Can I see a sample management agreement before paying anything?

Yes, and you should not consider any company that hesitates. The management agreement is the whole relationship in writing, and a company that wants your business will send it, in full, after a first conversation, along with its fee schedule and a sample of what you will receive each month. No fee, no deposit and no commitment should be required to see it. If a company asks you to sign first and read later, or offers a summary instead of the document, you have learned what you need to know.

This article covers what to ask for, how to read a sample against the final version you would sign, and what to do with it once you have it. The guide to the first consultation with a property manager covers the whole conversation; this one is about the documents you should walk away with.

What to ask for, and why each item matters

The agreement on its own is not enough, because it refers to other documents and leaves blanks. Ask for the full set:

• The management agreement, complete, including any addenda or schedules it references. A two-page summary is not the agreement.
• The fee schedule or written quote, listing every charge the company can make: monthly, leasing, renewal, inspection, maintenance coordination, termination, and anything charged to the tenant that the company keeps.
• A sample owner statement with the numbers blanked or illustrative, so you can see how rent, fees, repairs and reserve are presented each month.
• The written tenant screening criteria, because the agreement will give the company discretion to apply them.
• The lease the company uses, or at least confirmation of which Texas form it is, since that is the document your tenant will sign.

Each of these is something the company already has on file. Producing them should take minutes, not days. A company that sends all five without being chased is showing you how it will handle your statements and your questions later.

How a sample differs from the agreement you would sign

A sample is the company's standard form with the property-specific blanks empty: your name and the address, the management fee, the leasing fee, the repair approval limit, the reserve amount, the term and its start date. Everything else should be identical in the final. When the signed version arrives, compare it with the sample paragraph by paragraph. Any clause that has changed, been added or quietly disappeared is worth a question, and in my experience the answer is usually innocent, but you want to hear it.

Pay attention to the filled-in numbers against the written quote. The fee in the agreement must match the fee on the quote, the repair limit must be the one you discussed, and the term must be what was agreed. Say you were quoted a fee by phone, received a sample with the fee blank, and the final arrives with a different number. That is not a typo to let slide; it is the first test of whether the company's documents can be trusted. The guide to comparing two management quotes fairly shows how to line the numbers up across companies.

What Texas rules say about getting your documents

Property management for others in Texas is brokerage activity, and the company must hold a broker's license. State rules require a license holder to give you a copy of any document you sign at the time you sign it, and the management agreement must be in writing for the company to be entitled to its compensation. Those rules protect you after signing. Nothing in Texas law requires a company to hand over its blank agreement in advance, which is why the request is a test of the company's practice rather than a legal right.

Treat it that way. A company that operates transparently sends the agreement because it has nothing in it that needs explaining in person first. A company that insists on walking you through it live, or sending it only after a deposit, is managing your impression of the document rather than letting you read it. This is general information, not legal advice; if an agreement raises questions, a Texas real estate attorney can review it before you sign.

Reading the sample in an hour

You do not need to study the document for days. Sit down with the sample, the quote and a pen, and work through four passes. First, every number: find each fee in the quote inside the agreement and mark it. Second, every "Owner agrees" or "Owner shall": those are your obligations. Third, the term, renewal and termination section, including what the company keeps after you leave. Fourth, authority: the repair limit, the emergency definition and the tenant selection language.

Write your questions in the margin and send them in one email. The company's reply is as informative as the document. Short, specific answers citing clause numbers tell you the people behind the agreement know it and stand by it. Vague reassurance tells you the opposite. The guide to what to watch out for in a property management agreement lists the clauses that most often need a question.

Using the samples to choose between companies

Once you have agreements from two or three companies, the comparison becomes concrete. Lay them side by side on the points that cost money and limit your choices: total fees over a year with one tenant turnover, the repair limit and emergency definition, the term and exit, surviving fees, and who keeps tenant charges. Then compare the sample statements for clarity, because that is what you will be reading every month for years. A company whose statement you cannot follow in the sample will not become clearer once your money is on it.

If one company's documents are clean and another's are vague, you have most of your answer before you ever check a reference. Perpetual's pricing and fees page is the public version of its fee schedule, the owner portal page shows what the monthly statement contains, and the full agreement is available on request without any commitment. If you want a side-by-side, send the other company's documents and I will walk you through the differences honestly.

How Perpetual handles this

Perpetual Property Management sends the complete management agreement, the written quote with every fee listed, a sample owner statement and the written screening criteria after the first conversation, before any payment and before any signature. There is nothing to pay to see them and nothing to sign to receive them. Perpetual is broker-owned and local to Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth, and the person answering your margin questions is the broker who wrote the agreement and will be accountable under it.

When the final version arrives it matches the sample except for the blanks you agreed to fill, and you receive a signed copy the day you sign. From then on the documents keep their promises: a Texas-compliant lease, a documented pre-management inspection, monthly statements that reconcile, vetted vendors and an owner portal where every charge is visible. The contact page is the quickest way to request the agreement and quote for your house.

The takeaway: Ask for the full agreement, the fee schedule, a sample statement and the screening criteria before paying anything; what a company sends, and how fast, tells you how it will treat you after you sign.

Questions owners ask

Property management in Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth. How full-service management works in Tarrant County →