Over the past couple of weeks, several residents have been putting in their thirty-day notices due to moving out of state or buying a house. Our occupancy rate is lower than where we would like it to be. We reached out to the regional manager and worked with her to reduce pricing on some of the units that have been vacant the longest. She is allowing us to give $500 off of move-in fees in addition to the lower rent on the specific units. She is also allowing us to waive application fees this week. We are hoping that this will allow us to get more of the units rented. When I conducted our market survey, I noticed that our competitors and surrounding properties are also experiencing the same occupancy rate as us and some of the people I talked to at the other properties said that they were having the same issue that we are. We continue to struggle with the maintenance staff keeping up with service requests and move-ins. It is stressful and frustrating to the office staff when residents are calling upset that their requests have not been taken care of for several days. It is also stressful when the cleaning and maintenance is not done for a move-in until one day before the residents move in. We are having a meeting on Wednesday with the maintenance staff so hopefully, some things can get changed because it is a big issue currently. Residents are calling constantly regarding things that should have been taken care of a long time ago.
