I was just curious what everyones single family home rental vacancy rates are? Also what percentage of tenants would you say renew their lease? Do most stay?
What tools/data to you use when evaluating a property?
I would say most tenants renew there lease at least once. I use one and two year leases. Being competitive in the rental market is key. Some tenants are life long renters those will stay if you keep the property up and respond to them when needed. Treat them as people and not like you are so lucky to be renting from me. Even if you had to lower your rent a bit to renew, it’s definitely worth it. A reduction in rent of $50 to renew is $600 a year. The cost to repaint, making repairs, marketing your unit and having a vacancy if only for 30 days could cost you almost $3000. Say rent is 1300.
This is all dependent on your management style. Tenant retention is a priority in this business. I have only about 3 or 4% vacancy as a rule. I have perfect properties in the $150,000 to $220,000 range in greater Houston, TX. If you are a good sales person you can achieve this just about anywhere. Most of my tenants stay over 2 years. Some over 10.
You have to have a comparable program that you trust. I use https://www.homeinvestortool.com for my property evaluations in TX.
I would say most tenants renew there lease at least once. I use one and two year leases. Being competitive in the rental market is key. Some tenants are life long renters those will stay if you keep the property up and respond to them when needed. Treat them as people and not like you are so lucky to be renting from me. Even if you had to lower your rent a bit to renew, it’s definitely worth it. A reduction in rent of $50 to renew is $600 a year. The cost to repaint, making repairs, marketing your unit and having a vacancy if only for 30 days could cost you almost $3000. Say rent is 1300.
Excluding an apartment that is mostly rented to students, most of my tenants are long term. I had one stay 13 years (I sold the place). My other rentals are newer (just over 4 years) and 2 of the current tenants are the initial ones, the other I've had one turnover as the original tenants had to move to take care of a sick parent. Vacancy rate for the area overall is almost 0.