Landlords: During slow rental months, pay the broker fee.

In a recent blog, Saber offered some solid wisdom to landlords who are trying to rent property during this off-season: pay the broker fee!

To quickly recap: during these slow-to-no rental days of late fall and toward the holidays, let prospective tenants know that you are willing to pay the broker fee. Advertise your property to tenants as “No Fee.” This is like music to the ears of prospective renters — and ultimately the sound of money to you as a property owner.

Those two little words will rent your property faster, saving you thousands of dollars that you will otherwise lose if your apartment sits vacant for one or two months – or more!

Remember: you won’t retrieve any revenue on unrented apartments. The longer it sits empty, the more money you lose.

Pay the broker fee, and it’s win-win: the tenant saves money by signing with you, and you don’t lose rent revenue.

Saber knows all about this – he’s a landlord himself, and as a result of taking his own advice, his vacant inventory is now filled and rented.

Saber can’t emphasize this enough: if you still have a vacancy, act on it. Pay the fee and get it off your plate. Otherwise, your property is more than likely not going to rent in November or December – or even January or February. How many months of rent would that have been?

Another troublesome contributing factor: there is more supply than demand right now. Know the reality, and the coming competition:  this spring, another 800 apartments are coming to Fourth Avenue in Park Slope. There are 6,000 new apartments currently building in Williamsburg. Saber also counted at least 30 developments in Gowanus.

Thinking of simply reducing your rent to attract prospective tenants? It sounds like a good solution, but it’s not. Saber knows plenty of landlords who, in desperation, reduced their rents. In the long term, the math is just not there. Over the life of the lease, you lose money. Think about the big picture: is reducing a $3500/month apartment by $100 or even $200 a month going to add up for you and your business?

In every situation, simply paying the “no fee” outweighs the rent reduction.

The bottom line: apartments with no fees move faster.

Saber urges landlords – whether they rent from him or not – to take the “no fee” gamble and recoup your losses sooner than later.

For more information on how Limestone Realty can help you with your present or future real estate investments, click here.