Problems renting multi-family in Albany / TBT

[Calvin Thomas]

We purchased a couple multi-family buildings in Ten Broeck Triangle this past November.  We rehabbed everything.  New appliances, new paint, new floors, washer/dryer hookups, etc.  The mix is one bedrooms, two bedrooms and three bedrooms.  The one bedroom is priced at 865.  The two bedrooms are priced at 1000, and the three bedroom is priced at 1275.  The realtor is receiving a good amount of leads, but no apps.  

We have a total of six units vacant, and only three occupied in the triangle.  He and his team are good people, but when we bought the buildings, they were all occupied.  Since he started managing them, one tenant was evicted.  The other three just got up and left as soon as we started to take over the management.  We're in Pine Hill, West Hill, Downtown and a few other parts of Albany with a different PM and realtor.  Not sure what to do with the current team managing these buildings in TBT.  

Open to options and suggestions.  

[Wesley W.]

Perhaps move this part of your portfolio to the other PM.  Could it be that the PM is a jerk, so they alienate applicants during/after a showing (thus, no apps) as well as existing tenants (eviction, absconding)?  If the rest of your buildings are running smoothly, I'd say the only common denominator is that TBT PM.

Another idea is to send a "secret shopper" to go through the tenant onboarding process on these vacant units.

Yet another is to see if you can reach out to your remaining tenants (under the guise of a customer satisfaction survey, for example) to see if they can shed some light on it.