The IHB Forums are a great resource and there are many solid contributions being made there every day. Some of you have been hanging out there for well over a year and a half. 😉 If you haven’t stopped by, check it out. Recently, we had a new member, Cuatro, join the forums. He created a topic on Tips for leasing an IAC apartment. There is some great advice there so I thought I’d put it up on the blog for the weekend post:

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Tips for leasing an IAC apartment:

Leasing Consultants (LCs) are NOT the enemy. Rather than viewing them
like other sales people, consider the following. The typical IAC
Leasing Consultant has zero interest in the amount of rent you pay for
your apartment. They are paid on a tier system that rewards the number
of leases they get signed per month…period. They will usually do
anything in their power to get you the best deal, because at the end of
the day, your signature on a $1200 studio pays the same as your
signature on a $3000 3×2. Their first and foremost priority is to fill
their property. (As an interesting aside, IAC LCs make between $32k
and roughly $85k per year…the primary difference is volume).

Visit the property when you are ready to make your decision. Never
give the impression that you won’t reserve an apartment on that first
visit. The sooner you tell them you are ready to move, the more likely
you are to get the best deal. NEVER say you are looking to move 45+
days from now. As a general rule, the best deals are on vacant
apartments. Vacant apartments must be moved into within 2 weeks. If
you are looking to move more than 2 weeks out, you are automatically
going to be offered apartments that are “on notice” with other
residents currently living in them. Discounts on these apartments are
rare and always significantly worse than vacant apartment specials.

Leasing teams are evaluated on a weekly and monthly basis. Many
times the best deals are found at the end of a week or month as they
try to wedge in those last minute deals.

IAC Considers the high season from March – August. But specials
tend to be directly based on the property’s availability and occupancy
for the particular week.

Know your market rent:

There are a few ways to go about this. You can check a property’s
rental-living.com website which lists market prices on available
apartments. But the easiest way is to just ask the leasing
consultant. Think of the market rent as the suggested retail price.
It’s your starting point and any discount you receive will be a
percentage of that original market price.

Know your discounts and specials:

IAC does not tend to lower market rents…ever. But they DO tend to
offer deeper and deeper discounts from those market prices to find the
sweet spot that their apartments rent at. Once a property reaches and
maintains occupancy/availability goals, discounts can evaporate
entirely.

Rent Discounts(Dependent on occupancy and availability): 3, 5, 7, even 10% discounts off market rents.

Concessions (Dependent on occupancy and availability): $250, $500,
$1000, half month, first month free, etc. Rent credits toward move in
costs. Often these are listed on a property’s rental-living website.
But always ask the LC if there is anything better. Some properties may
offer $500 off on 1 beds, but $1000 off on two beds. It is not unheard
of to be able to negotiate that $1000 on your 1 bed if you are willing
to hold the apartment on that visit.

First Visit Special (Always available): Save $100 off standard
security deposit when you hold an apartment on your first visit to the
property. Note that this will only be offered if your credit qualifies
you for the standard security deposit (standard deposits as follows:
$600 for studios and 1 beds, $700 for 2 beds, $800 for 3 beds, etc…).

Auto Debit Special (Always available): Sign up for the auto debit
program allowing them to take rent from your bank account at the
beginning of each month and save $200 off your security deposit
(regardless of the amount of deposit required from you).

Resident/Agent Referrals (Always available): These are “source of
business referrals” which typically cannot be stacked with other source
of business referrals and are not paid to you but someone else. You
must list on your guest card and on your applications how you heard
about the property. If it’s a current resident of the property you are
moving in to that referred you, that person can receive anywhere from
$300-$500 depending on the property. RE Agents can usually receive
$300. Listing the IAC info center as the referral source or using a
website coupon will often negate all other “source of business”
referral fees. I discourage you from trying to find someone on
Craigslist offering to be your referral. More often than not those
people have already been fished out by management and, even if they
don’t know it, are no longer eligible to receive referral fees.

Creative Specials (commonly offered at lease up properties but very
rarely advertised): Some communities have common rooms that can be
rented. Ask your LC for 6 hours use of the club room or maybe an
additional parking space. Perhaps there is additional storage on site
for rent that you can have thrown in.

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Techniques for “Negotiation”

As mentioned above, you’re never really in heated negotiation with
an IAC LC. Their goals and yours tend to be in alignment. The one
thing they don’t want to see is you walking out the door.

Develop a friendly rapport with the LC. If you walk in the door with
the idea that you’re going to walk all over them and impose your will
during “negotiations” your LC will be far less motivated to help you
get the incredible deal you want. Smile, laugh, ask them about their
job, how they like it, what they want to do down the road, how they
chose to become an LC. Invest a little time getting to know them and
make them WANT to help you get the best deal.

Don’t bring up the 1st visit special, the auto debit deal, or the
referral fees until you and the LC have established the discount and
possible stacked concession. Focus on finding out what the current
discount is and if the property is stacking a concession with it.
Sometimes they have stacking incentives, a lot of times they don’t.
But the Auto Debit,1st visit specials, and referral fees can almost
always be tacked on to a deal at the end.

To be sure you’ve gotten the best deal, let the LC know you really like
the place and you’re soooo close to signing papers RIGHT NOW. Ask them
if there’s ANYTHING else they can offer. Encourage them to ask their
supervisor if they can do anything more. Give them the impression that
if they cannot find a way to sweeten the deal any further, you’re going
to check out another property and get back to them. Mention The
Village, Villa Siena, The Enclave, or the most recent IAC lease up to
make the LC uncomfortable. These properties are either the richest in
amenities or are lease ups offering decent incentives. At this point
if there is anything else they can offer, they will. If they’ve
already offered “the kitchen sink,” they will reluctantly let you walk
away and you’ve found the bottom line best deal at the moment. A great
IAC deal would look something like this:

7% rent discount

$1000 off 1st month

$400 friend referral

$200 auto debit

$100 first visit

(you may also be able to get all this on a shorter lease term when normally they only offer it on a full 12 month agrement)

Some Other Final Thoughts

Everyone loves finding the best deal. But always be wary of that
market rent. The deeper your discount is below the market rent the
more likely you are to see a triple digit rent increase when your lease
is up.

I’ve used a lot of words like, “usually”, “tend to”, “almost always”
to stress to the point that none of this can be viewed as absolute.
Different properties/managers behave differently. Some are more
liberal with discounts and exceptions than others. But in general you
should be able to gather some useful information here. Even if IAC has
an established practice that managers are not to deviate
from…sometimes they do and unless you’re willing to go to war over
that additional $200 incentive, sometimes you just have to accept it.

Recently IAC changed its qualification practice. For most leases they
no longer require proof of income or verification of employment.
Instead they decided to increase security deposits $100 across the
board and as far as I know they no longer waive application fees. They
still require you to qualify on the monthly income minimum of 2.7x the
rental amount…but as long as credit isn’t a huge problem, it looks
like they just “take your word for it” when it comes to the income and
employer you write on your application.

It’s never a bad idea to write glowing letters of appreciation about
staff you’ve had good encounters with. Usually hand deliver them to
the office or even ask management whom you can email at the corporate
level to share your praise. The more you can be remembered as “that
friendly resident who says nice things about us” the more likely you
are to have your maintenance requests handled quickly, your renewal
negotiations to go smoothly, and receive all the other pleasant
intangibles.

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Thank you Cuatro for the great post! Please continue further discussion by following the link below: