Lease-only service, also called tenant placement, is a one-time job: a licensed brokerage markets your rental, shows it, screens the applicants, prepares and signs a California-compliant lease, documents the home's condition at move-in, and then hands the property back to you. From that day the rent, the repairs, the notices and the deposit are yours. At Croskey it is one flat fee, from $2,500, with no monthly management charge. It fits a housing provider (landlord) in Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Bay Point or Concord who wants to run the tenancy personally but does not want to run the leasing, which is where most of the legal exposure and most of the vacancy cost sit. It is not a discount version of management, and this guide is honest about what you get and what you keep.
What the flat fee covers
Lease-only is the leasing half of the same process we run under full-service management. The pieces, as published on the lease-only service page and the solutions page:
| Included | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Rent-ready review and pricing | A rent set from a comparable-rent market analysis, with prep guidance before the listing goes live |
| Professional listing photography | Listing photos, and 3D virtual tours on the marketing side of the process |
| Syndication | The listing goes out across the major rental platforms, including Zillow |
| Showings | In-person and self-guided showings, coordinated and conducted by us, available seven days a week |
| Screening | Every adult applicant screened against the same written income, credit and rental-history criteria, first-come first-served, under the fee rules in Civil Code 1950.6; the tenant screening guide walks each step |
| Lease | A California-compliant lease and the legally required disclosures, prepared and signed digitally |
| Move-in condition report | The home's condition documented with photos before the resident takes keys |
| New-resident orientation | How to pay, how to report a repair, what the lease expects, so the first month starts on the right foot |
What is not included is everything after that orientation. That is the point of the service, not a gap in it.
How we read a listing that is not moving
Marketing is not finished when the listing goes live. Every home we lease is read the same way while it sits on the market, and the reading rules are simple. A home with 400 views on Zillow and two inquiries has a price or a description problem. A home with 40 views in total has a syndication or a photo problem. When more than about 15 percent of scheduled showings turn into no-shows, the listing is promising something the home does not deliver. When applicants are approved but do not sign, the rent is attractive enough to apply for and not compelling enough to commit to, which is a pricing signal, not a screening one.
At 21 days on the market, the owner hears from us with a specific move, a price adjustment or a marketing change, before they have to ask. Two rules sit behind all of this. Days on market is a means, not the goal: a home leased in 12 days to a tenancy that ends early is a loss, not a win, so a fast lease never overrides the screening criteria. And an owner should never learn that their home is sitting from the listing site. If you are weighing lease-only against listing the home yourself, this is the part of the work that is hardest to see from outside and easiest to skip.
The two weeks before move-in, as we run them
The leasing half ends with a move-in, and the move-in runs on a checklist with dates. These are the items, in the order they fall, and every one of them is in the file you receive:
| When | What has to be true |
|---|---|
| 10 days before move-in | Make-ready complete: the home is cleaned and the repairs are done |
| 5 days before | Lease signed by every adult, security deposit cleared, pre-move-in walk-through on the calendar |
| 3 days before | First month's rent cleared, proof of renters insurance on file when the lease requires it |
| 2 days before | Utilities transferred into the resident's name |
| Move-in day | Keys or lockbox code delivered, welcome packet sent, new-resident orientation |
| Within 2 days after | Move-in condition report with photos submitted and shared |
Under full-service management the same checklist keeps going: a day-1 welcome, a day-3 check-in, a day-7 maintenance check, and a day-30 survey. Under lease-only, those four steps belong to you, which is why the next section matters.
What stays with you after move-in
This is the honest half, and it is what separates lease-only from management. From the day the resident moves in, you are the manager of record for:
- Rent collection, including the late-rent conversations and the three-day notice if it comes to that.
- Maintenance: taking the call, finding a vendor, verifying the work, paying the invoice, and keeping the records that show habitability was maintained.
- Lease enforcement and notices, served correctly, with the right content and the right timing, including the just-cause rules for covered tenancies.
- Renewals and rent increases, inside the AB 1482 cap when it applies, and inside Antioch's or Concord's local rules when the home sits there.
- The security deposit: held, accounted for, photographed at move-out, and returned with an itemized statement within 21 days under Civil Code 1950.5.
- Year-end tax reporting to your CPA.
You also inherit the file: the signed lease and disclosures, the screening record showing the criteria applied, and the move-in condition report with photos. That report is the document that pays for the service at the other end of the tenancy, because a deposit deduction without a documented starting condition is a negotiation, and with one it is a comparison. Our move-in and move-out inspections guide covers the sequence you will run at move-out.
Where the lease earns the fee
A downloaded lease template is the single most common thing we replace, and California has made that paperwork specific.
Two AB 1482 notices. For a tenancy covered by the Tenant Protection Act, the lease or an addendum must carry the statutory statement about rent limits and just cause, in at least 12-point type, under Civil Code 1946.2(f). For a single-family home or condominium that qualifies for the exemption, the exemption works only if the exact statutory statement is in the lease for any tenancy commenced or renewed on or after July 1, 2020. A home that should have been exempt but whose lease omits the sentence is treated as covered. Owners who learn this at renewal time usually learn it from a tenant's attorney.
The deposit cap. Since July 1, 2024, the security deposit on most rentals cannot exceed one month's rent; our security deposit guide covers the exceptions. A lease that still asks for two months' deposit is a lease that has to be unwound.
Disclosures. A California residential lease carries a stack of required disclosures, among them the flood hazard notice, bed bug information, the mold booklet, lead-based paint for homes built before 1978, the Megan's Law database notice under Civil Code 2079.10a, and the smoke and carbon monoxide detector statements. The lease we execute carries them; the template an owner downloaded in 2019 usually carries some.
The screening fee rules. Under Civil Code 1950.6, as amended effective January 1, 2026, an application fee is lawful only inside one of two processes, with written criteria handed to applicants, an itemized receipt and a copy of the consumer report within 7 days. The leasing side carries that for you; it is one of the exposures lease-only removes.
When lease-only is the right fit, and when it is not
It fits when:
- You live close to the property and can reach it during business hours.
- You have run a tenancy before, or you have systems ready: a bookkeeping habit, a vendor list with insurance on file, a way to serve and track notices, and a calendar for the 21-day deposit clock.
- You want the leasing done professionally because that is where vacancy and legal exposure concentrate, and you are comfortable with the rest.
- The home is in Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Bay Point or Concord, where we lease.
It is the wrong fit when:
- You live far away or travel often; the 9 PM repair call does not wait.
- You would rather not be the person who serves a notice or returns a deposit.
- You own more than one unit and want one statement, one point of contact and one set of records.
- You expect a "lite" version of management. Lease-only ends at orientation; management begins there. Our DIY versus hiring guide prices the two paths honestly.
The fee, side by side
Owners often ask why lease-only costs more than the leasing fee inside full-service management. The answer is in the structure. Under full-service, placement is 50 percent of one month's rent, with a $1,300 floor and a $1,750 cap, because the monthly management fee carries the rest of the work for the life of the tenancy. Lease-only is from $2,500 as a single flat fee because nothing follows it: the fee has to cover marketing, showings, screening, lease execution, the move-in report and the orientation on its own. Both numbers are on the pricing page, reviewed July 20, 2026.
| Lease-only placement | Full-service management | |
|---|---|---|
| Placement fee | From $2,500, one time | 50 percent of one month's rent ($1,300 to $1,750) |
| Monthly fee | None | 8 to 12 percent of collected rent, depending on plan |
| Who runs the tenancy | You | Croskey |
| Records you receive | Lease, disclosures, screening record, move-in report | The same, plus monthly statements, maintenance history, year-end statement and 1099 |
| Switching later | An occupied takeover ($295 once) moves the property into management; the setup audits the lease and ledger, verifies the deposit and documents condition | A plan change at renewal |
Vacancy is the other half of the math. Our published targets are a home leased within 21 days and 14 days or less on the market, and at $2,750 a month every vacant week costs about $633. A placement that closes two weeks sooner than a do-it-yourself listing has paid for a meaningful share of the fee before the resident moves in. Run your own figure with the vacancy loss calculator.
Our read, from the operator's chair
The moment that defines lease-only for us is the handback at move-in. The resident has the keys, the orientation is done, and we send the owner the file: the signed lease with its disclosures, the screening record, and the move-in report with photos. What follows are patterns from those files, not one owner's story. The questions that come back a month later are rarely about the resident. They are about the owner's own systems: how to set up rent collection that leaves a record, what to do with the first repair request, how a three-day notice has to be written. The owners for whom lease-only works best had those answers before we listed the home. The owners who ask us those questions in month two are usually the ones who come back for an occupied takeover in year two, which is fine, and which is why the takeover step exists.
The second pattern is the move-in report. Owners rarely read it when it arrives. They read it at move-out, when a carpet or a wall is in dispute, and it decides the question in two minutes. It is the least glamorous page in the file and the one that pays for the service.
Our view is that lease-only is the right product for a specific owner, not a cheaper product for every owner. If you have the systems, it hands you a compliant lease, a screened resident and a documented starting point, and gets out of your way. If you do not, the fee is better spent on the plan that stays.
Where to go from here
The lease-only service page carries the current terms and the areas we lease, and it is the place to start if placement is all you need. If you are still deciding between running the tenancy yourself and handing it off, the pricing page shows both paths with every fee, and a consultation is a no-pressure way to ask which one fits your property.
This guide is general information for California rental owners, not legal advice. Fees are Croskey's published prices as of the review date on the pricing page and change with it; the executed service agreement controls. Statutes cited are current to October 2026 and change. Croskey Real Estate is an Equal Housing Opportunity provider. DRE #01990430.
Frequently asked questions
What is a lease-only (tenant placement) service?
A one-time service that handles the leasing half of a rental: marketing and photography, showings, consistent screening of every adult applicant, a California-compliant lease with the required disclosures, a move-in condition report with photos, and a new-resident orientation. After move-in the owner manages the tenancy day to day: rent, maintenance, notices, renewals and the deposit. At Croskey it is one flat fee from $2,500 with no monthly management charge.
How much does lease-only cost compared with full management?
Croskey's lease-only placement is a single flat fee from $2,500 with no ongoing fee. Under full-service management, placement is 50 percent of one month's rent, between $1,300 and $1,750, and the plans run 8 to 12 percent of collected rent per month. Lease-only costs more up front because nothing follows it; management spreads the work over the tenancy. The pricing page carries every number, reviewed July 20, 2026.
What am I responsible for after a lease-only placement?
Everything after the new-resident orientation: collecting rent and handling late payments, maintenance and vendor coordination, serving notices correctly, renewals and rent increases within the AB 1482 cap when it applies, and holding and returning the security deposit with an itemized statement within 21 days of move-out under Civil Code 1950.5. Under management, the day-1 welcome, day-3 check-in, day-7 maintenance check and day-30 survey are ours; under lease-only they are yours. You receive the signed lease and disclosures, the screening record and the move-in condition report to run the tenancy from.
Can I switch from lease-only to full management later?
Yes. An occupied takeover, $295 once, moves the property into full-service management with the resident in place. The setup audits the existing lease and ledger, verifies the deposit and required disclosures, documents current condition and introduces the resident to Croskey's systems.
Why does the lease matter so much in a lease-only placement?
Because the lease is where California's requirements live. Covered tenancies must carry the AB 1482 rent-cap and just-cause statement in at least 12-point type, and a single-family home is exempt from AB 1482 only if the exact exemption statement was in the lease for tenancies begun or renewed on or after July 1, 2020 (Civil Code 1946.2). The deposit may not exceed one month's rent since July 1, 2024, and the required disclosures, from flood hazard to lead-based paint, have to be attached. A professionally prepared lease carries all of it.
Sources
- Croskey Real Estate, lease-only service (reviewed July 2026), retrieved October 2026
- Croskey Real Estate, property management pricing (reviewed July 20, 2026), retrieved October 2026
- Croskey Real Estate, property management solutions, retrieved October 2026
- California Civil Code section 1946.2 (just cause; AB 1482 notices and single-family exemption), as amended effective January 1, 2026, retrieved October 2026
- California Civil Code section 1950.5 (security deposits), retrieved October 2026
- California Civil Code section 1950.6 (application screening fees), as amended effective January 1, 2026, retrieved October 2026
