a credit score of 600 or higher, under $1,000 in collections, and no eviction writs in the last 5 years.

We also require savings of at least 2 times the monthly rent and good references from current and past landlords. We pull credit, employment and rental history, eviction, foreclosure, bankruptcy and sex offender records. A guarantor or a larger deposit can offset a small gap, but bad credit with active collections is an automatic decline.

No. We apply the same written criteria to every applicant, which protects both of us from fair housing claims.

Federal privacy rules under the Fair Credit Reporting Act also mean we can't share applicants' credit reports. Once someone is approved, we're happy to share high-level details about them. You do set the pet rules for your home, including breed, size and number, and we follow your HOA's rules too.

Yes. A cosigner or a larger security deposit can help an applicant who falls a little short on income or credit.

Cosigners apply alongside the tenant, are listed on the lease, and are responsible for both rent and damages. We've had good success enforcing those agreements. A double or triple deposit can also secure the lease for an applicant with less-than-perfect credit.

We recommend 12-month leases and won't sign anything over 18 months without your written permission.

A 12-month lease lets you raise the rent, move back in, sell, or replace a tenant at the end of the term. Two- or three-year leases lock you in if things change. Shorter leases sometimes make sense, since they can command premium rent and line up move-outs with the busy summer season.

We use a 17-page, owner-friendly Minnesota lease that we update as laws change.

You're involved in special terms, such as finishing a fence, adding a refrigerator, or adjusting the rent. Most day-to-day lease matters we handle for you.

Yes, but more than 70% of renters have a dog or cat, so a no-pets rule cuts out most of your applicants.

It also pushes more people to get an emotional support animal letter, and by law those animals must be accepted without a pet fee. You choose the restrictions for your home, such as breed, size and number.

No. Instead, pet owners pay a security deposit of one month's rent plus $300, because a pet deposit can only cover pet damage while a security deposit covers any damage or unpaid rent.

Tenants with pets also pay a monthly pet fee. It funds pet screening and gives you a $1,000 pet-damage benefit beyond the deposit, plus $25,000 of pet-bite liability coverage. Tenants are always responsible for the full cost of damage they or their pets cause. Service animals and emotional support animals can't be charged a pet fee, so the $1,000 benefit doesn't apply to them.

No. We're the tenant's only point of contact, which keeps you anonymous and keeps requests going through the lease.

Tenants often prefer going straight to an owner because it's easier to get their way. Having us in the middle means repairs, lease rules and money are handled consistently and on the record.

Up to $500. Above that we contact you first, except for emergencies, move-in items and habitability issues.

Emergencies like a burst pipe, a sewer backup, or no heat in winter have to be handled right away to protect the home and stay within the law. Sometimes the cost isn't clear until a technician is on site, and stopping mid-job would still cost you the trip charge.

Emergencies get a response within 5 to 8 hours, urgent repairs within 2 to 4 business days, and normal repairs within 4 to 8 business days.

While the home is vacant, yes, subject to our inspection. Once a tenant moves in, we use our own vendor network.

Our vendors receive work orders in our software, contact the tenant directly, report back, and upload invoices within a week. An outside vendor doing an occasional job won't follow that process, and Minnesota requires a licensed contractor for plumbing and electrical work on a rented home.

Usually not. Warranty delays can expose you to a Minnesota Emergency Tenant Remedies Action after only 24 hours' notice.

Warranty companies make money by denying, delaying or capping claims, and a week-long wait for a refrigerator repair is common. We recommend canceling and putting the premium into your maintenance reserve.

No, but you should use it yourself while the home is vacant, before we place a tenant.

Minnesota's statutory new home warranty covers workmanship and materials for 1 year, plumbing, electrical and HVAC installation for 2 years, and major construction defects for 10 years. Defects must be reported to the builder in writing within six months of discovery. Builder service departments don't work in our software or meet emergency repair timelines.

Tenants handle routine items like light bulbs, batteries, furnace filters, tripped GFCI outlets and garbage disposal resets.

Some items are better paid for by the owner, such as changing bulbs 10 feet up in a two-story room, cleaning gutters or trimming trees, where a typical tenant isn't qualified and it creates a safety risk.

Tenants usually handle mowing and snow under the lease, and we hire it out while the home is vacant.

Trimming, edging, weeding and watering are where tenants fall short, especially with an active HOA or city inspector. We require tenants to keep up with it, and sometimes hire a crew to keep you clear of violations. You can arrange vacant-home lawn and snow care yourself if you prefer.

Yes. We schedule irrigation startup and shutdown, humidifier and air exchanger filters, and annual HVAC service, billed to you.

Our HVAC vendor runs a custom program for our homes. During the annual visit they also change the furnace humidifier filter, test the sump pump, and check items specific to that home, which is why we don't send annual servicing to outside HVAC companies.

Rent collected in a month usually reaches your bank account around the 12th to 14th.

Rent is due on the 1st and goes into a trust account for you. Between the 7th and 9th we send your owner statement and payment, since about 90% of tenants have paid by then. ACH deposits take 4 to 5 business days, so plan to have your mortgage covered from other funds on the 1st. Late payments get a second owner payment around the 24th.

Yes. Our AppFolio owner portal lets you view and download statements, financial records and documents anytime.

Tenants have their own portal and mobile app to pay rent, submit repair requests and give notice, which keeps everything documented.

We hold the deposit in a trust account, and Minnesota requires 1% simple annual interest to the tenant, which is billed to you.

Interest is paid when the deposit is returned at move-out, taken from collected rents. When we take over an existing tenant, we prefer to hold the deposit too, but you can keep it if needed.

Yes. We issue a 1099 to you and the IRS by January 31 for the rent we collected on your behalf.

Your monthly owner statements also account for most of your property expenses, which you report on Schedule E of your tax return.

We review rent at every renewal based on the market, and we don't do automatic across-the-board increases.

New tenants start at market rent. The first renewal is usually a soft increase that keeps a good tenant slightly below market, since a turnover costs far more than a small rent bump.

You keep utilities in your name while the home is vacant, and city water, sewer and trash stay in your name at all times.

City utilities are lienable, so unpaid bills can end up on your property taxes, and more cities don't let tenants take over billing anyway. If you get an unexpected overage, like a large trash pickup or a water and sewer bill over $110 in a month, send it to us and we'll bill the tenant and reimburse you.

Unless you or the tenant give 60 days' notice, a qualified tenant is offered another year, as long as the home inspects well.

If you want to move back in or sell, tell us in writing more than 120 days before the lease ends so the tenant gets plenty of notice. The renewal fee covers a detailed inspection with a photo report, a market rent review, and the new lease.

Anything that threatens life, health or the property, including no heat, and Minnesota now also treats a failed refrigerator, water heater or air conditioner as an emergency.

Other examples are fire, flooding, sewage backups, gas odors, broken water pipes, and the only toilet in the house not working. State law requires the home to heat to at least 68 degrees. A lockout, an oven that doesn't work, or utilities shut off for the tenant's nonpayment are not emergencies.

It's a Minnesota court action a tenant can file after giving just 24 hours' notice of an emergency problem like no heat, hot water or a working refrigerator.

Hearings are usually held within 3 to 7 business days. The court can order immediate repairs, reduced rent, hotel costs and attorney fees, and fines apply if repairs aren't finished on time. A warranty company's schedule is not a defense.

Usually about two months from the missed rent to a court-ordered outcome.

Filing costs about $400 depending on the county, plus about $900 in legal fees, paid by the owner. Most cases end in a court-ordered payment plan to catch up within about two months. If the tenant misses it, a writ of possession costs about $650 more and the sheriff typically acts within one to two weeks.

Damage beyond normal wear and tear, plus unpaid rent and fees, but never normal wear and tear.

Minnesota judges can fine an owner 2 to 3 times an improper deduction, so we make calls we can defend. Useful life matters: most carpet lasts about 6 years, so a tenant can't be charged for stains on 7-year-old carpet.

Minnesota gives you 21 days after the tenant vacates to return the deposit or send an itemized list of deductions.

Deductions can include unpaid rent, late fees, NSF charges and damage. If there are no deductions, the full deposit is refunded with interest. Tenants can attend the move-out inspection, and a pre-move-out inspection is required so they can fix problems first.

Under the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, the tenant can generally stay through the end of their lease.

Lenders often push tenants out anyway, and most tenants don't fight it. Tell us early if a home is heading toward foreclosure so we can handle the tenant relationship with care.

Many Twin Cities suburbs and Minneapolis do, and the license must be in place before we start marketing.

Requirements, inspection intervals and fees vary by city. Our city pages list the rental licensing rules for each city we serve.

Our lease gives tenants two defined exit options, both of which protect your rent.

• Option 1: pay a fee of one month's rent and keep paying rent and utilities until a new tenant's lease starts
• Option 2: pay two months' rent for an immediate move-out
• Either option adds $500 if the move-out falls between October and March, the slow rental season

You put the utilities back in your name, we inspect, and any belongings of value are stored for 28 days as Minnesota law requires.

Abandonment usually shows up as unpaid rent, a utility shutoff notice, or a tenant who stops responding. We can't dispose of anything of value without following the law.

If no one else is on the lease, Minnesota requires a 60-day lease termination process with the family, and rent is owed by the estate.

Minnesota doesn't allow a lease-break fee in this case. It often takes 10 or more hours of management time, billed at the hourly rate in your agreement. Owner insurance is available for these rare situations.

We recommend a collection agency we trust, which skip-traces the tenant, seeks a payment plan or judgment, and keeps 50% of what it collects.

It costs you nothing upfront and takes little of your time. Small claims or district court are other options. The debt also goes on the tenant's credit report, where future landlords will see it.

Yes, and your tenant can be the easiest buyer, though most tenants buy a different home.

We're licensed Realtors and can advise on the best strategy for an occupied home. When a tenant gives notice, tell us if you want to sell, since a vacant home shows much better. If you list with an outside agent, our management ends before showings begin.

Give written notice as your management agreement describes, and we'll hand over all documents, deposits and funds.

The cleanest time to switch is between tenants. If a tenant is in place, everything transfers to you or your new manager, and any amounts due under the agreement are charged then. We use checklists so nothing is missed.