What to Expect from SNSHN

A guide for Owner Partners: how we work, what we commit to, and how to tell us when we miss.

What’s my role, and what’s yours?

Your role is the executive level. You pay three big bills (mortgage, insurance, and property taxes) and make the directional investment decisions, including approving and funding the projects we recommend. Leave the day-to-day to us.

We handle just about everything else. Tenants, rent collection, maintenance, turns, and your monthly statements are the everyday part. A few examples of the rest:

• Insurance claims: after a loss at your property, we’ll argue and negotiate with your insurance adjuster on your behalf.
• The city: we go to bat for you with DNS (Department of Neighborhood Services), inspectors, and the other municipal authorities, and we resolve the notices they send.
• Emergencies: when one of our properties had a house fire, our team was in the field coordinating mitigation, insurance inspections, tenant relocation, and repair estimates.

If a notice from the city, an inspector, or an insurer shows up in your mailbox, forward it to owners@snshn.co right away. We’ll bring you in when a decision or funding is needed.

What will my property rent for?

• Ask us before you buy. Send us the address and we can usually get you a realistic rent range within 1 business day.
• We price on current comps and what will actually lease, not the highest number Zillow shows.
• “Market rent” depends on the specific home: condition, finishes, layout, yard, laundry, and more. SNSHN also bills tenants back for water and utilities as standard, so an online comp is rarely apples-to-apples.
• Our goal is the most rent collected over multiple years, not the highest rent for 12 months followed by two months of vacancy and starting over.

Why do you price a little under market?

Because your rent decides which tenants you’re competing for. Charge top dollar in a C-class neighborhood and you’ve signed up for C-class standards. Ask for average rent and you’ll get average tenants. With an average product at an average rent, what do you expect to happen?

Eviction risk is real, and it’s uneven. Milwaukee County’s eviction filing rate averages about 6% a year. Certain pockets of the city run 20% or more. On buildings SNSHN has managed for two years or more, our rate is under 1%. The numbers and method are at snshn.com/evict.

Can I use my own contractors?

• Yes, before we onboard the property. After that, all maintenance, repairs, and projects run through our team and vendors.
• Why: one team owns the job end to end. We set completion dates we can lease against, coordinate with tenants and neighbors, and send vendors who already have our keys. Split the work between our vendors and outside contractors and that chain breaks. That’s where mistakes and delays happen.
• We don’t piecemeal. Plenty of management companies will, and their model makes sure they get paid for every extra request. We feel the cost of inefficiency, long vacancy, and repeat work ourselves, so we protect the process that prevents them.

Can I make design requests?

• We always appreciate ideas. But finishes, colors, fixtures, and materials follow the SNSHN standard, and we can’t commit to owner preferences.
• If we have the time and room to experiment and your idea fits, we may try it. Most of the time, one-off requests add complication to a job that’s already complicated and urgent.

How do maintenance and repairs work?

• Tenants call us, not you. We take the request, diagnose it, send the right vendor, and follow through. Good maintenance is a big part of how we keep good tenants.
• What will it cost? We don’t know until we diagnose it. A furnace that won’t start could be a loose thermostat wire or a dead inducer motor. What we can promise: a team and vendor network that finds great pricing.
• Every estimate comes with our honest take: what’s required, what we recommend, and what’s optional. It’s information for your decision, not a sales pitch. For example:

“Your roof likely has a year or two left. We can patch it now, but if you’re able, we’d recommend replacing it in the next 1–2 years before interior damage shows up. We estimate about $15k. What would you like to do?”

• Approved projects start with a 40% deposit through your owner portal.

What standard do you hold units to?

• Every unit is held to the SNSHN Unit Standard (see the appendix). At onboarding we complete separate interior and exterior evaluations, each with its own estimate for your approval.
• 10 years of experience, focused on a 10-year horizon. Our standards come from a decade of managing properties. We pick materials and fixes we don’t expect to revisit for years. For roofs, plumbing, and electrical, the bar is “I never want to think about this again.”
• Our estimates may look higher than the other guys’ up front. The difference shows up over the years that follow.

How long does a turn take?

• When a tenant does move out, anywhere from one day to 1–2 months for a major renovation. On average, 2–3 weeks.
• Whenever we can, we aim for a same-day turn: the outgoing tenant leaves the morning of the last day, and the new tenant moves in the next day. Small follow-up items get finished in the first week or two. It’s the hardest way for us to work, and the best way to keep your vacancy under a month.

What updates will I get?

What you can count on:

• An owner statement every month, by the 10th, covering the prior month (June’s statement arrives by July 10).
• Monthly meetings for your first three months with us. After that, as needed, and most owners find they aren’t. More than 90% of owners who’ve been with us over a year talk with us only by email. Some go years without a meeting. That’s a good sign, not a bad one.
• Anything that needs your decision or your money (estimates and recommended projects) comes to you in writing for approval.
• Projects and turns: an estimate at the start, a heads-up if something material changes (a significant cost increase, a timeline shift, or an unexpected issue), and a note when it’s done.

What we don’t send:

• Weekly or play-by-play updates on routine maintenance, showings, price points, tenant feedback, or any other day-to-day work we’re responsible for handling.
• This isn’t about hiding anything. Every hour spent on status updates is an hour not spent on the work itself. Our leasing team is measured on vacancy and delinquency: results, not reports. No news in the middle of a project is good news. You’re always welcome to check in. Just know that giving the team space is what speeds things up.

How do I reach you?

• Email owners@snshn.co for everything. It keeps your request in writing, in front of the whole team, and moving even when someone is out in the field.
• Please don’t route requests through one team member’s cell phone or text. Haven’t heard back in 24 hours, or it’s a true emergency? Call the office at (262) 735-5989.

How fast will you respond?

We make every reasonable effort to meet these:

Quiet usually means we’re deep in the work (a house fire, or a first-of-the-month wave of vacancies to secure and stabilize). Non-urgent items like onboarding reports are the first to get pushed when that happens. If we miss one of these timeframes, call it out.

What if I feel you’re missing the mark?

• Tell us. We need to hear when you’re not happy with results, and the more clearly you can say why, the faster we can react, solve, and grow.
• Come prepared with what feels off, and why. A general check-in because something feels stressful gives us nothing to act on. A specific concern does.

Less helpful: “Hey, what’s the update on Unit A?”

Helpful: “I’m concerned Unit A hasn’t rented. It’s been vacant two months in the middle of summer, and it feels like it should have rented within a month of marketing. What am I missing?”

• The second one is clear and actionable. It tells us exactly what feels off, why, and what you expected.

Why do you operate this way?

• We want you to grow. Our goal is to stabilize your property so well that you want to buy the next one for us to manage.
• Trust and autonomy are what let us deliver. We’d rather put every ounce of energy into forward progress than into storytelling. You hired us as your make-it-happen partner, and we don’t take that lightly.

SNSHN Unit Standard

Appendix: the minimum every SNSHN unit is held to, and the materials we use to get there.

Required in every unit

Materials we use, and why

The list goes on. These are a few you can see. Each one costs a little more today and should cost you far less over the next 10 years.

We also stay away from painted hardwood floors, carpet in first-floor rooms, and refinishing builder-grade cabinetry. We’ve tried each one, and the multi-year cost isn’t worth the upfront savings.

Standards evolve as we learn. What we do today reflects 10 years of managing properties. What we do six months from now will reflect those six months too.