Where do your tenants come from? Have you noticed it’s harder to track the source of tenants who want to rent your apartments?
We use several channels. Most operators do, but if we want to know what works, it’s not easy to tell.
You get a notification from Facebook Marketplace? Then they tell you they first saw you on apartments.com. Or a call? They don’t recall which website showed them the information about your unit.
But maybe it wasn’t even that website that they started from. Could have been a Google search that brought them to that website.
What’s a marketer to do?
Stop focusing on data you can’t verify.
Instead, track the mix of channels you use. If you have some paid online advertising like apartments.com, supplement it with other channels.
Most Property Management software will push your ad out to multiple free websites. Use those. They can’t hurt.
Offer your tenants a small incentive to give you information in a quick survey. Even a conversation, because they’re more likely to open up about how they first found you when they’re moving in, excited about their new home, and want to make friendly with the onsite manager.
It’s so easy to do, and it helps you spend your money on marketing that works!
Market update
Las Vegas, NV – A city with insane population growth, which means there are always new renters. And unlimited land which means new apartments, new competition. An interesting dilemma.
My two earlier perceptions of Las Vegas were from when I was a kid, this desert gambling mecca where anything goes. I was there on a summer vacation with my family and walked through casinos when I was 14, only with my brother, and they could have cared less. If we had any money we could have played some slot machines.
And again in the 2008 financial crisis. Home values $315,000 in 2006, then $118,000 in 2012. If you needed the equity you had in your house, you got hurt badly.
But a void like that attracts people who see value and know when to buy. Slowly prices for real estate have risen. Today’s home values are over $500,000. And that’s just a proxy for a very strong market and economy, all around.
Proof is in the population growth. Over 150% growth over the last 30 years to 656,000 currently.
Also jobs growth. They bounced back from the Covid declines nicely, as did most other regions of the country, but they are still screaming at the incredible rates of over 3.5% annual growth over the last two years. Anything over 2% that is consistently reported over a one to two year period is considered pretty great.
Las Vegas experienced rent growth in the wild 2022-2023 time period of 40-50% over the prior years. That was among the strongest rent growth in the U.S.
So naturally, in came the developers. The county and state generally have encouraged growth through reasonable regulation so Las Vegas was a prime market for new homes and new apartments. Its lower cost of living has made it a target for Californians.
Low interest rates, high rent growth, lots of developable land equals massive new development.
Which brings us to today. Rent growth this year? Not so much. Next year? More of the same. Las Vegas ranks #17 in Biggest Increases in Completed Apartments according to RentCafe. But that doesn’t last long. Today’s deliveries were started 3-4 years ago when rates were low. Now they’re getting delivered and we’ll return to a slower pace of deliveries, and high rate of rent growth.
There is nothing that seems to be in the way of continued growth for Las Vegas. It’s an escape from California taxes and regulation, an entertainment mecca, and a jobs machine.
Good luck finding apartment deals though, because the secret is out.
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Finer Points of Multifamily Properties
How do I know it’s time to change property managers
I’ve written numerous times about property management. It’s one of our most important jobs as multifamily operators. The wrong PM can sink your property and lose your equity, and the right PM can make you millions. No exaggeration.
You’ve heard the adage “Hire slow and fire fast”? It is equally true for PMs.
You do your research, which is a much bigger topic than we can address here. Then you bring them on board. You’re working with them over weeks, months, years, and you see issues. Common issues. Issues that get repeated and don’t get fixed.
What is the common source of these issues? Lack of a process. A process that employees are taught, that they follow, that they are held accountable for, and that they are corrected if the process is not followed.
The process is bad? You fix it once. The employee messed up? You are fixing it again and again.
Look at all of the basic tasks you need them to do: leasing, collecting rents, updating the accounting system, creating a cohesive community. These are not difficult jobs. They just need to be done well. Extremely well, or there is fallout.
Tenants skip in the middle of the night? They don’t renew? They don’t tell you when another tenant is causing trouble? They chronically pay late? All of these issues are because of something your PM did or not do correctly.
What is your leasing process? The PM can tell you. They place the ad, follow up on leads, process applications, schedule tours. But who are they advertising with? How quickly are they responding? Is their response an engaging response or is it cold and indifferent?
These are processes and they are taught with written process documents. There is a feedback control in place that allows their boss to see if it’s being done right. And there is a corrective action process that includes additional training and replacement of individuals who can’t follow the process.
When you are weeks and months into your engagement with a new PM, you will discover issues. That’s inevitable. You’ll have discussions and the issues will hopefully get fixed.
What you as an owner need to be looking out for is what did they do to fix them, then watching closely to see if they stay fixed. If the way they fixed the problem is superficial, that is, they put a band-aid over it, then you can expect more problems. You can give them another chance, a come-to-Jesus meeting, threats, anything you’d like, but you should start talking to other PMs. Get ready to take action.
There are no perfect PMs. The very best ones will tell you that. In many markets there are hardly any good ones. If you can engage with a PM to share what you would like, what you think their best practices should be, and if they listen, they are keepers. Don’t rush to ditch your PM because they let in one bad tenant.
But when it’s one issue after another and you can’t turn them around, don’t hesitate. Understand the loss you could experience by not replacing them.
“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes.
But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person.
It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you.
The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”
– William J. Clinton