Determining vacancy rate for residential rental

[Doug in NC]

What's a good way to determine vacancy rate for a rental house's market? Info is needed for an O&I statement. There is no central marketing office for this development, so difficult to make an assessment short of calling several property managers in the area. Are there online resources which might narrow down to say a zip code? Ideas appreciated.

 

[Doug Wegener]

vacancy rates

What's a good way to determine vacancy rate for a rental house's market? Info is needed for an O&I statement. There is no central marketing office for this development, so difficult to make an assessment short of calling several property managers in the area. Are there online resources which might narrow down to say a zip code? Ideas appreciated.

Not that I know of. Property managers, as you suggested, have their pulse on the market and should be able to tell you what kind of vacancy rate they are experiencing for their inventory.
Usually, I can get them to talk to me.

Here's a tip. If they give you info, send the office a box of candy. It will make it easier the next time.

 

[eaoi5900]

What's a good way to determine vacancy rate for a rental house's market? Info is needed for an O&I statement. There is no central marketing office for this development, so difficult to make an assessment short of calling several property managers in the area. Are there online resources which might narrow down to say a zip code? Ideas appreciated.

Two ideas:

1) If your MLS has rentals listed (even if its not the predominant rental source), you could look through a sampling to see what percentage of those are vacant.

2) Go onto craigslist to the rentals section and make calls to a random sampling of listings and ask if the place is vacant or to be less intrusive, ask when the place will be available. If its available now, then its vacant.

With either option, of course you should fully disclose how you came up with the information and why it was necessary to do it this way, discussing the limitations you faced in finding data. Just make sure you have a large enough sample to ensure that you are as accurate as possible and that your sampling is truly random.

Keep in mind that both of these options assume that there isn't a seasonal pattern of vacancy. This is something you should know and should disclose accordingly. Disclose, disclose, disclose.