Got PCS Orders? How to Rent Out Your Colorado Springs Home the Right Way

Orders show up, the clock starts, and suddenly you have to decide what happens to the house. Many Colorado Springs military families keep their home as a rental. It keeps a low mortgage rate, keeps building equity, and leaves a place to come back to. Doing it well from another duty station takes some planning. This guide covers what to do and when.

1. Rent or sell? Questions to answer first

Rent makes the most sense when the home will cash-flow (or come close) at market rent, you expect to return to Colorado Springs or want a long-term hold, and your mortgage rate is lower than anything you could get today. Selling makes more sense if the home needs major work, you need the equity for your next purchase, or you'd be counting on rent you can't actually get.

• Run the numbers on realistic rent, not the payment you hope to cover. Subtract mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA, a maintenance reserve (we suggest budgeting 5 to 10% of rent), and management.
• Call your lender. If you have a VA loan, moving out on orders and renting the home is common. Confirm your occupancy terms and whether you'll keep your VA entitlement tied up.
• Check your HOA. Some Colorado Springs communities have leasing rules, minimum lease terms, or registration requirements.

2. A PCS rental timeline that works

• 90 days out: Get a rent estimate from current local comparables. Walk the home and make a list of repairs. Get quotes for anything big, like roofing, HVAC, or water heaters.
• 60 days out: Finish repairs and deep cleaning. Switch your insurance to a landlord policy that starts on the lease start date. Set up how rent will be deposited to you.
• 45 days out: Get professional photos taken, publish the listing, and start showings. In Colorado Springs, a lot of renters come in on PCS orders, so many applicants are searching from out of state too. A video walkthrough helps.
• 30 days out: Screen applicants and sign a lease that starts after your move-out date, with a few days in between for cleaning.
• Move-out week: Do a fully documented move-in inspection with photos and video, hand over keys, and transfer utilities.

Short notice? It's tighter, but still doable. Our PCS management page explains how we handle a compressed timeline.

3. Military tenants and the SCRA: what owners need to know

In a military town, many of your best applicants will be service members. They tend to have steady income and a housing allowance, and they often stay in the area for two to four years. They also have a federal right to end the lease early under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. § 3955). Plan for it and it's manageable.

• Who qualifies: A tenant who signed the lease before entering military service, or who is in service and later gets PCS orders or deployment orders for 90 days or more. Separation and retirement orders also qualify, as do certain stop-movement orders. Reservists and National Guard members on federal active duty are covered.
• How notice works: The tenant gives written notice with a copy of their orders, or a letter from their commanding officer. They can deliver it by hand, by private carrier, by certified mail with return receipt, or electronically to an address you or your manager have designated.
• When the lease ends: For rent paid monthly, the lease ends 30 days after the next rent due date following notice. For example, if notice arrives January 5 and rent is due on the 1st, the next due date is February 1, so the lease ends March 1. Any rent paid in advance for the time after that date has to be refunded.
• No early-termination fees: You can't charge a penalty, and the Department of Justice treats making the tenant pay back move-in concessions as a prohibited fee. You can still charge for damage beyond normal wear and tear, using the normal security deposit process.
• Dependents and co-tenants: If the service member ends the lease, their dependents' obligations under it end too. If a service member tenant dies while in service, their spouse can end the lease within one year.
• Distance clauses don't work: The SCRA has no minimum-distance requirement, so a lease clause requiring the new duty station to be a certain number of miles away likely can't be enforced.

Colorado specifics: Colorado also protects Colorado National Guard members called to state active duty by the governor for more than 30 days (C.R.S. 28-3-1401 and following). If the tenant gives written notice within 30 days of being called up, an eviction for rent generally can't go forward during that service and for 30 days afterward, unless a court finds the delay doesn't hurt the member. The usual Colorado landlord-tenant rules still apply to every lease, including the 2026 security deposit rules and the fee-disclosure requirements.

How to plan for it: price and screen as though an early move-out is possible, keep a list of qualified backup applicants, and make re-leasing quick. An SCRA termination is only expensive when the home sits empty afterward.

4. Pricing rent around BAH

Basic Allowance for Housing is set by duty station, pay grade, and dependency status, and it's adjusted every January. Military applicants usually look for homes near their BAH, so it's worth knowing what BAH looks like for the ranks your home is likely to attract.

• Price to the market, not to BAH. BAH tells you a tenant's budget, not what your home is worth. Comparable rentals nearby decide whether the home rents in two weeks or sits for two months.
• Many tenants will be civilians. Contractors at Peterson and Schriever, hospital staff, and remote workers all rent in Colorado Springs. Don't build your listing only around military renters.
• Time the lease end to the moving season. Summer is peak PCS season in Colorado Springs. If your lease ends in May through August, the next tenant is easier to find than if it ends in December.
• Screen everyone the same way. Use the same written criteria for every applicant, and verify military income with an LES the same way you would verify civilian pay stubs.

For local pricing context, see our Colorado Springs rental market activity.

5. Taxes and insurance, at a general level

• Rental income and deductions: Rent is taxable income. Mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, repairs, management fees, and depreciation are generally deductible. Keep clean records, and get a year-end statement from your manager.
• The home-sale exclusion and military service: Normally you must have lived in the home 2 of the 5 years before a sale to exclude the gain. Service members on qualified official extended duty can suspend that 5-year window for up to 10 years. That can make renting during a PCS cycle much more attractive. Ask your tax preparer how it applies to you, and ask about depreciation recapture too.
• State taxes: Rental income from a Colorado property generally has to be reported to Colorado, even if your legal residence for military purposes is in another state.
• Insurance: A regular homeowner's policy usually won't cover a rented home. Switch to a landlord (dwelling fire) policy, ask about loss-of-rent coverage, and require tenants to carry renter's insurance. With Colorado Springs hail, check your roof deductible.

6. Managing from Germany, Korea, or a ship

Distance is where most PCS rentals get into trouble. Problems include a repair that's never verified, a vacancy nobody's working on, and an invoice you can't check from 6,000 miles away. Set it up right from the beginning:

• Agree on a spending limit for urgent repairs, so a broken furnace in January gets fixed tonight instead of whenever you can be reached.
• Name a backup decision-maker, like a spouse or a trusted family member, for times you can't be reached during deployments or field exercises.
• Get photo or video proof for every repair and every inspection, available in an owner portal you can check from any time zone.
• Plan for power of attorney. A specific power of attorney from your installation legal office can cover a refinance or sale while you're gone.

For more on what goes wrong when owners are far away, read How Out-of-State Owners Get Taken Advantage Of.

7. Why a local manager helps

A local manager is the person who drives to your house. We walk the home before we list it, show it to applicants in person, inspect it with photos, and check contractor work ourselves before we approve the invoice. We know Colorado Springs move-in timing around Fort Carson, Peterson, Schriever, USAFA, and Cheyenne Mountain, and we build early SCRA terminations into how we lease.

Military owners pay the same published rates as everyone else: a flat 8% of rent collected, with no padded markups. Here's the full fee breakdown. Our office is at 943 Raymond Pl, Colorado Springs, CO 80905. Call (719) 357-7401.