My question I want to revisit is for landlords who have rental properties in both 'white collar' and 'blue collar' neighborhoods.

My rentals are in blue collar neighborhoods, and I don't have many. The neighbors yards are kept mowed, houses are relatively small. Property taxes are *considerably* lower- as in 1/3 as much yearly.

However, it seems my turnover is high. I only have 5 units in total, and I average about one vacancy every two months. Which translates into a huge amount of work. Not just cleanup but vetting for new tenants, interviewing and showing is basically all day long every day, sometimes 2-3 weeks before I can find what I consider a low risk person who can sign. Even though I do get a ton of inquiries. A few balk turn up their noses and say, "Oh I didn't know it was THIS neighborhood!"---- I always wonder why they didn't notice that before setting up a viewing. But I've found these people I largely wouldn't want to rent to anyway, they look like beastly complainers.

So there it is. For someone who has never rented anywhere else.

Is it worth going higher end, for higher rents, and paying much in more taxes...... or is it pretty much musical chairs throughout? Are renters the same. Granted I'm not renting in a bad neighborhood, its rated low crime. But its not "The West End", as this city calls it.

I know another landlord in town who leases in a different area, and they claim they're having the same turnover, she says "its the business".

If not the neighborhood, what factors are keeping people in their leases longer, and getting renewals?

My budget is lean and my rents are affordable, but I insist on them paying rent and ontime-- so if its 'flexibility' and letting rent slide, indulging on that end... its just not an option in my case for me to even stay afloat. Unfortunately for me, I have tons of bills to pay myself including a mortgage every month.

In fact at present, I'm basically breaking even.

Thoughts?

I have rentals in "A", "B" and "C" areas. My biggest concerns is turn overs, so your question hits me right at home, in my wallet. My number one issues is the cost to ready a unit once vacant again. Enemy #1. I never give a month to month lease in the beginning -- it's always a 1 year lease that can convert to a month-to-month.

I have 31 Class C residential units. About 2/3 of our tenants stay 2+ years. The others move on to something else. So your turns are significantly higher than mine.

Step 1: whenever I get a notice of move out, I always respond, "Sorry to hear you may need to move. What can I do to help you stay?" Yes, even the folks who are annoying, I ask this. Then if they respond with something I can deal with I'll usually do it.

The responses are instructive as to WHY they are leaving. You may be able to help. Maybe not. It's free to ask and takes almost no time.

My standard yearly rent increase went from 3% to 6%, but I am seeing the best tenant retention since I started doing this. Mine are C/D neighborhoods. Even at 6%, my places have slipped below market rent, so my tenants are staying put and paying on time. They are also a very cooperative bunch. Not a pita or beastly complainer to be found, at least for now.

Like Sid's advice, that I learned from a Mr. Landlord seminar, is to have a meaningful conversation with the tenant giving me notice they are moving.

If I get them before they locked in their new place, then it's possible to meet their needs and have them continue staying. However, even when I convince them to stay for awhile, they still end up leaving on average 7 months to 1 year and a half later.

One tenant loved to cook, so I installed a hood over their free standing oven and provided a portable dishwasher, that was a coverable that I stalled into the counter after this tenant finally moved.

Another tenant had a nice car but wanted a clunker to dove to work. She only had 1 parking spot on the property. So I gave he my double garage and took her single garage for my storage space.

My properties are all in blue-collar neighborhoods. I average one turnover a year. One every two months means nobody is staying more than a year!

One tip for your screening: my #1 criteria is STABILITY. If they've been in the same job for the last 5 years, the same home for the last 7, and all their kids have the same last name--they're golden.

Try making one of your screening criteria "has lived their previous residence for 3 or more years."

Most of mine are in blue collar neighborhoods. My average tenant stays 2 years. Your turnover rate is not normal, why are they leaving? Are your houses fixed up to reasonable modern standards? Are you screening based on length of employment at the same company?

Duplexer,

You have been here long enough to upgrade your management.

Cleaning up should be minor.

Lockbox showings or 1 hour open houses.

Applications: check court records and pay stubs first. That eliminates most applicants in minutes.

Or use the screening service offered here.

PS

I mean that in the nicest, most helpful way.

It seems ALL our residents experience problems. The higher income folks have resources (money) to stay or work something out, where a low income family does not have the resources (money) to stay. They are closer to the edge.

Although I must add that some of our longest renters are low income. They lead a simpler life, show up at work, and pay their bills.

We do not lose renters to lower priced rentals. We lose them because of life changes – split ups, divorce, drug addiction, running off with an Internet girlfriend,illness (their own or moving back home to care for Mom), job changes, Etc.

Work to attract the better applicants. We do that by making the curb appeal great, the home super clean and smelling nice, making the application process smooth with fee, then lockbox showings once they are approved…NOT before.

I think that probably the average stay for my tenants is two years. Mostly mine leave when they buy a house, so nothing I can do about that.

All of my current tenants are staying put because prices and rent have gone crazy around here. They could afford to buy when they rented from me and they can't afford to buy now with the higher prices. They couldn't afford to rent from me now at full market rate, either, but I am keeping rent increases down to the rate of inflation. I'd rather get less rent than to be searching for new qualified tenants in this market.

Mostly my tenants leave because they got a better job offer somewhere else and are leaving the area entirely, or they buy a house. Rarely have I had someone just move to another place around here, unless their family is growing (ours are all pretty small.)

I haven't seen a difference in turnover between white and blue (but probably only 15% of my tenants have been blue). They all generally stay in a B+ sfh for about 2 years. Except my Unicorn, white collar guy who is coming up on 8 years, alone in a 3br sfh because he doesn't want to have to rent a storage unit for his extra stuff.