Handling Vacancies in Rental Properties

Member since 2025 · 111 posts · 56 votes

I’ve had a few unexpected vacancies recently and it’s impacting my cash flow. How do you plan for or manage vacancies in your rental properties? Any strategies to minimize downtime?

1 Reply

59 views

2 Replies

Jump to latestLatest

Sort by

Jaron WallingPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2018 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
10mo
Network - Talk to local investors/friends/family, and try to find a tenant that way instead of posting online.

Photos - Take high quality photos of the rental and leverage them when you can. If you're vacant in the winter this so important. People don't want to move but can be convinced if the property sells it's self.

Prescreening - I created a step-by-step document that shows how we communicate with prospective tenants. My wife could do it and she's completely hands off with our PM. This streamlines the process to find tenants. I implement the steps and use Innago (management software) to collect deposits, rents, and get leases signed. All of this can be done from a computer, and some of it from my phone. If a tenant doesn't meet the prescreening requirements, can't complete the online application, or red flags are found we quickly move onto the next applicate.

Reserves - Every investor needs a healthy amount of reserves (or LOC) to cover vacancy. For our properties we factor in 7%, but in our market it's realistically 2-3%. For the last five years it's been zero. It doesn't change the mindset of setting aside $$$ for reserves.

Turnover Costs - This is directly correlated to PM, maintenance, and capex. Penny pinching a rental and getting behind on inspections bites investors on turnovers. It's take that much longer to relist the rental if you're repairing XYZ because nothing was fixed while it was rented. I like this saying from a local podcast "Stay invested in your investments". Tenants are your clients. If investors don't cater to them (within reason), jump on repairs, and maintain the property they will leave, and find another landlord who does.
1 Reply
Alan AsriantsBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10mo
Vacancies are a part of real estate investing, which is why a lot of people account for a vacancy expense when they are running their numbers that being said vacancy is also something that is market driven a couple of years ago having a vacancy meant an opportunity to boost, rents and get the property rented out really quickly today. That is not the case I am seeing in my market that things are softening and now when renewals are coming up, I am offering a two year extension for the same rate in order to create better retention, and avoid further vacancies. Some things you can't fully control, but positioning yourself and adjusting to your market is really important. Try offering two year extensions
[email protected]267-767-0111
Alan Asriants - New Century Real Estate 591 Reviews
View Page
0 Reply

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.