
Quoting
SChinFChin
I rented my first apartment at a large complex, and even though the owner owned it through some corporate entity, it's the managing agent who actually signs the leases as PM on behalf of the LL, even though the lease is between the LL and tenant.
As to the name of the LL, if it is in an LLC or Corp., I found when I was working with an insurance company that LL's like to use the address as the name of the entity. So if he bought a property at "123 Main St", then the entity owning it would be called 123 Main St. LLC. This is very common, and confusng because sometimes new people at the insurance company thought someone forgot to write down the name of the owner. But the corporate name of the owner just happens to be the SAME as the address of the property in many cases.
I am now a LL of many years, though so far I haven't used PM's, but from time to time, I interviewed them for properties far away, and I planned to use the PM for finding tenants, preparing and signing leases etc. and was always part of the deal. One guy tells me he does it for retired people who likes to travel, and I can't imagine using carrier pigeons to drop leases off with the owner if the owner decides to travel around the world in a yacht. How is a LL going to sign lease if he's traveling and couldn't be located??
So yes, under a property management agreement, the PM always signs leases for the LL as the LL's agent, and if I start using PM's that's what I expect them to do for me. And if tenants start calling me up at my home address to talk about their leases, and problems, then it's time for me to FIRE my PM, because the whole purpose of paying guys like that 10% of the rent is to do leases, sign them, and handle calls from tenants.