Topic: How long does your community allow a unit to sit vacant between residents?

For example, let's say you have an apartment becoming vacant on 7/1. What window would you allow your leasing consultants to lease that apartment to a new resident? Obviously, most communities allow a move-in date of 8/1 because the time vacant would be too much, so how long are they allowed to hold the apartment for a new resident?

Our time line is 2 weeks.

I know everyone cannot do this, but I had no more than 10 days for maintenance and move in. Here is what I did as an example. There was one unit which I used to temp house a family until their unit was ready. It gave them the opportunity say to leave their old place, stay in our temps, until the regular quarters were ready for move in.

The one thing we did not allow in the temps were pets. Simply because we have all kinds of people moving into the temps and we did not need damages from pets or someone with allergies to move into the place. Had a deal with a local pet boarding for special discounts for our tenants moving in and or going on vacation without their pets.

Worked out fine, but one had to really stay on top of it, to ensure that Murphy (anything that can go wrong will go wrong) did not raise his ugly head!

I loved coming across this post as it's so relevant. Literally, it's as fast as we can do it. If we can complete it in 1 day and get them moved in the next, then we do it.

However, like Nate, we have to get creative and it absolutely does take a lot of coordination and cooperation. The units always have a deposit (the entire security deposit) on them before the current tenant leaves with a "target" move in date and make sure the tenant understands that they're going to have to be flexible so that we have an opportunity to get all issues addressed prior to their move in and we've had to delay move-ins by up to 3 weeks.

The problem is that which so many of us face: shoddy previous maintenance, unreported problems by tenant or ignored by previous owner/management.

We've had floors fall through because of unreported or unnoticed water leaks (notice the word floor was multiple) mold growing on windows and sills like small plants because there was no vapor barrier. Just a piece of wood separating the inside from the outside elements. And initially looking at it, of course first thought is condensation - and the obligatory lecture of making sure bedroom gets air flow to clear out humidity from en suite shower. Mold growing out of walls and ceiling in shower. Again you're thinking cleanliness. However, once ceiling was taken off, the previous repair showed that wood between the ceiling was not allowed to thoroughly dry from previous flood therefore kept producing mold. Copper Green should be any maintenance person's best friend :)

I groan when I get a notice but not because of having to fill it. It's an opportunity to increase rent by several hundred dollars, but the work load it puts on the maintenance team is crazy and seemingly never ending. So as you can imagine, at this point, issues are investigated to the joist or 2x4. Sometimes you have to remind yourself I love my job! lol

Our company policy is three days.

We schedule the turnover and pre-lease all apartments as soon as we receive a notice to vacate. The new resident signs and starts paying rent on the third day, but they can do their actual move at a later date if they choose.

If you think about it, 72hrs is actually quite a bit of time. I don't understand why any landlord would be OK with forfeiting a half a months income to take two weeks to do a turn. That's income lost that you will never get back.

Break it down- does it REALLY take 240-336 man hours to turn an apartment? If it does, you have an awfully slow maintenance team, and paying a tech for 240-336 hrs worth of work? That's over ten grand! We keep our turns around $500, unless it needs new carpet/vinyl, or extensive repairs. Then it could be 2-3K.

There are books and classes about "Mastering the 72 hour turn." It takes a little practice, but financially, it's well worth the effort.

lol! Ah yes I remember the days of the cookie cutter turns... shampoo, touch-up paint, a few repairs, perhaps some upgrades or replacements and voila!

If only these simple books addressed how in 72 to hours you turn a unit in buildings suffering from decades of ignored maintenance or tenants who didn't report one issue during their 15 years of tenancy, gutting units to the joist tracking mold and the wait time for treated material to cure, jack hammer through floors to find and repair broken pipeline, tracing and repairing wiring or hvac nightmares from diy'ers, getting the electrician and plumber out all in in one day on the same day because you just know that pesky electrician is going to make up some complaint that he can't breathe or see through all the dust from the jackhammer, the painter is going to make up some excuse that the paint won't go on properly in a unit full of concrete dust. And those whiners will just go on and on and about the noise from the jack hammer.

And once that's done we can do the full paint, replace all bathroom vanities which requires putting them together first, replace the pipes that are rusted and hopefully not frozen to each other, replace toilets and those supply lines, replace shower pans and shower surrounds, install the dishwasher and replace those supply lines, install the new kitchen sink, faucet, disposal and replace those supply lines, replace all cabinet hardware.

I definitely need to get book that book, wave it at the apartment and take my maintenance team to task for not completing because c'mon this is supposed to only take 72 hours!!

Perhaps the book also has a simple chapter that addresses managing revenue loss. Ensuring the other units that can be done quickly are so that a property doesn't suffer the compounded loss of revenue as a result of multiple units sitting vacant waiting on the unit that will take several weeks and the time management of the maintenance team so that they're not all stepping over the vendors, are still performing standard work orders and delivering the other units on time. Yes, I definitely need that book and so does my slow maintenance team! lol

I don't think a book will help address a failure to maintain a building, but that's really the fault of the landlord, not the book.

Different localities have different building code requirements and different standards of living. In my state, we have only 7 days to addresss maintenance issues. I can't imagine any place that permits 10-15 years. It's tricky to schedule vendors around each other, I try to stick to two per day so I can schedule one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

A smart landlord wont wait years to inspect units for needed maintenance. All units are inspected at 3 months, 6 months, and annually thereafter. Most of our residents can't afford not to report issues sooner though, since they would have to pay for any damages caused by their failure to report a maintenance need.

We have only one maintenance tech, but we don't have any problem with 72 hr turns. It also helps to make sure the resident knows about the condition that a unit must be left in. It's cheaper to have them leave the unit in good condition and give their deposit back than it is to vend out cleaning tasks after they have moved out.

Sounds like my property. I started sending maintenance in 3 days after the notice to vacate to inspect and make these types of repairs before they move out. Saves us time!!


And, I tell anyone who looks we will hold the apartment for 14 days once it is vacated. That would be about 9 days after it is ready for a new tenant.

Well, Rose, then I'll be sure to wave that book in front of the previous owner. But, the reality is, when propert(ies) are acquired it's "as-is".

I have to say that you're fortunate that your activities revolve around merely coordinating events. I get the impression that you don't comprehend, and as a result wouldn't be able to handle, the depth and scope of what is required for these types of projects.

Perhaps over time, as you get more experience under your belt, you'll understand that not everything is as cookie-cutter as we'd all like it to be - even though there are "company policies" and civil codes.

I so agree with everything you have said. Three days is great as long as I don't have an emergency pop up that needs immediate attention. Unless I had an amazing resident and the apartment is left in great condition, I still have to schedule painters, carpet and cleaning and maint. I find as a long term Property Manager, I have come to know my residents, and the apartments very well. When I get a notice to vacate, I can usually determine about how long it is going to take and what we plan to do to get it ready.

We can only hold the unit for 10 days.

OK more than one questions here - to clarify - we anticipate 3 - 5 days to turnover a unit after a vacating resident (av. turn) so ideally the unit can be moved into on the 4th or 6th day and is pre rented! However if the unit is standing vacant and ready and a deposit is received that unit can be held no longer than 2 weeks for the new resident.

I think 3-4 days for a turnover is reasonable, but where we run into issues is in busy months (May is always killer for us) when we have 15-20 move outs on May 31. So, 3 day turn is great, but spread that out over 15 apartments, and we're still doing turns for a whole month before they're finished. Generally, we will hold up to 6 weeks past the move-out date, and sometimes need that much time to get that apartment ready. We always start the turns based on pre-leased apartments, and then schedule move-ins based on that timeline. So a May 31 move-out may not even be ready for a move-in until late June.