Duplex Unit Not Renting After 6 Months

[Timothy Nako]

I have a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom duplex in Houston, located in a higher socioeconomic demographic area. When I bought the property it was fully occupied for $2,500 a door. One side moved out and the unit has been vacant for 6 months. 

We hired an agent to get the property leased after not getting results at the 3-month vacancy mark. 

Some feedback that the agent has from showings and her insight:

-2 bedrooms /1 bathroom upstairs & 1 bathroom downstairs is not an ideal situation for roommates or a family.

-No garage for luxury vehicles. Only a shared carport on the property.

-On a busy street. 

-Carpet upstairs.

-Shared pool.

The listing looks great and the unit is renovated. It even has a washer/dryer that comes with the unit. When buying the property we saw that the previous owner had a hard time renting the property but we thought it was due to the listed price. They listed starting at $2,700 a door then reduced it to $2600 a month later, then rented both within a week of each other in July after a reduction to $2,500 a unit. In addition to the $2,500 the tenants pay a monthly pool maintenance fees, landscaping fee, and split the water bill with the other unit.

The unit has now been listed at $2,300 and is still not rented. Any insight or similar experiences anyone could share would be helpful. I think maybe this is an ideal property for STR, but our family has only done LTR for years. I've heard that any home/unit will and can rent, which we believed until now. Only feedback the agent has given us is that we needed to clean the backyard, which was a whole project and that was at the beginning of us hiring her 3 months ago. Everything inside the unit is newly renovated.

[Adam Bartomeo]

I would advise that it is being marketed on all of the possible sites. Agents are NOT property managers and will often just publish it to the MLS. We not only publish on the MLS but another 30 websites that the MLS doesn't reach, our website, and Facebook. If it is being marketed properly, it is move in ready, then it will come down to a pricing issue. Shelter is a necessity and there is a direct correlation with price and vacancy time.