#multifamilybudgeting
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: 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