Tuesday, August 26, 2014

How to Rent a House in Colorado Springs



So You Want to Rent Your Home

So you have property in the Colorado Springs area, and you are thinking about renting your house. When you think about everything involved in being a landlord, you might decide to not to pursue having an investment property. You’ve probably heard horror stories from other people who have tried to rent their house and either lost money or had to spend so much time making repairs on the property that they missed work or family time.

Thankfully, we have some answers, but first, let’s look at what is involved in renting your home in Colorado Springs.





Things to Take Into Account Before Renting Your Home

  • How will you market your rental so that you get it rented quickly, and attract the kind of people you want to live in your house?
  • What will you charge? Do you know the rent rates our current market will allow for?
  • How will you maintain your property so the yard has the best chances to survive and that beautiful painting you did in the living room isn’t destroyed? How will you even know if damage is being done inside your rental?
  • How will you collect prompt payments? What if the renters get behind--what do you do then?
  • How will you handle repairs? If your tenants call on Thanksgiving with a flooded basement, will you want to take time away from your festivities to go address the issue?
  • Are you good with accounting? You’re going to have to keep close track of the finances so as to not lose money and to please Uncle Sam.
  • Do you have a good, affordable lawyer? You might need to sue for damages, or to evict someone.
  • Do you know all the laws and rules about renting, including tenant rights? How can you figure this out?
  • How’s your muscle tone? Will you be able to confront a bad tenant on issues if you need to?

The Answer That Covers all Your Bases

This is a lot to think about. So what is the answer? How can you rent your house, know you're getting the best market rent rates, and be able to have all of the time you have now to enjoy your life?

It is simple. Hire a good Property Manager who will do all of this for you and transfer rent proceeds to you monthly.

Sound too good to be true?  It’s not! Hundreds of property owners with homes in the Colorado Springs area trust All Seasons, LLC, CRMC Property Management division to take the stress out of being a landlord.

You can save money by hiring them. This is how it works: they charge a percentage of your property's monthly rental rate in exchange for their services; there is no fee when your property is vacant; they charge no mark-ups when they do routine repairs on your property. Monthly proceeds are electronically deposited, and your monthly statements are available online.

Here’s what All Seasons, LLC, CRMC will do for you:

Marketing, Advertising, and Screening - They will utilize the best online advertising in an effort to locate tenants for you quickly, and avoid long vacancies. 
They are available for showings every weekend--one reason their vacancy rate is about half of what it is city-wide in Colorado Springs. Their managed properties are snapped up so quickly that if one is available, multiple people contact the office and oftentimes, there are multiple applications on the same property, giving them the opportunity to pick the cream of the crop.
Their screening process includes running credit, background, previous rental history, and employment references/verifications in an effort to ensure that the approved tenant for your property is qualified to rent. This is all done at no additional charge to you, the homeowner.
Setting the Right Price - A good property manager can set the ideal rental price for your property. This ensures that you get the max monthly income possible, given current market conditions while also obtaining a short vacancy period.
Documenting Your Rental - They use extremely thorough videos to document how the house looks when tenants move in, and identify the issues when they move out. Talk about indisputable evidence as to the condition of the property and whether damages are caused - this is it! They also do exterior assessments three times a year on the single family properties to ensure the tenant is making good efforts in regards to the yard and the general exterior state of your property.
Vendors - These are the guys who fix things on the property. All Seasons, LLC, CRMC has a winning line up of vendors, who not only make the needed repairs, but report back to All Seasons about any other problems they see in the house. Regular vendor review is conducted to ensure the rates being offered for the services by the insured and licensed (if applicable) professionals are competitive. 
Collecting Rental Payments - All Seasons, LLC, CRMC uses an efficient method to effectively collect rent and make sure the payments are on-time--crucial to maintaining your cash flow. With 24/7/365 online access to your "Owner Portal" you can monitor expenses, review bills as they're posted to your account, and even see pictures of issues that need brought to your attention, even when you're worlds away.


So how can you go wrong?


You’ve got the option of DIY, which runs the risk of losing you money and time.

Or, you can hire All Seasons, LLC, CRMC, and let them take care of the time consuming aspects involved with Property Management. 

I know what I will do!









Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Bloomberg: Young Renters Trading Size for Frills

Published in Bloomberg | July 10, 2104 | Written by Prashant Gobal

Young professionals are paying top-market rents to live in new upscale apartment towers sprouting in Nashville and other downtowns across the country. They’re sacrificing living space for a prime urban location and extras such as cooking classes, dog-wash stations and poolside Wi-Fi.

Developers, in the biggest U.S. apartment-construction boom in almost a decade, are shrinking the size of units so they can command luxury rates without narrowing the pool of potential tenants. The median size of apartments in new U.S. buildings fell last year to 1,043 square feet, the smallest since 2002, Census Bureau data.

At the same time, leasing is getting more expensive. The U.S. average rent per square foot was $1.25 in May, the highest in records dating to 1996, according to Axiometrics Inc.

To read the entire article: http://ow.ly/AibwP