Back for another week of budget talk. Hope this past week has been over the top and amazing for all of you. If not, you have a whole life of potential in front of you so don’t fret too much. Last week we talked about Month to Month Premiums and this week are moving on to Apartment Budgeting: Lease/Short Term Premium.
Lease/Short Term Premium Defined
Lease/Short Term Premium is a fee that is added to any lease that is less than the desired six, nine or twelve month lease that most of us non-revenue management practitioners desire. Call is a fee of convenience if you will. It allows a resident to have flexibility in the way of getting out of the lease contract without any lease break penalties. It is a simple month to month premium that you tack on at the initiation of the lease term.
I have seen this fee applied in the way of a flat fee ranging from $50 to $100/mo. And, I have seen it applied as a percentage of the lease rate ranging from 5% to 10%/mo.
Lease/Short Term Premium Budgeting Strategy
I typically consult a twelve month trailing report to determine what my forward-looking twelve month budget number should be. This is again one of those fees that is very hard to budget for given the fact that is simply random in nature. Unless you are located in a somewhat urban area with a propensity to attract corporate type clientele, you will rarely book income to this line item.
Marketing Short Term Leases
Don’t forget that everything is marketing. And, this line item should prompt you to look for marketing opportunities. Use Short Term Leases as a bullet point on your website. But, don’t get too crazy as you don’t want to create unwanted exposure. But, it would not be a bad idea to let two to three percent of your unit count produce some extra revenue.
Your looking for opportunity in every line item multifamily maniac,
M