A Housing Choice Voucher tenancy runs on deadlines. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburg sets the payment standard, inspects the unit, and approves the Request for Tenancy before any rent moves. Miss a step and the unit sits empty. Croskey Real Estate manages voucher and market-rate rentals in Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, and Bay Point. Here is the work, job by job.
Who this is a good fit for
You hold 2–10 units for the long term, usually single-family homes or small multifamily buildings in East Contra Costa. Those are the cities we work in day to day. It fits less well if you are flipping, if your units sit outside the county, or if you want a manager who never questions a rent number. We ask questions.
1. We handle the Housing Authority paperwork
We complete the Request for Tenancy Approval packet, submit it, book the inspection, and carry the Housing Assistance Payments contract to signature. We check your asking rent against the payment standard first, because a rent above it stalls approval. Our House Authority Resources page holds the payment standards, the condition standards, and a sample tenancy packet. You do not have to read any of it.
2. We screen every applicant against the same written standards
One written set of criteria goes to every applicant: income, rental history, background check, weighed the same way each time. A voucher counts as income, and for a voucher holder we measure ability to pay against the tenant’s share rather than the full contract rent, which is what California law requires. Source of income is protected here, so holding a voucher is never grounds to decline an applicant. Applying one standard is what keeps a screening decision defensible.
3. We collect the rent and send you one monthly statement
Voucher rent arrives in two pieces: the Authority pays the subsidy portion on a set schedule, the tenant pays the balance. We reconcile both sides, follow up when the tenant’s share runs late, and post one statement to your owner portal each month. Two payments in, one number out.
4. We coordinate maintenance and the recurring inspection
Voucher units are inspected before move-in and on a recurring basis after that, against a published condition standard. A failed item has to clear inside the window or the subsidy stops. Repairs go to the contractors we use on every property we manage, and the line is staffed for emergencies around the clock. Most failures are small: a missing smoke detector cover, a loose handrail, a window that will not latch.
5. We keep the tenancy legal in California
The state stacks its own rules on the federal program. Rent increases and just cause for termination fall under the Tenant Protection Act on most units. Two points are worth stating outright. Vouchers are a protected source of income in California, which is why the screening standard above runs identically for every applicant. An assistance animal is not a pet, so it sits outside any pet deposit, pet rent, or no-pets policy. Our guide to the California Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) has the detail.
6. We answer the tenant so you do not have to
Your phone stops ringing. Maintenance requests, lease questions, notices, and after-hours emergencies reach our office on Railroad Ave. in Pittsburg, staffed Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. A tenant who can reach a person reports a leak while it is still a leak.
Full service and lease-only are different arrangements
Full-service management is the list above, repeated monthly, billed as a percentage of collected rent. Lease-only placement is one transaction: market the unit, screen applicants, clear Housing Authority approval, sign the lease, hand over the keys. After move-in the owner self-manages, so rent collection, inspections, notices, and the after-hours call come back to you. Lease-only is not a discounted full-service plan. It is a one-time placement for a one-time fee. Everything on this page is full-service management, so if a placement is all you want, say so at the start.
Fees in the county generally run 4–10 percent of collected rent, and the percentage alone tells you little. Our breakdown of what property management costs in Contra Costa County lists the add-ons to ask about: leasing fees, repair mark-ups, renewal fees, startup fees. We charge no renewal fee and no startup fee.
Your next step
Book a consultation with Croskey Real Estate and we will run a rental property analysis, price your unit against the current Pittsburg payment standard, and tell you which arrangement fits. Call (925) 219-8488 to set it up.
Croskey Real Estate, 745 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg, CA 94565. DRE #01990430. Wolfgang Croskey, Broker of Record, DRE #01708438.