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Homeowner Associations in Mountain Resort Communities: Your Guide

Homeowner Associations in Mountain Resort Communities: Your Guide

Are you curious about homeowner associations in mountain resort communities? Read on for all of the information you need.

When you imagine your dream living situation, what sort of things do you think about? Maybe you want a beautiful house in an area vibrant with natural beauty. You may also dream about living in the perfect neighborhood, having cookouts with your neighbors by the pool, and watching your kids play on the lawn.

Living in a resort community with an HOA can give you all of those amazing things and more. Read on to learn more about homeowner associations and the ways they can make every day feel like you’re living on vacation.

What Is a Resort Community?

Before we dive into the benefits of an HOA, let’s talk some about resort communities and what they are. A resort community is a managed community designed to deliver the resort experience for residents. These communities are often located near beautiful destinations like oceans, lakes, or mountains.

The best resort communities can make you feel like you’re living in your dream vacation every day. These communities are beautiful and provide a range of community activities and amenities that make each day magical. Resort communities may also be geared towards a certain group of people, such as retirees or older adults who wish to remain active.

What Is an HOA?

A homeowner’s association is an organization that helps to manage neighborhoods and communities. This group helps to ensure that your neighborhood remains a safe, beautiful place to live. They may also organize community activities, maintain public amenities, and help resolve any disagreements between neighbors.

In a resort community, an HOA helps to ensure you have the best possible living experience. Without an HOA around, these neighborhoods are just collections of houses in a beautiful area. The HOA curates a true sense of community, as well as helping participants to take full advantage of the beautiful area around them.

Maintenance-Free Amenities

When you live in a traditional neighborhood, your access to amenities may not extend past your backyard. Sure, you might have a pool, grill, or even an outdoor kitchen in your yard. But you’re not likely to have tennis courts or walking trails, and you’re responsible for maintaining all those luxuries yourself.

An HOA in a resort community can give you access to more amenities for less trouble. Resort communities may have hiking and biking trails, a community pool, a fitness center, tennis and basketball courts, and even a hot tub or sauna. Best of all, the resort association will handle all the maintenance on these community amenities, so you can enjoy them hassle-free.

Better Community Engagement

One of the major advantages of living in a neighborhood is the opportunity it gives you to be a part of a community. You may have dreams of throwing block parties, chatting with neighbors over the back fence, and arranging play dates and sleepovers for your kids. But when you live in a community with no HOA, making those connections can be extremely challenging.

HOAs in resort communities are experts at fostering a sense of community. They organize community events and can even help connect neighbors who may have things in common. This sort of unity can make your neighborhood a much friendlier, more active place to live.

Fewer Neighbor Conflicts

Even in the best communities, differences in opinion will sometimes arise. One neighbor may like to play music at their barbeques, while another neighbor may be working a night shift and trying to sleep during the day. In a neighborhood with no management, these differences can fester and turn into all-out feuds.

Resolving differences between neighbors is one of the responsibilities of an HOA. These organizations can help to work out an agreement that fits everyone’s needs. Handling these problems early can keep neighborhood life harmonious and make sure everyone has an amazing living experience.

Stable Property Values

When you buy a house, you want to make sure it will hold or increase its value during your time in the home. But in standard communities, property values will only be as high as the worst house in the neighborhood. You have to rely on your neighbors to maintain their yards and homes in order for your property values to stay high.

Having an HOA in place can help keep your property values on the rise. For one thing, the HOA will upgrade amenities as the community grows, providing more inherent value to the neighborhood. But they can also help enforce community guidelines that will keep your neighborhood beautiful and thriving.

Resort Community HOA Fees

In order for an HOA to be able to do the work they need to, they need funding. Like the amenities, however, you will share this expense with the other people living in your community. Individual HOA fees are relatively small, especially considering all the benefits they bring you.

Your HOA fees will vary depending on the community you live in. In general, these fees range somewhere between $100 and $700 a year, with a rough average of $200 a year. You might also have some additional fees for the extra benefits a resort community covers, so be sure to include those in your housing budget.

Discover the Benefits of Homeowner Associations

Living in a resort community can be a dream, and having a good HOA around can keep that dream running smoothly. Homeowner associations give you access to more amenities, keep your property values high, and curate a harmonious community. With the luxuries your HOA will provide and the natural beauty of your resort community, every day will feel like you’re living in paradise.

If you’d like to discover the beauty of a resort community for yourself, check out the rest of our site at Alpine Edge Property Management. We offer condos rentals, ski lodging, cabin rentals, and more in the charming town of Breckenridge, Colorado. Contact us today and discover what life can be like among the breathtaking scenery of the Colorado mountains.

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6 Tips for Choosing a Property Management Service in Breckenridge

6 Tips for Choosing a Property Management Service in Breckenridge

Finding the right property management company requires knowing your options. Here are tips on choosing a property management service in Breckenridge.

By investing in real estate, you’re following the advice of 90% of millionaires who say that real estate is the best investment you can make. However, for your property investment to be a success, you need to manage it.

Hiring a property management service can help you streamline and optimize the management of your real estate. The key is to choose the right service to work with.

This guide will help you know what to look for, so you select the right management company for your needs.

1. Understand the Services Offered

Each property management company offers a unique suite of services. It helps to create lists of your “must-have” and “nice to have” services.

Consider these types of services and whether you want your management service to provide them for your property.

  • Annual property inspections
  • Maintenance services
  • Marketing
  • Tenant screening
  • Rent collection

2. The Experience of Other Clients

Read references and reviews to find out what the property management experience was like for previous clients. The service you choose should have a reputation for being professional, accountable, and responsive.

They should have a reputation for proactive action and not reactive. This means they have disaster and contingency plans in place. There are set and clear standards that the property management firm adheres to.

3. Fees and Costs

As with any service, it needs to make financial sense to employ it. Fees and costs shouldn’t be your sole deciding factor, though. Look for a service that has a clear fee structure.

The service should also provide you with regular accounting statements, so you understand your rental property’s account status.

4. Technology

Modern property management firms use software to automate many tasks. Look for a firm that embraces technology to streamline processes and make renting easier for potential tenants.

There should be a portal for tenants to log into for rental payments and maintenance requests. There should also be a portal for you as the owner to manage reporting and your disbursements.

5. Performance Track Record

Ask potential firms what their performance track record is. This ensures you trust your property in Breckenridge to a capable firm. Some property managers are more experienced with managing homes for families while others are more adept at managing commercial real estate.

Look for these statistics to understand a service’s performance track record.

  • Vacancy rates
  • Occupancy rates
  • Average tenancy length
  • Number of properties under management
  • Number of owners represented

6. Qualifications

You’ll want to confirm that any property service you work with is a legitimate company. You can do this by confirming the licensing of a particular service. You can do this online.

Verify that the company is licensed to work where your property is located. You’ll also want to confirm that the license is in good standing.

Find a Property Management Service

By following these six tips, you’ll be prepared to find the best property management service. Pay attention to what a service has to offer you and how that fulfills your needs.

Research what other clients have to say about the quality of a service and a firm’s performance track record. This will give you a good indication of how that particular service will perform for you.

Contact our skilled team of property managers and entrust your property to a qualified team.

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5 Crucial Benefits of Hiring a Rental Management Company

5 Crucial Benefits of Hiring a Rental Management Company

If you rent property, you may want to hire a rental management company. This guide lists 5 crucial benefits of hiring a rental management company.

It only takes us 38 seconds to judge a vacation rental. Those crucial seconds can be the difference in whether or not your lodge is being fairly assessed by potential renters and your community.

If you are renting a property, hiring a rental management company can help ensure your home is being well cared for, looking at it’s best, and most of all, bringing in more revenue!

We are going to show you the 5 top benefits of hiring a property management company today.

1. Maximizing Your Profits

You won’t make money if your property isn’t renting. A property management company knows how to minimize the downtime of your property being rented. They can ensure that your property is constantly rented and bringing in revenue.

Understanding exactly how to bring in quality renters is one reason you need a rental management company.

Your property manager will go through the process of handling new vacation renters and credit screenings. This is going to allow you to consistently bring in revenue from your lodge.

2. Contact With Vacationers

Keeping up with communication with vacationers can be daunting, especially if you have multiple properties. Property managers are there to keep communication open with them and ensure that they are having the experience they need.

If there are problems such as broken appliances or issues with neighbors, they are there to mediate the situation. Having them as the main point of contact allows you to focus on collecting your rent hassle-free!

3. Marketing

Even the best looking rental properties can sit unrented without the proper marketing strategy. Hiring a rental management company will ensure that your property is getting traction on rental venue sites.

The team should have ample experience is taking great photos of the property and they should be able to execute a perfect open house.

A property manager with these skill sets will help to make sure that your property is not sitting vacant for long periods.

4. On-Time Payments

Your property manager has an incentive to make sure that your tenants are paying rent on-time. In most situations, the manager will receive their payment directly from the tenant’s monthly rent payment.

If issues ever arise with a tenant for not paying, your property management team will know exactly how to move forward to resolve the issue. The rental manager will likely have clear guidelines laid out in the lease to avoid any grey areas with late payments.

5. No Stress Renting

Daily management is not for everyone. Hiring an expert manager will ensure that your property is being taken care of so you can sit back and collect your income. Rental managers will take care of things that you may not have ever thought you would need to worry about.

From weekly lawn care maintenance to writing a lease, your property manager will keep your rental running smoothly.

Hire a Rental Management Company Today!

If you are considering renting your property don’t delay hiring a rental management company. Save yourself the troubles of daily rental management, maintenance, and finding consistent vacation renters by finding a team that is good for you!

If you would like to learn more about how a property manager can help you, click here!

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Sit Back and Relax: Here’s What a Property Manager Takes Care Of

Sit Back and Relax: Here’s What a Property Manager Takes Care Of

Sit back, relax, and let Alpine Edge do the rest. Have you ever wondered what a property manager actually does? Check out this guide of responsibilities.

Do you own a vacation home in Breckinridge and need some help taking care of business? Or perhaps you’re an investor and own multiple properties or an HOA that needs a hand to keep things running smoothly?

Properties can be difficult to manage. Especially when landlords live far away. So what do you do if you don’t have the time, knowledge, or interest to take care of your property?

The answer: hire a property manager.  Property managers do a variety of tasks to help keep peace of mind and to keep the cash flowing. Here is what is expected of a property manager and how they can help property owners.

1. Property Managers Can Help You Find Qualified Tenants

Property manager responsibilities include finding qualified tenants for rentals. You don’t want to rent your property to the wrong tenant who has a history of eviction, neglecting properties, or upsetting other tenants.

A property manager performs a thorough screening process to learn about tenant applicants. This can help you weed out problem tenants, including people evicted for not paying rent, noisy tenants, and people whose habits have caused good tenants to move.

2. A Property Manager Should Be Great at Marketing

Property managers hold a wide variety of marketing know-how to help you find tenants. They help landlords advertise their properties in several places so you can have a wider tenant pool to choose from.

A property manager can hire talented photographers to take exceptional photos or virtual tours to make your property look attractive. Some property managers possess excellent photography skills.

3. They Know What to Charge for Rent

Sometimes it’s difficult for a landlord to know what to charge for rent. Rent prices depend on certain criteria such as market conditions, upgrades in a home, and a number of other factors.

A property manager knows what the rental prices are going for in your town, neighborhood, and block. They obtain this information through marketing analysis they have access to.

This way you won’t overcharge or undercharge the rental amount for your property. You don’t want to turn away a good tenant or charge a tenant less than your vacation rental is worth.

4. They Collect Rent

One of the other duties of a property manager is to collect rent from tenants. Either in person or through a system such as a rental portal they set up for you. They can arrange for tenants to set up an autopay account so that the rent goes into your account on the first of every month or another date agreed upon depending on the terms of the lease.

This assures optimum cash flows to you faster. And it’s great if a property manager takes over if you’re not technically savvy.

5. They Adjust the Annual Rent

Each state or township allows landlords to raise the rent by a certain percentage annually. A qualified property manager knows the local and state laws. If there is any reason the rent should be lowered, managers can do that, too.

If a tenant gets upset about having to pay more money when their lease renews, your property manager can show the tenant documentation that gives you the right to raise the rent based on the cost of living increases or other real estate laws.

The manager will also set the lease terms and write the appropriate clauses in the lease to protect your interests. Examples include establishing the security deposit amount to be paid, pet policies, appliances included, and other terms.

6. Property Managers Handle Eviction and Tenant Complaints

When a tenant doesn’t pay rent for a period of time or violates the terms of the lease, the property manager knows how to file for an eviction with the court. There are certain procedures that must be carried out, paperwork required, and other filing responsibilities a good manager will know how to handle.

Evictions can be particularly stressful and emotional for landlords when they’re losing money due to non-payment of rent, getting damage to their property. Or when good tenants want to vacate the rental because they perceive this tenant to be a threat to their safety or security.

By hiring a property manager, it takes the anxiety out of the court experience. It won’t be as emotional if a property manager can take care of the details and represent you in court.

A Local Property Manager Can Respond to Emergencies Quickly

Managers can also handle tenant emergencies that happen to the property. Some examples could be water damage due to a storm or plumbing and electrical issues.

A property manager can make the arrangements to contact the right contractor to rectify the situation. Since property managers are local, they’ll be able to react to the situation more quickly than a landlord who lives out of town.

7. How Property Managers Handle Vacancies

When tenants vacate the property, landlords are required to perform certain duties before they can legally rerent the unit. Here are some of these duties:

  • Thoroughly inspect the property
  • Check the unit for damages and calculate what amount of the security deposit will be deducted for the landlord to make repairs and what portion will be returned to the tenant
  • Get a Certificate of Occupancy if it’s required before renting the unit
  • Cleaning and painting the unit and arranging for any repairs to be done

When a rental is vacant, time is of the essence. It’s important to tend to these responsibilities. Every day an apartment is vacant is another day of rent lost.

8. Other Roles of a Property Manager

A property manager performs other roles. They need to ensure the property is in tip-top shape and the landlord is following real estate laws. Here are some of the other duties

  • Continually maintain the property’s exterior such as landscaping, inspecting roofs, cleaning gutters and making the property look pristine
  • Ensure the property is safe and there are no obstructions, wires, or holes on the property that would jeopardize the safety of inhabitants
  • Shovel snow
  • Trash removal
  • Hire licensed contractors for repairs
  • Be extremely knowledgeable of tenant laws and landlord responsibilities
  • Assure employees such as security guards do their jobs effectively
  • Hiring and firing of new employees
  • Maintain budgets and keep accurate records of any expenses
  • File taxes for the landlord

The Takeaway on Hiring a Property Manager to Protect Your Investment

You may have not known all the landlord duties a property manager can do for you. Some managers handle a few tasks or all of them, depending on the agreement between the owner and the property management company.

Are you looking for a property manager in Summit County to help you relieve some headaches? Contact Alpine Edge Property Management today to learn how we can help.

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5 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Property Management Company

5 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Property Management Company

Finding your ideal real estate depends on the property managers available to you. Ask these questions before choosing a property management company.

Is it time to hire a Breckenridge vacation rental company? Breckenridge attracts more than 1.5 million visitors a year, and you want to work with a company that can keep your vacation rental occupied.

Finding a property management company can be a major challenge.

Here are the questions that you want to ask potential companies before you hire them to manage your business.

1. Do You Manage Short and Long-Term Rentals?

As you search for a property manager for your vacation rental, you want to make sure that you have a company that specializes in vacation rentals.

Managing a long-term rental is completely different from managing a vacation rental. You want to work with a company that understands the needs of vacation rentals.

2. What Are Your Property Management Fees?

Vacation property managers have different rate structures. Some will charge a percentage of the booking, while others charge a flat monthly fee.

It’s important to get as much detail as you can as to what is paid to the property manager and if there are any additional fees.

3. What Services Does Your Company Provide?

You have to get a clear picture as to what the property manager will do and what you will have to do.

For example, you’ll want to know if the property manager handles marketing the property. If they do, do they understand the vacation rental trends?

You’ll also want to know if they handle cleaning the property and collecting additional fees if there are damages to the property.

You should understand what services the property management company provides guests. Ask what the guest experience is like because you’ll want to have guests that turn into repeat renters.

There are a couple of additional questions you want to ask your property manager.

Does the property management company handle repairs? How do they notify you when a repair needs to be made?

Some companies will have a threshold and handle the repairs themselves. Anything over the threshold, you’ll be contacted for.

4. Do You Screen Guests Before Renting to Them?

Do you want your vacation rental to turn into a bachelor party zone? Probably not. You want to make sure that the property management company doesn’t rent to people who can damage the property or cause liabilities.

Ask the property manager if they screen guests and what their process is. For example, the property management company may only allow guests that are of a certain age.

Some Breckenridge lodging companies place a priority on booking the home instead of the long-term value of the home and the renters.

5. How Do Guests Enter the Property?

You want to make sure that your vacation rental is safe and secure. You should ask the property management company if they use digital locks to keep guests and your property safe.

Hiring the Best Property Management Company

When you’re looking for companies to manage your vacation rental, you want to make sure that you hire a property manager that specializes in them. Contact us today to discover how we can manage your vacation rentals in Breckenridge.

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7 Reasons to Seek Property Management for Your Breckenridge Rentals

7 Reasons to Seek Property Management for Your Breckenridge Rentals

Do you own properties in Breckenridge, CO, and looking to rent them out? Here’s why you should seek property management for Breckenridge rentals.

According to research, American property owners are on course to invest $22.04 billion in property management by 2023.

As the real estate market continues its overall rally after the 2008 crisis, more people are looking to hold rental property. However, the question of managing such assets can set owners under pressure as more demands are put on their time.

With that in mind, here’s a look at seven compelling reasons why you need to invest in a property manager for your Breckenridge rentals.

What’s a Property Manager?

A property manager is an individual or organization that oversees residential or commercial property for a fee. In most cases, a property manager will be in charge of property that’s under the ownership of others.

For every property such a manager handles, the owner will pay an agreed rate that’s a percentage of the rent revenue.

Why Should You Hire a Property Manager for Your Breckenridge Rentals?

A property management company can be particularly useful, but only if you know how to take advantage of their services best. Here are a few reasons that make for a compelling case as to why you need to partner with a property manager.

1. Efficient Rent Management

One of the most vital reasons to bring on board a property manager is that they help manage the rental income your property generates.

In fact, extensive experience in this area is one of the non-negotiable traits you often need to assess when looking for a property manager.

A property manager can help set the appropriate rent level for your property that can sustainably attract tenants.

A good manager will be intimately familiar with the rental rates in the market your property is located in. Such a manager will also have relationships that help them spot out changes in rent that other owners make that might affect your property.

Since they are more attuned to the market than you, property managers always know the right rent level that can highlight your property’s value proposition.

Aside from setting and adjusting the rent, a property manager is also hugely useful in rent collection.

Seeing that the manager’s day-to-day job includes regular rent collection, they are better placed on developing systems that ensure tenants pay on time.

If any tenant’s rent falls overdue, a good property manager will become worth their weight in gold. That’s because they will set and enforce late collection fees, which incentivize your tenants to pay on time.

2. Tenant Management

Getting tenants to take up your property is only the beginning of an involving relationship that you can delegate to a property manager.

The beauty of investing in a property manager is that you don’t spend your time looking for tenants. A reliable manager will take on that role and develop the necessary marketing strategies that resonate with potential tenants.

If your property has been struggling to attract tenants, a manager can advise you on makeover ideas to better position your property.

When any complaint or tenant-related emergencies arise, the manager can take them off your hands, and promptly address them.

That not only solves the issue promptly, but it also enables you to retain tenants for longer as they appreciate the fast resolution.

3. Effective Tenant Screening

The only thing worse than not having tenants is allowing bad tenants into your property.

When you hire a property manager, you are tapping into their deep expertise in tenant assessment. An experienced manager has seen hundreds of tenants and is much better positioned to spot bad client behavior faster than you.

Thus, through a manager, you can turn away tenants that seem troublesome. If you need to dig in for more information, a manager knows how to run credit and background checks for more insight.

Ultimately, you’ll have better odds of selecting the right tenants for your property, which reduces turnover.

4. Managing Property That’s Far Away

Do you have a rental property that’s located far from you? The more miles there are between your property and you, the more time you’ll need to set aside to oversee the operations.

The catch is that if you decide to dedicate significant time supervising far away property, you’re taking time away from other core areas of your life.

A property manager can step in and handle the supervisory work for you more effectively, especially if they operate where your property is situated.

That frees you up to sink more time into the duties that can move the needle for your business or critical life goals.

5. Managing an Extensive Portfolio

Like any other business, investing in property is a numbers game. The more you have, the more you earn.

However, with each property you add to your portfolio, you also increase the duties you need to attend to and keep your investment running.

At a certain level, you hit a wall where you either decide to forego buying more property to give time to what you have or keep investing.

If you continue investing in a growing portfolio, you’ll need to hire a property manager.

That way, you can effectively serve your tenants without spreading yourself too thin or becoming an impediment to more expansion of your property portfolio.

6. Full Compliance With the Law

How well do you know the laws and regulations governing landlord-tenant relationships? Are you willing to continue investing time and money in keeping up with these dynamic rules?

Hiring a property manager for many property owners is a way to stay compliant with the authorities.

A good manager understands up-to-date knowledge of federal and state laws and regulations around screening and selecting tenants. In case you need to evict a tenant from your property, a manager knows the legal boundaries within which to do that.

With a reliable property manager, you can be sure your investment remains complaint without you having to invest heavily in staying abreast of it all.

Get the Most out of Your Rentals With a Property Manager

The real estate market is on a relatively upward trajectory, which is drawing more investors to the Breckenridge rentals market. However, unlike property for sale, rentals call for continuous management, which can consume your time. As such, you need to partner with a property management firm that can help you get the most from your investment.

Alpine Edge Property Management is a property management firm dedicated to serving Breckenridge property owners and tenants. Talk to us today for experienced and customized property management services.

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