In today's video (Part 3 of Rental Owner Frequently Asked Questions) We discuss our educational background, our memberships in professional organizations, and how we keep up to date on new laws at the local, state, and federal level! . Don't forget to check out Parts 1 & 2 - and stay tuned for more in this series!
Transcription Results:
Hello, and greetings from Colorado Springs. My name is Lance Kohler and I'm the managing broker of the Cornerstone Real Estate Team. Today I'd like to discuss some rental owner frequently asked questions. This is Part Three in a series. In Part One, we discussed questions about our Property Management Services. In Part Two, we discussed questions about our Accounting Procedures and how and why we conduct Full-Month Accounting. So please check those out if you haven't already.
Today I'd like to answer four more questions that are commonly asked by owners who are considering hiring a property manager. The first of those is, “What education do you have backing your property management services?” For us at Cornerstone, all of our property managers are licensed as required by Colorado State law. So the first step in their education is getting their real estate license. That's 168 hours of study and a test, both at the state level and the federal level.
Secondly, there is continuing education. As a requirement to keep that real estate license, we're required to take several credits per year of continuing education. We're able to take education on real estate in general, and also specifically in property management.
Thirdly, we are members in several national and local organizations; two of which I'll talk about. One is NARPM, which is the National Association of Residential Property Managers. As the name says, it's a national organization, but it has a local chapter. So they have meetings once a month. They provide education related to property management. For some of those we get continuing education credits; for others we do not, but there's a good discussion and lots of education in the organization.
Secondly, we also belong to the National Apartment Association, which has a local chapter here -- the Apartment Association of Southern Colorado, which is based in Colorado Springs. They are multifamily focused, but in our portfolio, we manage both multifamily rentals and single family homes. So we belong to both organizations. The Apartment Association again provides education, continuing education, and seminars to keep us on the cutting edge of education with property management. And we've been in the property management business for over eight years.
The second question is, “Are you currently active in the real estate market?” Yes, we are. Several of our team members own investment properties, so that keeps us very tied into the market. We deal with investment properties every day. We're also tied in with the market not only just by renting or leasing those properties, but by maintaining them, preparing them for sale, and helping investors buy additional properties. We do have a Sales Team and they are actively buying and selling investment properties with new investors (new to our company) and with our current investors.
The third question is, “How familiar are you with the federal, state and local laws regarding landlord-tenant laws?” I would say very -- not only through the education that I discussed on the last slide, but also through our involvement in the organizations that I discussed. We're very involved. All of our team members are members of those organizations and that keeps us up to date with all the laws that are either presented or passed in any given legislature session. (I would also mention -- if you're interested in the legislation or new laws, landlord-tenant laws, relative to Colorado -- we have several videos, four in a series that cover laws that were introduced in the last 12 months in Colorado. Please check those out.) We also have the opportunity for legal review of our documents, legal review of any questions we may have, any type of legal assistance through two different law firms that we work with here in Colorado.
Fourth question: “Do you know the proper steps to evict a tenant?” Yes we do. I want you to know that we do know the proper steps. I want you to know that we do have a process in order to evict somebody, if they haven't paid rent or if they're violating their lease. We have an internal process for our steps within the company. And we also have a process that includes our legal assistance (the law firm, one of the law firms I mentioned earlier) that takes the eviction to court for us. So I want you to know that we do know how to do it. We do have a process. But I also want you to know that we don't have to do it very often. In the last six months, we've only done one. And we average over the last two and a half years, less than one a month across 430 units.
I hope this was a value to you. Thank you for your time. If you want to find out what your property might bring for rent in the rental market, you can get a free market analysis off our website at callcornerstone.com. If you have any questions, you can reach us there at our website or on our main number at (719) 243-6400. Or you can follow us and like us on our social media accounts for more videos like this. Again, thanks for your time. Have a great day!