In this week's edition of Your Money Monday, 9NEWS focused on real estate: tips for homeowners and renters.
Megan Herrera with the Denver Boulder Better Business Bureau says that the housing industry has seen a rise in complaints against it, many of which are about deposits, billing and repair issues. Some complaints, however are from landlords who hire property management companies to handle tenants. Some landlords say these companies are not collecting deposits and not collecting rent, even though renters have paid.
Herrera offers these tips to landlords working with property management companies:
"If you're hiring a property management company, find out how many properties they already manage, how they communicate with tenants, what kind of software they use, things like that," Herrera said. "A lot of problems arise because people don't understand what's in the lease or it's not clear enough or things aren't disclosed. Make sure you read it very carefully and if you don't understand something or something's not included that should be, make sure you ask questions and that it gets added."
9NEWS business anchor Gregg Moss also talked to local business owner Justin Anthony, who developed a website full of household tips for homeowners. The service, called BrightNest, is a free online tool that can help homeowners keep their homes organized, healthy and safe.
"We've got this culture that's so used to taking care of their cars," Anthony said. "The oil light comes on, the gas light comes on, you know you need to fill up. But there wasn't really anything like that for homeowners."
The website allows homeowners create a profile that lets them keep track of maintenance and also gives household tips and tricks.
To learn more about BrightNest, visit https://brightnest.com/.
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