dealing with vacancies

[beinghome]

Hi everyone .My partner who is a REIN member and I are dealing with vacancies at our 20 unit apartment .We have 4 vacancies in our apartment for 2 months .It is located in Central Macdougal in Edmonton.We are working with our property managment company on this and they say its been tough to get tenants due to the snow on the ground.Too hard to get around I guess.Is anyone else dealing with this or have had to deal with it before ?We are feeling stuck and helpless on what to do.Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated.



Thankyou John

 

[kfort]

I hate to be a skeptical Pete but that sounds like one lame excuse. According to what they have told you, they can't rent apartments in the winter... This is not a quality I personally would consider beneficial in a management company. If they market it well people should be excited to come see it!

 

[housingrental]

You should disregard kfort's posts

December especially has a great reduction in renter demand anywhere...I can imagine Edmonton is likely even worse.... Edmonton also has a fairly high vacancy rate as it is....

[quote user=kfort]I hate to be a skeptical Pete but that sounds like one lane excuse. According to what they have told you, they can't rent apartments in the winter... This is not a quality I personally would consider beneficial in a management company. If they market it well people should be excited to come see it!

 

[kfort]

Winter in general has a decline, not? Out of that December would be the worst for renting I would think? I was simply saying it sounded like a lame excuse. I would consider the low rental demand over that particular month as well as some stats showing that to be a reason. Saying there is too much snow on the ground to rent an apartment is rather weak in my opinion. In Edmonton that's 5 months of the year that would be "tough to get a tenant" !! Cheers.

 

[bizaro86]

It seems to me that if they couldn't get even one of the units filled for Feb 1st there is one of two things wrong.



1) The price is over the market value

----or----

2) They're doing a poor job at advertising/showing the suites.



There might be another possibility, but I couldn't think of one.



Vacancy in Edmonton may be higher, but it's certainly not 20%, which is the vacancy rate in their building right now. (4/20*100%=20%)



Regards,



Michael

 

[JimWhitelaw]

I don't buy the "snow on the ground" excuse, but Dec/Jan is definitely the worst time of year to try and re-rent in Edmonton. People don't move this time of year unless they absolutely have to, so you have to watch out for evictees, recent relationship breakdowns, job loss, etc. Plan on doing a lot of marketing and few showings.



As to Edmonton vacancy rates, according to latest CMHC data, the average was about 4.2% in Fall 2010 which isn't that bad. However, just like the national real estate market, the Edmonton area rental market is made up of many neighbourhoods with very different vacancy rates. You have to dig deeper to find the specific info for your location.



The vacancy rate in the North Central area where McDougall is was at 7.7%, second highest in the report, almost double the average and 4x more than in Leduc at 1.8%. I recently re-rented a house in Leduc and got several calls a day from a simple sign in the window. I also did 2 rent-to-own deals on homes in North Central and they took a lot of advertising and effort to find.



Source: CHMC Rental Market Report (Fall 2010)



Tip: I did get a lot of interest before Christmas by offering some "Christmas gifts" for new tenants - XBOX, microwave, netbook PC. I decorated the boxes and used ad lines like "Move in before Christmas and choose a FREE gift from us!". Ultimately we didn't find the right tenants, but we did see improved response to our ads and a couple told me the gifts specifically caught their interest. I'd do that again if I had to re-rent in Dec.

 

[CarrieKoch]

I agree, the last 3 years renting suites was very hard starting in November-February. But with proper screening, advertising and good salesmanship I've been able to fill the majority of vacancies. People still move and you need to draw them in. There are less to pick from but they are there.



When my vacancies are up it's generally a reflection of how I performed and less to do with the weather or the suite.

 

[fumbrunner]

No one wants to move in the dead of winter unless they absolutely have to. I have a few vacancies as well, and it is always tough in Dec and Jan. It tends to get better in Feb and Mar.

 

[REINteam]

Vacancy can happen any time, any month and yes, always more difficult in Dec/Jan. However, I know a few MF owners close to you who have vacancies coming up, but with good marketing they are already filled..so 100% occupied (Queen Mary Park).



Central McDougal is a rougher area IMO, saw financials on a building near you and they were at 17% vacancy for all of 2010 (I personally question the management).



My questions:



1. Do you know how they are marketing the property? Have you seen the ads, do you know where they are posted, are there signs up on the property, is there a website for that particular building???



2. Have you called in as a prospective tenant to see what type of response you get? Is the person on the other line uninterested in helping you, do they even know about the building, do they ask the right questions, etc?



3. What quality are the units? Have you seen the units lately, is the maintenance kept up, how is the curb appeal, etc?



I would say vacancy right now isn't uncommon, but 20% isn't acceptable so make sure you have the right marketing, the right marketing plan and the right people answering the phones/showing the units...miss any of these and you increase your vacancy. It might be time to look at your building as well, how does it show in general for your tenant profile.