FAQs for Property Owners

A property manager acts as your single point of contact for running a rental building day to day. You sign a management agreement, hand over the operational responsibilities, and the manager takes it from there — leasing units, collecting rent, coordinating repairs, handling tenant communication, and keeping the building compliant with NYC rules. You still own the property and make the big decisions (major renovations, refinancing, selling); we handle the execution and report back. At Yak Management, that reporting runs through a secure AppFolio owner portal so you can see income, expenses, and statements anytime. See our full property management service for the complete scope.

The core responsibilities fall into a few buckets:

• Leasing & marketing — pricing the unit, advertising it, and showing it to fill vacancies fast (our brokerage roots mean we routinely lease apartments in under 7 days).
• Tenant screening & placement — credit, income verification, rental history, and background review, applied consistently and within Fair Housing law.
• Rent collection & accounting — invoicing, collecting, chasing late payments, and monthly-style owner reporting.
• Maintenance & repairs — coordinating trusted vendors, handling emergencies, and prioritizing work by urgency.
• Compliance — HPD registration, inspections, rent-stabilization filings, and staying current on landlord-tenant law.

In short, we handle everything between you and the tenant so you don't have to be on call.

For most owners of multifamily buildings, yes — but the honest answer depends on your situation. A good manager tends to pay for itself by leasing units faster, screening tenants better, preventing costly compliance mistakes, and freeing up your time. If you own one unit next door and enjoy the work, self-managing can make sense. If you own a multifamily building, live far away, hold a full-time job, or own rent-stabilized apartments where a single filing error can be expensive, professional management usually wins on both money and peace of mind. We break down the real math in our self-managing vs. hiring guide, or schedule a property consultation and we'll tell you candidly whether it's worth it for your building.

Fees vary by building size, condition, services included, and how much hands-on management a property needs. Rather than quote a one-size-fits-all number, we price each building after understanding it. What matters more than the headline percentage is what's included and what a manager saves you — faster lease-ups, fewer vacancies, avoided violations, and reliable rent collection. See our pricing page and pricing FAQs for how we structure fees, or request a property consultation for a quote on your specific property.

Yes — it's our specialty. Yak Management has deep expertise in NYC rent stabilization, HPD compliance, subsidy programs, and inspections, which is rare among generic property managers. We handle DHCR registrations and rent filings, keep HPD registration current, prepare for and pass inspections, and protect tenants' subsidies while maximizing your legal, compliant returns. If your building has stabilized units or subsidized tenants, this is exactly the work we do every day.

Responsiveness is the core of our reputation — we hold a 5.0 Google rating built largely on communication. We aim to respond to owners the same day when possible and to tenants within 24 hours, and principals stay personally involved rather than routing you to a call center. Emergencies get immediate attention. During one extended winter freeze, our team coordinated multiple simultaneous emergency leaks while keeping every owner and tenant constantly informed.

Every owner gets access to a secure AppFolio owner portal with transparent, monthly-style reporting. You can log in anytime to view income and expenses, statements, maintenance activity, and documents — no waiting on a phone call or a mailed report. Rent is collected and tenant payments processed through AppFolio, so the numbers you see are current, not a month behind.

Yes, and it's more common than you'd think. Owners who transition to us from prior managers consistently report better communication, faster maintenance response, and stronger tenant relationships. We manage the handoff — collecting records, rent rolls, leases, and vendor information — so you're not stuck in the middle. In one case we rebuilt trust with a bedridden tenant who had refused access under prior management, gained entry, completed the repairs, and kept her subsidy intact. Reach out and we'll walk you through what a transition looks like.

Fast leasing is one of our biggest advantages. Yak Management grew out of the residential brokerage Pear NYC, so we bring a real leasing engine — pricing, marketing, and showings — to every building we manage. We routinely lease apartments in under 7 days and maintain a very low vacancy, full-occupancy track record. Every day a unit sits empty is lost rent, so speed here directly protects your return.

We're a boutique manager focused on residential multifamily buildings, from small 2-unit properties up to roughly 60-unit apartment buildings. Our portfolio has grown to nearly 400 units across NYC. Being boutique is deliberate: principals stay personally involved with every property, so you deal with the people who actually run your building rather than an account rep at a large firm.

We use professional screening software and a consistent, documented process: credit check, income verification, rental history, background review, and financial analysis. Just as important, we screen within the law — NYC's Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on protected classes and on source of income, so we apply the same objective standards to every applicant. Learn more about Fair Housing compliance or our tenant placement service.

Our home base is Brooklyn — our office is in Bed-Stuy at 1100 Bedford Avenue — and we manage buildings across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Harlem, Queens, and the greater NYC area. If you own a rental anywhere in New York City, get in touch and we'll let you know how we can help.