All Forum Posts by: Katie Fiola Jones

Have you thought about hiring a property manager? They take care of the dirty work like this and ensure that your property is being taken care of. It seems to me like it might be worth looking into. They typically do inspections on the property and make sure the place isn't trashed. 

If you're not interested in that, you need to set up some serious ground rules for the house and if they brake them, post them and fine them for it. Lay down the law to ensure it doesn't happen again. Protecting your asset might mean being a little assertive. 

To prevent things like this in the future, you may want to get previous landlord references from all applicants to ensure that they took care of their last rental. 

I work as a leasing agent for a property management company here in Denver. What others are saying is correct, you need to have your license to be able to handle the money as well as negotiate leases. You will need 2 years experience with your license hanging under a managing broker. After that you can go out on your own. But be careful, a lot of property management companies make you sign some sort of non-compete, and you may have to wait a bit of time to start up your own property management company. Good luck! I've been in the business for about 2 years, and I enjoy my portion of the job. But I only manage the properties when they are vacant - so that might have something to do with it! We have a whole team with different departments that handle things like accounting, maintenance and customer complaints. Good luck to you!! 

I work with rentals as a leasing agent, and the home owners I work with look at the rent Zestimate for their homes, and right now the Zestimates have been estimating very high prices. It causes a lot of arguments and me trying to lower their expectations. 

If you are looking to manage the properties yourself, a lot of property management companies do tenant placement. Where they show properties and do screenings for you. Then once the tenants move in the property is handed back over to you for full management. But like Thomas said, it sounds like you are in need of full time management if you are so busy! 

Good luck 

@Steve S.

I agree with Kimberly. 
I work as a leasing agent so my job is advertising and showing properties to get them rented out. 1 showing within a week is okay but it's not great in my professional opinion. 

Tons of people can go on Zillow and open an ad. In fact, I do this for fun in different markets just to keep up on how things are doing in other areas. It comes down to the actual phone calls and showings you are having. 

My rule for the properties I'm renting out is that if I don't have a good amount of true interest within the first 7 days of being posted, I like to drop the price by $50 - $100.  

You want  to avoid letting your ad sit on the market for too long and becoming "stale."

People are definitely not applying because they probably thing it is a scam. 

I don't think it is necessary to meet the people before they move in. In fact it might be better for you because it cuts out the emotional ties you may develop with someone. If you meet them and develop a great relationship with them it may be hard for you to make a tough decision later if their background check comes back negatively. Or even further down if they decide not to pay rent, it may be hard to be demanding if you have developed a personal relationship with them. 

I would let the realtors keep showing your property and meet your new tenants afterwards. Keep the relationship with them strictly business. 

I work as a leasing agent in a property management company. We are hired to be the bad guys for landlords when tough situations come up. 

 I believe if they are visibly handicapped you can't ask for the documentation, but if it is a handicap that is not visible you can ask for the documentation.

On a different note - if you use the term deposit, this should mean the money is refundable. If you are collecting money from tenants that is nonrefundable you may want to switch to using the term fee instead. The term deposit may sound a little nicer than fee, however technically if you're making the money nonrefundable it turns into a fee. 

I actually work at a property management company as a licensed leasing agent, and I happened to come across a woman who will be selling her mobile home shortly. She asked me if I knew anyone who specialized in mobile home sales. I told her I'd ask around! 

So here I am trying to find out if anyone has had experience or specializes in mobile homes in the Denver Metro area. 

Hey Alex, 

Welcome to BP. Where are you thinking about investing? Bill is right, there are only a few areas where rentals make sense right now. I'm a leasing agent at a property management company. We have been seeing some decline in rental prices in certain areas in the last year. Make sure to do some research of the areas you are looking to buy. 

I'd be happy to discuss it further if you'd like, just message me.

@Bill S. I appreciate the solid advice. I am definitely still actively looking for a place out here in Colorado for those exact reasons.