Excalibur’s Vacancy Rate Stable at 6%

2009 Vacancy Rate for Atlanta Rental Houses

The blue line above reflects National data for single family rental houses.  The yellow line reflects data for Metro Atlanta.  The green line represents data for Excalibur’s inventory.  As you can see, our vacancy rate of 6% is much better than the market average of 10%.  One of the many benefits of having access to market data is the ability to identify changes in the market so we can react more quickly to help our clients maximize their return on investment.  As we observed rental rates dropping we quickly adjusted our prices so that our vacant units rented more quickly and our existing tenants renewed instead of vacating to move to less expensive houses.  We also try to convince our clients how important it is to have the property in excellent condition.  If you were trying to sell a used car, and you wanted top dollar, would you just put the car on the market and promise any prospects that you will have it washed and detailed if they agree to but it?  You sholdn’t market your rental house that way either and expect to find a high quality tenant.  To minimize down time (vacancy) make sure your property is in the best condition you can get it and make sure it is priced correctly.  Remember that much of the return on investment for rental houses comes from appreciation.  A good tenant that takes care of your property paying less rent per month will be more profitable than a bad tenant that agrees to pay a higher rent but doesn’t take care of the property and/or doesn’t pay as agreed.  If you want a high quality tenant, offer a high quality home.

 

Avg Days on Market Dropping with Rental Rates

2009 Average Days on Market for Atlanta Rental Houses

As landlords have dropped rents to help find tenants, their success is being seen in a reduced number of days on the market for rental houses in Atlanta and across the country. This is particularly encouraging now since renting during the winter months is always more difficult. Rental rates seem to have stabilzed now and properties are renting at a much faster pace.  The graph above depicts National data with the green line and Metro Atlanta data with the blue line.  As you can see, Atlanta’s market is still suffering more than the national average.

Vacancy Rate for Excalibur’s Homes Lower Than Market

Our company specializes in leasing single family rental houses. Through our membership in Rental Home Professionals and NARPM we have data to show us what is happening in the single family rental market. We recently checked to see what vacancy rates are for these rental houses within a 50 mile radius of Atlanta and noticed something very encouraging. We found that the vacancy rate for rental houses in all of Metro Atlanta is at 8% in September but the vacancy rate for Excalibur’s accounts is only 6%!

September Vacancy for Single Family Rental Homes

The numbers continue to prove that Atlanta is in a soft rental market with respect to single family rental homes. Vacancy is still running about 12%. As the weather cools off, so will traffic. Adjust your prices now so you can get a qualified tenant more quickly.

2009 Vacancy For Single Family Rental Homes

It’s Time to Service your HVAC System

Servicing your HVAC system is like changing the oil in your car. Regular maintenance will help it last longer with fewer problems. Now that fall is upon us it’s time to get a contractor out to service your unit and change the filters. If Excalibur manages your rental home, and you would like us to send someone out to service your units just contact us at maintenance@excalhomes.com.

Georgia Law Requires Disclosure of Landlord

O.C.G.A. 44-7-3 requires that a residential lease disclosure the name of the Landlord or their Agent for Services. The tenant needs to know who is liable (who to sue) should any issue develop during the tenancy. There are many issues that might come up causing legal action from the tenant such as the landlord’s failure to make a repair which leads to an injury, mold issues, or (much more common recently) the landlord’s default on the lease by letting the property go into foreclosure. In 2008 a DeKalb County judge granted a tenant a $4000 judgement against a landlord who let the property go into foreclosure.

Vacancy down for houses, Up for condos

The vacancy rate for houses dropped from 12.18% in July to 10.96% in August. However vacancy for condominiums climbed during the same time frame from 25.1% to 29.7%. The condo rental market is very soft in Atlanta these days. This data is pulled from RentalHomePros.com and reflects the data from over 5000 rental homes in the Metro Atlanta market.

2009 Vacancy in Atlanta

The vacancy rate for single family rentals in Metro Atlanta during July 2009 has dropped to about 13% from a high of 17% at the beginning of this year.  This is still much higher than the national average for single family vacancy which was 8.12% in July.  Obviously Atlanta’s rental market is softer than in other cities around the country and landlords are going to need to make adjustments in order to get their houses rented.         2009 Vacancy Rates for Metro Atlanta.

Who needs to pay a professional to manage their property?

Seems a gentleman in the Navy was transferred out of town. He decided
he could manage most of the rental himself and have a friend oversee
the rental collection, deposits, and any repairs. So he had the
friend complete the rental agreement that he had found with a tenant
he had found. Rent was established, and he agreed to pay her a normal
percentage of the rent as she collected it. And everything seemed to
go as it should. A year goes by, and gradually the payments got
later and later. So he called his friend and was told that her new
job was making it difficult for her to get the money into the bank.
Oh by the way, she had to have the tenant make the check payable to
her, so that she could collect the agreed upon percentage. He said
that was ok. By the end of the year, the tenant was nearly $1400
behind on a $900.00 rental. So he decided to come for a visit at his
next vacation. Upon arriving in town he scheduled to meet the tenant
and his friend later in the same day. The tenants said they were
current on the rent. Puzzled he made a comment about partial rent
being paid to account for the $1400 deficit. They said that they
stopped making payments by money order or check a year ago at the
request of his friend. They also said the rent was raised by the
friend to $1,000. So now the owner was really confused. He asked the
tenant if they had a receipt for any of the rent. They said no. When
he met with his friend to find out what happened, he was told that yes
she had raised the rent, had she forgot to tell him? The amount
deposited to his account had not changed. What about the $1400
deficit? Oh she had deposited part of the rent money, retained the
rest of it to pay for some repairs, and on the way home her purse was
stolen! Sorry about that, but what could she do?

This owner decided he needed a professional to manage his property.

Courtesy of John Parker, Willow Properties Inc.

Rents Lower in Suburbs, But Not Much

Some articles are describing market conditions which have brought rents down as much as 30% for apartments and rental homes in different parts of the country. However the suburbs north of Atlanta seem to be doing much better than those markets. In 2008 the average rent for a 3 BR rental house in Lawrenceville (30045) was $1117.14. In 2009 the average rent for the same properties has dropped to $967.86, a 15.42% reduction. In Roswell, GA rents have dropped 12.96% for 3 BR houses from an average of $1161.67 to an average of $1028.33. In other markets in the northern suburbs rents have stayed the same. In Marietta (30066) and Cumming (30041) rents for 3 BR rental homes are at the same levels now as they were in 2008. Across the board 4 and 5 BR rental home rents are still at roughly the levels as they were in 2008. So, if you have to be a landlord, the Metro Atlanta suburbs are a great place to own rental homes. With property values down as much as 30% in some markets compared to 2007 prices, becoming a landlord is often a more attractive option today than trying to sell.