5 Great Tips for Managing Denver Apartment Buildings

1) Clarify Management Agreement Terms (either professional manager or resident manager)

– Leasing Fees – typically 50% of the 1st month’s rent

– Overall Management Fee – ranges between 6%-12% for apartments, but typically around 10%

2) Advertising

– Everyone knows to use Craig’s List, but you can set yourself apart by creating a rental brochure on V-Flyer (http://www.vflyer.com/) or a Postlets (http://www.postlets.com/) to insert into Craig’s List

3) Rental Application Process

– Charge for accepting a rental application! Suggested minimum charge of $30 per adult applicant

– Make sure all areas are completed (include: emergency contact, cars, pets, etc.)

4) Lease (several options for written form/agreement)

– Become a member of Apartment Association of Metro Denver (http://www.aamdhq.org/)
– Have an attorney draft your lease.  My clients use Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP (http://www.fostergraham.com/) and Tschetter · Hamrick · Sulzer (http://thslawfirm.com/) to name a few

– Include all addendums, lead based paint, etc.

– Specify which utilities tenant pays, who is responsible for lawn care, how pets are handled.

– Make sure all adult occupants sign the lease (it sounds fairly obvious, but it doesn’t always happen)

5) Apartment Tenant Move In/Move Out

– Move-in: checklist is very important

– Move-out: Security Deposit disposition – what does your lease specify – 30 or 60 days?  Maximum timeframe for release of funds is 60 days

For more helpful information about how Denver’s apartment market and what the boutique apartment owner wants to know, please continue to visit: http://www.denverapartmentbuildingsforsale.com/