Highest Ever Rents Banked in 2014
A stunning $441 Billion was banked in rents in the U.S. in 2014, according to our friends at the KCM Blog. This is a $20 Billion increase over the year before.
Zillow’s Chief Economist predicts that 2015 will be more of the same.
Read the whole story at the KCM Blog.
Photo credit: mcfcrandall via photopin cc
“No Vacancies” A Landlord’s Favorite Words
One thing you can count on in business (and in life) is change…so I thought I better show off real quick before something changes.
To start off this new year, we have 87 apartments with No Vacancies!!
I can’t even remember the last time that happened.
We do have one vacant house…but houses are a different business in our world so I can brag about the apartments separately. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
We had huge turnover last summer. We decided it was a perfect time to sell a few houses, so we asked a few long term month-to-month tenants to leave for that purpose. Then suddenly we had some other long term tenants give us notices. Gulp.
At one point last summer we had 8 vacant houses. Eight.
Plus normal spring and summer apartment turnover.
So I was one stressed out lady when the cash/bills graphs got crossed (bills up, cash down). Filling vacancies is always my absolute top priority, so I had little time to blog. I’ll try to get in a little pontificating now.
Josh and I would like to add a new apartment complex this year, so I probably won’t be basking in the No Vacancies glow for long 🙂
More Good News for Landlords
This great new info-graphic from our friends at The KCM Blog shows visually that landlords are getting special again.
100% of markets tracked saw an increase in rents this quarter.
As landlords, we go through periods where we don’t feel very special (the recent recessionary years come to mind).
And then we have periods when we feel very special…when rents are rising and units fill fast (and banks lend us money)!
I signed leases with highest-ever rents on 6 different properties in the past month – both homes and apartments.
There were feeding-frenzies with multiple applicants on each of those properties. The feeding-frenzies repeated even though I made pretty big rent increases on all the homes and apartments that turned over.
Several times I had to take the ads down within 24-48 hours of posting to get the phone to quit ringing.
I figured the rents must be too low.
Each time the feeding-frenzie happened, I re-researched the market and raised the rents again.
This is a great problem 🙂
How to Write Killer Rental Ads
My son and I are about to close out our best year ever.
[Gasp!]
Yep, right in the middle of a bad recession.
So it occurred to me, while I was perusing Craigslist for rent ads today, that I might have a few secret weapons that would be of help to other landlords.
Try this exercise: Go to Craigslist and check out the ads in some rent range that is
applicable to your rental units. Below are a few of the headings I saw listed. Hover your mouse over each one and see which one makes your finger WANT to CLICK:
HOME FOR RENT
Single Family Home for Rent
Just Painted – Nice Floorplan
2 Rooms Nice Location
Large Condominium
Clean 1 bdrm apt – Downtown
Nice Apartment Available
BOOYA!! Classy 1BR + Cozy Gas Fireplace
The last one is my ad, of course 😉 Hey, I was excited to see some great headlines too, some I wish I had written! But most were yawners.
Your prospective tenants will never see your ad if the headline doesn’t make them CLICK. The headline is the Ad for your Ad. Work it! More…
Pimp Your Ads with “Postlets”
You no longer need a big budget to create snazzy-looking ads like the professional management firms do, and attract quality tenants!
Go to The Savvy Landlord website and watch the 5-minute video created by two savvy landlords, which will show you how to sign up for Postlets for FREE (my favorite price).
I just signed up and created my first Postlets ad after watching their video. It only took a few minutes and it looks great. Postlets publishes your ad on a bunch of websites, and the video will show you how to easily post it on Craigslist.
Use Niche Marketing to Upgrade Your Tenant Clientele & Increase the Value of Your Rental Property
Is there a disconnect between the highest and best use of your rental property and your marketing niche?
That’s a really important question that has given my partner/son Josh and I the ability to create an increased cash flow, an improved tenant clientele, and increased property values on all of our units over the last few years. Of course, we didn’t ask the question exactly that way, because “niche marketing” has only become all the rage in the past several years. But the thought process is the same.
There’s some fun and profitable lessons here, so let’s explore the subject.
First of all, niche marketing is defined as the marketing of a product or service to a small and well-defined segment of the market place, typically a market whose needs are not being well served.
Some various residential rental property niches might be: high end, low end, ghetto, on the way down (deteriorating), on the way up, mid-level rentals, seasonal, senior housing, student housing, low income housing, subsidized/Section 8, etc. Then each one of those categories could be broken down into even smaller segments.
You need to always, always, always invest primarily for cash flow, so whichever niche you choose should lead you to an increased cash flow. To flesh out the idea, here’s some personal examples: More…
Ka-ching! That’s Your Curb Appeal Working for You
Gosh, it is so cool to own a little rental property!
It’s (normally) growing in value, it’s a forced savings so you’re not tempted to spend your down-payment and growing equity on doo-dads and bright shiny things, your great tenants are paying your mortgage down every month, you can keep more money in the family budget every year because of the savings on your taxes, you will have nice passive cash flow from now through retirement, plus you’ll have something of value to leave to your loved ones or favorite charity.
Sweet!
But it takes constant vigilance to keep the property in good repair. On the front end, it can be painful when you’re shelling out remodeling bucks. But upgraded properties = an improved tenant clientelle, an improved qualify of life as a landlord, an improved quality of life for your tenants, plus the value that will be added to the neighborhoods where your properties are located are all immeasurable benefits! Good landlords add a lot of value to the communities where they own property. It’s the ONLY way to do business as a landlord. More…
Here Comes Spring Turnover!
Can you feel it? Spring is appearing and change is in the air. Our landscape contractor has already begun to clean up and beautify each of our properties. We’ve had a bunch of residents respond happily and thank us.
The last two years were “lean” so we skipped adding new black soil to the planter beds and raked them out instead. We also planted fewer new flowers and perennials. But this year we’ve budgeted for a little more beautification because we intend to compete like crazy for the great tenants that will be looking for a fresh new apartment.
Spring and summer are a residential landlord’s biggest turnover months, so get ahead of the curve with your marketing plans, and don’t forget to also do everything possible to keep the great tenants you already have!
Most of the turnover will be done by the end of July, so work smart to have every vacancy filled by then. August vacancies will be much more difficult to rent because of the reduced demand, and by September it will be super difficult to attract the few tenants that will be moving in the fall and winter months.
Now is the time to prepare to compete for the great tenants that will be in the market for a fresh new apartment in the next few months!