I really enjoyed reading this article—it’s been helpful in boosting my rental income and cutting down on costs. Thank you for sharing such valuable information!
Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
2y
Vacancy is a killer to the bottom line, and is probably the most misunderstood and overlooked expense . We strive to get tenants that are going to stay a long time. We look at tenant's rental history and specificaly ask during the interview, "How long would you plan to stay at this property, if we rent to you?" We have had multiple tenants who have stayed more than 30 years. We have a current tenant who moved in 1984, and another tenant who moved in 2000 and just renewed for 3 more years. At one point our average tenancy was 12.5 years. Great article, Andrew.
My rentals and I are in the Twin Cities, MN. We're required to have criteria in place, and only approve or deny an applicant basis the written criteria. Most tenants, and probably many landlords dont know this, but I follow the rules. We cant interview 2-3 potential applicants, then encourage the 1 we think will stay the longest to apply. We also cant have 2-3 applicants apply, then select a tenant arbitrarily based upon which 1 has the longest tenancy at their current apartment (per their application, which you'd now have). Theoretically I suppose you could have written criteria for acceptance that the applicant must have 5+ years tenancy in their current apartment. I've never heard of that, but I suppose you could get creative. We have to be very careful in MN about accusation of discrimination.