February Tenant Approvals - Credit Scores

[Alex Craig]

This year we started keeping metrics on everything we do as a Property Management company.  While we have always done avg time on market to lease a home and vacancy rate, we are taking it a step further to segregate this out by zip code/neighborhood/rental amount.  We are also adding avg times shown before house is leases, tenant surveys as to why they are picking their homes, tenant profiles to include income and credit score by area/zip code and renewal rates.  The point is to use metrics as part of our decision making by rent / credit score/ family make up / income.

Through 2016, the avg tenant score for our approved tenants is 702.  We are still getting several sub 600 scores, but our time on market is still averaging 35 to 40 days (we have a few at 60+ days, but also having several rent in 21 days are under, thus getting us to the avg of 35 to 40).  So it is not like we are holding out to get 700.  I have never tracked this metric and I know this is not the norm, but surprised just how high the avg is.  Avg rent for single family homes is  $912.  I was not going to go retro back a couple of years b/c of how time consuming this would be, but I am tempted too.  I have always guessed our avg tenant score is around 620 and still would think that would be the #.  At the turn of the year we weeded out a few of our lower income homes and we no longer work with section 8, so I am thinking that carries an impact.

Are any other property managers in Memphis, TN seeing those types of scores? Has the credit scoring system changed to be more forgiving?

[Joseph S.]

@Alex CraigI agree with David. Having this type of information would be exceptionally valuable to us owners.

I'm new to the Memphis and have been looking at B+ to A- properties that meet my cashflow requirements. I have one under contract and a number of offers out there. I know with that property class I will attract better tenants, deal with less costly maintenance, have a lower vacancy rate, and be able to sell the property much easier if it came to it (an important consideration since I'm an out-of-state investor), so I'm effectively reducing my risk. However, I know I may be giving up higher returns with this approach. I asked my soon-to-be property manager (once I close on this first property) if they would be willing to share their dataset so I could do some analysis and develop this information (even offered to sign an NDA). Understandably, they said no. They were of course able to provide rent expectations (which for the most part I can determine myself), but the real value comes in knowing expected vacancy/maintenance/etc. on these B- and C class properties. So since I don't know what to expect I'm very wary of purchasing any of them and feel like I could be giving up a better return.

Whats interesting is that property managers have huge data sets to work with and could be using this information to create tools to help owners know what to expect when purchasing property. This type of knowledge could put a lot of owners at ease and set better expectations which could lead to additional value creation for the PM. You're the first person I have seen on BP analyze their history and share it for others (in a more specific data-driven, less generic way). I think that's great and hope it continues!