How to find the "average days to rent" in a particular area?

Question

I know you can find rent comps rentometer.com and other websites, but how can you find out how long it takes on average for you to rent out a property in a paticular area?

Other than asking a property management company and driving around neighborhood for "for rent" signs (I am an out of state investor, so the latter method is not possible), is there any way (or any website) to find the information?

Even if the demographic data shows a low vacancy rate for a particular area,  buying a house in that area does not make sense, if there is very few people looking for a rental house.  Thanks,

Bill Gulley · Answer

Ah, just the beginning of long distance landlording.....if I were to do it and felt that I needed that info, I'd call the local public housing authority and tell them I was considering buying a property and putting it under section 8, then I'd ask, on the average how long does it take for a 2bdr/3 bdr to be filled. Section 8 folks are usually safe bets as to convictions (but not credit, but could be) as they must qualify for assistance.

If you have the gift of gab and they aren't real busy, you can get alot of local info out of these PHA people. Good luck...

Naga A. · Answer

Thanks guys on tips.  They are certainly helpful and I will contact the local housing authority as Bill suggested.

I mainly invest in the Atlanta market. But within the city of Atlanta, I wanted to find out how strong rental demands are for a particular  city, district, school district or even subdivision.

Vacancy rates are available for major cities and zip codes, but vacancy rates do not tell you the whole story.  Even if a vacancy rate is low in a particular area, it would not be good if it is middle of no where and nobody looks for renting a house.

Al Williamson · Answer

Naga A. here's my attempt to summary the awesome input from above. Jeff  Sielicky gave you probably the best advice - create a new post about city and type of rental you're considering and posted the question here at BP. The collective wisdom is always amazing - and median ave days to rent should be the best number you can get.

A less accurate, but quicker solution, is for you to guess at a best and worse case scenarios for variables mentioned by Steve Babiak and others. If you don't have a gut sense for these conditions, you should definitely poll some local leasing and RE agents. Use all the input you can gather to come up with two numbers for best and worse - then take the average.

Hope that helps.

Jeff S. · Answer

If you mention the areas here you are likely to get a response.

Some of the harder hit areas like Vegas and Phoenix have lots of investors and higher vacancy rates, which translates into more days on the market.

It all boils down to competition. If you have a nicer place for less than the next guy/gal, yours will rent faster. Of course that goes in any market but reinforces the need to buy right.

I get a paper called the Landlord Times that publishes stats on major cities. Not sure if you have that available to you.

A local Board of Realtors should have vacancy rates.

Steve Babiak · Answer

Even if you had that sort of data, you would still be lacking whether the landlord chose a tenant that would qualify for you.  I see plenty of tenant-hopefuls who have things I don't accept in their background - drug dealing convictions, evictions, etc - and some landlord has them now as a tenant ...

I could fill a vacancy a lot faster if I would take some of those types!

Naga A. · Answer

Stanley Crawford that is a good idea.  I will try to do that. Thanks

Al Williamson how to get information about a high and low range of "days to rent".  Is that information available only to licensed agents?

Stanley Crawford · Answer

Sometimes you can get a pretty good feel for it by just reading the local Craigslist.  If there are a lot of ads in the Housing Wanted section that tells you a lot.

Al Williamson · Answer

Naga A. I believe you can measure, but not quantify, anything. You could measure other landlords' rent up rates based on them simply running Craigslist ads or using signs. But even if you could find a published average, it would be subject to the skill of the leasing agent and market conditions (unemployment, etc.).

If you're in a rush, you may want to do your analysis based on your best guess for a high and low range of "days to rent". That should help you advance a Go/No Go decision.

If time is on your side, I would call around and talk to leasing agents in that area. They should be use to participating in market research and very willing to cooperate with you. Good luck.

How to find the "average days to rent" in a particular area?

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