Before we dive into the results it’s important to know how I conducted my research so you don’t draw any false conclusions.
First of all, I am not a statistician. I did not run a regression analysis but I did apply some rigor to the data to see if I could tease out what elements of a rental property listing were correlated with fewer vacancy days.
I was able to get a hold of rental ads that “sold” via the MLS in Hoboken, NJ in 2019. (Very big thanks to Soha Fontaine – one of the best realtors in the market and a good friend since I started rentals back in 2009!). There were 2,342 rentals in Hoboken that were sold via the local MLS last year.
CAUTION – This analysis was conducted in one market with specific attributes that may not translate to your market.
However, I believe the one factor that did drive fewer Days On Market is probably universal and you will profit if you understand how to use this knowledge to your advantage.
You are missing something huge: finding the right tenant takes TIME. We allow ourselves 60 days of marketing time to fill a place, because after fielding hundreds of inquiries, about 1 out of 100 even begin to qualify financially and in other ways. So we do not let our places go empty to begin with, we market them while still occupied, although our photos are of the empty space. So, at least in our case and for many other landlords I know, your whole premise is wrong.
Oh and one reason a title with the words “renovated” rents faster is because that unit is likely newly ready, already empty and ready to occupy.
Thanks Wendy. I think you have a great point with the “renovated” units. They could have had an advantage because they may have been vacant, easier to show, etc.
I’m not sure I completely understand your point about the time it takes to find a good tenant. How would that have impacted the average DOMs? Are you suggesting the landlords of the units that rented faster were less picky? Presumably most landlords were looking for good tenants across all the DOMs in this data set. There are no shortage of good tenants in this market in my experience. Can you clarify?