Happy New Year from everyone here at Stone Oak!
We hope you are all off to a great start to the new year! We appreciate the opportunity to keep earning your business and look forward to a great 2025 as your Austin property manager!
A Celebration & Remembrance for One of Our Own
Our post this month is relatively short, but before we get into that we want to take a moment to remember our first and longest running employee, Jennifer Frizzell. We started this company in 2012, and she was our first hire. She worked with us, and many of you, from then until the end of 2024, with a short 1.5 year break working for a title company in 2019. When she came back, she was the same Jennifer we all knew and loved, and she fell right into place with the team that had grown so much in that short time. Unfortunately, during that time Jennifer received a cancer diagnosis, so we all pitched in to support her as she went through countless treatments. She fought long and hard, but we lost her to the illness a few days before the end of 2024.
Jennifer did not want to be remembered through sadness or even have a funeral; rather she left instructions to have a party with pizza and cake! Her mom, sister and son threw that party on 1/4/25 which all of us attended and learned that she left even more instructions. She asked for a few things, and of those there are two things that we want to pass on to all of you. First, in summary, she said when you get a chance please commit to regular acts of kindness and giving. Second, she said to celebrate her life by getting some sparklers from a fireworks stand and lighting them in celebration. We hope that all of you will also participate in her wishes as we all navigate this life that we are fortunate to have.
Big Things in the Works
There is a lot brewing here at Stone Oak, and we look forward to filling you in about them in the coming weeks. We are excited about the benefits for our clients, so please keep an eye out for emails from us!
1099 Tax Forms for 2024
We got an early start on the tax forms this year. Within the next few days, we will publish those for the clients who need to receive them. Please keep in mind that not all clients will receive a 1099. The requirements to issue tax forms are based on the information you provided on the W9 form. If you have any questions after receiving this from our team please don't hesitate to contact us!
Interested in Buying or Selling More Property?
We want to remind our clients that we are a fully licensed brokerage with the State of Texas, and all of the property managers are licensed to practice real estate in Texas. If you want to sell your managed property, or are interested in buying more investment properties please let your property manager know! We can help you, and as an existing client we will work with you on the commissions to save you money versus using a third party agent.
Landlord Insurance
We are partnered with Andor Insurance to help our clients ensure they have the best options and coverage for your investments, home, and other insurance policies. Please reach out to Ryan who is happy to help you review your current policies, evaluate your coverage, or search out other options. We recommend shopping your insurance every year, or couple of years, to make sure you are receiving the best deal for your property(s)!
Data Breaches and Scams
In our last few posts we’ve covered several data breaches, and it seems every day a new one is being announced publicly or by mail to affected parties. In the context of being a client of Stone Oak we want to continue reminding our clients about these breaches because a lot of this data can be used in social engineering and phishing attacks, which could involve your data being used by someone who poses as your property manager or other contact as part of a scam. We see these attempts internally as scammers send us email posing as fellow employees or managers of Stone Oak.
That being said, we want to remind you that we will never call you to ask to confirm or provide your bank info, social security number, or other personal information on the phone or by email. We will also never ask you to pay for anything with gift cards, cryptocurrency, etc. Our property management software includes a texting service that will not match our office number, but if you try to call that number it will go directly to our main office phone line.
We recommend freezing your credit with the big 3 firms - Experian, Equifax and Transunion. This is offered as a free service to all consumers and can help protect you from identity theft. It's easy to unfreeze if you need to allow a lender, bank etc the access to pull your credit. This is an essential step to make sure your credit isn't at risk of being damaged or ruined by nefarious 3rd parties in our modern world.
Here is some helpful information about Caller ID Spoofing, and other common scams. Also the US Federal Bureau of Investigations resources about common scams are good to be aware of.
Please stay vigilant, maintain a healthy amount of skepticism, and contact us directly with the number on our website or our direct emails if anything looks questionable.
HOA Compliance Notices
If you receive an HOA violation or other notice pertinent to the tenant, it’s very important that we receive a copy of that to share with the tenants. We do receive a lot of notices directly, however if you receive a copy, please confirm with your property manager that we have received it.
Did you know your HOA can send important notices and compliance letters directly to Stone Oak to enforce? Yes! We can take care of that for you! Please be sure to provide your HOA with Stone Oaks direct contact information so we can ensure timely delivery of notices.
Please contact your PM for more information.
Thank you for being a client of Stone Oak Property Management. Please don't hesitate to contact your property manager should you need anything at this time.
Reminders:
Maintenance Approval Process Changes
In addition to the info below about funding repairs we want to notify all owners that we are modifying our escalation process when we can’t reach our clients in order to make sure we are complying with property code requirements. In bonafide emergencies we are acting within our authority to mitigate damages, however after it has been contained or in non-emergency situations we reach out to our clients for work authorization that is required above the limit set in the management agreement. In those cases we now have a strict process going into effect that will have a time-based escalation if we cannot reach you. The time frame will be that if we can’t reach you by the 3rd day from when we first reached out we will then reach out to your emergency contact who can aid us in getting authorization or contacting you. If you’d like to update your emergency contact we have on file please contact your property manager. Keep in mind that this contact should be someone outside of your immediate household who you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you cannot be reached by them or us.
Funding Make-Readies & Maintenance for Your Property
Please note that it is Stone Oak's policy that the owner has reserve funding on hand with Stone Oak to help us commence work faster when it comes to make-readies and maintenance on your property. Stone Oak cannot perform maintenance without first receiving authorization and funding, which can slow down the turn-around times of our vendors and their availability in this market. This can also potentially create a negative experience that tenants will remember when it comes time to renew, and we always want to avoid turning over the tenants. Any time we request authorization for work on your property, the best practice is to immediately fund your account when you provide written authorization to move forward. This is as simple as going into your owner portal and using ACH for a free transfer, or if you prefer a credit card the processor charges a fee as part of the transaction.
Keep in mind that tenant charges on your account are not considered an offset to this amount as we keep a strict accounting system for both our and our client's benefits. Any tenant chargeable items will be posted to their account, and once they are paid it is immediately credited to your account. If you have any questions about this reserve amount held with Stone Oak please contact your property manager.
