Hello, greetings from Colorado Springs! My name is Lance Kohler, and I'm the owner and managing broker of the Cornerstone Real Estate Team. Today, I'd like to discuss part four of our series covering rental owner frequently asked questions. We'll have a couple more questions that we get asked often when we're being interviewed when a rental owner is considering hiring us for property management services.
So today, the first question that I'd like to discuss that we get asked is: How will I know what's going on with my property? How do I know if I got rent, if there's been damage, if maintenance has been done, have the repairs been completed, etc.?
One of the things that isn't necessarily unique, but it is a point of difference for our company, is that you, as a rental owner, will have a single point of contact, and that's your property manager. So, the easiest way is to send them an email. If you want an update on your property, send them an email, and they'll get back to you within the business day and answer your questions. And if they don't have the answer to your questions—maybe you have an accounting question, and we've got to research that or get with our accountant or run that through the bookkeeper—your property manager, your single point of contact, can do that for you and get back to you with an answer.
You can also track your property and see payments, expenses, income, and expenses through your owner portal. So, if you're not using your owner portal, please let us know. But if you're considering that, you can access that anytime, day or night. And as a last resort, of course, you can call or email our office anytime. So, you're welcome to do that. You can talk to anybody here in the office—any of our admin assistants, property manager assistants—if you're unable to reach your property manager. I encourage you to do that. You can reach our office by email or phone anytime during business hours.
The second question that we get asked often is: How does a tenant screening process work? And so, we require applications from any prospective tenants. They submit those applications online, and those are run through our property management software. And we have a 12-step screening process that I discuss in a different video. We can go into detail on that.
Every resident that will live in the property above the age of 18 is required to submit an application. And I have another video on this screening process under landlord topics, tenant screening, where I talk in detail about our tenant screening process.
Another question that we get asked frequently is: What type of property inspections do you conduct? So, we will conduct multiple inspections throughout a 12-month tenancy cycle.
We always inspect the property when a tenant moves out. We do that with both a condition report and with a bunch of photos. We have a software program that allows us to tie the photos to annotate any damage or, of course, anything that's in good shape. We'll make any repairs after a tenant moves out—any repairs that are necessary or updates to the property—and then we'll do another inspection prior to a new tenant moving in. So, we have our move-in inspection, which establishes the condition of the property at the time the tenant moves in. And so, we use those photos and that condition report to adjudicate any issues at the time of move-out, if there are any.
Another inspection is about 90 days into that new tenancy. We'll go back to the property. We found that's about the right time for us to answer any questions the tenant may have about the property—like maybe they have questions about the water shut-off, the water main, that would be important, changing the furnace filter if they haven't done that yet, questions about resetting the disposal, or maybe how the thermostat works, things like that. That's a good time for us to answer any of those questions and to also see how they are maintaining the property.
And then, if near the end of their term, the end of their lease, if we've decided that we want to offer them a lease renewal, we'll do another inspection at that time.
The last question is: How long does it typically take to fill a vacancy? So, our average last year was about 15 days. Our average over the last six months is, again, about 15 days for a single-family home. We have, right now—it's July of 2024—we've seen an increase in the time on market for apartments, but it is summertime. Single-family home rentals are still moving pretty quickly, and our vacancy rate is less than 5%.
If you have questions or you'd like more information or you'd like to contact us, please reach out to us through our website at callcornerstone.com. And while you're there, you can also get a free market analysis for your property. It's one of the reports that we use when we run an analysis on properties that we're, before we get ready to list them, to determine what a good market rate is or good rental rate is for the property. You're able to get that at no charge.
And if you have any questions, you can also reach out to our office at 719-243-6400.