Lease-Up Mandate

We lease it up. You take it back.

The lease-up mandate is a property management agreement with a fixed term. For the length of it, KEILTY is your property manager: we price your rental, market it, run the showings, screen every applicant and prepare the Ontario Standard Lease for you and your resident to sign. We stay on through move-in and for 14 days after, then the agreement ends and you carry on managing your own property. One short agreement, two invoices, no ongoing monthly fee.

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Who this is for

Plenty of owners are perfectly capable of running their own rental. The difference is repetition: we place residents every week, most owners do it once every few years.

You manage your own property

You collect the rent, you take the maintenance calls, and you would rather keep it that way. You just do not want to be the one screening applicants and writing the lease.

You are new to this

You moved, you inherited it, or you just finished a basement unit. The first tenancy sets the tone for every year after it, and it needs to start on the correct lease at a realistic rent.

You own a student house

Large houses lease on a calendar, not on demand, and rents on four and five bedroom homes have moved. Pricing and timing decide your year far more than day-to-day management does.

Available anywhere KEILTY operates. See the communities we serve.

What we do, and when

A published timeline, a fixed term and a clear end point.

Day 0

We price it, agree the plan and sign

A rent range built from comparable homes that actually leased nearby, not from what other owners are asking and failing to get. You get it in writing, with the marketing plan, and we sign the Property Management Agreement before anything goes live.

Day 1 to 3

Photography and the listing go live

Professional photos, listing copy that answers the questions renters actually ask, and syndication across rentals.ca, Kijiji, Zumper and more. We photograph every property ourselves unless you already have professional images that are current and not watermarked, in which case we will use yours.

Day 3 to 5

Showings begin

We answer the calls and messages, qualify who is worth a viewing, and run the showings ourselves. We hold one copy of the key for showings, and it goes to your resident on move-in day. You do not spend your Saturday running back-to-back showings.

On approval

Screening, then the lease

Credit, employment and income verification, landlord references and identity on every applicant. We present the completed screening file. You approve the resident, always. Then we send you the Ontario Standard Lease, with the right schedules, for you and your resident to sign digitally. Your resident pays the rent deposit and first month's rent to KEILTY, held in trust for you. No key changes hands until those funds have cleared, and we confirm receipt to you in writing.

Move-in day

Keys and the move-in inspection

Your resident gets their keys once the rent deposit and first month's rent have cleared. We complete the move-in inspection with photos and give your resident your payment instructions for every month after the first. The completion fee is due today, and within two business days we send you the rent deposit and first month's rent, less that fee, with a statement.

Day 14 after move-in

The mandate ends

We hand you the file: signed lease and schedules, move-in inspection, screening file, resident contacts and a handover checklist. From here the property is yours.

Those timings assume a photo-ready unit. Cleaned, cleared, repairs done and utilities on. The clock starts the day the property is ready to photograph, not the day we sign. A unit that still needs work will not photograph well, and a weak listing costs more in vacancy than the delay does.

When the mandate ends

We would rather you know this before you hire us than after. The lease-up mandate is a management agreement with a fixed term, and the term ends 14 days after your resident moves in, or 180 days after the property is ready to show if no lease has been signed by then.

Included in the mandate

✓Rent pricing and a written recommendation
✓Professional photography and listing copy
✓Syndication to the major rental portals
✓Enquiry handling and qualification
✓Showings run by a KEILTY property manager
✓Full screening on every applicant
✓Ontario Standard Lease and schedules, prepared for your and your resident's signatures
✓Move-in inspection with photos
✓14 days of post-move-in support and the handover file

Reverts to you at day 14

—Monthly rent collection and receipts
—Arrears, notices and anything at the Landlord and Tenant Board
—Maintenance calls, trades and emergencies
—Inspections during the tenancy
—Utilities, insurance and compliance
—Annual rent increases and renewals
—The rent deposit, which you hold as landlord once we remit it, and the annual interest owed on it
—The next turnover, unless you engage us again

If that list is the reason you are here, you want full management instead. The table below compares the two side by side.

What it costs

Lease-Up Mandate

1 month's rent + HST, all in

✓Setup fee: $500 + HST, invoiced when the agreement is signed. Covers onboarding, the pricing report and professional photography.
✓Completion fee: one month's rent + HST, less the $500 + HST setup fee, due on move-in day and deducted from the first month's rent we collect for you, with a statement.
✓Total for a completed lease-up: one month's rent + HST.
✓A short written agreement with a fixed end date. No monthly fee.

Same work, same screening standard and same lease we use for our full-management owners. If the mandate ends without a resident, the setup fee is all you have spent.

Lease-up mandate vs full management

A $2,200 per month house in year one, HST included, assuming one new tenancy.

	Lease-up mandate	Full management
Setup and onboarding, one time	$565	$638
Lease-up fee, one month's rent + HST (mandate: less the setup fee)	$1,921	$2,486
Management, 12 months	$0	$2,020
Year one	$2,486	$5,144
Every year after, same resident	$0	$2,020
Who collects rent, handles repairs and the LTB	You	KEILTY

Under the mandate, KEILTY holds only the rent deposit and first month's rent, in trust, until it sends them to you within two business days of move-in. All other rent goes straight to you. Full management: $149 + HST per unit per month and a one-time onboarding and property setup fee of $190 per owner bank account plus $375 per unit type, plus HST, which covers professional photography and bank account setup. HST at 13%. Maintenance coordination is 10% of any invoice we arrange, and a lease renewal we handle for a management client is 25% of one month's rent. Your own numbers are confirmed in writing before you sign.

How the money moves

Ontario allows a landlord to collect exactly two things at move-in: a rent deposit equal to one month's rent, which must be applied to the last month of the tenancy, and a key deposit at the cost of replacing the keys. Security deposits and damage deposits are not legal here. Here is the sequence.

You sign the Property Management Agreement and we invoice the setup fee, $500 + HST.
Your resident pays the rent deposit and first month's rent to KEILTY, and we hold both in trust for you. No key changes hands until those funds have cleared, and we confirm receipt to you in writing.
On move-in day the completion fee is due: one month's rent + HST, less the setup fee you already paid. Within two business days we send you the rent deposit and first month's rent, less that fee, with a statement.
Every month after the first, your resident pays rent directly to you, using whatever instructions you want: e-transfer, cheque, your own portal, or your pre-authorized debit forms, which we pass along before possession. Fourteen days after move-in the mandate ends.
Once we remit it, you hold the rent deposit as landlord. It is applied to your resident's last month, and you owe them annual interest on it at the guideline rate, 2.1% for 2026, on each anniversary of the tenancy.

Worked through on a $2,200 house

Setup fee, invoiced at signing	$565
Completion fee, due on move-in day	$1,921
Total paid to KEILTY	$2,486
Rent deposit and first month's rent, collected in trust	$4,400
Sent to you within two business days, less the completion fee	$2,479

To be frank. The lease-up mandate is the cheaper number, and it is not close. What the difference buys is the other twelve months: the arrears conversation, the furnace at eleven at night, the notice that has to be served correctly the first time, the rent increase, the renewal. If you already handle all of that, and handle it well, then pay us for the two weeks you would rather not do and keep the rest of your money. If you would rather never handle it again, full management is what that costs, and every fee is published on our single-family management page.

Still weighing it up? Run your own numbers with the management vs self-management calculator, or see what your property should rent for with the rental income calculator.

Questions owners actually ask

Do I have to sign a management agreement?

Yes, a short one. The lease-up mandate is a Property Management Agreement with a fixed term that ends 14 days after your resident moves in. There is no monthly fee and nothing to cancel afterward, because it has already ended.

What do I pay, and when?

$500 + HST when we sign, which covers onboarding, the pricing report and professional photography. On move-in day the completion fee is due: one month's rent + HST less the $500 + HST you already paid. We deduct it from the first month's rent we collect for you and send you a statement. A completed lease-up costs one month's rent + HST in total.

What if you do not find anyone?

If no lease is signed within 180 days of the property being ready to show, the mandate ends and the setup fee is all you have spent. In practice, if a property is not attracting the right applicants it is almost always price, and we will tell you that early rather than let it sit.

Can I end the mandate early?

Yes, on 15 days' written notice from either of us. The setup fee is not refundable. If a lease is already signed, the completion fee is due on the termination date. If not, there is no completion fee, unless within 90 days you lease the property to someone we introduced, in which case it becomes due then. We send you the list of people we introduced within five business days.

How quickly does it move?

Photos and the listing go live within three days of the unit being photo-ready, and showings start between day three and day five. How long it takes from there depends on price, season and the property itself. We will give you a realistic read at the start rather than an optimistic one.

Who chooses the resident?

You do. We present the completed screening file and the final approval is always yours. We will tell you plainly if an applicant carries risk, and we do not sign anyone into your property without your approval.

What does the screening actually cover?

Credit history, employment and income verification, previous landlord references and identity: the same standard we apply for our full-management owners. There is no lighter version for lease-up clients.

Who holds the rent deposit?

You do, as landlord. Your resident pays it, with first month's rent, to KEILTY before keys move, and we hold both in trust for you until we send them to you within two business days of move-in, less the completion fee. It is applied to their last month whenever the tenancy ends, and you owe them annual interest on it at the guideline rate, 2.1% for 2026, on each anniversary.

How does my resident pay the rent?

First month's rent comes to KEILTY with the rent deposit, before keys move. Every month after that goes directly to you. We give your resident whatever payment instructions you want used: e-transfer, cheque, your own portal, or we pass along your pre-authorized debit forms so the monthly payments are already set up when they take possession.

Can I switch to full management later?

Yes. Starting with a lease-up mandate does not close the door on management, and we can take on a tenancy we started. Ask and we will put a quote in writing before you commit to anything. Every management fee is published on our single-family page.

Is KEILTY a real estate brokerage?

No. KEILTY Realty Management Inc. is a property management firm, not a registered real estate brokerage. We lease your property as your property manager under a written Property Management Agreement, the same footing as every property in our managed portfolio. We do not list on MLS or Realtor.ca: renters do not look there, so we market where they do.

Start with a realistic rent range

Free rental evaluation with a rent range for your property and a written lease-up quote, with a call from A.J. Keilty within 20 minutes in business hours. Ask for the lease-up mandate and that is exactly what you will be quoted.

Free Rental Evaluation

No obligation. Prepared by a local property manager.

A call within 20 minutes in business hours, the written evaluation within 24 hours of that call. We never share your information.

Prefer to talk it through?

Call 613-545-3322 or email Hello@KEILTY.com and we will tell you what your property should rent for and what a lease-up would cost.

Call 613-545-3322

KEILTY Realty Management Inc. is a property management firm, not a registered real estate brokerage. We lease and manage rental property as the owner's property manager under a written management agreement.