Owner FAQs

WILMOTH Group, established in 1994 as Results Plus, Inc., has been serving real estate investors for over three decades. Our founder, Joel Wilmoth, teamed up with his wife, Jennifer, in 2001, transforming our company into a dedicated property management hub. Licensed in Indiana and Florida, we specialize in helping non-occupant owners manage, buy, and sell properties while ensuring our resident services enhance partner success. Celebrating our 31st anniversary in 2024, WILMOTH Group continues to deliver expert real estate solutions.

Buy and hold investment has two parts: rental income and the property’s value increase over time. While we can’t predict exactly when the value will rise, both factors determine your property’s worth. Unlike typical home sales valuations, rental property value is based on the income it generates and any equity increase. At WILMOTH Group, we help boost your income and suggest property upgrades to enhance its value growth.

As monthly rent payments are received, we systematically process your funds and deliver them to you each and every month. Electronically to your designated bank account to speed up the process. WILMOTH Group processes the receipt and accounting of funds the same way every month to follow our distribution schedule.

We have a strict process called underwriting to choose the right tenants and keep evictions low at 3%. Applicants are screened online, checking their credit scores, eviction and residence history, job and income, and any criminal records against our criteria. If they pass, we inform the property owner. This careful checking includes getting info from their current landlord about their lease, payment history, and behavior to make sure only responsible tenants rent from us.

When an owner wants to determine the funds they have available for distribution or for approved repairs that have not been billed yet with WILMOTH Group:

We hope you will always be our client, but of course, things happen. When a decision is made to terminate management there are a number of steps to be taken. Most of these involve settlement of any outstanding bills. Due to the fact that utility companies and attorneys are slow to bill, we may have outstanding bills on your account. While we will due all we can to expedite the closing of the account, please plan that the process may take up to 45 days to disburse your final payment from your account.

Our tenant move-in process ensures we record your property’s condition accurately, urging owners to have the home ready for move-in. If tenants find any issues in the first week, they can report them without worrying about being charged or it affecting their security deposit. We document everything with photos before handing over the keys to maintain a clear record of the property’s state.

Visit the Owner Portal and login. Click on the Rental Owner tab. All of your relevant documents (agreements, leases, manuals, addendums) can be found ready for download.

To get signatures from owners far away, we’ve moved from using mail to faster methods. Nowadays, owners can print, sign, scan, and email documents back to us, or use a free program to create a pdf. We’re also looking into electronic signatures, like Docusign, which are becoming more common and can track who signed the document online.

We offer a web-based owner portal that you will gain access to when you first sign up with WILMOTH Group. When you log in, you will be able to see information on your properties, and over 20 different financial reports that will allow you to see performance on as frequent of a basis as you desire. The really great part of this owner portal is that you can review your investments performance in many ways, up to the minute, whenever you want! These reports may be printed or saved as a pdf file on your computer. Updated daily, and always available, WILMOTH Group transparency starts with your Owner Portal.

The rental owner statement report helps owners see their property’s cash flow, income, expenses, and more for a specific time. WILMOTH Group has a detailed guide with pictures to help owners understand this report, available on our website.

We finish our monthly accounting by the 14th of the next month and then email you about any money we send you. If you don’t get an email about money, it could be because the rent wasn’t paid, the payment is still processing, repairs are happening, or the property’s expenses were more than its income. You can check the Tenant Report and Rental Owner Statement in your owner portal for more details on payments and property cash flow.

WILMOTH Group uses an after-hours emergency dispatch service to ensure tenants get help with urgent issues like no heat or broken pipes, even on holidays or in the middle of the night. This service has trained property managers ready to assist or send help, ensuring your property is protected without depending solely on your manager’s availability. If the emergency involves fire, crime or loss of life Call 911 Immediately!

WILMOTH Group helps owners get damages judgments during evictions or when there are unpaid rents or damages, costing around $300. We create a report showing unpaid rent plus any damages, minus the security deposit, and add legal fees to figure out the total amount to ask from the former tenant. This total amount is then given to a collector who may go after the tenant’s wages, and the judgment stays on the tenant’s record for seven years.

One of the biggest pain points for rental owners is how their property manager handles maintenance. How a property manager charges for maintenance is a concern that may not be obvious until it’s too late. With WILMOTH Group there is no reason for concern. We do not mark up these costs at all.

We ask owners to keep $300 in a reserve fund for each property to cover emergencies and small repairs. WILMOTH Group can use this reserve for repairs under $300 without needing to ask first. If there’s a big emergency and the reserve isn’t enough, we’ll need the owner to add more money to it.

Finding great tenants involves several steps, from figuring out who might rent the property to creating targeted ads. While signs and word of mouth are useful, over 90% of renters use the internet to find homes. WILMOTH Group goes beyond traditional methods by listing your rental on over 75 websites, reaching more potential tenants.

Marion County Indiana landlords must participate in a registration of their homes with the City of Indianapolis. Beginning in 2015, landlords must use a new online landlord registration site. Any property owner failing to register their properties could be subject to a fine. The actual owner must create an account within this system. The owner then may register each property they own and also list parties that may be also considered responsible (i.e. a property manager). The benefit for out of state owners to listing a responsible party is many violation notices are sent via US Mail. A local representative will likely receive the violation with time to correct it where the owner may not receive until the day the penalty kicks in.

If you have previously registered your Indianapolis-Marion County property you will receive an email from the city. It will advise you of the need to renew your Indianapolis landlord registration. The system has been updated to allow an owner to add a local based property manager and an agent for service of process.

At WILMOTH Group, our tenants pay rent online, which speeds up your cash flow by at least three days. If there’s an issue like insufficient funds, we find out quickly, much faster than with traditional paper checks. We settle accounts and send payments to owners electronically by the 14th each month, and owners get an email notification about the transfer, with the funds taking up to three days to appear in their bank account.

For an occupied home we schedule an appointment with your tenant. If the tenant is not cooperative we will post a 24-hour notice and then access the home to complete the inspection. This inspection will be our normal inspection report with plenty of photos and narratives of the property's condition. Occupied homes are trickier to schedule and document but we will pursue obtaining a thorough inspection for you.

United States tax laws are very specific about withholding requirements for anybody without a federal tax identification number. The below is directly from the WILMOTH Group management agreement. “Distributions to Owner will only take place upon completion of a United States federal W-9 tax form disclosing the federal tax identification numbers for all owners. Under United States tax law,(US Internal Revenue Code Sect. 1441- the deduction of a withholding tax on all fixed or determinable gross income shall be required of any non-resident alien individual, fiduciary, foreign partnership or foreign corporation unless exempt under provisions provided under said IRS Section.) WILMOTH Group is obligated to withhold 20% of all funds when a tax identification has not been received and submit those funds to the United States Treasury. If management services are begun with no federal W-9 form in receipt, OWNER agrees to pay an additional Twenty Five ($25.00) per month to account for the cost of such processing. MANAGER reserves the right to not offer any services in this Agreement if not in receipt of a W-9 form containing all OWNERS federal tax identification number.”

This is a great question and we recommend that you contact us first. Many factors are a part of the decision of whether to sell your property as-is. Sometimes, not doing anything is the right answer. Sometimes, we might advise you to make certain improvements or repairs to best capitalize on the current market conditions.

These are special situations but do not worry, you can still sell with WILMOTH Group. You have options. Our experienced investment agents can discuss the tradeoffs of selling when occupied with a tenant or waiting until the home is vacant.

This is a great question and we recommend you speak to one of our investment agents. Many factors are a part of the decision of whether to sell your property as-is. Sometimes, not doing anything is the right answer. Sometimes, we might advise you to make certain improvements or repairs to best capitalize on the current market conditions.

Anybody who does not occupy their residential property in Indiana and desires to access the cash trapped in their property. When that cash is released, we can also advise sellers about ways to redeploy it in the residential market.