Frequently Asked Questions
Whether you’re a first-time landlord or a seasoned investor, we’re here to help.
How much will you charge to manage my property?
Our fee structure is simple! There are 3 charges. Monthly management fee, leasing fee, annual fee. We charge 7% of the rent ($99 minimum, $200 maximum) when the rent is paid. We do not charge you during a vacancy. Leasing fees are currently $1,000 unless you bring us more than 1 property, in which case that fee drops to $700 per door. The 3rd and final fee is our $200 annual fee. This is paid on January 1st of each year (please note it is not pro-rated) and also drops to $100/door if you bring us more than 1 door to manage.
We do not charge you for lease renewal inspections/lease extensions. We don’t make any money off of maintenance (from you or your tenants), and we also don’t charge your tenants any leasing or admin fees at move-in – unlike nearly every other property management firm.
Simple and straightforward fees are part of how we keep you happy as a client and how we keep your tenants happy and more inclined to renew their lease each year.
We can charge the lowest fees in the industry while offering the best service because our systems and our company culture revolve around efficiency, competence, and continuous improvement.
Call us and see if we answer during business hours! Text us to see how quickly you get a response! 303-586-5560 (text or call.) Send an email and see how long it takes to get a response (Denver@RESrents.com.) You will find that RES is the real deal. We deliver every single day on our promises to clients and tenants.
Can I hire Real Estate Solutions if I’m with another property management company and I’m unhappy with them?
Yes. However, before we assist you with property management, we will require evidence that any contract with the other management company has been terminated. Once you have successfully ended your relationship with the other company, Real Estate Solutions’ services may be retained and we can immediately get to work. We can coordinate with the other company to secure security deposits, leases, keys, etc.
Can I hire Real Estate Solutions if I’m having an issue with my current tenant?
Yes, absolutely. We can take over at any stage in your rental, even with a current tenant on a different lease and even if that tenant is not paying rent. You can hire us at any time and we will get to work on your behalf. If you hire us to evict a non-paying tenant, we won’t charge you our monthly management fee until the property begins bringing in rent again.
How often will I be updated?
Communication is one of the most important aspects of great property management. We communicate everything clients want to know: the status of the marketing/renting of the property, the lease signing date, any issues with rent payment, the status of repairs, the status of lease renewals, and much more. Additionally, we are extremely easy to reach by phone, text, or email, and Any Team Member can always help any client.
Anytime a document is uploaded to your owner portal, you are notified. If a work order is created, you will be notified, including the specifics of the issue, what we’ve done to troubleshoot the issue, and the vendor we’ve assigned.
If your property is vacant and on the market, you will have real-time access to the unique daily inquiries we receive through our proprietary text messaging system. This system (and your link to it) is all in real time. It’s not a chatbot or an AI system, it’s monitored and run by highly trained RES humans, who are communicating with your best interests in mind. Screening for the most qualified prospective tenants for your rental property. We ensure they are qualified and get them showings of the property ASAP, the same day if necessary. Once we have a showing, the showing feedback is acquired by our proprietary systems in real-time and available within minutes of a showing at your property upon request.
What needs owner approval?
Our Management Agreement gives us repair authority up to $350 (excluding emergency repairs) and owners are notified before any of their funds are spent. Because we have no financial interest in repairs (unlike nearly all of our competitors, who profit considerably off maintenance), you can be assured that there is no conflict of interest at RES. We work for you. Every repair is a situation where we are looking out for our client and our client’s property to ensure they are taken care of. Please see our Management Agreement for more details and enjoy the lack of fine print!
How quickly can you rent my place?
While the number of days on the market always depends on the property, it’s condition, the price (and other terms such as whether pets are allowed), what we can tell you is that no one will rent your property faster than Real Estate Solutions. Our business model is built from the ground-up to rent properties quickly. Company-wide text messaging with the public, a fleet of wrapped RES vehicles, Team Members who do not get paid on commission (and who, therefore, are happy to run out to conduct a showing), marketing on all the top rental websites (including the MLS/Multiple Listing Service), Virtual Tours, professional-quality marketing photos, lightning-quick responsiveness to prospective tenants, showings 6 days a week and much more. If your property is in good shape and you take our advice on condition, pricing and pets, RES will get the job done – quickly.
What type of advertising do you offer?
Our incredible (and always free to you) marketing package is constantly evolving to match the current trends in the rental industry. Currently, the suite of marketing sites includes the top rental sites: Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Apartments.com, the MLS, Craigslist (re-posted often), RESrents.com, and a handful of other sites.
Keep in mind, tenants are only shopping for their next home on the top 1 or 2 rental websites. Companies that claim to advertise on “100 websites” are making a meaningless claim – and one that won’t move the needle when it comes time to rent your property.
Why? Because they don’t want to check 20 or more sites – they want to use the 1 or 2 sites that have all the rentals. This means Zillow in most cases. The real key to getting properties rented is being incredibly responsive, and friendly, having an easy rental process, and making it as easy as possible for tenants to apply!
RES checks every one of those boxes for you. We also have a proprietary implementation of many technologies. We use company-wide text messaging platforms and sophisticated behind-the-scenes processes. All of this works in concert to quickly rent your property. Our Field Team Members (who show the properties) have access to all company data and can answer any question for prospective tenants in real-time while at the property. Feedback from showings is emailed to owners as soon as the agent is back in the office. All of this leads to fewer showings, more applications, and shorter vacancy times.
What costs extra?
There are no extra fees, no hidden charges, no maintenance markups, nothing of the sort. Our service and our fee covers everything needed to rent your property and effectively manage it, day after day, year after year. Most of our competitors have revenue streams tied to things like “eviction protection plans” or “tenant guarantee plans” or “gold marketing packages” and on and on. We believe in giving you and every client our best service, for one low fee.
Do you coordinate maintenance requests?
Of course! We have a long list of pre-screened, approved vendors who know that when Real Estate Solutions sends a work order, the expectation is quality work, excellent communication and a fair and clear invoice. We hold the vendors we use to the highest standards and if they do not meet our standards we move on to another vendor. When we receive an invoice, we review it and if it’s satisfactory we will upload it to your owner portal and pay the vendor from the following month’s rental proceeds. You will receive a clear statement indicating income and expenses every month, as well as the invoice via our owner portal, for your records.
What other properties do you manage?
Real Estate Solutions manages many hundreds of properties and our portfolio grows monthly. Most of our clients are landlords with one rental property. We know that each property we are entrusted to manage is usually our client’s most valuable asset. We take our responsibilities very seriously and manage the properties as if they are our own. We currently manage properties in the metro areas of Colorado Springs, Castle Rock, Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and just about all areas in between.
How fast will I get my rental income?
Fast! We pay owners as soon as the funds clear our bank account. We have a very convenient online tenant portal to require tenants to pay their rent online (at no cost) from their smartphone or computer. While our competitors pay owners around the 20th each month, when all the rents have come in and cleared their account, we know that you want your money asap. Our systems are designed specifically around making sure you get your funds as soon as possible. You will receive an email from Real Estate Solutions as soon as we have initiated the deposit into your bank account.
How stable is your business?
Real Estate Solutions opened its doors June 1st, 2008. We have seen, in that time, a huge recession, a roller coaster real estate and rental market and all sorts of other economic fluctuations. Through it all, we have consistently grown our company, averaging about 15% growth per year. We do not have any investor owners.
We have nearly zero employee turnover, most employees have been with us for many years. Our Team Members are well-compensated and have a strong benefits package. They are paid a salary and are not on a commission structure. This means the public – our clients, tenants, and everyone with whom we work – is guaranteed to get a highly trained professional when they text, email, or call our office. This leads to higher client retention and higher stability company-wide.
From the client’s point of view, this all points to incredible stability and staying power. From every angle – from our business model to our people, to our systems and processes, we are a solid company. Our company is designed from the ground up as a systems-oriented company; and this means that regardless of who is working at the company or who is at the helm, the business is designed to operate in perpetuity.
What is your application fee for tenants and what does that process look like?
We charge low application fees to tenants, at $50 per adult. This encourages prospective tenants to apply for your property. Equally as important to getting your property rented, however, is our exceptional responsiveness to prospective tenants.
If a tenant is interested in your property, they will find Real Estate Solutions is extremely easy to reach, easy to schedule showings with and the application process is very simple from their point of view. Everything from the first point of contact with Real Estate Solutions through to the lease signing is organized, clear, and very straightforward for tenants. We use touchless leasing process-which increases safety, efficiency, and customer service-and tenants are walked through the simple steps to lease a property through Real Estate Solutions.
How quickly do you respond to clients?
Our company culture is focused on client service. We train our Team to be exceptionally responsive to all clients. This means, texts are responded to within minutes (our routine metric here is within 3 minutes), emails are returned the same day -usually within minutes – and phone calls rarely go to voicemail. If they do, they are returned the same business day, without exception.
How is Real Estate Solutions able to charge so much less than the competition while claiming to offer superior services and results?
There are a few reasons we are able to offer industry-leading fees while offering industry-leading service and results.
First, we focus relentlessly on efficiency. From our Team Members to our systems, every minute spent on every task is analyzed and constantly improved. Our offices are paperless, our team is elite, our technology and systems are lightning-fast. A visit to any property management company’s office will usually reveal stacks of paper, post-it notes and some degree of semi-organized chaos. This is essentially the opposite of the paperless, systems-based and high-tech world of Real Estate Solutions. Efficiency is balanced at RES with a soft-touch. We are ruthlessly efficient in terms of our internal systems, but from the public’s point of view, we are never in a hurry, we never brush people off and we always make time to build relationships.
Second, our business model is different from the ground up in terms of how our employees (Team Members) are compensated. This is a big deal – these are the people doing the heavy lifting and interacting with customers and clients on a daily basis, so we invest heavily in this part of our business. Our Team is 100% salary plus benefits, including PTO and healthcare. We are proud of this from a moral standpoint, but also from a business standpoint. Our stable workforce is the backbone for delivering consistent and excellent service to our clients. We’ve never had a commission-based team because we know that is never in the client’s best interests. Our clients demand consistency, competence, and results. Anyone chasing a commission check will not be able to honor those commitments.
Third, our business model has always taken into account the need to be mobile. Property management happens out in the world as much as it happens in an office. Most property management companies try to “do property management” from their office. Our competition has adjusted to the need to be in the field by doing the bare minimum in most cases, and the unthinkable when it comes to showings, by creating “unattended showings.” They are exactly what they sound like: strangers walking through your rental property, unattended, doing who knows what. (We have a great blog on our website with full details on this issue.) In our view, this is the height of laziness and antithetical to the mission of representing the client. At RES, we will show your property, with a human, every chance we get. For the prospective tenants who cannot see a property in person, we have VT (Virtual Tours) available that work to provide that same experience.
As property management and technology evolve. RES is and always will be at the forefront. We will always be efficient, we will always be the lowest cost, and we will always be the company that delivers the best results and service.
Do I really need to hire a property manager? Can’t I do it myself and save the money?
It is possible. Lots of people try. Some do a good job at it, but it comes with a pretty hefty learning curve.
Take a look at a few actual stories our clients experienced before coming to us for help.
Save yourself the trouble and expensive headaches, contact us to discuss how to place your property under our property management