Hi All--

Sorry if this has been asked and answered; looked on the forum and couldn't find an answer. How long does an average apartment shop take you? I'm looking for the average time spent at the site, and the average time for write-up. Is two hours a good average (not including travel and phone)? Do you use text-to-speech, are you a fast typist, etc? Thanks, everyone!

Hi,
There is a huge variation in times, depending on the MSC, type of apartment and dumb luck.
For EPMS, I spend a little less than an hour on a report - though it would be a lot more if I were not a fast typist.
For most other companies, the report tends to take me 30-45 minutes.

When I visit a low-income property, the visits have ranged from five minutes to 25 minutes. At higher end communities (monthly rent north of $6,000/mo), visits range from 30-60 minutes. A lot of it really depends on the leasing professional, how many amenities there are and how desperate the management is to get people into apartments.

Low-income apartments range from 15 minutes to 25 minutes. Higher-end apartments range fro 30-45 minutes. The reports generally take hours. Don't judge high and low end apartments by the rent price per month as mentioned in the above post. MF Johnston apparently lives in an area where rent prices are exorbitant. Rent prices vary by area. In this town, low-income apartments are $500-850. High-end apartments can go from $950-$1600. I've never shopped a $6000 apartment; you could make 3 new house payments for that amount here and have some left over.

I shopped one in that range in Houston once. Holy cow it was nice.

I plan for the on-site to last 45 minutes. Usually they are only 15-25 minutes, and very rarely go over. Report time is usually 30-45 minutes. I type around 45 wpm, but what really helps with reports is knowing what questions are asked and writing a single narrative what answers them.

Yes, the housing prices in Seattle are insanely high.... A 300 sq. ft. micro-studio (shared kitchen and bath) can go for $1200.... It is difficult to find anything with two bedrooms for less than $2,000 inside the city limits.... The average home sells for $600K.... The average newly built home is close to $1M.

I should have clarified that when typing the numbers above...

@AZwolfman wrote:

Low-income apartments range from 15 minutes to 25 minutes. Higher-end apartments range fro 30-45 minutes. The reports generally take hours. Don't judge high and low end apartments by the rent price per month as mentioned in the above post. MF Johnston apparently lives in an area where rent prices are exorbitant. Rent prices vary by area. In this town, low-income apartments are $500-850. High-end apartments can go from $950-$1600. I've never shopped a $6000 apartment; you could make 3 new house payments for that amount here and have some left over.

@MFJohnston wrote:

Yes, the housing prices in Seattle are insanely high.... A 300 sq. ft. micro-studio (shared kitchen and bath) can go for $1200.... It is difficult to find anything with two bedrooms for less than $2,000 inside the city limits.... The average home sells for $600K.... The average newly built home is close to $1M.

I should have clarified that when typing the numbers above...

@AZwolfman wrote:

Low-income apartments range from 15 minutes to 25 minutes. Higher-end apartments range fro 30-45 minutes. The reports generally take hours. Don't judge high and low end apartments by the rent price per month as mentioned in the above post. MF Johnston apparently lives in an area where rent prices are exorbitant. Rent prices vary by area. In this town, low-income apartments are $500-850. High-end apartments can go from $950-$1600. I've never shopped a $6000 apartment; you could make 3 new house payments for that amount here and have some left over.

Wow! I cannot imagine living there. The wages must be very high for people to be able to live there.

There are a lot of very high paying jobs in Seattle in high-tech fields. However, you don’t have to go too far out of the city to find more affordable rent. Plenty of reasonably priced housing options are available within a 30-minute or less bus ride.

@TroyHawkins is correct.... The cost of living in some of the outlying areas is far more affordable, but it is going up as well... There is a reason that Seattle has a minimum wage of $15.

Politically, one of the struggles we are having in Seattle is trying to find ways to keep the city affordable for average folks...

Yes, the neighborhood I live in now has that $6000 mark for a three-bedroom in the newer buildings, but you can go into another neighborhood and pay $1500 for a three-bedroom. It's all relative. All of the new buildings are floor-to-ceiling glass. One that I've seen has a pet spa (DIY) as an amenity. Crazy, but I guess super useful for a dog owner.

So, I think I've got it -- lots of amenities, higher time on site.
But the reports -- 30 minutes to hours...that's quite a discrepancy. I did a couple a few years ago, but I can't remember the total time, plus I've learned a few tricks since then.

Does anyone know how video shops compare time-wise to the non-video? Same, shorter, longer? You would think that the video ones would be shorter, but I'm getting a different feeling from some of the posts I have seen.

Thanks everyone!

Video v. Non-video:
It completely depends, but video shops never have a longer report.

Some companies will have the same report for both. Some will eliminate the narrative explanation for "no" answers. Some simply have shorter reports. Some have no report - just an invoice/cover sheet. Of course, there is variation within an MSC as well. I have done video shops for EPMS with very long reports. I have also had several "no-report" video shops with EPMS.

I allot an hour for the onsite with my average 25 minutes. I have had some as short as ten and a few as long as 60 to even 90. There are so few of those longer shops, despite ten years in the business and hundreds of apartment shops I can remember each and every one. I always set aside an hour for the reports even though my average is probably 45 minutes.

There are ways to keep the onsite to a reasonable amount of time without impacting the presentation. First, know what you want, but be flexible enough to quickly change to whatever is available. Second, allow the associate to try to develop some rapport, but if they get off track gently steer the conversation back to the task at hand. Last, and most important, pick and stick. Love that first apartment enough there is no need to view more. Those tricks will also serve you well in any longer scenario shop whether it is a new car, new home or even senior living.

Here's a good example. On my most recent apartment shop I was shown a floor plan with a large kitchen island. My objection was the size of the bedroom. To overcome the objection the agent offered a different floor plan. I immediately asked if the other one included the island. When she said it did not, my out was to tell her I was willing to give up a few square feet in the bedroom to have the island.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2018 01:46AM by LisaSTL.

One of my first apartment shops involved the agent showing me seven different apartments. Learned my lesson on that one.

20-30 minutes for the tour,
60 minutes to write the report,
10-15 minutes to drive to the next apartment.
Boom.
I normally try to schedule my apartment shops at 10 A, 12 P, 2 P, and 4 P. Then I'm home at 6 with zero reports to write.
And - yes, in downtown Denver the going rate for a 2BR, 2BA apartment in a community with amenities is $2800 to $3500+. And people are paying that, too; there's a 95% occupancy rate in most of the places that I'm shopping this year.
Craziest prices I've ever shopped were in Silicon Valley; I looked at TINY places there, right by the Facebook campus, that were $5000/mo for a STUDIO apartment. Those Facebook gurus must be making some serious, serious money to pay like that.