About six months ago, I wrote about the changes I was seeing in marketing,  concessions, and targeted prospects in my specific comp market... It was suggested to me that I complete a follow up to Prostituting the Product.

So away we go... In the merry adventures of market comp re-shopping, I was astounded to see that very little has changed locally.  Unfortunately, my market suffers due to influx of new multifamily builds and increasing home purchases, which has reduced traffic across the board and continued to train prospects to expect the very best in concessions.

Seemingly, product quality is not at the forefront of the shopper's mind; "concession, concession, concession" continues to blink about as a strobe-light of expectation...

Of my market comp's, Rental History continues to fail the mark.  Gone are the days of taking serious rental verification... instead what I heard was:  "Well.... if the writ wasn't processed..." or even better yet was, "We're giving away clean slates, here at...". I continue to be dumbfounded.  If a prospect can't pay previous property management, how can you expect to be any different (Note:  Reference the definition of "insanity").  Trust me, I get the concept of hard times.  I even get the concept of the resident that is consistently late but always comes through.  But what I fail to get is the turning of the blind eye to what seems to be an obvious mistake in decision making.

Credit has also taken a direct hit in terms of importance.  My market is bypassing credit for increased security deposits or cosigners.  The best part of this re-shopping trip? - One comp even shared that they are offering the ability for co-signers to get co-signers.  I could be wrong, but that seems like a no-brainer to me.  Reject!

Income itself is even now negotiable... The low income requirements that I saw previously of 1.5-2x the monthly rent have dropped.  Two comps have no income requirements if you can pay your lease in full prior to move-in.  Another comp shared that they place "less emphasis" on the income requirement and focus more on the "overall picture" of the application.  When pushed to be more detailed, the leasing agent had to admit that they themselves couldn't give specifics.  The details are in the hands of the Community Manager's discretion evidently...

Criminal History continues in its trend here... Felonies are increasingly okay, misdemeanors almost sound as if they're expected and the overall perception is that we need to move with the times...  If I follow this lead, well... you know where it's going...

Concessions.  Here's the fun part.  Two of my comp's are giving away not one, but TWO (yep, read it - Two!) months rent free on a twelve month lease in conjunction with 10% rental reduction from market rate.  Enter my blank stare... I am all about driving traffic.  I am all about give-aways, and I am also all about boosting occupancy during my heat months, but this is all just a bit much.

To be completely honest - I was really hoping to find that the industry here had buckled down in my specific area, decided to weather our little storm and collectively made the decision not to run around with the stench of desperation in our wake.  I didn't find what I was looking for.  In the end, my little property ship will continue to fly under the sails of marketing toward qualified prospects with enough income to pay rent AND enjoy the finer things in life (like groceries and electricity), clean criminal histories and whose goals are quality living (not cheap or free).  Remember people - Rejection is NOT FATAL!