Topic: Amenity fees - are you charging them?

Amenity fees - are you charging them? If so, is it monthly, one time or annually?

Common area maintenance fee-annually. $50 at move in and $25 at renewal

Some of my properties charge a one time fee.

$500 one time at move in

Stephanie Artica whoa!! What kind of amenities is that for?

Danielle Champagne Noel roof top pool, fitness center, sky lounge, spa area, business center, library & 24 concierge. It’s a standard in Northern VA.

I'd be cautious, unless it's a standard in your sub market. Renters HATE 'extras'

I see this comment all the time- I agree with you to a point. I remember when we started to charge for water- people said “renters will hate it” but we still leased and made extra revenue.... and now it’s the norm. So my advice is stay ahead of the market and be very in tuned with your comps. If you offer incredible customer service you can charge back anything!

That may be true in your market. In the very competitive Denver market there is one property that my clients avoid because of a $35 monthly Amenity Fee. Vacancy Loss or potential extra revenue, I guess the choice is up to you.

Clay Short I’m in the Denver market and we charge amenity fees at all of our 20 properties. Hasn’t effected leasing at all. All of our comps charge the same too. Pretty standard in Denver

We charge a monthly CAM fee that averages about $21 a month.

$250 at move in and then 1x per year at renewal. None of our other competitors charge. We have had no problem leasing because of it.

We charge one time fee of $25 at move in

So why not just increase the rent?

We have a CAM fee. $75 a year.

I think it would depend on what amenities you have to offer

One time at move in

We have a cam fee of $25 at move in and time of renewal. We also charge a $5 package locker fee monthly. $25 valet trash fee (in addition to a regular trash fee) $25 delivery notice fee $33 service connection fee. $25 monthly alarm fee and $4 pest control monthly

How does you notice fee work?

Tim N Kelly Hullender we charge the notice delivery fee in CO! Any notice (balance due, notice to vacate, lease violation, etc - we charge $25 fee

omg!!! I’m doing this!!!! Do you disclose in lease or have an addendum?

I don’t think it’s legal in TX. We have it in our special provisions

It is legal in Texas that's where I am. We disclose it in our addendums. We only charge it for 3 day notices

do you place it under special provisions?

Tim N Kelly Hullender no just a separate addendum

Through the years in this business I have heard numerous brokers, asset managers, ancillary income departments, etc brag about all of the extra fees they are collecting.
In those same number of years I have heard an even greater number of residents complain about being nickle and dimed to death.
So my solution is to stop charging those fees and instead raise the rent by an even greater amount, letting the residents know of all of the extras that are included.
Income, NOI, and valuations go up.
We should listen to our customers more IMO.

We charge an amenity fee of $15/month.

We charge an amenity fee of $10 per month

Zero.. as all we have is a seasonal pool (that isn't' even heated) ...

We are a "fee free" community and our residents love it!!

I agree with Robert. It's time to just build the rent with amenities included. Then you don't get the "I never use the pool" arguments

Owners want to attract Professionals to their apartments. They compare the amenities each property offers. They will pay a higher rent with the desired amenities, but do not want to be charged all kinds of small monthly fees on top of the rent. We add this value into the monthly rent.

I recently worked at a community that was charging an amenity fee of $25 per month. We were the only community in our sub market charging this fee. The pool was shut down multiple times during the summer. The pool was only seasonal and was completely shut down after Labor Day so the residents couldn't use the fire pit in the fall/winter. The fitness center was sub par with outdated equipment.
The tennis courts had multiple cracks on the surface and the nets were torn. There were no resident events to build a sense of community. IMO, if you are going to charge residents an amenity fee make sure they are quality and residents have access to them year round.