apartment vacany help

[Anna Wentzell]

I have a 16-unit apartment complex with 2 vacancies at the moment & 1 currently being evicted.  I purchased the complex with the 2 vacancies not thinking it would be difficult to fill, but that has proven otherwise.  My PM has it posted on their website, zillow, & a couple other avenues & I have posted on FB marketplace.  I'm just not sure how to boost exposure, it seems to me the problem is finding tenants that pass screening.  I feel the location is in a great part of town, but the problem is finding a reliable tenant that can pay for it (& my rent is comparable to other similar apartments & not over-priced for the area).  I'm at my wits end.  

[Richard F.]

The link you provided, as well as the return for a search on the address and company name, were both rejected by my Bitdefender anti-virus, so that might be one issue. The search return did provide links to other sources, including apartments.com, zillow, and rent.com which showed the property along with screening cost and numerous criteria.

To be clear, I've never been east of the Missouri river, so have no clue to your local market. What I do see however, first of all, is a $75 application fee, presumably per adult, for a $950 per month rental. That's a big bite for a maybe!  $10 - $20 app fee will get you many more applications, just track whatever the additional cost to you is for the tax deduction.

You go on to provide numerous criteria:  
3X Rent (is this total household, or per individual?) You need to get complete info and perform full screening on every adult. Why would someone with a lot of Bad Habits offer any info on their past if you do not investigate them? What do you do if the Good Tenant moves out? It happens. Marriages split up, roommates argue and separate, young lovers find out living together is not so rosy. You need everyone's info.

MUST NOT HAVE ANY PAST DUE PAYMENTS, CHARGE OFFS, OR FILED EVICTIONS AND NO CRIMINAL BACKGROUND.

I guarantee that alone is greatly reducing the interest in the unit, and you are missing out on some very good tenants. Someone with just one of any of those issues will usually just move on to the next property.

While the individual elements in your criteria are important factors, they are far too broad and will eliminate perfectly good tenants.

"Past due payments", there is a big difference between one or two or three late 30 DAY payments for credit cards, loans, cars, etc. vs. a history of 60 day and multiple lates for multiple years on multiple accounts, combined with high balances on those accounts. 

Charge offs are not great, but if other factors are good, or if they total less than, and the charge off is old, or a small amount, or maybe for medical services, not a big deal. Criminal backgrounds...first, be sure you know local laws regarding using this as a criteria, some have limitations. Second, again, a couple inconsequential issues, particularly misdemeanors, or something that happened years ago, but all of their other areas including legal have been good for several years, then not a big deal. To be clear, axe murderers, drug dealers, violent crimes or a string of misdemeanors for a period of recent time is still a NO. You need to be realistic when looking at the total picture. 

You can establish criteria that causes rejection if there are more than 3 collection items totaling $150; 3 or more misdemeanors within past 18 months, violent of felonious offenses within past 5 years, with completion of incarceration at least 3 years prior. 

As long as recent 18 - 24 months of consumer accounts are acceptable, I ignore medical debts, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and aged auto repos. You do need to ask questions to see what changed to get them on the path of Good Habits. Life Happens, and some people actually get older AND wiser, so you need to consider that, but the most recent three years of activities is far more important than older issues.

I will make a comment on credit scores. I constantly advise that the score alone is not important, and should not be used as a criteria. It is more important to look at these more granular details yourself, and establish what you believe to be more, or less, important to show recent responsible behavior, and publish those criteria.

What are you showing in the photos? A laundry connection? Are inexperienced renters supposed to guess about that? Is it common for apartments in your locale to NOT have a washer/dryer included? Zero Features and Benefits are included in your ad. 

You only show part of the bathroom...no idea if it is single or double sink, or what storage there might be in it. You show only a corner of a room, with blinds closed.I'm guessing it is a bedroom but where and how big is the closet? Eventually you show both sides of the kitchen, and location of the dining area, but again blinds are closed. Decent view of the building, but what about common/private yard areas are included? Is parking random or assigned, and how many stalls?

Yo do not need a professional photographer...ever! Unless you are working with executive or luxury homes. Most cellphones have great capabilities, but mostly it is a matter of taking intentional marketing shots. Using a wider lens option, you should be able to stand in the room entry and take one image that captures floor, ceiling, and most of all 4 walls. A lot of phones now also have a panoramic function (or lens) to enable great pics of yards or neighborhoods, or views from the home/property. You don't need to mess with a lot of settings, but just choosing the different zoom options dramatically changes the view. And turn on all interior lights day or night, and open the darned blinds. Just make sure the windows are clean!

Your pics should tell a story...the same story you would tell if you were showing in person, flowing from the entry, into the main areas, then to the bedrooms, and out to the back yard, stopping for closer specific details where appropriate...but nothing stands out here. You cannot determine the type of countertops; if there are ceiling fans; is there AC; separate water heaters or one for the entire building (which affects util costs); the ceiling is pretty dirty around the ventilation duct, and the vertical blinds are in tatters. Does not say much for standards. Also, and it may well be just the angle of light and the pic, but it appears there could have been water damage causing some minor cupping of the flooring across the dining area from the refer. If that were the case, and it looks like that in person, that alone would spoil a chance at renting to any quality tenants.

I'm not trying to beat you up here. It IS a very fine looking building, but I've processed over 3000 applications, placing over 1000 tenants over more than 20 years, and that is just what I see. I hope it helps you.