vacancy rates
February 3, 2015
Each landlord we work with has a unique problem—filling their rental vacancy. On the surface, It may seem like a unique problem to only this industry. But when you apply business topology, the problem becomes quite common. In fact, there are at least 3 other industries who have almost the exact same problem. Unsold inventory. Billboards, hotels, and airlines all HATE unsold inventory because the moment when time passes, it is utterly worthless. As soon as the date changes on a hotel room with vacancies, that hotel cannot make up the lost profit. Same with the radio station with unsold advertising slots for radio commercials. Same for airliners that taxi and take off with seats missing rear ends sitting in them. Same for landlords. Which is why we are a strong proponent of aggressive and early marketing of properties with vacancies coming up soon. Think about the math here…. If you rent a […]
October 2, 2015
Over the past few years, State and city officials have been GaGa over introducing enormous plans for mass transit to Indiana and Indianapolis, specifically. The most recent projections I’ve read include the estimate of approximately $1.1 Billion over the next 10 years. The urgency behind such a huge undertaking? The theory that Millennials aren’t moving to the suburbs, but only want urban areas to reside and they demand mass transit, otherwise they will not relocate to Indy. In other words, it’s about trying to attract them to Indianapolis for high paying jobs. Uhhh…..only one small tiny problem with their hypothesis: they have zero quantitative data about this projected human behavior pattern on which they are gambling tax payer money. Today’s Wall Street Journal doesn’t help their argument either. Case in point: Millennials are the FASTEST GROWING class of car buyers. Here’s the entire article: Somehow, their choo-choo train idea seems to […]
May 31, 2016
Times they are a changin’……again. A new study by Pew Research Center shows that young people are choosing to live with their parents in a higher amount than ever before in modern history….even higher than living with a romantic partner. Why the change? Pew researchers suggest several factors, including declining employment among young men in recent decades and lingering effects of the recession. But the researchers said that the chief reason is a “dramatic drop in the share of young Americans who are choosing to settle down romantically before age 35” either with a spouse or a partner. “Forming a new family is not nearly as important as it was for young adults,” said Richard Fry, a senior researcher with Pew, a nonpartisan think tank that conducts public-opinion polling, and does demographic research. So what does this mean for Landlords and Investors? It could mean the following: Your rental properties with a target demographic of this age group may be tougher to fill due to financial constraints of the tenants moving out of […]
July 22, 2016
Good morning, Freedom Lovers! Here’s last month’s rental stats for all the market segments we track. Indy Rental Stats YTD through June
July 30, 2016
NPR just posted this short recording clip containing some new conclusions on Rental Rates and, more importantly, Tenant Behavioral patterns. Take a listen as it’s music to your ears as a Landlord and Real Estate Investor. It’s barely 4 minutes long but it’s jam packed with nuggets of knowledge. The retirement to the beach just got a lot closer, folks. If you are not aware of what your portfolio pricing should be, please get aware. Golden opportunities like this don’t come around often in investing cycles. Here’s the link: http://www.npr.org/player/embed/487470787/487522888?sf31908941=1 Your Financial Freedom awaits….
August 15, 2016
Good afternoon! We have published the YTD Rental Stats for the 14 market areas we track in the Indianapolis area. We have also changed this to a protected file format since it is proprietary data analysis unlike anyone else provides and have started to charge for this data. The whopping amount for access? $5 To change your membership from the free level to the Financial Freedom Member Level, click here. Skip the Starbucks once a week to skip faster into your Financial Freedom. Do it. You’ll thank me each month as you keep watching your bank account gro July 2016 YTD Indy Rental Stats
August 18, 2016
Questions. We all have them. (If you don’t, run away from real estate.) Here’s the Top 20 questions asked by landlords and investors when choosing to hire a property management company. Some are deeper questions than they might seem the first time you read them, which is why the first question on the list is the first question on the list. If you are thinking about them in the correct mindset, you should realize within 2 breaths that the questions spawn subordinate questions and will take you down a rabbit hole even further. What do you charge? If I have a question and send in an email or call, what is the expected response time from your company? Is the prop mgr available on weekends if issues arise? How do you handle repairs? How does money get to me each month? What happens if the tenant doesn’t pay rent? What […]
October 24, 2016
Landlords and Investors make money the same way airlines, hotels, and entertainment shows do–they keep butts in seats for as long as possible. For real estate, this means maximizing Days of Occupancy and correspondingly minimizing Vacancy Days. So this Fall let’s review some of the Best Practices to give your Tenants Treats instead of Tricks for their lease situation. 1. Advance Communication The saying, “Misery is the mismatch of expectations between two people”, holds true in rentals. If you are communicating with the tenants at the time of their initial lease signing that you’ll be recontacting them to begin discussing the possibility of renewing their lease 60-90 days before the lease ends, you’ve planted the seed early on that your not the kind of landlord who waits until the last minute for these conversations. Good for you. 2. Review of the Market Conditions Before you pick up that phone or begin […]
October 31, 2016
Last week, we started discussing the early work to position yourself strongly for a tenant renewal scenario. (https://danbaldini.com/2016/10/24/treats-instead-of-tricks/) This week, let’s conclude the article. 1. The Approach Let’s assume you have one of two options for the renewal scenario: You plan on keeping the rent the same as in prior years or you plan on asking for a rental rate increase. Same rent scenario: This one is easier, but be prepared for the tenant to ask for a possible rent reduction or other concessions. Their argument could be as basic as,”Hey–you don’t have to search for a new tenant, so how about knocking $25 off our rent for the next year?” or “Hey–can you replace the carpet and we’ll agree to renew?” Whatever their request is….be prepared to know your numbers (i.e. profit margin) in order to know if you can do it or not. In addition, if the request […]