Realtor Frequently Asked Questions

• We love paying referrals! Our team offers a 20% referral to any agent who refers us to an Owner client with an income property that needs to be leased. We understand that your time is better served going procuring sales listings vs. being bogged down with the cumbersome and risky details of leasing a property and we’d love to help!
• What happens when my Owner wants to sell the house? Will you try to represent them?
  • Absolutely not. We never have and we never will. (We have plenty of Top Agents in Marin who can serve as a reference.) Our philosophy is that this is your client and we are working with you to offer them the best leasing and management service while they are with us. When the time comes for your client to sell their house, we want you to reap the benefits of nurturing that relationship. We’re happy to put this is writing for you as well. However, it’s worth noting that if you listed a home at one point in time, then that owner decides to rent and comes to us on his/her own through our normal marketing and reputation, that is considered an organic source of business. If you intend to refer us a client please make sure we are aware of your referral! See the form at the bottom of the page to make it easy!
• Does Foundation Homes sell properties?
  • Yes, but we only sell certain listings of clients we have organically procured on our own as a business . If you refer us a property we will not sell it. Also, note that while we do sell a few of our clients’ homes each year, we do refer out several million dollars in sales listings each year as well.

Unfortunately, no, we get many calls daily from tenants seeking our assistance and we are unable to offer referrals for these leads.

Liability and Reputation. Renting a property in California is not as simple as it used to be; Fair Housing is complicated and the risks are significant if you don’t know what you’re doing. (We can’t tell you how many agent mistakes we see out there every month.) We are educated and have policies and procedures in place to protect Owners from potential litigation. Additionally, we are better positioned to advise and service your rental clients. Leasing properties is our business and we have an in depth knowledge of what the rental market is doing at any given time. We understand the ins and outs of the leasing process and have developed a streamlined approach to marketing, showing and leasing a home. We also have a Tenant vetting process that qualifies applicants in a fair, firm and consistent manner. When you refer us to your landlord clients, we’ll make you look good!

We are always happy to share our leasing commission when a listing is on MLS. (See next FAQ.) However, many agents call on our craigslist, Zillow or other listings, before they are on MLS. In this case, while we will allow you to represent your tenant client if you wish, we will not offer a commission. Our listings generally go on MLS for the agent community about two weeks after they hit the online market.

Yes and we make it easy! However we have a couple ground rules:1) The listing must be on the MLS. 2)You need to be the first person to call with your client to get credit for procuring the applicant. 3) You need to show the property to your client. After that, we will handle the application process and work to expedite the transaction.