We purchased a couple multi-family buildings in Ten Broeck Triangle this past November.  We rehabbed everything.  New appliances, new paint, new floors, washer/dryer hookups, etc.  The mix is one bedrooms, two bedrooms and three bedrooms.  The one bedroom is priced at 865.  The two bedrooms are priced at 1000, and the three bedroom is priced at 1275.  The realtor is receiving a good amount of leads, but no apps.  

We have a total of six units vacant, and only three occupied in the triangle.  He and his team are good people, but when we bought the buildings, they were all occupied.  Since he started managing them, one tenant was evicted.  The other three just got up and left as soon as we started to take over the management.  We're in Pine Hill, West Hill, Downtown and a few other parts of Albany with a different PM and realtor.  Not sure what to do with the current team managing these buildings in TBT.  

Open to options and suggestions.  

Perhaps move this part of your portfolio to the other PM.  Could it be that the PM is a jerk, so they alienate applicants during/after a showing (thus, no apps) as well as existing tenants (eviction, absconding)?  If the rest of your buildings are running smoothly, I'd say the only common denominator is that TBT PM.

Another idea is to send a "secret shopper" to go through the tenant onboarding process on these vacant units.

Yet another is to see if you can reach out to your remaining tenants (under the guise of a customer satisfaction survey, for example) to see if they can shed some light on it.

Hey Calvin are you getting any feedback from the realtor why no one is even applying? Do you charge an app fee? 

What was the original rents when fully occupied? I'm guessing pricing went up significantly when you rehabbed and now attract a different class tenant that may not be as interested? 

I'm just getting started myself with REI so I don't have a ton of insight for you but I'm looking to expand into Albany with multifamily. Who's your PM and realtor for the other areas? If you are happy with them maybe switch the TBT ones to them?

Originally posted by @Wesley W. :

Perhaps move this part of your portfolio to the other PM.  Could it be that the PM is a jerk, so they alienate applicants during/after a showing (thus, no apps) as well as existing tenants (eviction, absconding)?  If the rest of your buildings are running smoothly, I'd say the only common denominator is that TBT PM.

Another idea is to send a "secret shopper" to go through the tenant onboarding process on these vacant units.

Yet another is to see if you can reach out to your remaining tenants (under the guise of a customer satisfaction survey, for example) to see if they can shed some light on it.

 I am strongly considering that.  His team does good work, but I've never seen new units stay vacant for so long.  He's a good guy, and I get the listing reports from him.  Just last week it shown 92 people shown interest with 21 showings.  He tells me some didn't show up, others weren't qualified.  I do not like giving ultimatums, so I either have to him a 30 day notice to tough it out.  My other PMs have all shown interest.  I just do not like to give more than five buildings to each PM.  This would be a lot of 3, so it just makes it a headache to dole out.  The current tenants don't speak english and my Spanish isn't too good.  

Originally posted by @Rob Chang :

Hey Calvin are you getting any feedback from the realtor why no one is even applying? Do you charge an app fee? 

What was the original rents when fully occupied? I'm guessing pricing went up significantly when you rehabbed and now attract a different class tenant that may not be as interested? 

I'm just getting started myself with REI so I don't have a ton of insight for you but I'm looking to expand into Albany with multifamily. Who's your PM and realtor for the other areas? If you are happy with them maybe switch the TBT ones to them?

There's a 25 dollar background check which goes to the service which runs the check.  We do not make any money off it.  No way around a background eviction and credit check fee.  80% - 90% occupied in each building.  We've kept the prices at market rate and assumed it would be a fast fill.  So far, it's been not good.  We use four different companies as we limit five buildings per PM company.  Anymore, we find they have too much on their plate and us down in the City have to pick up their slack.  We do not mind, but the PM companies seem to mind a bit.