All Forum Posts by: Graham Watts

Hey Nick, yes I now have an excellent property manager, happy to share their details

It's not as affordable but RiNo is a favorite for quality of life and ability to walk everywhere. Also South Broadway for similar reasons!

Does anyone have personal experience using a property management company for single family rentals in the Denver area that they recommend?  We currently own and rent one unit but may add an additional rental unit in the near future.

Thanks for the reply Matt - the lease is up in a few months, although I don't plan on moving back for at least 3-4 years.

I am considering recasting the mortgage on a rental condo I own and rent.

When I purchased the unit about 28 months ago, I planned to live there long term and didn't consider cash flow and renting. Due to an unexpected opportunity to travel for work, I now rent the unit at a slight loss per month. The rent covers the mortgage, insurance, and HOA, but after paying for property management fees I am losing ~$200 per month, and have little for CapEx, vacancy, and repairs, although it is newly remodeled.

Based on my research I know that it is not smart to rely on property value appreciation to justify the negative cash flow, so I have researched ways to try to improve my cash flow:

• Increasing rent is not an option
• Property management is necessary as I live out of the country
  Refinancing doesn't seem very advantageous, my mortgage is a 30 yr fixed rate at 4.375% and the rates in Denver only look slightly below that for attached homes
• Recasting the mortgage seems like a decent option

Using calculator it looks like I could go from Principal and Interest of $1,541.79 down to $1,317.05, for a monthly reduction of $224.74, achieving a slight cash flow positive, if I invest $40,000. This is an annual savings of $2,696.88, which is a 6.74% return per year.

If I am considering everything I should be, this means I should only recast if I don't think I can invest the $40k somewhere else and achieve an ROI above 6.74%, correct? What else should I consider?

Thanks all for the advice! Much appreciated

A tenant claims extreme wind blew open the front door of our rental, causing it to split down the center. There was extreme wind at that time but it seems like the door slammed shut instead of being blown open.  An emergency repair is needed because the front door cannot close which is a safety issue.

Who is responsible for paying for the repair? 

Should I start a home insurance claim? Is this covered by their renters insurance? Any advice is appreciated. 

Hey Hubert,

My property management company says that because this is an emotional support animal, it’s not legal to charge extra fees for the pet, based on the Americans with Disabilities Act, see here: https://www.nsarco.com/esa-housing.html

This is in Colorado. Can the HOA still charge for DNA pet registration? That's my main question.

My tenant has provided my property management company with an ESA letter from a counselor that verifies the need for an emotional support animal. 

My property management company says that this means we cannot charge any additional pet fees (one time up front pet fee). They also said my HOA cannot charge the tenant the DNA pet registration fee that they require all dog owners to pay.

Is it accurate that the tenant cannot be charged a one time pet fee, and that the HOA cannot force the tenant to pay for and compete the DNA registration process?

After a few months with a property management company, they have made a few mistakes: 

- Forgot to resolve a broken item in the condo for the tenant, with no communication about the fix/progress for over 2 months

- Miscommunicated rules of the lease to the tenant

We’ve also received feedback from our tenant that they aren’t very happy with the tenant-side service. 

How should we decide when to start looking to switch management companies? Their fee is 9% of the monthly rent, plus 50% of the first months rent per new lease signed.

Thanks in advance for any advice!