Article series

Why a Rental Sits Empty

A hub article and four follow-ups for owners who manage their own rentals. Each follow-up covers one step of the hub's checklist.

A boy fills a water bottle at a motel spigot while a dog drinks the overflow, under a vacancy sign.

Start here: the four-step checklist

Why Your Rental Is Vacant

Four checks, in order: price, vacancy, calendar, marketing.

A girl kneels on a driveway writing a lemonade price on a cardboard sign while her brother watches.

Step 1: price

Pricing Your Colorado Rental

Current rents in five Colorado cities, and how to compare your house to listings like it.

A woman with a coffee mug sits on her front step with her dog while a new apartment building across the street advertises Now Leasing, One Month Free.

Step 2: property type and vacancy

Which Vacancy Rate Is Yours

Colorado's apartment headline isn't a single-family number, and Fort Collins has its own.

Students carry a box fan and wheel a mini fridge up the steps of an old house on move-in weekend, with cars and mattresses at the curb.

Step 3: the calendar

How Long Is Too Long for an Empty Rental

In Colorado it depends on the month and on your kind of renter. Three weeks in July and three weeks in December are different signals.

Seen through a window at dusk, a videographer inside an empty rental aims his camera at the glass.

Step 4: the listing

Your Listing Is the Showing

Four in ten renters say they'd lease sight unseen. What a Colorado listing needs to carry that decision.