Property Management in Burbank
Burbank is a small city that runs itself well, and it shows in the rental market. A large local employment base in media and aviation, schools people move for, and a rental stock of mostly small and mid-size buildings — fourplexes through thirty-unit walk-ups — concentrated south of Olive and around Magnolia Park. Tenancies here run longer than the county average.
The trade-off is that Burbank has become a more procedurally demanding city to own in. It adopted its own tenant protection ordinance in 2024 and amended it in 2025, and the consequences of getting a notice wrong are unusually sharp. Owners working from pre-2024 assumptions are the ones most exposed.
- Per unit, per month
- $100Per unit, per month
- Ordinary leasing
- IncludedOrdinary leasing
- UnitSimple maintenance markup
- $0UnitSimple maintenance markup
- Founder access
- DirectFounder access
Burbank layers a local ordinance over state law
Burbank does not operate a traditional local rent control ordinance with its own published annual percentage — rent increases on covered properties are governed by California’s Tenant Protection Act, and the city publishes the Los Angeles-area CPI figure used in the calculation. What Burbank does have is a Tenant Protection Ordinance, effective August 31, 2024 and amended by the City Council in March 2025, which the city states applies to all residential rental units covered by the state Act.
The provision owners need to plan for is relocation assistance on no-fault terminations. Burbank states that failure to comply renders the termination notice void and serves as an affirmative defense to an unlawful detainer action — the notice fails, not just the payment. We confirm the current amount and procedure with the City of Burbank before anything is served.
What we watch on Burbank properties
- Burbank Water and Power is a municipal utility, so account setup and billing follow the city’s process rather than a private provider’s.
- Much of the older stock is under-parked relative to current household car counts, and permit districts limit the fallback.
- Long tenancies mean full turnovers. We plan make-ready scope from the pre-move-out inspection rather than discovering it when the keys come back.
- Consistent written screening criteria applied to every applicant matter more in an ordinance environment where ending a tenancy is expensive.
- Single-family and condo exemption notices need checking against the actual lease. An owner who is substantively exempt but never papered it is, in practice, not exempt.
Property types we manage in Burbank
Full-service management covers leasing, resident relations, maintenance coordination, accounting, and owner reporting on every one of these.
Small apartment buildings
Fourplexes through roughly thirty units, the backbone of the Burbank rental market and mostly individually owned. This is where a percentage fee plus leasing fee plus renewal fee takes the largest bite out of net income.
Magnolia Park duplexes and bungalow courts
Character stock with strong, steady demand and low turnover. Condition and period detail lease these units; amenity lists do not.
Media District apartments
Walk-ups and mid-size buildings serving studio and production employment, with year-round demand and applicants who value proximity over square footage.
Single-family and hillside rentals
Burbank Hills and the streets above Kenneth Road — longer tenancies, and a state rent-cap exemption that is only available if the statutory notice was properly papered in the rental agreement.
What management costs in Burbank
The same flat rate applies everywhere we work. It does not move with your rent, and it does not move with the number of units you own.
We run the property. No percentage of rent, so the fee does not rise every time the rent does.
- Ordinary leasing included — listing, showings, screening, lease preparation
- $0 UnitSimple markup on maintenance and repairs
- Rent collection and delinquency follow-up
- Owner portal with statements, invoices, and documents
- Resident portal for payments, requests, and documents
For Burbank owners who want to keep managing themselves but need better systems: listings, applications, maintenance tracking, documents, and resident tools.
Maintenance at cost
We coordinate repairs and turnovers without adding a UnitSimple markup to vendor invoices. You see the invoice we saw.
Maintenance coordinated with licensed and qualified contractors. No UnitSimple maintenance markup.
Owner visibility and a modern resident experience
Small enough to give you direct founder access, with the systems you would expect from a much larger operation.
What owners see
- Monthly statements with income, expenses, and the vendor invoice behind each cost
- Every unit’s lease status, rent, and renewal date in one view
- Open maintenance requests with status and cost as they progress
- Leases, inspections, notices, and insurance stored privately and exportable
- Approval requests for repairs above the threshold you set
What residents get
- Online rent payment through an approved third-party provider
- Maintenance requests with photos, submitted from a phone
- A property assistant that answers from approved property information only
- Their lease and building documents, available any time
- A real person to reach when something is urgent
Rent is processed by an approved third-party payment provider. UnitSimple does not hold, pool, or distribute resident rent payments.
Moving a Burbank property to UnitSimple
Burbank owners tend to switch for one of two reasons. The first is arithmetic: on an eight-unit building at $2,400 average rent, an 8% fee is $1,536 a month before placements, against $800 with UnitSimple and ordinary leasing included.
The second is that small-building owners are often the lowest priority at a manager whose revenue is concentrated in larger portfolios. Direct founder access is the deliberate answer to that — you talk to the person accountable for the property, not a queue.
The transition, in four steps
- 1Review your current management agreement and its notice terms.
- 2Transfer property information — leases, resident ledgers, security-deposit records, keys and access, vendor contacts, and open maintenance requests.
- 3Coordinate resident communication so nobody is confused about where rent goes.
- 4Launch owner and resident access, and begin management.
Reading for Burbank owners
Practical guides on the rules, the numbers, and the operating decisions that come up most.
Ready for simpler Burbank property management?
Speak directly with the founder. Whether you are switching from another management company, purchasing a new investment property, or simply tired of self-managing, call us and we can talk through your property.
Serving property owners throughout Los Angeles County.