The lease-up process is one of the most important components of a real estate project but often doesn’t receive the attention it needs.
Longer lease-ups equate to more holding costs and compressed returns.
The length of the process is predicated on 4 items:
1.) Location
2.) Condition
3.) Pricing
4.) Responsiveness of the leasing agents
How do we ensure a smooth leasing process?
-Seek out locations where people want to live and will pay premiums to do so (prime locations make everything easier)
-Provide thoughtfully renovated apartments.
-Ensure our pricing matches the market (anybody can list their units for $500 over market rates, just prepare to have empty apartments as you hold out for that higher price tag)
-Have a killer team of leasing agents with an embedded sense of urgency (they receive a commission based off the rental rate of the unit and are incentivized to fill apartments as fast as possible)
-Take really good care of common areas, walkways, and exteriors (first impressions are important and recurring cleaning/landscaping shows existing residents we care)
-Run a tight tenant-screening process (thorough applications, credit checks, background checks, multiple references)
One bad tenant can affect a whole property, let alone returns.
We have a full checklist for this to ensure every detail is reviewed and that we’re positioning ourselves to avoid evictions.
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