May is an extremely busy time for some of my rental properties.  I have a concentration of college students at a few of my buildings and most of their leases begin June 1 or September 1.  We have thirteen units turning over on June 1.

One great strategy that we use with college students who rent on June 1 is that we end the leases on May 25.  This only works for the June 1 starting dates, not the September 1 ones.  We end the leases five days early because most of the college students go home right after final exams, which complete mid-May.  They will move out and be gone before May 25 anyway, but by requiring them to leave a bit early, we have five extra days to get all of the units turned over.  It works great!

For the students who want to renew their leases and stay another year, we just go ahead and renew and there is no gap between May 25 and June 1.  For students who need to be out of our apartment on May 25 and are moving out and into a different apartment on June 1, you may be wondering where we expect them to go for five days.  This has never been an issue.  Students don’t ask or wonder.  They inevitably end up going home for a visit or they stay with friends during this time.

I love the extra five days we get for turnover!  When you have a lot of units turning over at the same time, it’s golden to have more time to get them all cleaned and ready.  We do minor updates to small details if needed, such as new outlet plates, faucets, shiny new unit numbers on the door, light fixtures, mailboxes, and paint.

One other objection that you may wonder about is whether the students expect to prorate rent and pay for 25 days in May rather than the full month.  This is not an issue either.  When they sign their leases on June 1, my manager explains how the system works, how the dates work, how the rent payments work.  There is no proration and to my knowledge we’ve never been asked about it.

My manager has been doing a great job getting all of the upcoming thirteen units filled!  Our marketing policy is such the he actively starts inquiring and marketing units 90 days before leases end.  He’s had many of the leases renewed for over a month already and has been showing the units regularly.  As of this writing, we still have 25 days left to get the units rented and I believe we have one or two still up for grabs.  I’m quite confident he’ll fill those in the next week or so and we’ll have no vacancies at all.

The 90 day marketing strategy and the May 25 strategy are techniques that my manager learned during his training time with me.  I created an entire system for him to follow that is complete with forms, procedures, policies, and step by step instructions.  The Landlord System that I make available is built around what I do in real life.  It really works.  You can learn more about it here, and you can find a much more in-depth training package here.