Avoid Rent to Own Disaster with the Right Property Management Company

Homeowners today are more and more often making the choice to rent their home rather than sell due to the decreasing property values in today’s economy.  As a result, it is becoming more and more important to find quality, efficient property management services. In today’s environment, homeowners are no longer just interested in a company that performs great upkeep, collection and vendor management, but rather are relying on their property manager to quickly find reputable and responsible tenants. This is not always an easy task, particularly with higher end homes.

The trend for high end homeowners to lease their home long term or on a rent to own option rather than as a short term vacation rental is causing the increased concern over tenant quality.  The financial and emotional risk to a homeowner is greater when market conditions force them to rent instead of sell their home. 

Homeowners or prospective tenants should consider the following factors when selecting their property management company:

1.   Licensing. Because only larger property management companies are required to be licensed in Colorado, many choose not to get licenses. A licensed property manager is bound by the laws of the real estate commission, and has legal obligations through the commission to both the landlord and the tenant. . It is easy for unscrupulous management companies to commit fraud against a customer or even identity theft and the home owner or tenant have very little remedy.

2.Tenant Review. A reputable property management company will take the time to pre-screen all tenants with a background check, including the tenant’s credit report, prior rental history and criminal history. This goes a long way to minimizing the homeowner’s risk as well as saving time and energy up front for all parties.

3.Expertise in Real Estate. It’s important to have experience in today’s marketplace. An effective property manager must be able to efficiently navigate through all the confusion in order to best serve both the homeowners and tenants well.

4.Community Know How. . It is critical that the property management company you choose is well known and respected in the local real estate market. Many for-sale properties are turning into rentals and a solid network of brokers means a bigger inventory of homes as well as real time insight into various neighborhoods and the market as a whole.

Our Denver Based property management company, Denver Rent a Home has focused on streamlining the tenant placement process and taking the hassle out of the hands of the homeowners. A big contributor to this effort is our online tenant pre-approval service, where tenants can view listings and get pre-approved. There is also a thorough background check conducted on every prospective tenant, and we pride ourselves on learning what is important to our clients very early in the process.

For homeowners and tenants alike, the bottom line is be careful when choosing your property management company.Be extra cautious of managers who cannot show you the proper licensing for your state, aren’t able to show you examples of their experience or cannot explain to you their process for managing your home effectively. This may seem elementary, but licensing requirements can be confusing, and people often take short cuts because they are unaware of the risks this type of transaction can pose without proper representation by a quality manager. It would also be wise to ask to speak to existing customers of your prospective manager in order to hear firsthand how their experience went.

A great property management company really wants to make sure they understand their clients and know the properties as if they were their own. A quality management company never loses sight of the fact that their customers are relying on them to get reputable tenants for their homes, and they take that responsibility seriously.

DenverRentAHome.com can help those in the Denver, Colorado and surrounding areas with over 75 years of combined expertise in the residential rental and property management fields.  As Colorado natives, they will be able to help you find the ideal lease option situation in any price range.  Homeowners can now post their properties online for FREE for two weeks, followed by a low monthly fee. And prospective tenants can now get pre-qualified online! Visit www.DenverRentAHome.com for more information or call 303.681.6767.