#apartmentbudgeting
Apartment Budgeting: Lease/Short Term Premium
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
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Multifamily Apartment Budgeting: Month to Month Premium
Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash
Welcome back to our series on Multifamily Apartment Budgeting for Tuesdays. I apologize for any confusion last week when I accidentally published Tuesday’s post on Sunday. This week, we will be discussing Month-to-Month Premiums.
Month to Month Premium Defined
The month-to-month premium, also known as the month-to-month fee or MTM fee, is a charge that is applied to residents whose lease has expired without renewal. This fee can either be a significant flat rate or a healthy percentage of the monthly rent. The main goal of this fee is to encourage residents to renew their lease instead of continuing on a month-to-month basis. However, if a resident needs to remain on a month-to-month basis, the fee helps to offset the risk of too many leases expiring in a given month.
Month-to-Month Budgeting Strategy
Including your month-to-month leases is crucial when reviewing your lease expirations every month. For instance, if you have 100 units and five leases expiring in August but also have five month-to-month leases, you have ten expiring leases in total. This means that ten leaseholders could provide notice to vacate, which may result in a significant drop in occupancy.
As for budgeting month-to-month fees, I would use twelve months of history to forecast the future. Charge-up is the more significant thing you must deal with regarding this line item. This fee is often waived out of sympathy for the leaseholder’s situation. Gentle reminder: we are in a business to make money, and part of making money is pricing in a risk premium on items with potential downside effects, like the scenario above. So, charge the fee and collect it.
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Apartment Budgeting: Legal/Collections
We are working out way down the Other Income vertical in our budget series and today we are going to explore Legal/Collections.
Legal/Collections Defined
These are charges that are assessed back to residents for attorney’s fees and or fees associated with collecting outstanding apartment related debts. That is to suggest if you hire an outside agency to levy and or collect debt on the behalf of your apartment community, then you can and should charge it back to the resident. And, the legal/collection line is where you would book that income.
Budget Strategy
This is another line item where the use of history as the best dictate is likely the best practice. There is no real way to determine exact velocity or exact amounts to budget. In the absence of that precision – it would be best to pull your last 12 or 24 months trailing and come up with some averages.
Your wishing for a cool-front to roll in multifamily manic,
M
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Apartment Budgeting: Damages
From time to time people vacate apartments and believe it or not they leave the space damaged. It could be anything from a cigarette burn on the kitchen counter top to fist hole in the bedroom wall. Whatever the case may be; it is considered damage and it can and should be charged for.
Fees associated with damages made to an apartment. Charges are applied at the time of move out and are taken out of apartment security deposits. Nearly every company I have worked with and for has a standard set of charges that are applied for specific damages. For example, if the apartment is left full of trash and debris, most companies will charge a fee to bag (per bag) and remove it. If there are pet stains on the carpet – depending on the extent of the damage a charge will be levied. If it is extensive and the carpet has to be replaced charges might apply for a full carpet replacement. There really is no end to what you can charge for provided it is within reason and according to city, state and national law.
Budget Strategy
This one is fairly straight forward. The line is typically built on twelve months of trailing information given the fact that it can and will fluctuate over any bit of time. You take the full twelve months of trailing numbers, add them up and average them. You can then straight line the information. That is to suggest that you can use the average number to budget each month. Another strategy might be to average the numbers quarterly so as to catch seasonality. Either way is appropriate.
Your getting pumped for budget season multifamily maniac,
M
Pic Props to ITSOGS
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Apartment Budgeting: Forfeited Security Deposit
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
Hope your Tuesday is off to a good start. I am still in the vein of Other Income as I venture through these budget installments.
Forfeited Security Deposit
Defined: A fee taken when an applicant fails to follow through with physically moving into your community after they have been fully qualified to do so.
***As a note of clarity: the security deposit in the refundable portion of the deposit collected at the time you collect a signed application.
The justification for charging and collecting this fee is that you and your team have spent time and resource getting an application processed. That is to include completing the application, running credit and criminal background checks and calling the applicant to let them know that they are qualified.
If you do all of that only to have the applicant call you at the last-minute to cancel, you should be paid for your time. That is what the forfeiture of security deposit covers.
How much?
This various by market and sub-market and in some cases is governed by state and local laws so be sure to do your research.
For reference fees in the St. Louis Apartment Market range anywhere from $150 to $500 with extremes on either side.
Lease Application
Make absolutely certain that you clearly define this practice and the amounts you charge for it in your lease contract. Void of the language, you will have a tough time collecting on it. Make sure the language is in concert with the laws that govern such things in your respective markets. And, don’t be shy about collecting it. No matter how customer-centric you are – you don’t work for free.
That is it for this week – I have left some nuggets out of the conversation on the outside chance that we get some comments. So, let us know what you think if you have a free moment today.
Your lovin’ the budget series multifamily maniac,
M