Jennie McCluskey's Blog

Those of you reading this, I beg of some knowledge.  As a manager of a larger community in the Chicago Metropolitan Suburban area, I am frequently confused with concessions.  It seems to me that the most important selling point to the apartment and getting the prospect to apply, isnt just comfort and good service, but a good price. I understand GPR and meeting budgets and expectations of companies to get the most $$ for their apartments.  But what is the big deal about concessions?  If competitively priced, with a decent value to the prospective resident, in your market area, not overpriced or under priced, this should be more important than a concession.  It seems to me that the price is higher in some cases than it should be, so that investors perhaps see a dollar figure and match to investment value.  So the concession is a different line item and is shown somewhere else.  So it looks like a community is getting $$$$ for the apartments, but are giving away $$$$$$ to get those leases.  Am I making any sense?  It just seems counter productive.  You could potentially have less turnover and a steady flow of leases, happier current residents appreciative that they arent losing a deal that the new move in is getting, and our leasing doesn thave to try and explain  all of these confusing "deals".  Isnt it better to just have the right price? I guess I just dont get it?