The term “property management” refers to the daily supervision of residential, commercial, or industrial real estate by a third-party contractor. Property managers essentially act as an intermediary between rental property owners (landlords) and renters, handling the day-to-day operations and ongoing upkeep of real estate investment properties.

A property manager manages the day-to-day operations of your property. These responsibilities may include screening tenant applications, collecting rent, answering tenant questions, and performing repairs and maintenance.

Property managers are in charge of the efficient management of residential and commercial properties. This includes determining rates, marketing and filling vacancies, managing tenant relations, and overseeing maintenance.

If you are a property owner who do not want to go with traditional renting methods.

We also cater to homeowners who plan to take a 12-month or longer vacation. Instead of leaving their homes unattended, they can turn it into a profit-making machine.

If your property is already furnished and ready to go, the setup process will be quick. After we assess your home, we can usually have your listing up and running in 14 days or less. 

We specialize in high-end luxury properties, such as full houses, apartments, and guest houses.

Our properties are in popular tourist destinations, such as the central business district, seaside tourist hotspots, rural properties, the hinterland, and near sporting venues and hospitals.

Yes. As stated in the California Business & Professional Code §10131, property managers are required to have a real estate broker’s license. That said, our broker is Kevin Boer, BRE 01404898. He got his California Real Estate Salesperson License in 2003, and his Broker’s license in 2007. He now has over a decade of experience in property management and is now a member of local, state, and national Realtor associations.

Yes, there will be a standard agreement signed for you to be onboarded to our portfolio of properties. We will go over the agreement with you and answer any questions you may have.

It all depends on your home’s size, location, condition, and dates available. Call us at 650.387.2860 or email us at info@CertusManagers.com for an estimate.  

Broadly we manage pricing across a few different levels:

a) algorithmically set prices, that respond to market supply and demand dynamics, multiple times a day;

b) overarching strategies based on our experience and data insights to account for any broad market changes (i.e. school holidays, events, border restrictions;

c) individual review and performance optimization of properties that show low bookability scores (i.e. gets lower performance than we’d expect).

As far as we know, our approach to revenue and pricing is the most robust in the APAC region and matches or even exceeds what some of the most sophisticated players in this industry do.

The properties we manage have unique traits and requirements. It is our job to craft an experience that is suitable for you and the guests. To learn how much you can earn with your Airbnb property, please contact us.

We charge 25% plus expenses.  Please email us at info@CertusManagers.com or call us at +1.650.387.2860 for details, but here are some examples of what our fee includes:

• Marketing your home on all the major sites like Airbnb and VRBO
• Vetting the guests
• Supervising the cleaning
• Managing the guest experience, like check in, mid-stay cleanings, and check-out
• Handling the guest payments, paying expenses, and paying you
• Washing the bedding and towels
• Providing the bedding, towels, and hotel-style soaps and shampoos

The homeowner covers the following expenses:

• Site fees:  Airbnb charges 3%, VRBo charges 8%, etc.
• Home ownership expenses:  The homeowner pays the mortgage, property tax, insurance, gardening, utilities, repairs, etc.
• Safety equipment:  Many cities require short-term rentals to have a fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide and smoke detector, and first-aid kit.  If your home doesn’t already have these, we can provide them and bill you at cost.
• Insurance:  In the unlikely event something happens, we recommend having an insurance policy that specifically covers short-term rental activities.

Note that we also offer a 35% model in which we cover more expenses than above.  Contact us for details.

Our guests tend to fall into four categories:

• Stanford visitors coming for graduation, to study at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for the summer, or to visit the hospital.  We’ve hosted Stanford-related guests from all over the US, Canada, and Europe, as well as China, India, Armenia, Brazil, and Mexico, Indonesia and many other countries.
• Families visiting relatives and friends, or coming to attend Stanford Summer Camps, especially for robotics and programming.
• Business professionals who prefer to stay in nice homes with kitchens rather than in cookie-cutter hotel rooms.
• Short term visitors who need housing while they search for a permanent place, such as folks who have relocated for business or whose homes are being remodeled.

For more information, contact our team here, or call us on +1 (650) 387 2860.

We follow stringent rules to sift potential guests before accepting their booking. If a certain person does not have reviews on their profile, we will request verification of their identity.

We can also examine their ID before checking in. If we are still unsure about the potential guest, we will discuss the matter with you. More often than not, we will not allow the booking to go through.

When you’re going on vacation, it’s a good idea to securely lock all valuables, store them at a friend’s house, or put them in a safety deposit box.

Your property is not required to be a rental all year round. However, we recommend it serves as a rental for most days of the year.

If you, a family member, or friend would like to stay in the property, you should contact us right away. Alternatively, you can block out days so no reservations will be accepted during a specific period.

Our understanding is that depending on your situation, the rental income, less our management fees, may be taxable, and there may be some other expenses you can write off.

You’ll want to talk to your accountant to find out.

Note that the IRS requires us to issue 1099s.

Each city has its own laws about short-term rentals, and they’re often similar to laws for hotels, such as requiring certain safety equipment or remitting occupancy tax.  If there is an occupancy tax, most sites collect that from guests and remit to the local authorities.  If the site doesn’t do that, we can do so on your behalf.

You’ll want to check with your city to see what rules apply to your situation.

Certainly!  We’re happy to make sure guests don’t use your master bedroom, workout room, basement, garage, or pool, for instance.

Homeowners sometimes put their clothing, personal pictures, sentimental or valuable items, etc. out of sight.   We can work with you to take them away, put them in your garage or storage unit, and bring them back prior to your return.

All bills will be covered by the homeowner as per the agreement.

The possibility is open. Since many short-term guests are looking for rentals in all price ranges, we can secure your property a good spot in the market listing. This is especially the case for homes with minimal furnishing and furniture.

Yes, we have our own cleaners, and yes you can have your own cleaning person do the work. However, cleaning short-term rentals is more like hotel cleaning than regular home cleaning, and our past experience shows that homeowners’ regular cleaners usually aren’t a great fit. Our contract cleaners know our working SOPs at this point, but if your personal cleaners have a schedule flexible enough to accommodate varying guest arrivals and departures, we are keen on teaching them how to clean for short-term rentals.