An owner inquiry form for property managers
An owner who wants a property manager usually starts with “how much do you charge?” The answer depends on the property, the number of units, whether they are rented now and what the owner wants handled. The inquiry form collects that before you quote a fee.
What should property managers ask first?
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What kind of property is it: a single-family home, a condo, a small multi-unit, or a larger building? | Property type decides whether it fits the portfolio you manage. |
| How many units, and where is it? | Unit count and location set the fee and which manager would look after it. |
| Are the units rented now, and on what kind of leases? | Taking over tenants is different work from finding the first ones. |
| Roughly what does each unit rent for, or what do you hope to get? | Management fees are often a share of rent, so this is the size of the account. |
| Which parts do you want handled: finding tenants, rent collection, maintenance, or everything? | Leasing-only and full management are different services and fees. |
| Who manages it now, and why are you looking for someone new? | Self-managing owners and owners leaving another manager need different first conversations. |
If an answer would not change what you do next, leave the question out. Each extra question is one more reason for someone to stop before they finish.
Keep the inquiry to the property and the owner’s goals. Do not ask about current tenants as people, and collect leases, bank details and tax forms through your onboarding process once the owner signs.
Which answers come back too vague to use, and what do you ask next?
The answers that cause a phone call are rarely missing. They are present and too loose to act on. A narrower follow-up, asked straight away while the person is still there, usually settles them. Offering likely answers shows the person the level of detail you need.
| What comes back | The follow-up that settles it |
|---|---|
| “A few rentals.” | How many units in total, and are they in one building or spread across addresses? |
| “It needs some work.” | Is that cosmetic, such as paint and flooring, or repairs that would stop it being rented? |
| “I just want it off my plate.” | Do you want to approve repairs above a certain amount, or leave them to us entirely? |
Follow up once per gap, then move on. If an answer is still unclear after one follow-up, flag it for whoever picks the request up rather than pressing.
When is a call or a visit still the right move?
An owner choosing a manager is trusting someone with an asset, and will want to talk and have the property seen before signing. The inquiry decides which owners you meet first, and the conversation starts with the units, the rents and what they want handled already on the table.
How do you set this up from the Client intake template?
Acquainto has a Client intake template to start from. After you sign up, open Browse templates, pick Client intake, and it lands in the editor as a draft you can change before anything is published.
The template asks for a name and email, branches on the service the person is interested in, and asks one follow-up question per service. Its starting choices are consulting, design and development. Rename them to leasing only, full management and a one-time rental analysis, put the property type, units, location and occupancy on every branch, and use each branch’s own question for what that service needs first.
To see it from the other side, answer a demo built from the questions on this page. It is a demo: your answers come to Acquainto, not to a business, so leave out real names and contact details.
Acquainto runs it as a short written conversation instead of a form. It:
- asks a follow-up when an answer is incomplete, and asks for clarification when one is vague;
- uses a structured choice where precision matters and open conversation where detail matters;
- shows the person every answer before it is sent, so they correct their own mistakes;
- hands back one clean value per question, delivered to your own systems by webhook.
The person answering needs no account, and nothing has to be scheduled. Start free trial, see how it works, or compare plans.