How to Stage Your Apartments for Quick Leasing

Unit Preparation

Order of operations is crucial.

  1. Painting walls, doorframes, ceiling
  2. Cleaning kitchen, bathroom, windows, screens, ceiling fans
  3. Shampooing the carpet.

and occasionally

Time is of essence; therefore, you must schedule your vendors in advance.

Drive-By Banners

Get those large banners that are visible from the car, from the street, from across the street. The rule of thumb here is to inform of a vacancy existing. You have to think whether you want to put it up permanently or put it up every time you have a vacancy. The task of securing this giant"sail" to the building or fence or specially welded pair of metal rods is not something you want to do more than twice a year, unless you have underpaid maintenanc personnel who can do it for you. Depending on the frequency of putting up the banner, you can determine the content. You never want to display too much info. The word "Gourmet" should never show up on the large Real Estate banner. Too much detail. At most you want to say 2-bed 1-bath. On these things. Always have a phone number. Use easy-to read large fonts. Depending on how high it is hanging, the letters should be at least 10" tall. Avoid hanging these expensive banners on the outside of a fence in a ghetto neighborhood, it will instantly become a canvas for the local grafitti artists, and your $100+ investment will only scare people away from your property. Ideally, you want to hang it facing a busy street but behind the fence, and high enough to make it difficult to reach.

Street Signs

These are great for giving more information to the prospects. These attract the walkers-by, and here you can have more detail. Remember to keep the signs professional. Ideally, you want these pre-made in a metal frame, attached to the metal frame with some special plastic rivets. What you don't want is 1"-size letters - these are too small even for walkers-by. If you have a lot to say and too little space, get a bigger sign! Again, avoid verbose paragraphs. Put just enough info to elicit a phone call, that is your goal at this stage. You also don't want anything written by hand with a purple crayon. It conveys the wrong message, hard to read, and makes it appear that the property is managed unprofessionally.

Manager or leasing agent to show the vacant unit.

Ideally, you want to have someone on-site. Some properties without an on-site manager (and even some with the onsite manager) keep their vacant units unlocked. We don't advise this because not only can you have a tagger ruin your walls and mirrors, but you can have a homeless move-in to a $2600/month luxury apartment, and you'll spend several months evicting him, without getting a penny!

"Ready to move-in" but not "someone else is living here"

Personal items: the cup with dentures, eye-glasses, medication bottles, and countless "other people's personal junk" should never be seen by a prospect when showing a vacant or soon-to be vacant unit. Every serious prospect plays a mental game where their own stuff, such as the furniture, is placed around the unit you are showing. Other people's personal items make this visualization exercise so much harder. small Towels with floral prints on shower door are ok, on the oven door ok. Soap dispenser in the bathroom is nice. a plant on top of toilet tank makes it look more homely. Basically, go to 99c store and spend $20 on Towels, Toilet paper, Shower Curtain/Rod, Etc...

Get Neighbors Involved & Word-of-Mouth with Incentives

Flyers for neighbors taped to their door with the same letterhead used for official notices and communications $100 for referral* when your friend signs the lease.
If you sign a lease before end of this month, you receive $400 off move-in!
or
If you sign a lease before end of this month, you receive Flat screen TV!
or
If you sign a lease before end of this month, you receive Free Microwave!
If the neighbors are of certain ethnicity, make sure to double your ad on the same page in their language.

Gasoline Pricing

The same way we buy gas for $3.99 & 9/10ths per gallon and think that we are paying three dollars something per gallon, the rent price of $1295 registers as twelve hundred and something, and is actually superior* to a rent of $1300; where the latter is a whole higher price range. * superior when it comes to attracting interest.

Various Marketing and Staging Packages are available

Different Marketing Packages are available depending on budget and the type of property.

How to reduce vacancy risk.

Clarify to the tenants that they have to notify the landlord in writing 30 days prior to move-out. Ask them why they are leaving, and if it is to save money, offer them an incentive to stay ($50-$100 off per month) If they sign another 1-year contract. Caveat: With rent-controlled buildings you have to be careful, and make sure that you specify this as a rent concession applicable for the next 12 months, and not a permanent reduction in rent that would prevent you from raising the price back with the same tenant if the market price of similar units recovers. Also, before extending this offer, do your due dilligence and research the market prices in the neighborhood. If the tenant is already $100 below market, let them go without making an offer.

In los angeles area, there have been a bunch of 1-bedroom apartments for sale in 2010 & 2011 for about $70,000 And also 4-bedroom townhouses for about $280,000 Let's do the math:
Q: Do four $70,000 1-bedroom apartments = 1 280,000 townhouse from the investment property point of view?
A: No
Yes, it is more work, and more maintenance to deal with 4 units instead of one, but the cashflow is better, you are never sitting on a premium property that appeals to few lessees, and when one of them is vacant, your other three streams of income are still gushing. (gushing is 2006-2007 scenario) Now that your eggs are not in one basket, your vacancy risk is reduced.

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