Rental Housing Journal On-Site
April 2014 - Vol. 8 Issue 4 14. Market Trends Update 15. It’s Tough to Afford to Be a Renter These Days 17. When Screening Applicants Remember the Fair Credit Reporting Act 24. Three More Ways to Fill those Vacancies 25. Rent Checks Stolen from Property Manager’s Lockbox 26. How the Internet of Things Will Change Property Security and Monitoring
3. The Mortgage Market is about to Get Smaller 5. Spring Cleanup has Arrived 7. Dear Maintenance Men: 8. Become a Daily Learner…Today! – Ernest F. Oriente 9. Touch Points: Intentional Customer Interactions 10. Shoptalk 11. Exit Strategy Pt. II: Repositioning Your Real Estate Assets to Simplify Your Life
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Do You Appreciate your Tenants? By Marc Courtenay
A
s property managers, we’re all aware of the multitude of issues that frequently arise with unreliable tenants. Late rental payments, disturbing the peace, illegal activity, and a general disregard for the property are all problems that typically arise in the property management industry. Many times, we’re so focused on dealing with the problems prevalent in the property management industry that we overlook the tenants that always pay on time; the tenants that take good care of their property, the tenants that are considerate of their neighbors. How do we make sure that those tenants are happy? That they feel appreciated? That they know that we want them to remain tenants as long as possible? Chances are those good tenants are feeling unappreciated right now; which means that they will have no reason to stay at your property if a better opportunity opens elsewhere. It’s so important to remember that a rental agreement is between two separate parties, and just like any of us, our tenants like to know that they’re appreciated. continued on page 7 Professional Publishing Inc. PO Box 6244 Beaverton, OR 97007
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Puget Sound Apartment Owners, Property Managers & Maintenance Personnel
Market Strengthens; 46,755 Units in the Pipeline By Tom Cain Apartment Insights Seattle - Latest quarterly Apartment Insights survey shows rents up 1.6%, vacancies down .25%, and 46,755 units in the new construction pipeline according to Tom Cain of Apartment Insights. The data are from his Seattle firm’s 1st quarter statistics and trends on 50+ unit properties in the King/Snohomish market. VACANCY: 4.38% The vacancy rate for our nonrandom survey of conventional, stabilized 50u+ properties in the King/ Snohomish market is 4.38%. This is virtually the same rate of six months ago, and an improvement from the 4.63% in the fourth quarter. A year ago it stood at 4.58%. The overall vacancy rate which includes properties in lease-up and out-of-service increased from 6.15% to 6.24%. King County has a vacancy rate of 4.38%, the same as the overall rate. Snohomish County is at 4.35%. This is a tad lower than the overall rate, but not low enough to affect it because only about 20% of the properties are in Snohomish County. Based on vacancy rates, renters are favoring apartments in the most affordable submarkets. Burien, SeaTac, Tukwila and Marysville have some of the lowest rents and lowest vacancy rates, ranging from 1.83% to 2.86%. Other markets under 3% are Mountlake Terrace (2.75%) and the
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U. District (2.90%). The weakest areas are both over 6% vacant. The Eastside South submarket is at 8.93%. We pointed out in our last report that several major corporations had vacated a massive amount of space in the I-90 corridor office market, contributing to apartment vacancies in the immediate area. Ballard is the other submarket over 6% vacant. This is not a case of too few jobs, but rather too many new apartment units. The vacancy rate in Ballard is 6.77%. RENTAL INCENTIVES: $15 (1.1 4%) Rental incentives remain unchanged at $15 per unit. In the twocounty area 25.2% of the proper-
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ties are offering incentives, up from 24.0% last quarter. ABSORPTION: +1,604 Units There were +1,604 units absorbed this quarter, up from +1,030 units last quarter. RENTS: $1,233 per Unit $1.47 per Square Foot Rents climbed $19 to $1,233 per unit and $1.47 per square foot. This represents a 1.56% increase. This is a welcome relief after rents dropped $5 last quarter. Rents increased 6.8% over the past twelve months. The highest per-unit rents are in downtown Bellevue where they increased $40 to $1,846 per unit and continued on page 4
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