How's the rental market? I get that question all the time. I have to admit, I am not a big fan of the question. Its such a vague question, that it's really difficult to answer. Are they asking which type of market we are in? A landlord's market? Or a tenant's market? Or maybe they want to know if things are renting at higher prices than in the past? Or are they renting faster? Is it hard to find a renter? Or it is easy to find a renter? Are they a possible investor trying to determine if buying a property to rent would be a good idea? Maybe they have an elderly relative that wants to downsize and wait for a better sales market to sell, so is flirting with the idea of renting? Or maybe, they are just trying to make conversation and a long lengthy answer would be inappropriate. What type of an answer is the person asking the question expecting?
Sometimes the way to figure out what type of an answer they are looking for is easy to figure out due, to the context. For example if an owner that I just notified that their tenant will not be renewing their lease that is up next month, I understand that they are wondering if it will rent easily and for the same price or better. That question is easy to answer. If it is someone calling me that I have never spoken to before, I try to get some more information before actually trying to answer, but some people don’t make it easy to figure out exactly what they are hoping to learn. If it is someone on line behind me at the grocery store, and we strike up a conversation, it can be easy to assume that they are looking for a vague answer and just trying to make conversation, that is not always the case either.
It can be a complicated question. To answer it intelligently requires some additional information. Without any additional information, my answer tends to depend on the time of the year, the environment where the question is asked and making assumptions about the person. So a lot of the people that ask me this question may not be getting the answer they want. That’s why I am not a big fan of the question.
I think I am pretty knowledgeable on the rental market in Brevard County, but without truly understanding what someone wants to know, it is hard to answer such a vague question.
So if I run into someone at Publix, who asks me that question, how would I answer it? I think I would say. “The rental market is good. It slows down this time of year in my market, because I specialize in long-term residential rentals. I am not an expert on the snowbird rentals, but this time of the year is great for those. It may be a little more difficult to rent a property over the holidays, but it does happen. You may not get the same price that you would in June or July, but if the property is in rentable condition, it should rent for a decent price, fairly quickly.” Typically an answer like that will lead the person to ask additional questions that would be more specific, and easier to answer in a more detailed way.
The other side of that answer is that if you are looking to rent a long-term residential property that is in poor shape not clean and not “rent ready,” you would be out of luck. There are too many other rentals to choose from. In this area we have a lot of property owners, hanging on to properties after moving away, to wait and hope to get a better price in a couple of years. A lot of these owners are losing money, because they bought when the market was high, but they are smart enough to realize that getting some of your mortgage and other expenses is better than getting none of it. That goes back to the price right part. so for them the market isn't great, since they are losing money, but it's good, because they are getting something.
So, the majority of the time, I actually tend to answer their question with a question. I know that doesn’t sound good, but I think it sounds better than giving a generic answer and not showing them just how much I do know about the market.
What about you? Are their questions you get asked a lot, that are more difficult to answer than they would seem?
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