All Forum Posts by: Jianlan Sheng

Mr Jianlan, 

I don't Understand your roll. I manage Real Estate company, I train realtors. 

I tell you, not all realtors are equal,  and on rentals is even more important. You need a different knowledge to rent or to List-sale houses. I know top earners realtors who don't know how to do rentals, is not their forte. Why will you spend time doing rentals for a month commission compare to a 6% commision on the value of house. 

My advice do more research in the realtor you hire, on his LOCAL knowledge of LOCAL market. He will have  the answer for your question and should be an answer conditional to today's market. 

Good luck,

@Jianlan Sheng, I can't speak to your exact situation with a high end rental but I think you are focusing on a VERY important topic and something that isn't discussed nearly enough.

When a landlord looks to determine market rate for ANY long term rental, I think the tendency is to find the highest comps and use those as their guide post. However, if you get high rent at the expense of increased turnover and vacancy then that may not be "market rent". You might actually make more by charging LESS.

I personally have a target vacancy rate of 5%. I budget for that rate of vacancy and work to exceed that rate on average. That can be done by being more conservative with rent prices, offering amenities other properties don't like washers & dryers, or even how you handle turnovers to shorten the time between tenants.

I think its hard to find great statistics on what vacancy is "normal" for most markets and rental unit types, but if you budget for a certain amount of vacancy that you're comfortable with and then identify areas where you can work on lowering your vacancy you are actively tacking and managing the issue/cost.