All Forum Posts by: William Frankel

As a follow-on question: i'm building a 30 unit apartment in northern california.  since i don't want to be responsible for high utility bills by the tenants, does it make sense to bare the costs of separate electric, gas and water meters?  i understand they are expensive but so would paying tenant utility bills long term.  i could bill back the utilities but it seems to be more complicated using this type of reimbursement strategy.  does anybody have experience with this decision when building from the ground up?

I've spoken with a local property manager and he believes that i should always build 2 and 3 bedroom units since the tenants stay longer vs studio and 1 bedroom units.  The trade off seems to be getting less per unit with larger units vs higher turn costs and vacancy with the smaller units.  At the end of the day, vacancy and turn costs seem to be a lot higher than the loss on per square foot rental price differences.

Thoughts?

i was wondering what people thought of the best unit mix for new apartment construction?  on the one hand, the smaller the units (studio and 1 bed) the higher the price per square foot for rent.  on the other, the larger units (2 bed+) have longer tenancy but lower per sf rents.  when turnover and vacancy costs are factored in, which units maximize profits?

i am looking at building a 30 unit apartment.