What Should Be In Your Multifamily Budget?
During budget planning, rather than focusing on what your team and community will need yet this year, consider what they will need before the end of next year. In the Realync + J. Turner survey, 93% of leaders envision the renter’s leasing experience in 5-10 years to be a hybrid approach—a blend of in-person tours and virtual tours. Are you providing touring options? If not, you might consider it in your budget planning!
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Multifamily Budget
Are you looking for a way to run an effective multifamily community in the modern era? Then, you need to think about the current state of your budget. After all, even though there are plenty of ways to generate revenue through a multifamily community, there are also going to be a lot of expenses that you need to think about. When you take a look at your annual operating budget, this is usually something that runs from July to August for a multifamily community. Therefore, you need to think about how to create an operating budget. When you are developing a multifamily budget, you might be wondering why this is important.
Your multifamily community needs to have enough revenue to keep the lights on, and you must make sure that you can balance the overhead expenses in your budget with the revenue that will come in. First, you need to take a look at your annual revenue, which is mainly going to come from the rent you charge your residents. How much revenue are you expecting to come in from your individuals and families? You need to take a look at the percentage of units that are getting rented out and compare this to the total occupancy rate. Remember that this can change with time.
Then, you need to take a look at your overhead expenses. There is a lot that will be included in this category. For example, you might consider exercise equipment for the gym. You also need to think about maintenance and emergency repairs. Finally, you also need to think about the expenses tied to leasing and marketing efforts. Take for example property technology like virtual leasing technology. That way, you can develop a strong budget for your multifamily community.
Property Budget
As you look at your property budget, you need to make sure you learn how to calculate an operating budget effectively.
In this situation, you might even want to go with a budget comparison statement real estate tool. When you look for an apartment building cost calculator, you need to make sure the device is not going to miss anything. After all, if you do not budget accordingly, you might find yourself in a difficult spot when you try to balance the books.
Therefore, it is important to think about some of the expenses you might have. One of your biggest expenses is going to be maintenance-related items, as you need to make sure you take care of the parking lots, the HVAC units, the hot water heaters, and the roofs. Then, you need to make sure you pay the utility bills if this is something that you are responsible for. Again, there might be an exercise area that you need to consider. If you overlook any of these areas, then you might find yourself short when you try to pay off the budget. If you have questions about finding the right calculator to help you with your apartment budget, you need to reach out to professionals who can help you take a closer look at your budget lines.
Apartment Building Expenses
When it comes to your apartment building expenses, you need to think about your operating budget for real estate.
You could find yourself asking, what is the purpose of an operating budget for a property manager? The purpose of this budget is to make sure you can prepare appropriately for any costs you might face down the road and maximize the dollars you spend. That way, you know the money is going to be there when you need it.
You need to think about your apartment building expenses if you want to maximize your revenue. For example, you need to make sure you have the money to pay the salaries of the people who work there. This includes the maintenance people, those who work at the front desk, and even the manager of the building. If you can pay their expenses, you can keep the building running smoothly.
Then, you also need to think about the emergency issues that could arise from time to time. What is going to happen if you have a roof leak? Is your multifamily community going to have enough money to pay for this? What happens if you need to replace an HVAC unit? Are you going to have the money to cover this as well? Make sure you have the money to cover any expenses that might arise from time to time.
Property Management Budget
Ultimately, you’ll need to consider marketing, leasing, resident, and ancillary tools/equipment when it comes to your property management budget. Your commercial real estate operating budget is important, so the sooner you can evaluate tools to meet your teams’ needs, the quicker you’ll start to see the return on your investments. In addition to looking at the numbers, you may need to revisit your property management budget and add in new tools as gaps arise.
Today, the vast majority of people use the internet when they are looking for products and services they need. Consumers today also use the internet to decide where they want to live. As a result, your multifamily community needs to have a strong online presence as well. One of the ways you can increase your occupancy rate is to make sure you can give virtual tours to those who might not be in your immediate area.
As an example, you might be able to put Realync to work for you. This is a software program that you can use to give live and pre-recorded video tours to those who are interested in your property. While you might think that 3D and 360 tours are good enough, these are items you want to have at the top of your sales funnel. When someone is looking to sign a lease, they want to see the unit in which they will actually live in. That is why you need to use virtual tours to help you with that.
When you take a look at virtual tour software, you need to make sure it’s an easy-to-navigate and seamless platform. For example, with Realync, you just need an phone camera on an iPhone, Android or tablet. Then, you just download the app. It does not get much easier than that. Teams can close leases quicker and reach prospective residents in other states by using virtual tour software. This is something that needs to be a line item in a multifamily community budget moving forward.
“Operating Budget” + “Real Estate”
When you look at “operating budget” + “real estate,” you must make sure you do not overlook anything that needs to be included. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a difficult situation. When you put together your property management budget template, you must be sure to include a multifamily property management checklist of everything that has to be in there. You may want to start with the maintenance you need to do in your multifamily community. This could include the electrical system, the roof, the plumbing, and the heating systems. You may want to do these tasks before you need to call on them for seasonal work.
Then, you need to take a look at the salaries of the people you need to pay as well. How many people do you have working for your multifamily community? How much are you paying them? You need to make sure you budget for their paychecks too. If you have reliable people working for your community, you need to convince them to stick around. The only way you will do this is if you pay them on time.
As you move down the list, you need to think about any mortgages you might have on the property. If you have a multifamily community, you might have a loan that you used to construct the property. You need to make sure you cover the real estate taxes, the mortgage, and the homeowners’ insurance (or commercial insurance) as well. That way, you can keep the lights on.
Because there are so many expenses, you need to plan ahead of time. Make sure you revisit this checklist from time to time and make sure there is nothing that has to be added. You also need to think about the cost of the common areas and the video leasing software you use as a part of your marketing expenses.
Creating an Annual Operating Budget for Your Multifamily Property
In the end, if you are thinking about your building operating budget, you need to make sure you budget for apartment buildings accordingly. There are challenges that come with creating an annual operating budget for your multifamily property, and you need to take the time to get this right. That way, you know you have the money to cover your overhead expenses.
Because there is a lot to think about, you need to revisit this from time to time to ensure you don’t forget anything. While you might not have thought about your marketing budget in the past, this is something that you need to include, particularly with so many people using the internet to help them find their next homes.
If you need help putting together a budget for your multifamily community, do not hesitate to reach out to a professional who can help you. Then, make sure you do not overlook the importance of video leasing software when you put together your budget. This is a critical tool that can help you keep your occupancy rate as high as possible. Make sure you assemble an accurate budget for your multifamily community this year.
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Accelerate Leasing
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Speed Up Lease Up
by providing construction updates and showcase your space without having to do hard hat tours.
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PRE-LEASE OCCUPIED UNITS
by ‘showing’ them without having to physically tour the space by sending pre-recorded videos.
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CONVERT A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF YOUR LEADS INTO LEASES
when you receive notifications when prospects are viewing videos to cater your follow up.
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SPEND LESS TIME TO CLOSE EACH LEASE
by removing roadblocks and barriers in the leasing process.
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INCREASE SIGHT-UNSEEN LEASING
by making it a breeze for out-of-market leads to choose your community.
Improve Community Engagement
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PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAMS BETTER
via pre-recorded videos by linking via social media or internal apps.
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DECREASE MAINTENANCE REQUESTS
by creating maintenance videos.
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REINFORCE COMMUNITY RULES
by receiving notifications when residents are viewing videos to know who has seen a message and who hasn’t.
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REDUCE REPETITIVE QUESTIONS
because consumers retain 10% of a message when reading it via text, but 90% of a message when viewed in a video.
More Than Software
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Virtual Training
is available for every property utilizing Realync.
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Make your video efforts consistent
with one set, standardized process and platform.
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TRACK ENGAGEMENT And Usage
across your entire portfolio.
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Partner with the Realync Team
to create a personalized training program to be rolled out across all properties.
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