Renting High End Units During COVID-19

[Tanner Ueland]

Hello All!

My name is Tanner I am currently a on-site property manager as well as a real estate broker in Portland. 

The apartment complex that I am the manager at, completed construction in early February of this year. As march rolled by and we were doing well with leasing, COVID hit at a very unfortunate time during our lease-up period. Our units here are very nice and are near the top of market rent for around the area (newer apartment buildings).

While COVID has been a big challenge in getting people to rent these high end units while unemployment skyrocketed, I managed to get to about 80% leased up for the building. We are offering incentives such as one month free, waived security deposit, etc... But it seems we are having trouble getting the remainder of the units leased out... 

I am asking the bigger pockets community for any advice on getting this building completely leased up, as well as experience from other peoples perspectives as how COVID has impacted higher-tier rental units.

In my opinion, with the uncertainty of jobs and uncertainty of the economy in general, people aren't exactly shopping around for the high end apartments currently. 

Please feel free to comment/question, anything helps! Thanks bigger pockets team!