What do you do to minimize tenant turnover?

[Nick Miller]

When buying a property I always calculate 10-15% for delinquency and vacancies. With my portfolio this is a conservative average however I have a fourplex with small one bedroom units that seems to take a long time to fill. People either love or hate these units as the bathroom and kitchen are small and the units are all a little dated but comparable to neighboring properties.

We have decided to keep the units in the as-is condition as the units are not bad they just take a little extra time to fill..

My question is when you do not want to update units but you want to cut turnover what is the best strategy? Would you lower the rents, lower tenant standards, increase the advertising budget or is there another creative trick you know of the lower turnover time?