Century Blog

Highlights Include:

Four tips to managing apartments during a recessionary economy:

1.       Keep your tenant approval standards high.

2.       Keep receivables low.

3.       Focus on resident retention.

4.       Avoid deferring maintenance.

Below are a few tips apartment owners should keep in mind while managing apartments during a struggling economy.

1. Keep your tenant approval standards high.  It can be easy to relax tenant approval standards in difficult times and allow just anybody to move into your apartments.  At Century we check credit, employment, rental and criminal history on all prospective residents.  We have continued to hold high approval standards for new residents helping to minimize eviction and uncollected rent.
2. Keep receivables low.  It is important to ensure residents continue paying their rent during difficult times.  You do the resident and yourself a favor by keeping uncollected rent to a minimum.  Without prompt collections, you can find yourself ending up with a resident who owes you thousands of dollars.  At Century we finished February with residents owing us less than 3.5% of that month’s collected rent.  A large majority of that has been collected in March leaving a loss for uncollected rent at very low levels.
3. Focus on resident retention.  Do not cut corners on maintenance or customer service to save money.  You need to continue satisfying your current tenants to minimize their chance of looking for another apartment.  Resident retention is the first key to low vacancy while renting vacant units is the second.  At Century we utilize surveys, quick maintenance, and our rent optimizer program to raise resident retention rates.
4. Avoid deferring maintenance.  Residents have lots of options to choose when it comes to finding an apartment to rent.  Having your vacant units and entire building maintained is critical to get market rent and keep vacancy low.

Implementing these four things will most likely produce the best results for your property during these economic times.

If we can be of help to you in the management or brokerage of your apartment building or complex, please call David Watson direct at 437-8332.  Additionally, we also offer commercial management and brokerage services.