Northern Colorado’s Tough Rental Market

The Northern Colorado economy is making it more difficult to find qualified tenants for condos, duplexes and single-family homes, according to local landlords and property managers.

Properties have been available for two months and some longer, and not getting a lot of calls. It’s pretty slow for which a lot of it is just that peoples incomes have changed.

The economy is lowering many peoples incomes and nicking their credit, making it harder to find qualified tenants. The Fed’s Regional Economic Survey showed sluggish consumer spending and a sharp contraction in the Oil and Gas Industry with limited activity in Colorado due to low natural-gas prices.

Some landlords have recently made improvements to their property and lowered the rent in an attempt to rent it. Others are offering a free rent for up to 2 months and yet some are offering a cash rebate at the lease signing.

You hear stories like, “We don’t usually have trouble renting it,” “We began advertising the vacancy and even though we have received a similar number of calls as we did a year ago its still remains vacant.”

Many people are asking if the landlord accepts Section 8 vouchers, a federal program that helps very low-income families rent from private owners. Many are not qualifying because of income or credit problems.

Businesses continue to reduce their expenses. Labor is the largest expenditure on most Profit and Loss statements and employees are asked to take furlough days and some are forced to join the unemployment ranks.

I think rental vacancies are close to peaking but reducing the number of vacancies seems really tough. Tenants are shopping for value (filling their needs inexpensively).

Some landlords have bent a little more to fill vacancies and others are working more with current tenants who may have fallen behind on their rent, creating a plan to let them catch-up instead of simply evicting them.

While others are negotiating a new lease agreement with reduced rent collection but extend lease cycle. The thought process is to try to make a win-win for everybody.

This could be the solution needed to get through these tough times but if your tenant vacates then use venues that deliver a great presentation to the widest audience at a minimum price such as the product and services offered at Rentmarkets.com where together with you their mission is to fill your vacancy!