What is your average length of lease per rental?

Question

Curious if anyone tracks this? I have averaged 2 years but had one recently a 13 months. Been doing this landlord thing for 4 years.

I would kill to have one for longer than 2 years!

Roy N. · Answer

Rob Kniola

There was a story in the paper here a year or so ago about a gentleman who had been renting the same apartment for just shy of 35 years at the time of his passing - the building had been through three different owners during his stay.

I'm looking at a building now where one tenant has been there for 22-years (and two owners), but the current owner has asked her to leave - tentatively because she wants to freshen the unit before the sale.   I expressed that I thought it short sighted to ask her to leave as the on-bedroom apartment is small with an exceptionally small bedroom and will be difficult to rent.

Aaron Montague · Answer

In the 3 years that I've owned the 7 apartments I have, my average is 16 months.  I had one nasty eviction but otherwise I've had good tenants.

I sign 1 year leases then go month to month unless they really want another year's lease.

Deborah Burian · Answer

Have been buying a few properties a year for 10 years... As the company matures so do the tenant lengths of stay.  Longest is 6 years, shortest are houses purchased this spring that have new tenants.  Average over life of company for mature properties is 2-3 years.

Jeff S. · Answer

Average for 5 units is 7.2 yrs.

Tamara R. · Answer

I try to get my new tenants to sign a 2 year lease when they first move in, and this  has worked out well.  I only have one property that turns over every year, and that is because I mainly have military tenants attending school for a year, then leaving.  I did have one set of tenants who wanted to sign a five year lease.  At first I regretted that one because they had lots of annoying requests/complaints at first, but they eventually fell in line and have been pretty good since then.  I find my tenants to be mainly be respectful, law abiding citizens who try to honor their commitments.

Kyle Hipp · Answer

I have been either very lucky or good. In my almost seven years I have never had to do an eviction. I have asked people to move 3 times. The first one was when I was really green and they were in and out in 3-4 months. Another one was with me for 2 years and at first it was just the girl and then father moved in, then boyfriend then brother and it was just too many people. And right now, I have a girl moving because she could not maintain the property correctly and had rent timeliness issues as well. The only other people that left, bought a house and another that married the neighbor and moved next door. Otherwise I have found that if I have good communication I have been able to demand good rent, improve the properties and maintain low vacanies.

I bought two duplexes in 2010 with tenants in place and they are all still there with much improved properties and much improved rents that reflect that. At the end of the day this is a service industry. I have found if I serve people well they will stay. I will not add bedrooms to accomodate or allow them to not maintain their interior or exterior responsibilities and that is what leads people to leave for me.

Michelle Marty · Answer

It has been my experience that that nicer the house the longer the tenant wants to stay. I have a house currently rented for $2,200 the guy has been in for 2 years and asked to stay another 2. I have one for $1,300 a month that seems to turn over year to 1.5 years and then townhouses that rent for $600 that turn over often. It seems like I always have a vacancy in one of the townhouses. The single families rent immediately.

Patrick L. · Answer

I have one tenant that has been renting the same house for 25 years, I have only owned it for the last 2.  She's been through 3 landlords and the last was in foreclosure but she kept paying the rent every month even though nothing got fixed anymore because she didn't want to lose the house.  I bought it as a short sale shortly before it was scheduled to go to sale and was able to keep her in the house.  She's 68 and was terrified about what was going to happen because she's on social security and can only afford $600/month and couldn't really afford to move.  Market rent on the house is probably $700-725 but I agreed to keep it at $600 for her so she could afford to pay every month and she plans on staying there until she dies so it should work out for everybody.

Tom Goans · Answer

@Scott W.,

Your example is a perfect example why the common screening methods is not always a good rule to follow. Bad things happen to good people.

Scott W. · Answer

i have recently liked getting the shot sales and foreclosure renters.  as we kknow, they cant get an fha loan for@ least 3 years. i had a nice couple with a toddler take a home i bought in march. it was great. they bought in 2007 and could no longer afford the house so they were in the process of short selling it.the beauty of it all is they could move in whenever i was done with the village inspections. after 6 inspections,  4 permits, and a partridge in a pear tree, they moved in.