Buy and Hold Investor and Real Estate Broker · Midwest · Member since 2014 · 30 posts · 5 votes
Im curious what everyone thinks in regards to listing time for rentals during the summer/ winter/ fall/ spring time frames.
I seem to have much more demand in the summer months, and Im not having much response for a 2/2 condo that I am currently leasing for a Nov. 1 move in. I was talking to an agent that recently went to a seminar and they had data to support an even demand throughout the year for rental homes, vs. sales (where the spring and summer months tended to do better).
Hi! I am one suburb over from you and handle our company rentals in the Northwest suburbs. SFRs.
I will give you an example to answer your question. Every property we have rented out before a month ago (that story to follow) was listed May through July 1 timeframe. Found a tenant meeting our criteria on the second or third app after maybe 2 weeks for all of those. This year got we got something listed August 1st and just got the lease signed *yesterday* after dropping the price in $50 or $25 increments over August and 8 applications (not including a million other strongly interested inquiries that didn't get to the application stage). Plus the house was just fully painted and recarpeted and showed great.
I knew it would be harder in August but I didn't think it would be *that* much harder. In fact, we rented it for $100 mo less than what we rented it for last July!!
Going forward we are not letting leases expire beyond June 30th. Long story short, we didn't get possession of this unit until mid-July and it took til Aug1st to get it relisted since we had to repaint and recarpet. There were lucky to get it done that fast. Now, we did lose 10 days trying to get $50/mo more than what we got for it last year since comps said we could, but those comps were from just a month or two before and that made all the difference.
I was thinking that since these were SFRs, and school starts end of August, anyone that wanted to move that needed a SFR with 3 beds and 2 baths already did. I do open houses twice a week and we didn't get anyone with school age kids like we usually do. Given yours is a 2/2 condo I am not so sure now. Where is your condo?
I hope he didn't pay for the seminar! Summer months tend to do better for my rentals. I also do pretty well in ~February, when potential tenants receive their tax money.
Early summer has been good for me. August has always been slow. I attribute that to kids starting school. October is good around here since lots of people are getting their PFD's (oil $$$) As long as they can continue to pay! Holidays are notriously slow... These are all for 2bd 1 bath apartments.
Summer is by far the best time to rent in my area. I even make my leases come empty during the summer by adjusting the length. It is dam hard to rent in my area in from November until March. Who wants to move in 20 below zero weather? I dread having a house empty in that time also. If no one is there to say the heater \quit working when you check in on it it may have frozen up or burst a pipe and pumped 50,000 gallons on water into the basement. I would be surprised if any area with very cold weather did not follow this trend.
Our region has a breadth of industry. We are the state capital -not lacking for government employees. We also have Joint Base Lewis/Mchord in our back yard, a port, technology, timber, and a few colleges. So I can generally find a tenant any time of year. The difference is what they will pay. In May/June I can rent a unit for $1200 that I will get $1275 for in August/Sept. Holidays are slow for apartments but I often move relocating military into houses in Dec/Jan. Our student population moves in during September so with higher demand in Aug/Sept we get $850-$875 where I can only get $810-$825 through the winter months. Price it right and they will come!
In temperate climates like ours, anytime of year is fine. With the exception of December because of the holidays. I would imagine cold weather northern states would see more movement in spring, summer, fall and perhaps hot southern states would see more movement in fall, winter, spring.
I really do believe this is a regional question because climate really does seem to make a difference. In AZ there are a few slower times like 2 or 3 weeks before and after school starts and December because of the holidays. But in MinneSnowta if I have a vacancy in the late fall, I might be shoveling snow for awhile myself and January/February are next to nothing because it's to cold to move. So I really do believe it's regional and I do work both extremes.
Hi! I am one suburb over from you and handle our company rentals in the Northwest suburbs. SFRs.
I will give you an example to answer your question. Every property we have rented out before a month ago (that story to follow) was listed May through July 1 timeframe. Found a tenant meeting our criteria on the second or third app after maybe 2 weeks for all of those. This year got we got something listed August 1st and just got the lease signed *yesterday* after dropping the price in $50 or $25 increments over August and 8 applications (not including a million other strongly interested inquiries that didn't get to the application stage). Plus the house was just fully painted and recarpeted and showed great.
I knew it would be harder in August but I didn't think it would be *that* much harder. In fact, we rented it for $100 mo less than what we rented it for last July!!
Going forward we are not letting leases expire beyond June 30th. Long story short, we didn't get possession of this unit until mid-July and it took til Aug1st to get it relisted since we had to repaint and recarpet. There were lucky to get it done that fast. Now, we did lose 10 days trying to get $50/mo more than what we got for it last year since comps said we could, but those comps were from just a month or two before and that made all the difference.
I was thinking that since these were SFRs, and school starts end of August, anyone that wanted to move that needed a SFR with 3 beds and 2 baths already did. I do open houses twice a week and we didn't get anyone with school age kids like we usually do. Given yours is a 2/2 condo I am not so sure now. Where is your condo?
Yes, in most regions it matters and the larger the unit the more it seems to matter. It is hard to get tenants in multi -bedroom units in the northeast in the winter. Rent is also higher if you have a unit free in the summer/spring. I had a heck of a time getting a 4 bedroom full in February. Lots of lookers but the moving is tough at that time of year.
It completely depends on your market(s) and the locales/neighbourhoods within those markets.
As a general rule-of-thumb around here, May - August are the months when families move - kids are out of school, so it is easier.
We have several properties in Universityville and they tend to rent-up for May and September.
Holidays aside, mid-winter in most of Canada is not a good time to be moving and we work hard not to have units come vacant between November and April. However, we have a couple of student properties which rent by the room - target clientele is predominately international students - and have absolutely no problem filling vacancies at these properties in winter ... particularly the start of winter/spring term in January, which is about the time some folks decide they do not really like their roommates who party all the time and are looking for a new place to hang their hat.
Unless they're moving for a job relocation or emergency like their apartment building burnt down, quite frankly, I don't want anybody who wants to move during the winter, because it's indicative of poor planning.
If they don't plan well, how are they planning to pay the rent? Who in their right mind moves in cold weather with snow on the ground?
@Kimberly H. - this condo is in Palatine. I can completely see where you are coming from with SFRs, and it would make sense that much of the tenant pool for a SFR would be planning around the school year. We have a SFR coming up this fall.. waiting to see how that one will play out for us.
When potential tenants call, I ask how they found the listing. The majority are Trulia, Hotpads, and Zillow. Some from the yard sign. Occasionally from Realtor.com. I also list it in MLS and have realtors show, about 20% of the time they find someone faster than I do doing to rental open houses twice a week.
Time of year has a huge impact on my Superior/Duluth rentals, less so on my CO and MO rentals. Winter does slow those down but not nearly as much. Makes a great time to put in offers for new properties though. Also great for hiring contractors in need of work. The best tip I have seen is to always schedule your leases to come up in the May time frame. 14 month leases, 18 month leases, whatever it takes.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention Craigslist, I do use that. I agree a lot of interest comes from Craigsilst but they are not the best quality. Never tried rentals.com, maybe I will next time. I do use Postlets as well.
I have to say this people from Zillow are just bogus. I list through postlets and if someone responds from Zillow I contact them and there is no answer, disconnected, emails unanswered. I get most answers from craigslist. I don't know about people you get back to and they just don't respond. This is especially true this time of year.