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Management

Cancelling Management With A Cancelling Tenant

Are You Cancelling Management Services With A Tenant Who Discontinued Their Lease?

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We understand that some Owners have chosen to terminate management services with Sage Living and their suite will no longer be rented by Sage Living.

This means the Owner will be provided vacant possession of their suite and may choose to rent or occupy the suite as they see fit.

Here are some important things to know when transitioning out of Sage Management with vacant occupancy:

1. Key Copies

Current Tenants will be vacating their suite as of August 27th. The Tenants are expected to return their key sets to the Sage Living office no later than August 27th at 2pm.

Collected key sets will be available to the Owners for pick-up as of August 28th at 2pm.

2. Move-Out Inspection

Owners have been provided their Tenant’s contact information and can contact their Tenant to coordinate a move-out inspection.

It is very important for the Owner to coordinate a move-out inspection with their Tenant and provide an invoice to the Tenant for any damaged items prior to the Tenant vacating the suite. Owners may not be able to collect from their Tenant should they provide an invoice after the Tenant has vacated the suite.

We encourage all Owners to coordinate their inspections prior to the end of August. As a reminder, our office will be closed to the public at the end of August and it is best you inspect the suite prior to our office being closed should your inspect result in any additional questions for Sage Living. Response times may be delayed between late August to mid September as a result of a higher than normal volume of communication.

3. Temporary Rent Hold

As a reminder, when an Owner cancels their management service with Sage Living, Sage will retain the last collected rent amount for a brief period of time. This month of rent is held to ensure any potentially outstanding invoices or amounts are applied to your account prior to releasing the funds.

Typically a majority of Owners will result in no additional deduction from this held amount. Once it has been determined that there are no additional costs or invoices, Sage will release the funds to the Owner. Without holding this amount, Sage would have to rely on additional resources to collect the amount owed from the Owner to Sage Living which may result in greater overall costs or delays.

This is a standard precautionary measure adopted to mitigate the loss for both the Owner and Sage Living. Funds will be released, less deductions if any, at the end of the 60 day period following the date where last rent collection was completed. Specific dates may vary and have been previously communicated in an email by our Accounting team directly to the Suite Owner.

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Cancelling Management With A Renewing Tenant

Are You Cancelling Management Services, But Your Tenant Chose To Renew Their Lease?

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We understand that some Owners have chosen to terminate management services with Sage Living, but their Tenant has chosen to renew their lease.

This means the Owner will be managing the Tenant with the current lease agreement in place.
Here are some important things to know:

Rent Collection.png

1. Rent Collection

It is now the Owner’s responsibility to contact the Tenant and coordinate rent collection.
If your management services are ending August, that means you will be responsible for collecting August rent from the Tenant.

Special Note: We encourage all Owners to collect rent from their Tenant as outlined by the Landlord and Tenant Board and Provincial Government. This means a Landlord / Owner cannot require a Tenant pay rent through a specific payment type. The Landlord / Owner is entitled to collect rent, but the Tenant can pay rent through their desired means (providing the Landlord / Owner is able to provide such payment option).

Example: An Owner cannot require a Tenant to pay by Post Dated Cheques. The Tenant is permitted to pay rent through their desired means of rent payment.

A Tenant can also not require an Owner collect rent through automatic debit or similar if the Owner is without this capability.

2. Key Deposits

Sage Living holds a private agreement between our office and the Tenant where our office secures a refundable key deposit in exchange for providing a key set to the Tenant.

Sage Living will be refunding these Tenants their key deposit in full.
Sage Living will instruct the Tenant to return the keys directly to the Owner when they move out of their suite.
The Owner may contact the Tenant to negotiate a new refundable key deposit with their Tenant as they see fit.

Special Note: Sage Living suggests all Owners abide by Provincial Guidelines when requesting a key deposit. All key deposits must not exceed the value of the key set and must be made 100% refundable providing keys are retuned in good working condition. Key deposits are held only for the purpose of replacing key sets should they not be returned in good working condition and cannot be used to offset the cost of repairs or collections of any kind.

3. Daily Management

Owners should be prepared to offer regular management services and support for their Tenants. Sage Living has offered all Tenants 24 hour assistance for repairs and lock-outs. Tenants may expect to receive a similar form of assistance from their Owner.

All terms and conditions within the lease agreement must also be continued and honoured. All agreements were signed in the Owner’s name and the Owner must perform all duties within. For more information, please review your lease agreement. You may also wish to consult with members of the Landlord and Tenant Board CLICK HERE FOR LTB LINK

Have more questions?

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COVID-19 Suite Viewing Policies

Sage Living COVID-19 Unit Viewing Policies

 As Ontario begins to lift restrictions and reopen businesses and services, Sage Living will now reintroduce unit showings for sales and appraisal purposes. Be advised that we have adjusted our policies for unit showings to protect the health and safety of our tenants, clients, and staff members during this time.

 Please review the below revised policies on booking and conducting showings of rental units. We thank you for your cooperation and utmost care when entering an individual’s home.

 

Limit unit entry

To reduce the volume of showings in tenanted units, owners may only schedule showing once a firm offer is presented. Unit owners are welcome to share our virtual tours with prospective buyers. Please click here to redirect to our virtual tours page.

 We also encourage owners to take photos of their suite to share with prospective buyers to prevent multiple showings. Note that tenants must sign a photo release waiver to allow photos of the rental unit to be used for sales purposes. Please forward a copy of your photo release waiver to our Booking Team (booking@sagecondos.ca) and we can coordinate signing with your tenants.

 

Safety measures during showings

 As always, booking requests must be made with at least 48-hour notice to our Booking Team (booking@sagecondos.ca). Tenants reserve the right to refuse unit showings based on safety concerns.

 All visitors to a rental unit must compete and sign our self-assessment waiver form. Any person who has experienced symptoms in the past two weeks will not be allowed to enter the rental unit. Click here for a copy of this form.

 No more than two people may tour a unit at one time. All visitors to a suite must wear PPE (i.e. face mask and gloves). Visitors may not have direct communication with the resident.

 If the above protocols are not followed, Sage Living may not assist with scheduling a showing of your unit.

 

 Risk and Liability

 Any visitor to a rental unit understands the contagious nature of COVID-19 and assumes the risk of exposure or infection.

 Sage Living Management, and all employees thereof, are not liable for any illness (including but not limited to COVID-19), injury, damage, loss, claim arising from a unit showing.

Suite Damage Payments

Unsure On Who Should Pay For Suite Damage?

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Assessing who is responsible for damage inside your suite can be complicated, and sometimes it’s not the Tenant who will have to fund these repairs.

This article will review how Sage Living inspects suites, how damage is discovered and who is responsible for specific types of damage.

Sage Living Suite Inspections

Most management packages will include two annual suite inspections. The first suite inspection will normally take place between November to January of each year. The second suite inspection will normally take place between February to May of each year.

For each inspection Sage Living will coordinate an inspection time for your suite and Tenant. We will dispatch staff members with appropriate hardware to record the suite inspection and take photos if needed. Each inspection is reviewed and damage noted by our trained staff.

Damage is then assessed as one of two types:
1. Wear and Tear
2. Non-Wear and Tear

Depending on the type of damage, a work order will be made and the appropriate party contacted for payment relating to the repair as needed.

Our work inspection reports and work orders are saved and held on record in our office for future reference. Sometimes our office will need to review these files and cross reference the work needed vs the work previously completed to make sure billing is properly completed.

Who Is Responsible For This Damage?

Sometimes it can be difficult to determine who is responsible for the damage found in each suite. But, there are two common types of damage which occur.

1. Wear and Tear
This is commonly understood as the expected amount of damage a suite will endure during the reasonable enjoyment of the suite by the Tenant. It can be difficult to interpret wear and tear, but it would be commonly viewed as paint scuffs on walls or floor boards, small scratches on the floor, and the eventual wear down or breaking down of furniture inside the suite. Generally speaking, when trying to determine if something was damaged due to wear and tear a suite owner should ask themselves ‘was this damage caused on purpose of due to the Tenant’s negligence?’ - if neither is true, then the damage you found is likely wear and tear.

When wear and tear is found and a repair needed, as per Ontario law, the Suite Owner would be responsible for repairing the item and funding the cost of the repair.

2. Non-Wear and Tear
This can be a little easier to identify compared to wear and tear. This is commonly understood to be the opposite of wear and tear, where damage is found and is the distinct fault of the Tenant. A common example of this type of damage being - a hole in the wall, damage caused by pets, or damaged furniture from being left outside on the balcony.

Typically, non-wear and tear is identified when there is a complete misuse or purposeful change to the suite by the Tenant. Non-wear and tear items are typically forwarded to the Tenant for direct payment. This can sometimes reveal larger complications and not all Tenants will willingly and quickly provide payment to offset the cost of the needed repair. Should situations occur where collections for a Tenant are required and/or are overdue, the Owner will be notified and provided options on next steps from our office.

Have more questions?

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Why Do We Use 3-Year Lease Terms ?

Wonder Why We Use 3-Year Lease Terms On Our Standard Leases?

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Renting Student Focused Housing In Waterloo Is Different Than Anywhere Else

In Waterloo a majority of property management companies and independent Suite Owners will rely on a 3-year lease term when signing leases. This article will review the reasons why this lease type is used including the pro’s and con’s of using. a 3-year lease term.

Reason 1 - The Undergraduate Academic Schedule

While Sage Living does not rent exclusively to students, students remain our primary rental demographic. Approximately 95% of our managed suites are rented to students attending a local university.

The average academic schedule shared by Ontario universities include a 3-year long undergraduate program. In having a 3-year lease term your rental is then reflects the average academic schedule shared by a majority of student renters. This will make it easier for these renters to continue with the lease for the full 3-year term.

For more information on marketing your suite CLICK HERE

Reason 2 - Avoiding Month to Month Leases

A critical part of renting in Waterloo relies on optioning or being able to predict suite availability. By knowing which suite will become available before the Tenant provides minimum notice, our office can then market and work to re-rent the suite with as much notice as possible.

To better prepare for suite availability, and ensure our managed suites are always fully rented, our office must decrease or entirely eliminate the possibility of month to month leases.

Month to month leases can occur when a Tenant’s current lease continues past the fixed end date of the lease.
Example: If your Tenant rents from September 2021 to August 2022, this means they can continue to live in the suite past August 2022 on a month to month lease.

Tenants within a month to month lease have the ability to provide 60-days notice to terminate their lease agreement. While this may not seem concerning, this can cause major complications for Suite Owners.

A majority of Tenants looking for leases in Waterloo will rent for either September of May each year.

This means that if your current Tenant is on a month to month lease, and chooses to end their lease during a period of time where it is difficult or unlikely to re-rent the suite, the Owner could experience several months of vacancy until a new Tenant is located.
Example: If the Tenant cancels for February, it is unlikely a new lease will be secured for a start date other than May or September.

Reason 3 - Securing Steady Rent

Some Owners have struggled with short term leases and are unable to maintain the same rental rate each year. Problems like the recent pandemic resulted in some Owners losing Tenants and having to re-rent their suite for a cheaper rate.

In having a fixed rental rate for a set 3-year lease, the Owner can rely on a steady rent amount being collected each year for a minimum 3-year term. While some Owners have previously captured high rent for a single year or less, they may have recently faced complications where they had to offer large rental discounts.

Owners with 3-year leases and renewing Tenants typically earn more over a 3-year long average than those Owners who attempt to push for short term leases.

Have more questions?

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I Need A Status Certificate

Are You Selling Your Suite And Need A Status Certificate?

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The status certificate can be provided by the building's condo management company.
While Sage may manage the inside of your suite, we do not manage the condo as a whole and cannot provide a status certificate.

Not to worry, here is a helpful list of who to contact for your status certificate:

Wilson Blanchard Management
519 620-8778

Sage 2 - 318 Spruce St. elisha.day@wilsonblanchard.com ext.126

Sage 5 - 280 Lester St. amanda.boakes@wilsonblanchard.com ext.140

Sage 6 – 251 Hemlock St. dnielle.thomson@wilsonblanchard.com ext.159

Sage 8 – 250 Albert St. jon.weaver@wilsonblanchard.com ext.160

Sage 9 – 308 Lester St. maria.aitkenhead@wilsonblanchard.com 136

Ivy 1 – 253 Albert St. heather.roberts@wilsonblanchard.com

Ivy 2 - 228 Albert St. (temporarily) elisha.day@wilsonblanchard.com ext. 126

Ivy 3 - 338 Albert St. (temporarily) elisha.day@wilsonblanchard.com ext. 126

Lee Management Solutions
1-800 590-8805
customercare@leemanagementsolutions.ca

Sage 3 - 62 Balsam St.

Sage 10 - 257 Hemlock St.

Have more questions?

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Where Can I Buy Additional Key Sets?

Want To Purchase An Additional Set of Keys?

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Additional key sets can be purchased and picked up directly at our office (8 Hickory St. W Unit 2, Waterloo) by the unit owner or an authorized agent during our open hours.

Note that the office is open Monday to Friday from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

If the owner would like to authorize an agent to purchase and pick up the additional set of keys, we will require an authorization email from the unit owner's email address on file with the agent's full name.

The cost for the full set of keys is $200 + service charge of $28.25.

Have more questions?

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How Can I View My Suite?

Want To Schedule A Viewing For Your Suite?

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To request a viewing for sales, or other such similar purposes, please email booking@sagecondos.ca

Requests must be made 48-hours in advance
This way our office can insure the Tenant receives a minimum 24-hour notice
Limit of 1 x viewing per day
Viewings must be between 10AM to 7PM, Monday to Sunday

Weekend and Monday viewings have to be confirmed no later than Friday 3:00 PM.

Keys can be signed out at our office only for appointments that fall during our business hours.

Note that our office is open Monday to Friday from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
We are located at 8 Hickory St. W Unit 2 (entrance facing Spruce St).

If you have your own key set, you simply need to provide the 48 hours’ notice to our office prior to your viewing time.

SPECIAL REMINDER

As per Sage Living policies and practices, we cannot coordinate any Owner viewings between August 25 to September 5th. This brief period is known as ‘Turn-over’ and is when all Tenants move out of their suites, suites are cleaned, repaired, inspected, and new Tenants move into their suites. This is a very busy period of time for our office, trades and Tenants and we cannot coordinate viewings at this time.

Sage Living COVID-19 Unit Viewing Policies

 As Ontario begins to lift restrictions and reopen businesses and services, Sage Living will now reintroduce unit showings for sales and appraisal purposes. Be advised that we have adjusted our policies for unit showings to protect the health and safety of our tenants, clients, and staff members during this time.

 Please review the below revised policies on booking and conducting showings of rental units. We thank you for your cooperation and utmost care when entering an individual’s home.

 

Limit unit entry

To reduce the volume of showings in tenanted units, owners may only schedule showing once a firm offer is presented. Unit owners are welcome to share our virtual tours with prospective buyers. Please click here to redirect to our virtual tours page.

 We also encourage owners to take photos of their suite to share with prospective buyers to prevent multiple showings. Note that tenants must sign a photo release waiver to allow photos of the rental unit to be used for sales purposes. Please forward a copy of your photo release waiver to our Booking Team (booking@sagecondos.ca) and we can coordinate signing with your tenants.

 

Safety measures during showings

 As always, booking requests must be made with at least 48-hour notice to our Booking Team (booking@sagecondos.ca). Tenants reserve the right to refuse unit showings based on safety concerns.

 All visitors to a rental unit must compete and sign our self-assessment waiver form. Any person who has experienced symptoms in the past two weeks will not be allowed to enter the rental unit. Click here for a copy of this form.

 No more than two people may tour a unit at one time. All visitors to a suite must wear PPE (i.e. face mask and gloves). Visitors may not have direct communication with the resident.

 If the above protocols are not followed, Sage Living may not assist with scheduling a showing of your unit.

 

 Risk and Liability

 Any visitor to a rental unit understands the contagious nature of COVID-19 and assumes the risk of exposure or infection.

 Sage Living Management, and all employees thereof, are not liable for any illness (including but not limited to COVID-19), injury, damage, loss, claim arising from a unit showing.

Have more questions?

We are Here to Help!

Sage Contact List

Need to Contact Sage Living?

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Client Support
Assists Suite Owners
clientsupport@sagecondos.ca
(519) 772 - 4556 ext 107

Owner Viewings
Coordinates Owner Viewings
booking@sagecondos.ca
(519) 772 - 4556 ext 103

Rental Team
Secures New Leases
rent@sagecondos.ca
(519) 772 - 4556 ext 102

Leasing Administration Team
Administers Lease and Owner Agreements
leasingadmin@sagecondos.ca
(519) 772 - 4556 ext 103

Resident Services
Coordinates Suite Repairs
help@sagecondos.ca
(519) 772 - 4556 ext 101

Collections
Works to Collect Outstanding Tenant Rent
collections@sagecondos.ca
(519) 772 - 4556 ext 105

Have more questions?

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The Importance of Marketing My Rental Property

Have Questions About Marketing Your Suite With Sage Living?

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Waterloo is one of the most competitive rental markets in Ontario and year round marketing is a key strategy when achieving full occupancy each year. This article will review the use and importance of our year round marketing strategies.

Sage Living will charge all Owners who have a full management service package (the Elite Service Package), an annual marketing fee. This fee is collected so our office can retain resources to market your suite year round.

Marketing is not as simple as posting an ad or making a flyer. Generating rental leads has become much more sophisticated, relying largely on new software systems and social media campaigns.

Why Do I Pay For Marketing Every Year?

Simply because it’s needed.
Waterloo has a lot of student renters, but Waterloo also has a lot of competing student rental locations which are very similar to those offered by Sage. Keep in mind that many of these competing locations are not individually owned by single Suite Owners such as yourself. These competing locations are often owned and managed by the same corporate entity with large marketing budgets.

Student renters understand they have many rental options, and will take advantage of the large student housing supply, often renting based on value - where they can receive the best deal or where they can feel the most supported as a Tenant.

By not marketing your suite year round, positive brand awareness will decrease, the rental market will become less fair with competing locations purchasing a majority of the ad space, and the chances of vacancy will increase.

But My Tenant Renewed, Why Should I Pay For Marketing?

Owners should be aware that turn over in student housing is very high. An average student housing location in Waterloo could assume approximately 65% of their Tenants will leave each year.

While your current Tenant has renewed this year, the chances of their renewal become less likely each year. Should Owners pay less towards marketing, brand awareness and popularity of their location could decrease and chances of securing a new Tenant will likely also decrease.

With a 65% chance your suite could be vacant next year, Owners should be incentivized and rely on marketing strategies to ensure they can either retain their current Tenant or successfully rent their suite the following year should their Tenant cancel the lease.

The Waterloo Student Rental Market
Things to Know


1. The Prime Rental Season Begins Early

It’s important to understand that the Waterloo rental season will normally begin in September of each year and a majority of student leases in Waterloo are 12-months long beginning in September of each year. BUT, it’s also very important to understand that current Tenants who hold these 12-month long leases don’t have to tell their landlord if they intend to renew their lease or terminate their lease until after the prime rental season.

2. The Prime Rental Season Does Not Last Long

It’s also important to understand that the prime rental season will be similar to the student academic calendar. This means that the best rental leads will be collected between the months of September to April with significant decreases during academic mid-terms, exams or student holidays. The rental season will slow down significantly between the months of May to August as students will often leave Waterloo during these months to return home, begin summer jobs, and overall place less importance on securing student housing.


This is the problem

we have a massive amount of new leads that will begin to contact rental offices in September, but we often don’t have firm numbers on availability until months later. We also understand that it’s often better and more cost effective to retain a current Tenant as the Suite Owner could then save on the cost of cleaning the suite between the old and new Tenants.

So what can we do?

We develop a diverse marketing strategy
Each year we work as hard as possible to renew the current Tenant, because we understand this will often be the most cost effective strategy for the Suite Owner.
But each year we also work as hard as possible to rent the same suite to new Tenants, because we don’t know if the Tenant will renew their lease until it’s too late.

We accomplish these two tasks by splitting our efforts and developing two marketing strategies - one focused on renewing Tenants and the other focused on securing new Tenants.

Our Marketing Strategies

As previously stated, marketing is not as simple as posting an ad or making a sign. Instead we must rely on several tools to complete our marketing efforts. Read below to review of the tools our office will commonly use when marketing to both current Tenants and new rental leads.

The Rental Website

Our website is a key part to our marketing strategies with all leads funnelling to this single source.
Click Here to view our website
Click Here to view where rental leads are collected

All our of our online marketing tools will redirect leads to these webpages. This includes Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Wechat, Kijiji (and various similar sites), blogs, and much more.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Like most modern companies dealing heavily in sales and customer relations, our office relies on a web-based CRM. This software will allow our office to track incoming rental leads, current tenants, communication with owners, and much more.

Through the CRM we are able to track incoming leads, identify their personal needs, track their email opens and responses, identify and track important marketing data points, and provide a hands-on line of communication between our team and the Tenant during their rental journey.

Online / Social Media Marketing

Online / social media marketing is one of the most important marketing types all modern rental companies should understand. Rather than paying for passive ads on pages like Kijiji, we can instead target our ideal rental candidate through social media.

By using the data we collect each year through our CRM, our office can work to identify the specific demographics of our ideal rental candidates. We understand where they live, the region we should post ads, the ideal age group, their interests, their habits, and much more. We can then use social media to target these ideal renters, encourage them to visit the website, and then later re-target these same individuals continually.

Our office currently uses marketing services through:

  • Google Ads

  • Facebook Ads

  • Instagram Ads

  • Snapchat Ads

  • Wechat

  • Bitly

  • Mailchimp

  • Twitter

  • Kijiji (and other numerous + similar sites)

Have more questions?

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