Prostituting the Product

I got the ever eye-opening experience of re-shopping my comp's this week and again, the results continue to blow my mind.  As our industry continues to celebrate the renter, it is amazing how much prostitution of the product still exists.  (Disclaimer:  I am just as guilty on at least 1 of the below mentioned points.)

This issue creates a question in my mind of how much damage we are doing to ourselves, our bottom line and the conditioning of our renters if we allow so much bend to our own rules.
In my market at least, rent concessions abound,  move-in enticements border on giveaways and unfortunately, what I found this week is that an increasing number of our local competitors have significantly reduced their applicant requirements to fluff.

It seems like approximately three years ago or more, we as an industry were talking foreclosure forgiveness, seeing newly or soon-to-be bankrupt and foreclosed homeower applicants as a gold mine for our industry.  The better hearted of us saw it as a way to provide viable housing options to those who would have previously been looked over.  I got it, agreed with it and pushed the concept.  However, that trend seems to have taken a turn for the worse.  Here's some of what I found this week in terms of trying to grab a broader market of renters:

Rental history:  3 of the 10 comp's I shopped no longer require positive rental history.  Left leaving an apt. community a balance due?  No big deal.  So you got evicted, so what.  Don't worry about the fact that you lived here 5 years ago and skipped... that was 5 years ago and a lot has changed.... and so on and so forth. One Community Manager tried to sell me on the fact that as long as I "set up" payment arrangements, it didn't matter if I actually paid them.  Her stated  concern was her management company's random file checks, and as long as it looked like she did her job...

Credit:  Trust me when I say that a mediocre credit score seems to be the norm anymore and I believe our industry does a good job of moving with the needs of our markets, but seriously?  Three of the comp's I shopped proudly promoted their new theory about credit - "Good credit is overrated and a thing of the past."  -Direct quote by one local leasing agent.  "Even if you can't get approved, we'll let you get a co-signer or two to back you."  All I could say was "Wow!".

Income:  The industry standard that I've always worked with was 2.5 - 3x the rental requirement.  However, 4 of my comp's only required a 1.5 - 2x income ratio.  How do they expect their residents to pay for utilities, gas, clothes, food, etc. with that ratio.  It didn't strike me as professionally responsible, and something that was going to turn around to bite them in their collections.  Seemed like they were setting themselves and their residents up for failure.

And the ever-popular criminal background check:  The seemingly increasing trend in my market seems to be a criminal forgiveness pact.  Felony?  No problem.  Personally, I believe in the concept of time-served, but I'm not sure that the rest of the community would feel as ok about it.  Especially when the parole officer comes to pay a house call.  With his visible badge.

The most interesting thing about the entire week of comp. shopping was that more than half of the comp's knew me and my parallel position as a comp of their own.  The majority of these properties see the reduced applicant requirements as progress.  However, it's a progressive point they don't believe their current residents will share.  Of the 10 comp's that I shopped, only 1 stated that they are advertising "some" of their new rental allowances in their resident publications... The new rental allowance:  "Breed-restricted dogs ARE accepted here."...

And now, your thoughts... am I holding myself back by not swaying with the trendy and bendy methods of filling a property?  Am I being too staunch in my property management?  Where did I miss the memo... Or are you just as perplexed as I am.