How to achieve no Vacancy Loss in your rental business!

The busy season in leasing, move ins and move outs is nearly at our door step.  Like most management companies and real estate investors, we have a majority of our lease expirations stacked in the spring to summer months.  The reason for this is quite simple, in our region this is the season people think about moving.  The reasons your resident might want to move can be one of many.  Either they are wanting to purchase a home, consolidate households (people moving from a 1 bedroom to sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with someone else), deconsolidate households (think of three roommates wanting to get their own studio or one bedroom), poor living conditions or poor maintenance performance from their housing provider.
Most reasons your residents choose to move out are controllable.  That's why it's best to have a comprehensive retention strategy in place to keep your residents longer.  By the way, a move out costs a property owner on average $2500 per unit, between vacancy loss, make ready costs, and leasing fees!
For information on our retention strategy, visit our blog post here.
But some move outs are just unavoidable.  The typical property owner will post their apartment home as available 30-60 days prior to the current residents move out date.  And then perform their make ready of the unit after the current resident moves out.  This type of make ready work can consist of cleaning, painting, and other minor repairs which can cost most property owners from as little as two weeks to one month of vacancy loss.  If you multiply this over several units, the costs from vacancy loss alone can be staggering.  For instance, if you apply this scenario to our portfolio of 102 units, assume we have a 50% turn over per year or 51 units, with an average market rent of $800 per month.  If we incur 2 weeks to 1 month of vacancy loss, this can translate to a yearly vacancy and collection loss of $20k to $40k per year!  That's essentially someone's salary!  Having a vacancy management strategy in place is mission critical to the sustainability of your business!  Here are some tactical stuff that we use to manage minimal vacancy loss as a management company:

1. Post upcoming available apartments at least 60 days in advance.  We require current residents to give us at least 60 days notice of their intent to vacate.  Some residents will require more cajoling than others.  Be on top of it!  Most of your best resident prospects look far in advance of their date of housing need.  Your best resident prospects will probably not be looking one week before their move in date!  So be proactive to capture your best applicants!
2. Perform comprehensive maintenance inspections at least 45 days prior to a residents lease expiration.  These maintenance inspection consist of checking all plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems, assessing cleanliness of the apartment, and assessing any cosmetic repairs that are going to be needed when the resident moves out.  Our maintenance and construction lead, Brandon Stonegraber manages this inspection process and will coordinate with the existing resident to get a jump on labor intensive repairs and preventative maintenance so that the apartment will be able to be made ready much quicker.  This procedure has saved us tens of thousands of dollars in vacancy loss alone, not to mention tens of thousands of dollars on services that would normally be contracted out to perform in a timely manner.  This way we can keep more services in house and reduce our make ready expenses.  This also gives us a jump on scheduling in advance with our vendors for make ready tasks that cannot be handled in house.  The best vendor partners you rely on (cleaners, painters, etc.) are usually booked out and very busy, allowing you to get on their schedule before others.
3. In your lease, make sure that you stipulate your tenant must turn in their keys and possession of the apartment home by 12:00 noon on the last day of their lease.  This is why hotels and AirBNB operators have strict check out times.  Furthermore, make sure that your incoming residents lease starts on noon the first day of their lease.  This allows 24 hours for your team and vendors to perform all of the remaining make ready tasks that need to happen in time for your incoming resident.
4. Communicate with your existing resident exactly what the expectations are for their move out in writing shortly before their departure.  These expectations can include cleaning standards, move out time, return of keys, and parking passes, etc.  Just because it may be in their lease does not mean they will refer back to it.  Face it, they are moving and have a lot more on their mind than what your expectations are as a housing provider.

In addition to helping reduce vacancy loss, these tactics will be helpful to having a more pleasant move in experience for your incoming tenant.  Remember, if your new residents have a bad move in experience, they will hold it against you, and you can take the likelihood of them renewing their lease next year and kiss it good bye!  We hope that these tips help you in making your rental business more profitable and your residents much happier!

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