At Focus, we understand that your rental property is an investment and that setting the right price is important for optimizing your potential profit. Determining the best rental rate for a property can be challenging. Setting the rental rate too low will hurt your bottom line. Conversely, charging a high premium compared to similar properties in the area can lead to longer tenant vacancy, which is also costly and affects your bottom line more than you might suspect.
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Ultimately, the final rental rate decision is up to you as the owner. That said, as your property manager, Focus will complete and send you a rental analysis and estimated rental rate.
Our rental analysis takes into account several factors such as:
Despite the rental analysis, some owners are torn on whether to charge “just a bit more” on their rental property. For this reason, we want to outline some important considerations in making the final rental rate decision because charging too high of a premium compared to similar properties in the area can lead to longer tenant vacancy, which can be costly. In fact, the cost of vacancy can, at times, quickly offset the benefit of “just a bit more” rent.
Let’s break this down a bit by listing some of the tangible costs of vacancy:
The lost rent alone is significant. If “just a bit more” rent results in your property being on the rental market for longer, it could take months (or even years) for the higher rent to make up for the cost of prolonged vacancy. To bring this to light, below is an example where, if you chose to increase the rent by $100 more / month and that caused the home to be on the market for an extra 2 weeks, it would take 1.3 years for the higher rent to make up the cost of vacancy. If the leasing took 4 extra weeks, it would take over 2 years for the higher rent to make up for the cost of vacancy.
A “little more rent” sometimes isn’t worth it when you compound this situation by the other costs outlined above plus the risk of not getting the property rented even with the extra 2-4 weeks.
In addition to providing the above-mentioned rental analysis and an estimated rental rate, Focus does several things as part of our service to get your property rented as quickly as possible and at top dollar. These efforts may include:
Conclusion
Again, the rental rate decision is ultimately yours as the property owner. Seeking a solid price while remaining competitively priced to attract good tenants is a tough balance. Focus’ job is to be your agent and that includes articulating important considerations so that you can make the most informed decisions – including setting the best rental rate for your property.
We help busy people with their real estate needs in Central Park, whether they want to buy, sell, rent or need help with property management. Our company is called "Focus" intentionally. It reminds us not to chase bright and shiny objects, and instead continually focus on adding value to the people and community we serve.
Our property management services are provided by Focus Real Estate Property Management, which is a sister company to Focus Real Estate, our real estate brokerage. They are related entities and have some crossover in ownership. We always disclose this to clients on our website and early in the process since we often help clients through both companies if they need both services.

Note to Prospective Tenants Regarding Portable Screening Reports. The prospective tenant has the right to provide to the landlord a portable tenant screening report, as defined in Section 38-12-902 (2.5), Colorado revised statutes. If the prospective tenant provides the landlord with a portable tenant screening report, the landlord is prohibited from charging the prospective tenant a rental application fee; or charging the prospective tenant a fee for the landlord to access or use the portable tenant screening report. If you provide a portable screening report, Focus will refund you any fees automatically charged at the time of application regardless of outcome.