Turnovers are killers! No, I don't mean the kind made with 
apples, raisins and cinnamon. I am referring to tenant 
turnovers. When a tenant leaves a house, flat or apartment 
the exit costs can be extremely expensive. Not only are you 
losing the rental income for all those days or weeks the 
unit is vacant, but the turnover costs themselves can be 
staggering.  
 
For illustrative purposes let's take a simple two 
bedroom apartment. Advertising can cost $200 or more; 
Painting is another $5 - $600; carpet cleaning $75; 
cleaning appliances, kitchen & bath can run another $50; 
replacing blinds, light fixtures, entry door locksets, 
mailbox locks, etc can cost another $200 and before you 
know it you're over a thousand dollars without even 
upgrading the unit. If the unit remains vacant five or six 
weeks you're approaching $2,000.00 of lost revenue and 
added expenses.  
 
A few years ago we were experiencing over 50% turnover 
in some of our apartment buildings in one year. For some 
strange reason we couldn't figure out why we weren't making 
much money. Each turnover was literally killing our 
bottom-line. After some personnel changes, and a greater 
amount of "hands-on" management and maintenance we began to 
see a change in the number of turnovers. Sure tenants are 
always moving in and out, but the turnover rate dropped 
dramatically.  
 
We instituted a 24 hour maintenance response program. 
We would respond in twenty-four hours or less to any 
routine type maintenance requests. Some requests were 
fulfilled within two or three hours, some took a little 
longer, but we found out that tenants were truly surprised 
and extremely pleased to see such a rapid response to their 
maintenance requests. "It's the little things", to quote 
more than one tenant. The refrigerator door handle that 
became loose; the dripping kitchen faucet; the GFCI that 
won't reset; the disposal that got jammed; the sticky 
bedroom door, or bi-fold closet door that keeps coming off 
the tract, fixing torn screens. Happy tenants don't move 
so frequently. This equates to less turnovers, more stable 
monthly income and less expenses.  
 
We have also utilized this "24 Hour" maintenance 
program on our rental houses as well and the results have 
been similar as to the apartments. Good tenants don't want 
to be ignored. If you don't provide adequate customer 
service then tenants will go elsewhere.  
 
I know some tenants can be quite bothersome with 
unreasonable requests, but customer service wins out every 
time with tenants who are content, comfortable and less 
incline to move. Remember; reduced turnovers reaps greater 
rewards.  
 
 
Good Investing,  
 
Ron Watcke, President 
REIA of Oakland