#5 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
- Property Manager
- Westminster, CO
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Lessons from Managing Rentals in the Denver Metro — What I Wish I Knew Starting Out
#5 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
- Property Manager
- Westminster, CO
Been managing rentals across the Denver metro (Westminster, Arvada, Thornton, and surrounding areas) for a few years now. A few things that are common rules of thumb I've found useful — curious how they compare to what other landlords/PMs here actually do.
1. Tenant screening: credit and eviction history matter, but income verification is the one people skip. A common rule of thumb is 3x rent in verifiable income, not just a pay stub screenshot. What's your cutoff?
2. Fast maintenance response tends to keep good tenants longer — a slow work order is one of the top reasons decent tenants don't renew.
3. Keeping rent collection and bookkeeping separate is a good habit; mixing the two is a common way owners lose track of what's actually profitable per door.
4. Lease renewals tend to go better as a real conversation than a last-minute formality — starting the conversation 60-90 days out instead of 30 gives more room to actually retain good tenants.
Genuinely curious: what's your income requirement for applicants, and how far out do you start renewal conversations? Always good to compare notes with others managing rentals in this market.
Most Popular Reply
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
- 8,922
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1) Hmm, which do you really think a tenant will prioritize paying:
- Rent, when it can take months for eviction
- Car payment, that can typically be repossessed faster than they can be evicted?
Find it comical that with all the internet tools available, most landlords default to income as a multiple of rent that was created decades ago.
We use DTI just like lenders do for mortgages. We've designed a simple Excel spreadsheet that handles it.
2) Within reason
3) ?
4) We’ve found a great way to raise rent is:
- Determine market rent
- Share the proof with the tenant (they can see it on Zillow anyways)
- Tell the tenant, given your rent is $x and market rent is $y, what do you think if a fair increase?
- Often, they may volunteer a higher amount than you were hoping for.
- Those that respond “$0” or something ridiculous, you can request income documentation from them to justify.
- Don’t be afraid to share with them how much your property taxes & Insurance increased and that YOU cannot afford to absorb them.
ALWAYS get an increase or something of value annually when rents are increasing or tenants will start thinking they should never have an increase, making future increases that much more difficult to negotiate.
- Drew Sygit
- [email protected]
- 248-209-6824
