How do you handle a long vacancy (2+ months)?

[Jill Hutson]

We have a few single family homes in Kansas City, in a nicer, brand new neighborhood (built 2022). When we initially bought the homes we were able to lease for $2800-$3200/ month. However we have struggled to rent the homes at that same rate and have come down over 20% on price. Vacancy has killed the cash flow. 

What would you say are the biggest factors when leasing a higher price home? Location? Time of year? Property manager reputation? 

[Andrew Syrios]

High rent properties tend to be harder for us to rent than others because there are fewer people looking to rent in that price range than just buy. (And for us, higher rent is generally anything over $2000.) 

So it might just be that. Normally I'm not a fan of selling, but I would ask if this property cash flows. If not, it very well might be worth selling.

If you want to hold, obviously the big thing you can do is lower the price which we try to do regardless of how we feel about it on a semi-fixed schedule (we'll slow down lower prices if we're getting lots of showings for example). Not a lot you can do about location or the neighbors.

It would also be worth doing another walk through of the property. Is there something aesthetically that's turning people off? Faded paint? Dated flooring? Unfinished repairs? Overgrown lawn? In that price range, people want it to shine so that might be an issue.