One bad NoVA tenant costs $5,000–$15,000 in unpaid rent, damage, and legal fees. We screen so it never happens to you.
★★★★★ 4.4·264 Google reviews·2,000+ NoVA placements·<1% eviction ratePeak NoVA leasing window is May–August — qualified tenants screened, placed, and rent-paying before fall.
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“So happy we decided to go with Flat Fee Landlord to lease our home. Once we decided to move forward, they had all paperwork done, pictures completed and our home listed for lease within a few days — and a few days later, had a tenant.”
Sarah T.
Northern Virginia
“As property owners new to leasing, there is no doubt that having Flat Fee and professionals like Heather by our side has been essential to our success.”
Amanda & Chris W.
Northern Virginia
“The property management and maintenance team are fantastic — very professional, communicative, quick to respond and always pleasant to work with.”
Jennifer L.
Virginia
From our verified Google Business Profile · 4.4★ across 264 reviews · see all
NoVA Office
8000 Towers Crescent Dr
13th Floor · Vienna, VA 22182
Licensed & Local
Virginia broker #0226024843
Operating since 2012 · VA · MD · DC · TX
9 NoVA Jurisdictions Served
Alexandria · Arlington · Fairfax · Falls Church
Loudoun · Manassas · Manassas Park · Prince William
Ruckus isn’t a real raccoon — he’s every landlord nightmare rolled into one. Missed rent. Burst pipes. The eviction that drags 90 days.
He’s the tenant who pays for three months and disappears. The one who lets the bathtub overflow and disappears for the week. The one who knows exactly how long Virginia eviction takes — and stays the full duration.
Ruckus doesn’t show up to your property as Ruckus. He shows up as a polite application. Clean credit. Decent income. A reference who turns out to be his brother.
We built the Perfect 10ant System™ to keep him out. Not to catch him after — to never let him in.
The “cost of a bad tenant” isn’t a single line item — it’s three compounding ones. This is what you’re really managing risk against.
$2,000–$8,000
Unpaid rent
Ruckus pays month one. Maybe two. By month four you’re carrying mortgage + utilities + insurance with zero revenue — and you can’t legally remove him until the court agrees with you. In Virginia, that takes 30–90 days at best.
$1,500–$6,000
Property damage
The damage you can see costs money. The damage you can’t see — water behind walls, pet urine in subfloor, a refrigerator that ‘smells funny’ — costs more. Most owners only find half of it before the next tenant signs.
$1,500–$4,000
The eviction process
Court filing fees. Sheriff service costs. Attorney consultation. Lock changes. Cleanout. The 4–6 weeks of vacancy AFTER the eviction is granted, before the next tenant moves in. That’s where your year’s yield goes.
Across all three categories, the total bleed runs $5,000 on the low end, $15,000 on the high end.
And that’s for ONE bad placement. Most owners get screened poorly twice before they switch managers.
The cost of getting it wrong
Three flat-fee plans, all four guarantees in writing. 60 seconds, no contact info first.
Here are the four shortcuts most NoVA property managers (and DIY landlords) take that hand him the keys.
“Their credit is decent.”
Credit only shows what they paid in the past. It doesn’t show whether they’re paying it RIGHT NOW. We pull current account statements, not just FICO.
“They have a job — the income works.”
A pay stub from yesterday doesn’t prove employment. We call HR. We verify hire date. We confirm the role isn’t already on a PIP.
“The reference checked out.”
The reference is often their current landlord — the one trying to get rid of them. We call landlord N-1 and N-2. Past landlords without an incentive to lie are the only references that matter.
“No criminal record came up.”
State background checks miss federal cases and out-of-state records. We run multi-jurisdiction checks plus the sex offender registry, bankruptcy, and foreclosure history — 10 checks, not 3.
Not “we look at credit and call a reference.” Ten discrete defensive layers — designed so the shortcuts that let Ruckus in elsewhere don’t exist here.
Identity verification
Confirm they are who they say they are
Income confirmation
Pay stubs cross-referenced with bank deposits
Employment verification
Live call to HR, not just contact info
Credit check
Current accounts, not just historical FICO
Rental history
Pattern analysis across past 5+ years
Landlord references
N-1 AND N-2 — the ones without bias
Criminal background
Multi-jurisdiction, not just state
Sex offender registry
Federal + state databases
Bankruptcy history
Chapters 7 and 13 — recovery patterns
Foreclosure history
Owner-history flags rental fitness
The result: under 1% eviction rate across 2,000+ placements. Ruckus is the exception, not the rule.
Ten checks, every applicant
Under 1% eviction rate is what it produces. See what it costs first.
We’re under 1%, not zero. So we put our money where our screening is. Four contractual guarantees — not webpage promises.
Ruckus breaks the lease at month 6? We remarket, screen, and place the next tenant at no additional placement fee.
9 months on Preferred · 12 months on Concierge · Applies when tenant placement is bundled with management
The vacancy clock is yours; we put ours on the table too. If no qualified application by day 21, your first 2 months of management fees are waived. Auto-fires.
Preferred & Concierge · Applies when tenant placement is bundled with management
The court process belongs to us — we coordinate, we file, we pay the initial filing fees. You don’t hold a legal bill for a tenant we screened.
During the warranty period · Pass-through items beyond the initial filing billed at cost
The only thing worse than a bad tenant is a bad manager. Unsatisfied in 90 days? Full refund of every management fee charged. After that, month-to-month with 30 days notice.
All plans
Money where the screening is
No salesperson, no contact info, just three plan prices side-by-side.
One bad tenant costs $5,000–$15,000. Here’s what it costs to make sure that never happens.
Basic plan begins at
$139/mo
Flat. Same fee on a $2,000 rental as a $5,000 one. Preferred and Concierge tiers are also flat, sized to your property.
The math
The cheapest property manager isn’t the one with the lowest fee. It’s the one who keeps Ruckus out the first time.
Your rent shouldn’t dictate your management fee.
Not ready for pricing yet?
The exact 10 verification checks plus 2 documentation steps we run on every placement. Free PDF. No salesperson follow-up.
From our verified Google Business Profile — 4.4★ across 264 reviews. The ones who stayed the longest are the ones whose first placement worked.
5+ years · 5 stars · Same screening, every placement
“I have used Flat Fee Landlord for over 5 years to find tenants for my rental properties. Just recently, Sergio Maldonado helped me find a new tenant. His communication was great and I found him to be very responsive.”
Debra Yager
5+ year Flat Fee Landlord owner · NoVA rental properties
Reviewed 4 months ago
“Heather and the entire team at Flat Fee Landlord are outstanding to work with. From day one, Heather has been professional, responsive, and incredibly easy to collaborate with. Their team is organized, communicative, and focused on delivering real value to property owners.”
Olivia Jaime
Property owner
“I have been working with Flat fee landlord for years. Sam is an absolute professional to work with. His dedication to residential real estate and property management is unmatched, and he always brings clarity, organization, and reliability.”
Rami ElShakry
Multi-year owner · Google Local Guide
Straight answers. No hedging.
Under 1% eviction rate across 2,000+ placements (verified across our markets). That’s the moat. No screening system is perfect, which is why we back every placement with the 9–12 mo tenant assurance and eviction coverage. Even when we miss, you don’t pay for it.
If they were placed by another manager (or by you), we can take over management and work through the situation. Our eviction coverage applies only to tenants WE placed during the warranty period — for tenants you already had, we handle the process at your direction, with pass-through costs billed at cost (no markup).
No. The software pulls credit, criminal, and registry data. Our team manually verifies income (HR call, bank deposits cross-check), employment (live call), and landlord references — including landlord N-2, not just current. The human verification is where most automated screening fails.
Flat monthly fee, not a percentage of your rent. Basic begins at $139/mo. Preferred and Concierge are also flat fees, sized to your property. You see all three plan prices side-by-side in the quote builder in 60 seconds, before sharing contact info. The fee stays the same whether your property rents for $2,000 or $5,000.
Yes. 90-day satisfaction guarantee — full refund of every management fee charged in the first 90 days. After that, month-to-month with 30 days written notice, no penalty.
Yes — a meaningful share of our owners are federal employees on rotation, military on PCS, or out-of-state investors. Monthly statements, photo and video documentation, an owner portal with real-time visibility, and a team that runs the property without needing you in town. Licensed in VA, MD, DC, and TX for multi-jurisdiction owners.
See your exact NoVA pricing in 60 seconds. Three flat-fee plans, side-by-side. No contact info first.
Not ready yet? Download our 12-step tenant screening checklist — the exact screening process we use on every placement.
