A Leasing Consultant's View on Apartment Rentals

I've been working as a leasing consultant for a nice suburban apartment community for the past two years. I know what you're thinking, "Real estate! Yeah! That's where you wanna be right now!" Please note the intended sarcasm. It's no newsflash to any of us that the housing industry is in shambles. Foreclosures have hit record highs and many people are downsizing just to stay afloat.

One might think that the apartment industry would benefit from these such events. Well, me and my ever shrinking commission checks are here to disagree. I recently learned that my hometown of Richmond, Virginia has set the national record for vacancy in rental properties. At an astounding 23.7% vacancy rate, we in the leasing industry collectively hang our heads in shame. The question, I think, many of us are asking is, why? If people aren't living in houses and they're not renting apartments, then what is going on?

In these "times of economic hardship" (a phrase that will be forever embedded in my brain and has become the reigning slogan of my mid-twenties) I've been making some observations from behind the eyes of a leasing consultant. These are the challenges I face in boosting our occupancy.

The Man's Been Getting Me Down...

I work for a corporation. And that is one of my biggest challenges. The word corporate gives very few if any people a warm and fuzzy feeling inside and that's because corporations seem to lack an even a basic understanding of humans in general. Odd, because they were certainly once human themselves.

Exhibit A

In some companies market rents change on a daily basis, updated via a computer system that keeps one's prices in line with one's competition. In other companies, market rents are updated about every week. These updates are based on, God only knows what. Just today I received a list of this weeks new rental prices for our apartments. Clearly corporate is unaware that we are in a time of "economic hardship" because the apartments that I couldn't rent last week because they were too expensive just went up 3% in price.

Exhibit B

Just a few weeks ago a huge banner hung out in front of my apartment community that said "Apartments now available starting at $715." Where I'm from that's a great price for an apartment. Every car that passed by on that busy main road could see it. It attracted a lot of prospects to come in and many people filled out applications. Which turned out to be a complete waste of everyone's time. You see, in general people who are attracted to a banner like that are not the people who also meet the company's credit requirements. I received six applications for apartments that week and one by one they were all rejected due to either credit or criminal background issues. Those of us who work in the office knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as we saw the banner go up. It's not because we're psychic; It's because we have an understanding of humans. That my friends is what I call a corporate marketing blunder.

It's always easy to blame everything on corporate. In fact, it's one of my favorite things to do. Anything from a brown house plant that I failed to water all the way to wildfires in California; I feel justified in faulting corporate. However, the reality is that our vacancy percentage cannot all be blamed on high prices and bad marketing. After all we are in "a time of economic hardship" and frankly even if our apartments did start at $715 a month right now, many people couldn't afford it because they've lost their jobs and that unemployment check just doesn't cover it. So, where are these people living? I find that many of my previous residents have been moving in with family. Everyone needs help nowadays and sharing the living expenses with another helps to lighten the load.

Just when you think there's no hope for the rental industry, it appears, a gleaming light at the end of a long dark tunnel. That light has a name, and it's called divorce. It's relatively common knowledge that if there's too much financial strain in a relationship you can pretty much hear the fat lady tuning up. It's over. If I had to guess I would say that 80% of the apartments that I've actually rented in the past few months have been to individuals who are going through a break up. If you sift through the applications, in a section that asks, "Why are you leaving your current residence?" Page after page you will see "Divorce, separation, personal relationship, and break-up"
Failed relationships now appear to be my only saving grace. For my sake, how about you skip the marriage counseling session this week and come check out a one bedroom?